In defense of the Apple MacBook keyboard

I do not come to bury the MacBook keyboard, nor to rent it.

The super flat keyboard on current MacBook is one of our favorite things to hate. It ranks well up there with millennials ordering toast to the lawyer, Movies from the DC Universe and automated calls like a fair game for everyone to hit.

And this is not without reason. The design, which refines a standard keyboard by placing the keyboard cover over a low-profile "butterfly" mechanism with less movement, is not necessarily an improvement over what was before.

But the hysteria of the MacBook keyboard is on the verge of outbidding. Like all computer horror stories, the evidence is largely anecdotal (with the exception of all the lawsuits) and is magnified by the fact that people simply do not visit Twitter to report that their product is working as intended.

My longtime friend and industry colleague, Joanna Stern, has written a brilliant first-person account of her MacBook Air keyboard problems for the Wall Street Journal. Its E and R keys did not work, among other things, and many other MacBook users reported similar errors. This is a recurring problem since the introduction of this style in the 2015 12-inch MacBook.

A spokesman for Apple told him: "We are aware that a small number of users have problems with their third generation butterfly keyboard and we are sorry."

For what it's worth, here is my story.

I've personally used (and often reviewed) at least eight different MacBooks with butterfly keyboards in the last four years. There is at least one almost constant rotation in the range of my laptops at any given time. I've used this keyboard style almost daily over the past four years.

After all this time and all this typing, my experience can be summed up as: "Not great, but not as bad as people say it."

Is it a protection against the big question of the ultimate value of MacBook keyboards? Of course that's it. But like most things in life, this is somewhere in the central part of the bell curve. Not great, not terrible.

This is not to minimize the problems faced by many people with MacBook keyboards. Repairs, returns and lost productivity are extremely frustrating, and I would probably reassign the single keyboard choice for each MacBook to scan an Apple Store in Siberia.

My colleagues and I have covered the issue in detail, including right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, right here, right here and right here.

But my experience was a little less traumatic. Here is my personal take:

• The worst version of this keyboard was the original version of 12-inch MacBook. The keys were blurry, as if they had not bounced.
• The best version is the Updated mid-2018, which puts a rubber membrane under the keys. Yes, it was supposed to prevent tiny dust particles and debris from getting into the keyboard, but it also added a bit of rebound needed for keystrokes.
• Even the most recent versions of the 12-inch MacBook have improved a lot. I've literally written most of a 75,000 word book in cafes on a different 12 inch MacBook couple. Was it the longest long strike experience? No, but it did not derail me either.
• I've had a handful of examples of locked keys. But for me, the problem is usually solved by hitting the key several times. Not scientific, but effective.
• I had another serious problem with seemingly dead keys. But here I followed the advice of CNET involving inverted angles, compressed air and nails, and it worked. I can not say that it will do the same for you, but in my worst case of stuck MacBook keys, it did the trick.

My goal here is not to change the hearts or minds regarding MacBook keyboards. In truth, this is not a big success in keyboard design, and probably comes from the current arms race for thinner and lighter notebooks. Maybe my goal is just to give some perspective.

Larger batteries and larger keys mean bigger and heavier laptops. Thinner notebooks mean less space for deep keys and less room for big batteries.

Sometimes you just have to choose your poison.