Lots of people actually liked the 2016 keyboards, less travel is fine for many people, including me. The real problem as the susceptibility to debris breaking keys, and not being easily fixable.
So the new MacBook keyboards seemed to have the debris issue licked, and a little more travel. That’s all I need, but if you want more travel I can see it’s not there for you yet.
Ignoring the unreliability and lack of esc key, I liked the tiny travel on the 2016-2018 MBPs, but I didn't like how crowded the keys were. In fact that part seemed objectively bad: The surface area they added does nothing but increase the chance of mistyping, since any reasonably-sized finger hitting the edge of those keys would hit an adjacent key too.
The new Macbook keyboards have such low travel that they feel like a step in that direction. I like the laptop overall but I make a lot more typos than I did on my old one.
I have a 2017 MBP for work and a 2015 personal MBP. I love good laptop keyboards, my fingers tire out using heavy mechanical keyboards with long travel. I loved my 2015 keyboard. Until I got the 2017. Now the 2015 feels like mush, like I'm typing on silicone. The 2017 is nice a clicky and satisfying while still keeping the shallow travel.
I haven't personally encountered any issues of the keys sticking though I know people who have. That's a real and serious problem, although it sounds like Apple may have figured it out in later models. But personally I love the feel of the clicky short-travel 2017 keyboard. About the only thing I don't like is the arrow keys, I miss the cutouts above the left/right arrow keys to help find them easier.
Key travel for the 2016 is 1mm. The "bad" keyboards had 0.5-0.7mm travel. 2015 and earlier had 1.2-1.5mm travel. Not sure about the reliability of the new mechanism, but the 2016 keyboard does feel much more like the old 2015 one.
Not the person you asked, but I also like typing on the new keyboards. I find I can type faster with the low travel. My fingers tend to glide over the keys instead of mashing them. If you routinely move from a long travel to the a low travel keyboard I can understand an adjustment period. Now when I type on other keyboards they all feel mushy and require so much strike effort that I have to adjust.
What I don't like is the well documented reliability issues, and the how loud they were on the 2017 model.
I know it tends to be more preference, but even on the 2018 MacBook Pros I find the keyboards terrible. Dust and spill resistant sure, slightly improved tactile response yes, but unlike my 2015 MacBook Pro my fingers seem to get strained and sore from the butterfly keyboards. I like travel in my keys.
My 2020 macbook pro had probably my favorite keyboard. The low travel means I could type far faster on it than any other keyboards I've used. My 2019 is almost as good, except it has the issue of keys getting stuck/jammed by small particles, the 2020 version apparently had that issue resolved.
The last Mac keyboard I thought was great was the Titanium PowerBook (the Aluminum was ever so slightly squishier). The polycarbonate MacBooks got a decent membrane keyboard, while the Unibody MacBook Pros got a pretty terrible keyboard throughout their whole run. The touchbar keyboard is less squishy than the Unibody one (good), but it's way too noisy, the layout sucks, and it only took me a couple weeks before some keys stopped working reliably. Unless the 2017 touchbar keyboard brings back the proper amount of key travel I can't imagine it's much better than the 2016 keyboard.
Funny thing is that I sat down with my boss to troubleshoot some stuff today and he was cursing up a storm about the touchbar keyboard (usually he docks the thing and uses an external keyboard). I've largely gotten used to it, but still haven't memorized the location of the navigation / modifier keys. It's like the iPhone 6/7 -- I've gotten used to the camera hump but it still drives me nuts every single time I put the phone down.
I actually really like my 2017 MBP's keyboard. There isn't much key travel, but the keys do have a very satisfying "click." I prefer it over older apple keyboards. Keys do have issues weekly or so, but that's resolved by hitting the key a bunch; it's an inconvenience, but certainly not a dealbreaker.
I've known those who preferred keyboards with much less travel. Personally, I type too hard for that to work. When I type on a mac book keyboard, I bottom out and then some every keystroke.
What do you think of the keyboard? I'm still lovingly holding on to my 2015 MBP which has keys that actually travel. For context, the last new Mac keyboard I tried was the butterfly variant.
As an m1 macbook owner I would say the new mac keyboard is good for a low travel keyboard, but not good when compared to thinkpad keyboards, especially the older 1.8mm and up key travel keyboards. There is only so much you can do to compensate for a lack of key travel.
Earlier this year, I returned my brand new MacBook Pro and asked for my old 2016 MacBook Pro back. I'm a touch typist and I just don't get enough feedback from the new keyboard to be sure I pressed a key. It actually slowed down my typing. And the lack of and ESC and function keys means that I just can't develop on it anymore. I'm still happily using my 2.5 year-old MacBook Pro.
Without some decent amount of travel distance, a keyboard lacks feel. I type 130WPM and can not develop a rhythm on the new MacBook pros. To the day, I love the MacBook Air and previous MacBook Pros circa 2015. In fact, I may buy one on eBay. Apple, give us back travel distance.
I also love the 12" MB keyboards. And the new MBP keyboards are even better. I treat my 2016 12" MB like shit, throw it in my bag without a case, eat in its general area, and I've never had an issue with dust messing up the kb. But I believe that there's a design flaw here that apple should fix. But the keyboards are great from every other angle.
I completely disagree. I think the current MBP keyboard is one of the most satisfying laptop keyboards I've ever typed on. The minimal travel takes some time to get used to but I love how tactile it is. This is coming from someone that spends most of their time typing on Cherry MX green or clear switches.
So the new MacBook keyboards seemed to have the debris issue licked, and a little more travel. That’s all I need, but if you want more travel I can see it’s not there for you yet.
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