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I compared a new MacBook Air with a manual typewriter from the 1960s and my favorite Apple laptop of all time to see if the MacBook's controversial keyboard is as bad as everyone says (AAPL)

  • The "butterfly" keyboard on Apple laptops has been resoundingly criticized.
  • I've been using an Apple MacBook Air for about six months — and I've found that keyboard isn't all that great.
  • But compared with a manual typewriter from the the 1960s, the MacBook keyboard is a miracle of modern technology.
  • I've owned a number of Apple laptops, however, and the latest keyboard is probably my least favorite  — a far cry from the keyboard I remember most fondly, on an ancient iBook G4.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.


Hate your MacBook butterfly keyboard? You aren't alone — complaints about the keyboard are all over the internet, and at Business Insider we've found the design to be wanting.

I've been using a new MacBook Air for about six months, and while typing on the keyboard is super-fast, I've also noted a decline in accuracy from the desktop keyboard I had been using, and from Apple laptops I've owned in the past.

As it turns out, I also possess the state-of-the-art for portable word processing from the 1960s: a Smith-Corona manual typewriter, which I still often use. I thought it might be both amusing an illuminating to compare that heavy-duty, hard-work keyboard with what modern technology has given us. 

So here we go:

Here's my new MacBook Air.Matt DeBord/BI

It's exceptionally slim.Matt DeBord/BI

The 13-inch laptop with a Retina display is a sophisticated piece of 21st-century technology that unfortunately has one glaring flaw ...Matt DeBord/BI

... Its controversial butterfly keyboard.Matt DeBord/BI

My BI colleague's Antonio Villas-Boas and Lisa Eadicicco have been all over the complaints about the keyboards.

I gather that Apple is preparing to phase them out, according to the latest reports.



There are other quirks. My new MacBook uses a USB-C charger — gone is the magnetic MagSafe charging port.Matt DeBord/BI

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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SEE ALSO: I upgraded my standing desk after a making the switch from sitting and it was a great move

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