3 ms·

It's also important to have a bit of travel for the keyboard - I for one don't like tapping on a hard surface to type.

by ant6n 10y ago

jacobolus 10y ago
With the size/weight you saved, you can now carry a much nicer external keyboard if you really care. Personally I think the new keyboard is marginally nicer than the old one: more snap, but less travel. In that case, I’d rather have the thinner one. But then again, in my opinion laptop keyboards have been crap ever since they decided laptops needed to be usable on a lap and couldn’t be 3 inches thick or weigh 10 pounds, sometime in the early 1990s. ;-) (The IBM P70 and 5140, the Macintosh Portable, and the NEC Powermate Portable all had amazing keyboards. Toshiba and Zenith luggables of the same era also had nice enough keyboards. Of course, those machines aren’t exactly “laptops” by any reasonable standard.)
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  I like most laptop keyboards, just not the one from the recent macbooks, it feels... exaggeratedly flat
  - jacobolus 10y ago
    Have you tried the new MBP keyboard? It’s substantially different than the one from the 12" Macbook. (You still might not like it; it’s not my favorite either, but it’s definitely an improvement. Hopefully they’ll put the new keyboards on the next iteration of the 12" Macbook.)
- hueving 10y ago
  "carry another keyboard" is a bullshit excuse with a laptop. There is no way to feasibly use an external keyboard while on the train/plane or in many other situations where you actually rely on the portability of a laptop.
  - jacobolus 10y ago
    Laptops suck on modern no-legroom planes. Total ergonomic nightmare. An external keyboard on your lap hooked up to a smartphone or something is a much nicer way to handle any significant amount of typing. I think a stand + split external keyboard at appropriate tent and tilt angles could be designed to clip to a laptop where the laptop is opened to a 135° angle and propped up at the back. Maybe more trouble than it’s worth though. Would take a lot of design effort, and would be a niche product to be sure. Overall I think you just need to accept some level of compromise when typing on a plane or train. If the new Apple laptop keyboards bother you that much, get something else I guess.. Among people who have tried them opinions overall seem split. I know several people who much prefer the new Macbook Pro keyboards to the old ones. And several others who prefer the old ones. In my opinion (as a very snobby keyboard connoisseur) both are comparable – acceptable but uninspiring; same goes for all laptop keyboards since about 1992, most of which are even crappier than anything Apple has put out.
el_benhameen 10y ago
I've been using the new 13" for the last few days, and I'm surprised at how much I like the keyboard. I despised the one on the MacBook and figured I'd feel the same about this one, but the keys are much more responsive, tactile, and clicky. I don't feel like I'm tapping on a piece of metal with this one.

It's also important to have a bit of travel for the keyboard - I for one don't like tapping on a hard surface to type.

by ant6n 10y ago

It's also important to have a bit of travel for the keyboard - I for one don't like tapping on a hard surface to type.

With the size/weight you saved, you can now carry a much nicer external keyboard if you really care. Personally I think the new keyboard is marginally nicer than the old one: more snap, but less travel. In that case, I’d rather have the thinner one. But then again, in my opinion laptop keyboards have been crap ever since they decided laptops needed to be usable on a lap and couldn’t be 3 inches thick or weigh 10 pounds, sometime in the early 1990s. ;-) (The IBM P70 and 5140, the Macintosh Portable, and the NEC Powermate Portable all had amazing keyboards. Toshiba and Zenith luggables of the same era also had nice enough keyboards. Of course, those machines aren’t exactly “laptops” by any reasonable standard.)

Aldo_MX 10y ago
I like most laptop keyboards, just not the one from the recent macbooks, it feels... exaggeratedly flat
- jacobolus 10y ago
  Have you tried the new MBP keyboard? It’s substantially different than the one from the 12" Macbook. (You still might not like it; it’s not my favorite either, but it’s definitely an improvement. Hopefully they’ll put the new keyboards on the next iteration of the 12" Macbook.)
hueving 10y ago
"carry another keyboard" is a bullshit excuse with a laptop. There is no way to feasibly use an external keyboard while on the train/plane or in many other situations where you actually rely on the portability of a laptop.
- jacobolus 10y ago
  Laptops suck on modern no-legroom planes. Total ergonomic nightmare. An external keyboard on your lap hooked up to a smartphone or something is a much nicer way to handle any significant amount of typing. I think a stand + split external keyboard at appropriate tent and tilt angles could be designed to clip to a laptop where the laptop is opened to a 135° angle and propped up at the back. Maybe more trouble than it’s worth though. Would take a lot of design effort, and would be a niche product to be sure. Overall I think you just need to accept some level of compromise when typing on a plane or train. If the new Apple laptop keyboards bother you that much, get something else I guess.. Among people who have tried them opinions overall seem split. I know several people who much prefer the new Macbook Pro keyboards to the old ones. And several others who prefer the old ones. In my opinion (as a very snobby keyboard connoisseur) both are comparable – acceptable but uninspiring; same goes for all laptop keyboards since about 1992, most of which are even crappier than anything Apple has put out.

el_benhameen 10y ago

I've been using the new 13" for the last few days, and I'm surprised at how much I like the keyboard. I despised the one on the MacBook and figured I'd feel the same about this one, but the keys are much more responsive, tactile, and clicky. I don't feel like I'm tapping on a piece of metal with this one.