What you need to know

  • Apple's updated MacBook Air and base MacBook Pro come with its third-gen butterfly keyboard.
  • The newest keyboard was intorduced back in May for the high-end MacBook Pro.
  • Apple has now brought its newest butterfly keyboard to its entire MacBook lineup.

Apple today updated the MacBook Air and base MacBook Pro with 8th-gen Intel processors, True Tone display and Touch Bar (for the Pro). However, it also updated the new Mac notebooks with its latest 3rd-gen butterfly keyboard according to MacRumors.

Good news: both the new MacBook Air and the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro models introduced today have the same third-generation butterfly keyboard design with an updated material as the higher-end 2019 MacBook Pro models introduced in May, we've confirmed directly.

The updated third-generation butterfly keyboard is Apple's latest attempt to sure up the keyboard that has been suffering from incessant issues since it was launched in 2016. Apple incorporated new materials to make it sturdier though only time will tell if this move will end up working out.

What is clear is that Apple is rolling out the keyboard across its entire MacBook lineup. Previously, it was only available on the higher-end MacBook Pros with Touch Bar. Now the MacBook Air and base MacBook Pro (which just got a Touch Bar upgrade today) will wear the new keyboards as well.

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The move may be short lived, though. Rumors are already suggesting Apple will move away from the butterfly keyboard back to a scissor keyboard in 2020. That would put an end to the butterfly keyboard and all the issues Apple ran into with its slim profile design.

Apple updates MacBook Pro and Air, kills off 12-inch MacBook