When I first reviewed the 2018 MacBook Pro, a key concern of mine was the keyboard. I am a mechanical keyboard-loving girl. I need a nice tactile experience while typing. To use anything else feels like running with your pants around your ankles. Can you do it? Sure. But why? However, in this metaphor, the MacBook Pro keyboard would be like running with your pants around your ankles over Lego pieces.
Now, Apple has won awards in the arts before. An Emmy or a Grammy here or there. However, during an interview, Taika Waititi, winner of this year’s Oscar for Screenplay Adaptation, listed Apple’s atrocious keyboard at the top of his concerns as a writer.
Perhaps Apple should go back and replace all of them. Please, Apple?
A Dreaded Keyboard
Taika Waititi wrote the film adaptation of Jojo Rabbit. It was an exceptional movie, I suppose (I still haven’t seen it), and he won an award. Waititi took home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Though he’s second guessing one thing involved with his writing process. No, not the jovial mood surrounding Hitler, that made some Jojo Rabbit viewers uncomfortable. It was his MacBook.
Taika Waititi jokes about what writers should be asking for in the next round of talks with producers: “Apple needs to fix those keyboards. They are impossible to write on. They’ve gotten worse. It makes me want to go back to PCs” #Oscars pic.twitter.com/vlFTSjCfZm
— Variety (@Variety) February 10, 2020
He’s not pulling his punches! Taika Waititi said he’s considering going back to PCs due to the horrendous keyboards. He even went so far as to suggest that the Writers Guild needs to unite to get Apple to fix their keyboards.
He was joking, but he’s not wrong.
The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is terrible. It’s so bad, Apple did something they rarely do: they admitted they were wrong. The new MacBook Pro has a usable keyboard, returning to the older MacBook Pro keyboard that Apple discontinued in 2015. That keyboard replaced the one that Apple used prior to 2012, which was an even more tactile, better keyboard. It’s why I prefer the keyboard on my 2006 MacBook to my 2010 MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Pro. The best was the oldest.
Apple has been getting worse.
Stuck With… This.
I’d love to replace my entire MacBook Pro now that I know I can get rid of this keyboard. Sure, the upgrade would be nice. I’d likely go for more internal storage, as, since I’ve gotten into video work, I run through it quickly. A graphics card that doesn’t require an external GPU to run games at higher settings would be nice, but not necessary.
The biggest upgrade I’d want is the keyboard. The keyboard on the 2018 MacBook is one of the worst typing experiences I’ve had. It’s better than only the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard. The key travel is short, making you feel as though you’re banging your fingers on a hard desk. Furthermore, it’s fragile, with keys breaking from just a small amount of dust. While the latest MacBook Pro has a keyboard that’s at least serviceable, that means nothing to the many victims of Apple’s older, atrocious keyboard.
That includes Mr. Waititi. Something tells me he won’t have as much trouble replacing his terrible MacBook Pro as the rest of us will.
Sources:
- Luke Dormehl, Cult of Mac
- William Gallagher, AppleInsider