Apple equips MacBook Pro with octacores and adapts keyboard

Apple claims to have solved the problems with the MacBook Pro and Air keyboards with a new generation Butterfly keyboard. At the same time, the company is giving its MacBook Pros a processor upgrade, including with a Core i9 octacore.

Without giving details, Apple reports that it is using “different material” for its fourth-generation MacBook Butterfly keyboard. As a result, the problems with double attacks or poor registration of attacks should be a thing of the past. The operation of the keyboards would otherwise be identical.

From now on, Apple will equip its laptops with this new generation Butterfly keyboards. Owners of a MacBook Pro or Air with a failing third-generation Butterfly keyboard can send it in for repair and receive one with the modified material.

Left regular scissor switch, right Apples Butterfly switch

Apple has been using the Butterfly mechanism for the flat keyboards of its laptops since 2015, but despite various adjustments, users continued to complain about problems. In 2018, the company provided the surface under the keys with a film that was supposed to stop dust and dirt, but that was also to no avail. After multiple articles about the complaints, Apple apologized.

At the same time as announcing the new Butterfly generation, Apple is giving its MacBook Pros a processor upgrade. The company now supplies the more expensive variant of the MacBook Pro 15″ with a Core i9-9980H, an octacore at 2.3GHz, with an option to deliver it with a variant at 2.4GHz. The more expensive version of the 15″ laptop previously had a hexacore Core i7 or Core i9. The cheaper version of the 15″ MacBook Pro now has a Core i7-9750 with six cores at 2.2GHz or the Core i9-9980HK with eight cores. The 13″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar gets a Core i5-8365- quad-core at 2.4GHz or a Core i7-8665U at 2.8GHz. The other specifications and prices have remained the same and the MacBook Pro 13 without Touch Bar will keep its existing processor.