Apple replaces the 15-inch Pro, but keeps the $2,399 starting price, adding improved AMD graphics, a bigger battery and boomy speakers.
You can finally get a MacBook with a totally redesigned keyboard -- but it's going to cost you at least $2,399 (£2,399, AU$3,799). The longstanding rumors about Apple's newest jumbo laptop were nearly all true. The newest 16-inch MacBook Pro, unveiled Wednesday, finally ditches the flat "butterfly" keyboard that has vexed Apple laptops for the better part of half a decade, replacing it with a back-to-the-future design modeled on the more traditional keyboards used by iMacs for the past several years. "As we started to investigate specifically what pro users most wanted, a lot of times they would say, 'I want something like this Magic Keyboard, I love that keyboard,'" Apple's Phil Schiller said in a conversation with cent

The new model fits a 16-inch screen into a body that's barely bigger than the previous 15.4-inch models. Apple is also throwing in a bevy of spec bumps -- better graphics, bigger battery, more storage, better microphones and speakers -- and charging no more for the bigger, better Pro than the 15-inch model that it replaces in the line.
But even with that long list of upgrades, the thing I'm most interested in is the keyboard -- and I bet you are, too. I've only gotten to use the 16-inch MacBook Pro for less than a day, but here are my early thoughts.
A familiar Magic Keyboard
MacBooks used to be the pinnacle of laptop engineering: cool unibody designs, great battery life, great keyboards and useful extras like the late, great MagSafe power connector. But that smooth sailing hit choppy weather when Apple introduced its butterfly keyboards starting with the 12-inch MacBook in 2015. The butterfly mechanism -- so named for the dual-hinged mechanism under each key -- replaced the more traditional single-hinged scissor switch design. The butterfly design offered a flatter profile for the keys, which allowed Apple to lean in to its ultrathin design aesthetic.

But many found the redesigned keyboard offered a less pleasurable typing experience because the flat keys barely moved when depressed. Despite the less-than-enthusiastic reception, Apple extended the butterfly keyboard to the full MacBook line -- even as it developed a reputation for being unreliable, with ongoing reports of sticky or nonworking keys. The problems were widespread enough that Apple had to initiate an extended replacement program for the entire line, and iterative modifications to the butterfly design never seemed to fully ameliorate the complaints.