Laptop keyboards have never really been known to be pleasant to type on. They are functional where there are some keyboards that do feel better than most, and Apple’s MacBook keyboards were one of them. We say “were” because ever since the company transitioned to their Butterfly switch design, it has been downhill from there.
We have heard that Apple will be ditching that design and going back to something more familiar, but in the meantime, it seems that the company isn’t done trying to reinvent the MacBook’s keyboard yet. This is according to a recently discovered patent by AppleInsider which suggests that Apple is exploring the idea of using optical switches for future laptop keyboards.
For those unfamiliar, an optical switch uses light to register when a key has been pressed. A beam of light is constantly being emitted and when a key is pressed, that beam is broken and the press is registered. This is versus more traditional keyboard mechanisms that rely on contact points touching each other. If this tech sounds familiar to you, it is because a similar tech has been employed in the Razer Huntsman keyboard.
Apple’s patent describes a slightly different system but in concept it seems to be the same. That being said, we’re not sure if there are plans to actually implement this design, but hopefully Apple has taken away some valuable lessons from the Butterfly keyboard fiasco.
Filed in . Read more about Keyboard, Laptops, Macbook, Patent and Social Hit. Source: appleinsider