MacBook Pro 2018 teardown finds silicone layer under its quieter keys that is similar to Apple's patent application for protecting a keyboard from contaminants
BREAKING (July 13, 2018): Here's an inflammatory take for you: Apple's new quieter keyboard is actually a conspiracy to fix their keyboard reliability issues.
Context & Ripple Effects
When Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro in July 2018, its public line was that the new keyboard was simply quieter — [[a:931421|Daring Fireball noted the company never mentioned the butterfly keyboard's reliability problems]] and said not to expect it to. iFixit's teardown now supplies the missing half of the story: under the quieter keys sits a silicone layer closely resembling Apple's own patent application for shielding keyboards from contaminants.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the 2018 MacBook Pro are getting a debris-blocking membrane in their keyboards without Apple ever acknowledging the older design's failure mode as the reason.
Second-order effects
- A leaked internal document days later confirmed the membrane's purpose is keeping debris out of the butterfly mechanism (MacRumors reported it), turning what Apple framed as an acoustic tweak into evidence for critics tracking the keyboard defect story.
Third-order effects
- The pattern held into 2019: Apple shipped another material change — a nylon-like membrane — alongside expanded Keyboard Service Program coverage in its May 2019 MacBook Pro update, suggesting iterative silent fixes rather than a single admitted redesign.
The trend: Apple is iterating on the flawed butterfly keyboard through quiet, unacknowledged hardware revisions while expanding warranty coverage instead of publicly conceding the original design's contamination weakness.