16" MacBook Pro first hands-on: while the keyboard's “de-Jony-Ive-ification” is good, we shouldn't be celebrating the return of features we shouldn't have lost
IF YOU TRY SOMETIMES, YOU JUST MIGHT FIND, YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED — Apple today is releasing its much-rumored new 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Context & Ripple Effects
This hands-on lands two years after Daring Fireball called out Apple's refusal to even acknowledge the butterfly keyboard's reliability problems, framing quiet keys as the only talking point. The 2019 machine answers that criticism in hardware form: the iFixit teardown shows a keyboard built like the standalone Magic Keyboard, plus a new thermal system and six-speaker array.
What makes this more than one good laptop is the direction it sets — by 2021 Apple had extended the same walk-back logic to ports, MagSafe, and the Touch Bar in its M1 Pro/Max MacBook Pros. The Verge's review of this 2019 model confirms the formula works on merit (best-in-class speakers, improved battery life), even as it notes the machine got heavier.
First-order effects
- Pro Mac buyers get a scissor-mechanism keyboard again after years of butterfly-key failures Apple had declined to acknowledge, and the 16-inch chassis trades thinness for thermals, speakers, and battery life.
Second-order effects
- Apple's own product line has to reconcile the reversal — the 2021 redesign goes further by re-adding HDMI, SD, and MagSafe while killing the Touch Bar, validating the criticism rather than defending the old design.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, 'removal as innovation' loses its cover story: reviewers and buyers now treat deleted features as debt Apple eventually repays, shifting how the company prices and pitches future pro hardware reversals.
The trend: Apple's pro hardware is steadily unwinding its minimalism-era feature removals, with each restored keyboard, port, and display choice confirming that reliability complaints outrank design purity.