2018 MacBook Pro Uses Silicone To Protect Keyboard From Dust

Last week Apple unveiled its new MacBook Pro model and it came with new features and improvements. However, it looks like that the guys at iFixit discovered that the recently released 2018 MacBook Pro are surrounded by a “thin, silicone barrier.” This discovery suggests Apple’s third-generation “butterfly switch” keyboard wasn’t necessarily designed to be “quieter,” like Apple has claimed. Instead, it could have been designed to make it less prone to exposure to dust and other small particles.

The publication has a quick teardown of the new mid-2018 MacBook Pro keyboard, which indicates that each key now features a “thin, silicone barrier” underneath the cap. They note that this design appears to be specifically implemented to stop “contaminant ingress” (dust particles and the like) and has nothing to do with making the keyboard quieter while someone types on it:

“This flexible enclosure is quite obviously an ingress-proofing measure to prevent the mechanism from seizing up under the brutal onslaught of microscopic dust. Not—to our eyes—a silencing measure. In fact, Apple has a patent for this exact tech designed to ‘prevent and/or alleviate contaminant ingress.'”

The bottom line. iFixit, like many others, doesn’t believe Apple will ever come out and admit, “Hey, we fixed it!” regardless of what further tests prove due to the lawsuit. Still, at least at this point, it does look like Apple might have done just that.

With the most expensive MacBook Pro this year priced at just below $7,000, that’s nice to know, no?

Besides a “quieter” keyboard, the latest MacBook Pro comes with up to a six-core processor, 32GB of RAM, and a True Tone display. There’s also an all-new leather sleeve for both the 13- and 15-inch models.

Are you planning on buying the new Apple MacBook Pro 2018 or not?

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