The brand “Magic Keyboard” currently (May 2020) refers top the keyboard of the Fifth Generation MacBook Pro (16″ Late 2019 and 13″ Early 2020) which replaces the problematic Butterfly Keyboard of the Fourth Generation MacBook Pro.
The mechanism of the new Magic Keyboard is approximately identical to the 2015 Magic Keyboard, so the branding probably seeks to evolve the idea that, “this is the old keyboard style, which didn’t suck.”
- The butterfly was too fail prone. The design ended up being so compact that even the minutest of dust particles and debris could cause keys to register strokes late, or not at all, basically a blocked key. Or it would register multiple strokes and display multiple letters on screen.
- The low travel didn’t quite impress the ones who involved lot of typing such as programmers and writers. The feel just wasn’t there.
- Over and above that, a normal keyboard is such that you can easily pop out the keys and clean the keyboard. Not so with the butterfly. iFixit claimed that removing keys would either damage the key or the enclosure, or both, which would make putting the key back increasingly difficult.
- Magic keyboard which simultaneously existed on iMacs didn’t face this problem. They could be easily cleaned, did not register erroneous key stores and was just plain simple yet effective.
There’s nothing special. It’s just that it’s a simple and effective technology which is irreplaceable by some crappy over engineered stuff.