[thruhiker]

Starting with the 2018 models they added a membrane around all the keys that 1) significantly reduces ingress of random crap 2) makes the keyboard quieter.

Before I got my 2018 I had a 2015 MacBook Pro and don't find the keyboard to be inferior or superior to the old gen.

[stoolpigeon]

I just finished 3 days of meetings with peers and the note taker was on a brand new MBP. The noise from her keyboard was extremely distracting. I couldn't believe how loud it was. We switched her to a 2015 so we could think as we were discussing things.

[SyneRyder]

I was in a Starbucks 3 seats away from someone on a 2016-2018 MBP last week. I hope it was one of the 2016/2017 non-membrane models, because it really was ridiculously loud and echoing through the store. I thought the complaints about noise from those keyboards was exaggerated until I had that experience.

[lrem]

Have you ever tried sitting in an office full of keyboard snobs?

[SyneRyder]

Thankfully I don't have to, since I'm usually working from my home office or a favorite cafe. I do have a Model M keyboard here that I use sometimes, but not very often.

(However, I do sometimes work on flights after they've dimmed the cabin lights, and a laptop keyboard as loud as the MBP I heard in that Starbucks is a dealbreaker for that use case.)

[izacus]

That doesn't sound like it addresses the horrible typing feel and amount of typos due to poor feedback though.

[masklinn]

> Starting with the 2018 models they added a membrane around all the keys that 1) significantly reduces ingress of random crap 2) makes the keyboard quieter.

It still has all the issues it had previously, just that some (not the key travel or separation issues) are mitigated. The keyboard remains extremely unreliable compared to the chicklet keys, or the magic keyboard's.

[AHTERIX5000]

While the current model has better keyboard than 2015 it's still unreliable design prone to gather dust between keys and the new protector. In contrast with the previous gen it was harder to actually make keys jam and even then you could just snap keys off and use compressed air if needed to clean it up in like five minutes.

[ksec]

And we already have a few cases where the membrane didn't help and keys got stuck or repeating same keys again. i.e The membrane only reduce the risk, it didn't fix a design flaw.