Apple has started to send out compensation checks to users who suffered with faulty butterfly keyboards. Hopefully, this will finally bring closure to the issue that has gone on for nearly ten years.
What is a butterfly keyboard?
The buttons on most laptop keyboards use a scissor switch design. Seen from the side, the mechanism looks like an X. Scissor keys don’t have to travel down as far as the keys on a regular desktop keyboard, which helps keep the case of your laptop thin. However, Apple wanted to make its laptops ever thinner so it developed butterfly keys. Butterfly keys have a design with two wings and a hinge in the center, like a butterfly’s wings, hence the name.
What’s the issue?
The butterfly key mechanism is even thinner than the scissor-switch design. This meant Apple could make super-thin laptops. Butterfly keys also feel great to type on, which made them very popular. Unfortunately, the extra low profile of the butterfly mechanism made them unreliable. Very quickly users reported problems with keys breaking or stopping working. It turned out that it only took a tiny bit of dust or dirt under a butterfly key for it to break.
What products were affected?
The butterfly keyboards were first introduced with Apple’s 2015 model of MacBook. As the keyboard problems became apparent, Apple tried to adjust the design with each new generation of its computers. However, the issue seems to have been inherent in the design due to the limited range of keys’ travel. Four years on, in 2019, the keyboards on Apple’s MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops were still failing. As a result, in 2020, Apple scrapped the butterfly keys and went back to a scissor-switch design.
What happened next?
Disgruntled Apple laptop owners came together to bring a class action lawsuit against the company. A class action lawsuit is where one person brings a civil court case against a company on behalf of a much larger group of people affected by the same issue. In 2022, Apple agreed to pay out $50 million in compensation to laptop owners affected by butterfly keyboard problems. Now, another two years on, the courts have issued a payment order, so the company has finally started to send out checks.
How much will people get?
Apple is paying compensation to people who went through its repair program for the butterfly keyboards. The company set up the repair program in 2018, but it only covered laptops for up to four years after purchase. If you had at least two topcase replacements from Apple as part of the program, you should receive a maximum payout of up to $395. However, if you just had one topcase replacement, you’ll get up to $125. Last of all, users who had keycap replacements will only get up to $50.
What we think
Apple’s butterfly key mechanism was a great design when it worked. Unfortunately, it wasn’t robust enough to survive real-world usage. However, Apple made the decision to persist with the concept, even though of the keyboards’ flaws. That’s the reason that the class action was successful. It’s disappointing that it’s taken two years, and a court order, for Apple to start making payments after a settlement was agreed upon. Hopefully now though the matter can be finally drawn to a close.
