This new keyboard design is said to use a scissor mechanism with glass fibers to reinforce the keys and keep them from breaking. It would also apparently be cheaper to produce. The updated keyboard would allow the keys to travel a bit longer, and it would be a bit more durable.

Rumors regarding the shift away from the butterfly keyboard have been circulating recently: Kuo reported earlier this month that the MacBook Air would get the new keyboard, followed by the 16-inch MacBook Pro next year. This latest report swaps those details, saying that the new MacBook Pro is now getting the scissor keyboard this year, and the other models will follow in 2020.

Image: TF International Securities

The butterfly keyboard has been a notable problem for Apple for years. In an effort to slim down its MacBooks, it introduced the butterfly keyboard in 2015. Since then, users have complained that the keys would stop working if dust got under them. Apple has introduced a series of measures to prevent that from happening: it updated the design with rubber stoppers to keep dust out, and then it tweaked the design with some “new materials” in the mechanism to improve their reliability. Apple has since confirmed the issue, saying that it’s only affected a “small number” of devices, and it launched a repair program.