Skip to main content

Apple is working on MacBooks with retractable keys to make even thinner laptops

 

Apple’s love for keeping its devices thin and light is well-known across the industry. According to a recently published patent, it appears Apple is working on a retractable MacBook keyboard, potentially allowing the company’s laptops to be more svelte than ever before.

Recommended Videos

The patent explains that users prefer “buttons or keys that provide audible and tactile feedback when pressed.” The problem with that, according to Apple, is that keyboards, therefore, take up more space than is often necessary — such as when the laptop is not being used — to accommodate the desired key travel and feedback. Those extra millimeters could be shaved off with a bit of creative engineering.

Apple MacBook retractable keyboard patent
The patent explains the keyboard would raise when you lift the MacBook’s lid Image used with permission by copyright holder

So, how do you combine the depth and tactility that users want from a keyboard with a device that does not take up too much space? Simple: By making the keyboard fold upwards when you raise the MacBook’s lid. When in use, the keyboard’s position would be like that on any other laptop. When the lid is down, however, the keyboard would sink into the base of the device using a set of “Movable magnetic or mechanical linkage elements.”

Interestingly, this patent may pick up where the butterfly keyboard left off. Before it was replaced entirely by the newly updated Magic Keyboard, the butterfly keyboard was Apple’s attempt to bring an incredibly slimline keyboard to its laptops. Sadly for Tim Cook and Co., it was not a success, with the keyboard gaining a reputation for sticky keys and uncomfortable typing.

Apple MacBook retractable keyboard patent
When the MacBook is closed, the keyboard would sink into the device’s body Image used with permission by copyright holder

In an interview with CNET in November 2019, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said the company would continue to work on the butterfly keyboard, and this patent could reflect those efforts. After all, the patent explains that the stabilizers underneath each key could be “scissor mechanisms, butterfly mechanisms, and similar devices.” If you thought the butterfly keyboard was gone for good, it may be a little too early to breathe a sigh of relief.

Given Apple patents a lot of things that never see the light of day, this retractable keyboard may never actually make it into a product. It was filed in August 2019, so it might take a few more years of development before it is ready — if it is ever ready at all.

Alex Blake
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Alex Blake has been working with Digital Trends since 2019, where he spends most of his time writing about Mac computers…
Apple is right to make iPadOS more Mac-like, but I’ll never buy an iPad that runs macOS
Magic Keyboard and iPad Pro.

Do you use a Mac or an iPad? Huge numbers of people use both, yet there are growing calls for Apple to merge the two devices into some kind of all-in-one super product. I’m not one of those people -- in fact I think it would be a terrible idea -- and I’m determined to steer clear of any hypothetical iPad that runs macOS.

Over the past few years, Apple’s best iPads have grown closer to the Mac. We’ve seen the devices get outfitted with Mac-grade chips like the M4, gain macOS-like software features such as Stage Manager, and gain increased compatibility with mice and keyboards.

Read more
I love the Dell XPS 13, but I’ll pick the MacBook Air any day
Dell XPS 13 and M4 MacBook Air.

I am a huge fan of slim and light laptops. That preference is borne more out of my professional lifestyle than a necessity for absolute silicon firebreathers. I believe a laptop should be, well, light on your lap, or hands, unless you need all that firepower in a mobile form factor.

That’s the reason gaming laptops exist, or those thick workstations such as the HP ZBook with an Nvidia RTX A500 series graphics card. For the rest, a thin laptop can do the job just fine, with its quirky set of compromises. Finding the right slim laptop, however, is the tricky part.

Read more
iPad is the best secondary screen I’ve used with a MacBook
You can extend your MacBook's screen by using an iPad as a secondary monitor.

I spend an unhealthy amount of time lurking in communities where people share aesthetic desktop setups. One of my friends recently set the group chat on fire with a triple monitor setup that had two vertical screens and an ultrawide curved panel at the center. An impulse swipe later, I achieved a similar makeover for my desk at home.

Here’s the problem, though. My $600 workstation overhaul did bring me visual joy, but not much utility. For reporting assignments, I spend the majority of the year away from home, working from deserted cafes or unnaturally uncomfortable bunk beds. I do miss the convenience of large secondary screens. Interestingly, that yearning is addressed by a rather unconventional device —the humble iPad. 

Read more