At the Wall Street Journal, Joanna Stern reports that the ultra-thin butterfly keyboards on current MacBooks are still failing. The online version of her column is brilliantly funny, with options to rmv crtain lttrs or make itt so thatt certtain charactters repeatt — the characteristic failures of what Apple watcher John Gruber describes as the "worst products in Apple history."
Stern recommends various remedies, from a beta app that kills double keystrokes to blasting your laptop with canned air. But there's a better solution: this $13 polyurethane keyboard protector [Amazon affiliate link].
Preventing disaster is that simple. I've had mine for 6 months and this is what worked.
It protects my MacBook from microdust or sebaceous filaments or whatever it is that keeps murdering these butterfly keyboards, and it's nearly invisible—the photo at the top of this post shows it installed. It also protects the machine itself from spills, and the keys themselves have none of the wear, tear and shine they usually pick up after a few months of hammering.
I got the UPPERCASE GhostCover brand protector and can vouch for these specific products: the 12" MacBook GhostCover [Amazon] and the
13" and 15" MacBook Pro GhostCover [Amazon], which comes in Touchbar and F-key versions. (There are other cuts too for older models, but I haven't tried them.)
If you're buying out in the wild, the important thing is to get a polyurethane cover, not silicone. Silicone is cheaper and dominates search results and algorithmic recommendations, but they're thicker and stretchier and don't stay put.
Silicone also adds a noticeable squish to the typing, which may or may not be to your liking. The harder, thinner polyurethane one adds a little extra travel, which I'm fine with (especially on these MacBooks).
If all you've seen are the rubbery silicone ones sold in big box stores, that will have made you justifiably wary, but with the polyurethane one I'm only reminded it's even there when a sneeze turns it into a strange floppy leaf. Normally it's hard to get off without carefully peeling it from the edge (or blowing hard). It isn't adhesive, but it does come with tiny adhesive sticky spots to anchor it, if you want. I havent needed them.
Aesthetically, the keys appear a little paler...
... and there's a translucent logo on the space bar. It's almost invisible, but it is present. If you don't like it, you're out ten bucks and change.
GhostCover polyurethane keyboard protector for 13" and 15" MacBook Pro [Amazon affiliate link].
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