If you bought a Mac between 2015 and 2019, you probably remember Apple bragging about its slim “Butterfly Keyboard.” The keyboards failed often enough to kick off a class-action lawsuit, and Apple is finally paying out affected owners.
Customers who experienced problems with sticking or unusable keys with their butterfly keyboards, one of Apple’s worst hardware mistakes in recent memory, are now receiving compensation checks as part of a $50 million class action lawsuit settlement. The amount of compensation varies depending on the extent and frequency of repairs required, with some customers receiving up to $395. If you signed up for a payout last year when the claims were first opened, you should certainly check out the official settlement website to know more, and the payment should hit your account anytime now. The deadline expired last year and the website is not currently accepting additional claims, so if you didn’t do so then, and you’re just finding out now, you’re probably out of luck.
The butterfly switch keyboards, introduced in 2015, were notorious for their unreliability and proneness to failure despite having low key travel. Complaints about sticking keys, unresponsive keys, and even complete keyboard failure due to dust and debris were widespread. Apple began phasing out butterfly keyboards in 2019 with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the final transition was completed in 2020 with the release of a 13-inch MacBook Pro without butterfly switches.
This settlement marks the end of a long and frustrating chapter for MacBook users who suffered from the faulty keyboards. Currently, Apple is using the good old-fashioned scissor keyboards, and those are just as reliable as what you would expect from a keyboard made by literally anyone else. It might have its downsides, but given the last experiment, most users probably wouldn’t have it any other way.
Source: The Verge
