Apple’s new MacBooks have a keyboard change you’ll notice right away

Apple’s new M5 MacBook Air and M5 MacBook Pro models pretty light on new features beyond the chips. However, it turns out that both MacBooks swap out the keyboard in favor of glyphs to remove text labels.

Apple’s new MacBooks have tab, caps lock, etc. leaves text labels on several common buttons, including

Three new MacBooks arrive in the hands of users this week, but outside MacBook NeoApple’s latest products don’t look too new. Neither the M5 MacBook Air nor the M5 Pro and M5 Max look like the MacBook Pro from the outside.

They pack new chips inside, but otherwise the basic design is the same as their predecessors.

Except in a way.

As highlighted by Dan Moren his MacBook Air review Six Colorsthe new models make a notable change to the keyboard labels.

In this generation (including the new MacBook Pros), the text labels of several keys are gone: tab, caps lock, return, scroll and delete. In each case, they’ve been replaced by the same type of glyphs long used for keyboard shortcuts in drop-down menus.

Here’s a closer look at the new keyboard glyphs that can also be found on the MacBook Neo.

Some readers may be screaming at their devices right now, “These glyphs aren’t new!”

But Moren elaborates:

If you’re sitting there thinking, “Wait, what do you mean – it’s been like this forever?” then congratulations, you must be outside the US. Although Apple’s other international keyboard layouts use this near-universally agreed-upon standard, the US has been left out. This standardizes this style on Apple laptops (and probably soon on its standalone keyboards as well), while aligning them with the iOS and iPadOS keyboards, which use the same characters (and in some cases have for a long time). Labels haven’t completely disappeared: the Air’s keyboard still sports text alongside long-used symbols on the function, control, option, and command keyboards.

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Personally, I’m a fan of the text labels on the keyboard. I don’t need them, but they’re nice to have.

Also, it seems like an odd move to throw them out now. The MacBook Neo is expected to entice many PC switchers, all of whom could benefit from some extra hand-holding during the transition.

But of course, if users around the world adapt to the glyphs without any problems, I’m sure US Mac buyers will be fine too.

What do you think of the keyboard changes on the latest MacBooks? Let us know in the comments.

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