There has been a ton of fanfare and coverage of today’s relatively minor upgrade — at least in terms of “major upgrades” — for the MacBook Pro. There’s a slightly larger screen, some impressively improved speakers and microphones, some new and high-powered build-to-order options, and, of course, a new keyboard. Ignore the keyboard and this really isn’t that big of an upgrade.

I’m not the first to point out that it didn’t have to be this way — Apple didn’t have to go down the path of the terrible butterfly keyboard in 2015.

That butterfly keyboard first debuted in the 12-inch MacBook. I drove an hour and a half into Winnipeg to be the first to buy and test that 12-inch MacBook, and I spent all of 35 minutes in a nearby Starbucks before the keyboard jammed the first time.

I kid you not.

I actually drove back to the Apple Store and returned the MacBook for a new one. By the time I had finished my two-week return period, that MacBook’s keyboard jammed as well.

Good riddance.

I ordered today’s MacBook Pro to test it out and to simply see if that keyboard can hold up to a relatively rigorous writing workflow. It just so happens to debut in the middle of NaNoWri…err… NaNoBlogMo, so there’s no better time to put that new scissor keyboard to the test.

As always, there are a range of great first impressions pieces floating around the internet:

• John Gruber’s first impressions piece at Daring Fireball.
• Jason Snell’s first impressions post at Six Colors.
• Dieter Bohn’s first impressions post and video at The Verge.
• Side note: The Verge is back to its old-fashioned photography ways recently. That photography team killed it in their review of the Microsoft Surface Pro X.
• Marques Brownlee’s video review.
• Judner Aura’s (UrAvgConsumer) unboxing and hands-on.