Apple quietly launches new Magic Keyboard — several keys lose their text labels

Apple has quietly changed the design of its iconic Magic Keyboards, replacing text labels on several keys with icons. The update affects the entire new Magic Keyboard lineup released alongside the latest Mac mini and Mac Studio.

The change is subtle, but it is immediately noticeable on keys such as Tab, Caps Lock, Return, Shift and Delete, which now use symbols instead of words. On the larger Magic Keyboard with a numeric keypad, the Home, Page Up and Page Down keys have also received new icons instead of text labels.

Apple has already started moving toward this design on its laptops. Earlier this year, the company replaced text labels with symbols on the keyboards of the MacBook Neo, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and the new Magic Keyboards now follow the same approach.

The change applies to all three new models: the standard Magic Keyboard costs $99, the version with Touch ID is $149, and the Touch ID model with a numeric keypad costs $179.

Apart from the updated key markings, the keyboards appear unchanged from their predecessors. The new models still use USB-C and retain the same layouts and functionality as before. In other words, Apple has not introduced a major hardware redesign — it has simply replaced some of the words printed on the keys with its familiar glyphs.

The updated Magic Keyboards are now available alongside the new Mac mini and Mac Studio.