How to Request a Bilingual Keyboard for the New M4 MacBook Pro?

There's no such thing as a "bilingual" keyboard. The physical keyboards are for a single language as identified. What that means is you will get a keyboard with printed characters and layout for the selected language. It may offer secondary characters for English printed on the keys though this has no effect on the actual input language when actually typing.

It also does not prevent the keyboard from being used with multiple other languages.

You can in the OS Settings add additional input languages and layouts, so the keyboard types characters in those languages.

If you select the physical Arabic keyboard, but then add the English input language in System Settings, the keyboard layout can be changed on the fly from Arabic to English by pressing the fn key. That changes what characters keys type when pressed.

click here ➜ Write in another language on Mac - Apple Support

Just order Arabic and you will have what you want. All non-Latin keyboards also have English printed on the keys. See

Apple Hardware Keyboards for Non-Latin Sc… - Apple Community

qusaii wrote:

Thank you Phil0124 for your reply! My primary concern is the printed letters on the keyboard, not the ability to type in different languages.

That said, the picture you provided is exactly what I'm looking for. Just to clarify, if I select the "Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - Arabic," will my keyboard look as shown in the image you shared? I want to ensure that it won’t only have Arabic letters, as I’d like it to include both English and Arabic characters.

Yes, you should probably get that, when buying from the US store.

DamianLAX wrote:

i asked 2 different and separate Apple consultants if the Arabic keyboard would be the US layout or the EU layout, they both assured me it will be the US layout 100%. Guess what, when I picked it up it was the EU keyboard layout.

Wow, sorry to hear you had such clueless consultants! Pictures of Apple's Arabic keyboard are easily found on the internet, and there is an image of one right here in this discussion. All keyboards sold for Europe, Middle East, and Africa have the European ISO layout with the extra key next to Z and the vertical Enter key. Only keyboards sold for the US, Latin America, and Asia have the US ANSI layout. Hopefully you can find a good keyboard cover for your purposes.

tjkcc wrote: I've just talked to an apple specialist in the chat about those custom keyboards and they told me that if I pick Russian kb, then I will just have Russian key caps.

Apple should be embarrassed to have such ignorant people providing help to buyers.

What he told you is nonsense. How would you go about typing www.apple.com on such a keyboard?

For reality, see the link provided earlier

Apple Hardware Keyboards for Non-Latin Sc… - Apple Community

Or just look at the picture Apple provides when you search for Apple Magic Keyboard Russian

I ordered the MBP 16" and i received it last week, I ordered the Arabic Keyboard, and i asked 2 different and separate Apple consultants if the Arabic keyboard would be the US layout or the EU layout, they both assured me it will be the US layout 100%. Guess what, when I picked it up it was the EU keyboard layout. I am thinking to return it and oder the US keyboard and get a keyboard cover for Arabic Lang. which will in turn kill the backlit feature. It was more difficult to sell my other mbp while it had the arabic keyboard.

I've just talked to an apple specialist in the chat about those custom keyboards and they told me that if I pick Russian kb, then I will just have Russian key caps.

I was not sure about this so I called Apple support line and they told me that there is no caps customization at all and that the choice on apple's website is solely for software setup (that macos will come with selected language preset).

Don't know who to trust, but it's a mess. Will go and see what they say in the store.

Thank you for your reply; I know what that keyboard looks like because my last purchase of a Macbook Air 15" had the Arabic keyboard with EU layout, and the reason I asked was to check if there is an option to have it in US-layout. Now I picked up my 16" M4 MAX; within one hour, the battery went down to %75, and maybe it is in the learning phase. I am so tempted to return it and get the US keyboard. For $7K, I need to get everything I want.