Hands-On With Apple's New 13-Inch MacBook Pro

[newyorksole]

I’m very surprised that you guys reviewed the baseline MBP instead of the (more updated) $1799 model...

Either way, hopefully that 14” model comes out this year still.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I do wonder what percentage of bezel-haters actually hate the bezel through free will, and how many are socially programmed to just hate bezels. I love my 10.5" iPad Pro coz I can hold it comfortably without my thumbs covering the screen, and I love my MacBook bezels as I can adjust the screen angle without getting my fingers all over the screen.

Its a marketing bullet point to make people think they have this cutting edge device and that bezels mean “old tech”. I mean, Apple does it too, they just look better doing it. Heres my anecdotal experience:

A former coworker bought the 12” iPad Pro and first, I couldn’t pick the damn thing up without scraping the naked aluminum across his desk because they have square edges, second, I could not hold the thing securely without my fingers being in the way. I love the design, but I bought the 2017 12.9” 512GB when B and H had them on blowout. I still want an 11” Pro, but I am ambivalent about the both the edges and the no bezels.

I know at some point my 2017 is going to have to be replaced, but I much prefer the meaty bezels that allow me to carry it securely and not smudge the screen and the tapered edges that allow me to actually pick the damn thing up when its not in a case.

 

[torontotim]

"When it comes to feel, the Magic Keyboard isn't too far off from the butterfly keyboard that it's replacing with good key travel and a solid feel under the fingers."

WTF does this even mean? So MacRumors is saying the Magic keyboard is more or less the same as the old butterfly keyboard it's replacing.

OK.

Just a stop-gap release from Apple. Putting the 14" model out with its all new chassis, internal components, screen etc. etc. etc. was too risky with supply chains in the pandemic era.

This was an easy re-tool of the chassis for the keyboard layout, re-use the 16" keyboard/touchbar setup and call it a day.

Waste of time - wait for the 14" model. This is a one-year final edition of the 13" to get at least a few people buying it while the smart people wait for the 14" version which might even have mini LED.

 

[Zdigital2015]

"When it comes to feel, the Magic Keyboard isn't too far off from the butterfly keyboard that it's replacing with good key travel and a solid feel under the fingers."

WTF does this even mean? So MacRumors is saying the Magic keyboard is more or less the same as the old butterfly keyboard it's replacing.

OK.

Just a stop-gap release from Apple. Putting the 14" model out with its all new chassis, internal components, screen etc. etc. etc. was too risky with supply chains in the pandemic era.

This was an easy re-tool of the chassis for the keyboard layout, re-use the 16" keyboard/touchbar setup and call it a day.

Waste of time - wait for the 14" model. This is a one-year final edition of the 13" to get at least a few people buying it while the smart people wait for the 14" version which might even have microLED.

I get the feeling that it was 5 O”Clock somewhere when this review was written. Am I wrong?

 

[jmgregory1]

Its a marketing bullet point to make people think they have this cutting edge device and that bezels mean “old tech”. I mean, Apple does it too, they just look better doing it. Heres my anecdotal experience:

A former coworker bought the 12” iPad Pro and first, I couldn’t pick the damn thing up without scraping the naked aluminum across his desk because they have square edges, second, I could not hold the thing securely without my fingers being in the way. I love the design, but I bought the 2017 12.9” 512GB when B and H had them on blowout. I still want an 11” Pro, but I am ambivalent about the both the edges and the no bezels.

I know at some point my 2017 is going to have to be replaced, but I much prefer the meaty bezels that allow me to carry it securely and not smudge the screen and the tapered edges that allow me to actually pick the damn thing up when its not in a case.

I’ve got the 2018 iPad Pro and agree that the thin bezels forces you to have to be mindful of where your fingers are when holding it. The slick back doesn’t help either - I added a textured vinyl wrap to the back, which helps a bit, but it really needs something like a thin real wood or cork wrap so that it gives your fingers something to stick to.

I think with the new MBP and MBA, Apple could have pushed to expand the screen and reduce the bezels. It’s not like with the iPad - you’re not (hopefully) holding the MBP by the edge of the screen. If you need to adjust the angle, it’s just a matter of putting a bit of pressure on the aluminum edge of the screen case to get it to move, so there shouldn’t be any worry about touching the screen. I’m guessing that Apple likely will reduce the bezels, and keep the overall form factor the same, so that the 13” chassis will hold a ~14” screen, but that won’t happen until they shift to mini or micro LED.

 

[tom_uk]

Actually, looking ast some Geekbench scores, the base model looks OK. (Though maybe with 16Gb ram.) The multi-core Geekbench score for the 2019 model was c3750, and this year’s ought to be the same. The Goldilocks model ($/£1800) has a multi-core score of c4400. Yes, that’s better, but the base model is no slouch for less money. It certainly kills the 2020 Air - the multi-core scores on the i5 version of that top out at around 2800, which I imagine is the result of the thermal throttling.

And do we really think that anyone buying a 13” MB Pro for $/£1300 will want to attach a $/£4600 or $/£5500 monitor to it? That’s Mac Pro territory, surely. Certainly not being able to do so isn’t a disappointment for me.

 

[Herrpod]

If you're thinking about this and the Air and you don't do a lot of heavy lifting with your work, get the i3 MBA. It does not have heating issues doing basic functions like Word, browsing, mail, spotify, youtube etc etc. It's a great little computer that you can get for about 899 using education pricing, and if you wait until July, you can pay that and also get a pair of bluetooth headphones thrown in.

 

[4jasontv]

For me the big selling point over my 2018 MBP is the 32GB ram option. I frequently end up writing to disk and the whole thing just feels sluggish despite the i7 and 1 TB SSD.

 

[JPSaltzman]

What I don't understand is: If there's room for 4 Thunderbolt ports on the high-end model, why wasn't there room for 4 in the base model?

 

[nameischarles]

What I don't understand is: If there's room for 4 Thunderbolt ports on the high-end model, why wasn't there room for 4 in the base model?

They can but they won’t, so that you can spend more and buy the higher end model.

 

[citysnaps]

They can but they won’t, so that you can spend more and buy the higher end model.

It costs more money to implement four TB3 ports over two.

Need four ports? Easy. Pay for it.

 

[VPRunner]

I wanted to upgrade my 15” 2008 MBP so bad to the 14”. Tired of waiting. The 16” is just more power than I need.

 

[MacLawyer]

I stopped watching as soon as he said base model. If you have the 2019 13" MBP there is no reason to get the base 2020 model. Unless you like burning money. 😂

BTW I have the 2019 13" model and the 4th gen. keyboard is fine.

 

[dspdoc]

I see ZERO point in buying the base model. That is unless you are feeling generous and just want to help Apple get rid of its old stock.

 

[kwikdeth]

It costs more money to implement four TB3 ports over two.

Need four ports? Easy. Pay for it.

These days all you're paying for is the extra silicon. Intel made Thunderbolt licensing free as part of the push to merge it with USB-C.

Its really just product segmentation, since it's about the only thing they can do to differentiate the machines now.

 

[ellsworth]

You're MACRUMORS..... why would you buy the base model? Still a great video. Thanks.
A maxed out 16-inch Macbook Pro will run you: $6,099.00 so a maxed out 13-inch Macbook Pro at $3,599 isn't too bad.

 

[HappyIntro]

Reading this on a Early 2015 MacBook Pro, which seems to be chugging along just fine. Its obvious innovation has kinda plateaued but its probably not a bad thing. To think that the same 14 NM Intel processor, is still a part of this generation of notebooks, in itself speaks to how much the need to always be upgrading is not really necessary anymore. Sure, its a more optimised 14 NM, but, 5 years later and Intel can't provide 10 NM node is concerning. This in a sense causes some chain reaction in the products development, so much so, Apple couldn't even bring the 10th generation to entry level and mid-range models; which are still on 8th generation; mostly likely to make it distinct enough.

Outside of that, what I believe Apple needs to do is really bring back the 12 inch MacBook. I kinda realise, there is a need for it as a middle ground between the iPad and MacBook Air/Pro 13 inch models. For the past couple weeks, I have been using my Early 2015 MBP at night and its not great as a nightstand computer. My iPad certainly is, but lacks the power of macOS. But macOS also lacks the variety of applications.

I do hope when A Series is introduced, its this middle ground form factor, with the best of macOS and iPad, easy to pickup and put down beside your nightstand, not too big or small. Apple should just give Adobe and Microsoft substantial resources to help bring their key apps to macOS on A Series since it will help drive third party developer motivation to get their apps over. They can then use the A series as the catalyst to drive out Intel out of the product line slowly, but surely.

I totally agree about the 12" MacBook, I feel the 2017 version was one of the best products Apple has EVER put out.

One thing: my 2015 15" MBP had a Haswell-based CPU that was manufactured on a 22 nm process, not 14nm; I'm curious if you're sure that yours had a 14nm processor?

 

[iRun26.2]

Why would they review the base model (unless they couldn’t get anything else)?

 

[enthawizeguy]

I'd like to see speed comparisons between 13 maxed out and 16. I was hoping for 14 inch screen and 8 cores and 64gb ram. I am not sure I wanna go from 15 to 16

 

[nvmls]

I humbly submit my anecdotal postulation that the Thin Bezel Cult™ acolytes are the very same people who whine constantly that their laptop is for serious work and that it is not a fashion statement or an art piece and that Apple is spending too much time on the look of their computers.

Don't cry, it'll pass eventually. Stay strong.

 

[0920872]

Need some advice:

I ordered the Macbook Air i5 16gb 1TB am thinking whether I'd be better off with a 10th gen i5 16gb 512Gb Pro. I keep my macs for 5 years, so I wanna make sure I'm not missing something that would give me buyers remorse. I mainly browse the web and edit documents with a ton of PDFs open. Lot's of powerpoints, and planning to use my 4K monitor at 60Hz and/or my 2017 iPad Pro with Sidecar. What I've also been hoping to get back to us using Logic with 20-30 tracks most.

Air's advantages are:
-100 grams lighter
-1H longer battery
- ~$200 cheaper for 512GB more storage (may be more critical for Logic Pro than processing power)
- No touchbar (the only use I have for TB is commenting out stuff in Xcode...)
- Touch pad that is perfect size

Pro's advantages are:
-Probably 30-35% better multicore processing
-4 USB-C/TB3 ports
-Better, brighter screen

Am I missing something? Based on this The MBP 13" doesn't sound like a great upgrade.

 

[iRun26.2]

I wanted to upgrade my 15” 2008 MBP so bad to the 14”. Tired of waiting. The 16” is just more power than I need.

So what are you going to do?

I’m desperate for something new but terribly disappointed there was no 14.1” screen.

I think I’m buying a fully loaded 13.3” anyway and selling it if a 14.1 model is introduced. Hopefully I’ll not lose too much of my investment.

I always say the most important reason to upgrade is an improved screen (but 32G RAM is really the driving factor right now).

 

[Abazigal]

I’m very surprised that you guys reviewed the baseline MBP instead of the (more updated) $1799 model...

Either way, hopefully that 14” model comes out this year still.

In a separate forum thread, benchmarks suggest that you are not really that much better performance by going with the more expensive model. You are getting more ram, storage, USB-C ports and slightly faster processor performance, but otherwise, it seems like the same MBP experience all around.

 

[Scottsdale]

Why would you get the base model of this instead of the MacBook Air?

Heat management! If you’re going to do anything that requires load, you want this for that reason. The low-end MBP 13” has a heat pipe connected to one fan. The high-end MBP 13” has two heat pipes and two fans (one connected to each fan).

Before you decide to say you’re not doing 4K video editing or anything that intensive, even multiple Chrome tabs with one video playing in a high resolution, will max the temp at 99-degrees Celsius, throttle the MBA, and create chaos with its one lonely fan which is not connected to anything. It basically is there for show or minimal airflow on the MBA. The MBP is what you want if you need to get anything done. The MBA is great for watching Netflix in Safari, and running a Few spreadsheets, documents or less intensive apps.

I would only buy the low-end 13” MBP with 16GB of RAM. The high-end model makes no sense based on the pricing. At that point, one is far better off going with the 16” MBP. Spec for spec, Apple is slowly doing better. But it still has a long ways to go. I would like to see Apple not sit on its macOS/ecosystem model and start creating Macs that work more like iOS devices. The iPad and iPadOS and iPhone with iOS are rock solid devices. They really know how to build the vertical integration from SoC design to great hardware design. I would like to see them carry over those design languages to Mac devices and use their own knowledge in conjunction with Intel and Run both Intel and A-Series SoCs simultaneously. Apple could easily make Macs that have both chips rather than switching completely and waiting on Intel all the time. As things progress, perhaps a five-year goal would be to introduce only ARM A-Series SoCs. Even the graphics will probably blow away AMD/Nvidia on a per watt basis.

I hope they quit spending money buying back AAPL stock and start innovating a new generation of Macs! Ones that also run MacOS on the iPad Pro!

 

[throAU]

Sorry MacRumors, but the recommendation of checking out the 16” instead of the 13” misses the point completely. The $1799 version of the 13” matches with the $2399 version of the 16” and the $1999 version matches with the $2799 16”.

100% this.

Also - It doesn't just come down to price vs. performance. Even weight isn't the only consideration...

If you travel a lot, 16" machines are a pain in the butt. It doesn't matter how good the performance is, if you can't use the thing in transit because it won't fit in your available work space! On a plane? 16" sucks. Tray table not big enough!
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"When it comes to feel, the Magic Keyboard isn't too far off from the butterfly keyboard that it's replacing with good key travel and a solid feel under the fingers."

WTF does this even mean? So MacRumors is saying the Magic keyboard is more or less the same as the old butterfly keyboard it's replacing.

Not sure what they're talking about.

IMHO the butterfly and magic keyboards are night and day.

The magic keyboard is my favourite laptop keyboard I've used, and I've used all of the apple ones and a big selection of PC laptops since 2011.