MacBook Pro 2020 13" USER Reviews

[unoporfavor]

It offers some of us an idea of how much harder we could potentially push the machine.

How do you mean 'push it' ? By redesigning the cooling system? If i understand correctly some of the test results here, the 10 gen y-series max out at 1.8GHz so not sure you get a huge amount more out of them. ~12% performance increase doesn't seem worth the warranty loss and the absolutely depreciation hammering you'll take for opening up the case!
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Bought a MBA for my mum and last time I spoke to her she mentioned the thing is "getting quite warm", but she said that she likes it as she usually has cold hands
👍

haha my mother-inlaw always has cold hands - like freezing. Maybe I'll recommend she starts running a 6k monitor and a MacBook 16"

 

[Herrpod]

How do you mean 'push it' ? By redesigning the cooling system? If i understand correctly some of the test results here, the 10 gen y-series max out at 1.8GHz so not sure you get a huge amount more out of them. ~12% performance increase doesn't seem worth the warranty loss and the absolutely depreciation hammering you'll take for opening up the case!
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haha my mother-inlaw always has cold hands - like freezing. Maybe I'll recommend she starts running a 6k monitor and a MacBook 16"

Push it, as in number of apps/tabs open simultaneously.

 

[unoporfavor]

Push it, as in number of apps/tabs open simultaneously.

Wouldn't that be more of a stress test for memory?

 

[Darkashnet]

2020 13" £1799 model.

Upgrading from a 2018 MacBook Air that was starting to struggle keeping up with my workflow. While I was hoping, like most, for the 14", I took the plunge on this new 13".

+ Screen is much nicer and brighter
+ Touch Bar, although generally natural to it, I've used BTT to set up some quick actions which do save me some time (like screenshots). I had a 2016 15" and it's lovely to have a physical ESC again, refused to buy another TouchBar Mac until one came back.
+ Keyboard is great. A satisfying amount of travel for me.

- Battery life doesn't seem be as good, getting around 5-6 hours of moderate use.
- Gets noticeably warmer (I do my best not to block the airflow while on my lap).
- It's noticeably heavier than the Air, while not actually weighing much more on paper
- Dated bezel design but only notice it when I'm not actually working on the MacBook

Most of the negatives are just a side effects of not having a Y series CPU, so overall I'm happy with my purchase. £1799 is a tough pill to swallow, but I'm in a position to claim back the VAT so at that level I'd say it's worth it and I will enjoy using this machine in the years to come.

 

[danf1]

So I've been using my new 2020 MacBook Pro now for a couple of days (£1,799 model). Here are my thoughts:

The keyboard: Wow, I can't believe how much better it is! It is by far the best keyboard I've ever used on any laptop and combines the stability of the Butterfly switches with the comfort of the older models. Why on earth did Apple push the Butterfly design? Yes, it made the laptop slightly thinner, but was it really worth it for those crappy keys that were both uncomfortable and unreliable? I am so glad they have seen the light.

Performance: Admittedly I'm not a power user. I use my computer mainly for research and writing + some web design/development. Even so, I can definitely notice the machine feels much snappier than my late 2016 nTB model. The 16GB of RAM will come in handy for Photoshop and web development.

Screen: I was hoping for a 14" redesign, but honestly the 13" is just fine. I don't mind the bezels because to me it makes the screen more immersive. Not so sure about the true tone though.

Touch Bar: This is my first computer with the touch bar and now I've got familiar with it I actually quite like it.

Overall, I LOVE this computer and can see me keeping it for four or five years. It is pretty much my perfect laptop and really what the 2016 edition should've been right from the start.

 

[triangletechie]

I decided to sell my 2018 MBP. Even though I had no problems with the butterfly keyboard, I decided to sell it now while it was still working rather than risking a repair later. I will likely replace it with the 2020 $1799 base model.

 

[ascender]

How damn good is it to finally have a nice keyboard in this laptop 😃

Initial impressions have been very good. I went for the 4 port, i5, 512GB SSD/16GB RAM model.

Speakers do sound better than the previous revision - more clarity & bass to them but not a patch on the 16" ones.

Speed wise I'm impressed - macOS is incredibly snappy & responsive. While going through the initial setup stuff, I've had 12+ apps going, all doing their thing along with a Windows VM and its not missed a beat. In limited testing, the fans have come on when you'd expect them to, but anecdotally, not as much as on the recent Air we tried.

There's a very slight warming of the bottom case at the moment, but its been doing spotlight and photo indexing for the last 6 hours or so now.

As usual, I've downloaded Better Touch, but I'm in the camp of those who doesn't really miss the function keys.

TLDR - I know its just a very minor update, but its fast, quiet, powerful & compact, so everything I expected/wanted from this form factor.

 

[Dhock_Holiday]

I'm kind of torn where or not I should return my MacBook Pro 16 inch and just keep the 13 inch. Sure the 16 inch has a nicer screen and the dedicated GPU but I don't really use it, the 13 inch fits my use case much better. Jumping to the 16 inch is only a few hundred bucks for me so I wonder if the better screen and speakers is worth it over the bigger footprint and heavier weight of the 16 inch.

Anyone here have both? Having trouble deciding on which one I should keep

 

[hungryghosty]

Anyone here have both? Having trouble deciding on which one I should keep

I was struggling to decide between the two machines but I think I'm gonna go for the 13". I normally use it connected to an external monitor so the extra screen size isn't a big deal for me. Plus I've heard there are issues with fan noise and heat when using the 16" with a monitor.

Also, in most CPU benchmarks I've seen there isn't a huge difference between them. It's only in GPU capable apps there's much difference in speed.

 

[henkej]

Got the base model with 16gb yesterday, works really great, using it for raw editing in Lightroom and heavy Logic X'ing with lots of plugins running. Pure awesomeness! Couldn't be happier! 😎

 

[C. Robert]

Loving the keyboard, 4 ports, and beautiful screen.

 

[Shanpdx]

Most of the negatives are just a side effects of not having a Y series CPU, so overall I'm happy with my purchase. £1799 is a tough pill to swallow, but I'm in a position to claim back the VAT so at that level I'd say it's worth it and I will enjoy using this machine in the years to come.

the complaint is that MBA is using Y CPU (from MacBook) even though Intel does not call it Y any more, it is 10 Watts TDP CPU i5/i3 chip (for last three generation but before that 2015/17 MBA used 15 watts U series)
and low end MBP is using 15 watts TDP U series

$1799 model MBP is using traditional 28 Watts CPU (little lower than 35 Watts CPU but watts are going down with the node improvements 22nm to 14nm to 10nm and so on, if I am not wrong)

 

[FastLaneJB]

I was struggling to decide between the two machines but I think I'm gonna go for the 13". I normally use it connected to an external monitor so the extra screen size isn't a big deal for me. Plus I've heard there are issues with fan noise and heat when using the 16" with a monitor.

Also, in most CPU benchmarks I've seen there isn't a huge difference between them. It's only in GPU capable apps there's much difference in speed.

My 2 x Dell U2720Q's have just arrived and I've hooked them up using USB C to my MacBook Pro 13 2020 i7 10nm. I've got lots of programs open, 28GB or so of RAM used (I've 32GB) including a big Windows 10 VM in Parallels. Fans are sitting at ~1,200rpm so no fan noise issues with the 13 at all. Also was a bit worried it might have performance issues on the iGPU with these but it seems to cope just fine. Both of them are scaled which puts a bit of extra work on the GPU after all.

 

[Mejoco_LC475]

My 2 x Dell U2720Q's have just arrived and I've hooked them up using USB C to my MacBook Pro 13 2020 i7 10nm. I've got lots of programs open, 28GB or so of RAM used (I've 32GB) including a big Windows 10 VM in Parallels. Fans are sitting at ~1,200rpm so no fan noise issues with the 13 at all. Also was a bit worried it might have performance issues on the iGPU with these but it seems to cope just fine. Both of them are scaled which puts a bit of extra work on the GPU after all.

Slightly off topic, how are you finding the Dell U2720Q monitor(s)?

 

[magbarn]

My 2 x Dell U2720Q's have just arrived and I've hooked them up using USB C to my MacBook Pro 13 2020 i7 10nm. I've got lots of programs open, 28GB or so of RAM used (I've 32GB) including a big Windows 10 VM in Parallels. Fans are sitting at ~1,200rpm so no fan noise issues with the 13 at all. Also was a bit worried it might have performance issues on the iGPU with these but it seems to cope just fine. Both of them are scaled which puts a bit of extra work on the GPU after all.

The iGPU in the 2020 MBP 13 10th gen is the best Intel GPU out right now so I’m not surprised. My MBP13 runs much cooler connected to my 4K monitors vs the MBP 16, but that’s a dead horse now.

Anyways the only laggy app for me is Apple’s News+ It still is a stuttering mess when scaled on 4k. The only time it’s smooth is when I force enable the AMD GPU on my MBP 16, but all Intel GPU’s struggle with it When scaled on 4k or above

 

[FastLaneJB]

Slightly off topic, how are you finding the Dell U2720Q monitor(s)?

Well early days but I'm going from 2 x 24in 1080p panels which I probably had for 10+ years so it's a huge change for me. Very sharp and the image looks good but honestly I'm not into photo / video stuff so I couldn't tell you if the colour accuracy is amazing or not. It's popping for me though.

I've got a Razor Core X turned up and my 5700XT should be here tomorrow. Assuming that all works it should free me from the 2 external screen limit so I might get myself a 3rd one of these monitors. 2 makes a huge difference for what I do but I feel like a third could add to it a bit more. I'm thinking 2 screens on Windows 10 VM in Parallels which I use for work and the third could be sat on MacOS so I can do personal browsing / iMessage and such.

The iGPU in the 2020 MBP 13 10th gen is the best Intel GPU out right now so I’m not surprised. My MBP13 runs much cooler connected to my 4K monitors vs the MBP 16, but that’s a dead horse now.

Anyways the only laggy app for me is Apple’s News+ It still is a stuttering mess when scaled on 4k. The only time it’s smooth is when I force enable the AMD GPU on my MBP 16, but all Intel GPU’s struggle with it When scaled on 4k or above

Only had a quick look but cannot reproduce an issue with Apple's News though I don't have a News+ sub anymore. I just wasn't using it enough so I cancelled that.

 

[jqc]

My 2 x Dell U2720Q's have just arrived and I've hooked them up using USB C to my MacBook Pro 13 2020 i7 10nm. I've got lots of programs open, 28GB or so of RAM used (I've 32GB) including a big Windows 10 VM in Parallels. Fans are sitting at ~1,200rpm so no fan noise issues with the 13 at all. Also was a bit worried it might have performance issues on the iGPU with these but it seems to cope just fine. Both of them are scaled which puts a bit of extra work on the GPU after all.

This is great to hear, Im thinking of the same set up. It sounds like you're connecting both monitors to the MBP without a dock? Are you connecting both two one side of the computer or one on each side?

Thanks!

 

[FastLaneJB]

This is great to hear, Im thinking of the same set up. It sounds like you're connecting both monitors to the MBP without a dock? Are you connecting both two one side of the computer or one on each side?

Thanks!

Well it's just a temp setup today as my 5700 XT should come tomorrow and I've got a Razor Core X ready for it to go into. I have an old Lenovo USB C dock I've been using because it's got Ethernet on it and I prefer to be wired when at my desk. That dock does have 2 x Display Ports on it however I suspect it'll mirror them because it's probably using MST which Apple don't support. Maybe I'll try it quickly at some point just to see.

Anyway today then I've got both screens on USB C into the right side of the laptop and the Lenovo dock with keyboard, mouse, headset and Ethernet on the left. So using 3 of the 4 ports. Obviously the screens themselves have some ports but literally they turned up during working and I couldn't wait but needed to get them up and running quickly.

 

[alstrike]

Has anyone tried a 4K YouTube video via chrome? At 30fps it seems ok averaging around 70 degrees. At 60fps it’s still plays fine but the fan kicks in a little with temps mid 80s sometimes a little more. Is that normal?

I wanted to try iStat menus but it's not updated yet to support these new models. I did play the new TLOU2 video Naughty Dog put out today at 4K and the thing didn't break a sweat, no fan noise no nothing (my old 2015 would go crazy at 4K when it didn't choke straight away...)

By the way, the speakers on this thing are amazing 😎

 

[Mattyman]

and you played it through?...

 

[alstrike]

and you played it through?...

Yes without a hitch, however i just played the Costa Rica demo at 4k HDR and the thing went up to 100 pretty much straight away without the fans kicking in, it hovered around 99-98 for a good 30 seconds before the fans started blowing :/

Quite choppy tbh, although i put it on the VP9 Google/Apple feud

Update: I just went for a spin on Gamersyde with Safari and 4K/60 videos play perfectly fine and the CPU is between 60-62 with barely any fan hum.

Stream and download Halo 2: Anniversary gameplay (PC/4K) from Halo: The Master Chief Collection in very high quality

Stream and download Halo 2: Anniversary gameplay (PC/4K) from Halo: The Master Chief Collection in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

• Codec: HVC1
• Length: 11 minutes 43 seconds
• Bitrate: 29009
• FPS: 60
• Size: 2490.56 MB

 

[Scott6666]

NOISY

New i5/16/1TB. Just loaded this morning. I think the fans spin up quite often and it's very noticeable. Certainly doing any kind of programming (say Android Studio) and with photo app. Can't really tell temp or fan speed yet because istat Menu doesn't have temperature or fan sensors yet.

This one is much louder than any other MBP I have had. If it stays this loud it's going back.

 

[FastLaneJB]

I wanted to try iStat menus but it's not updated yet to support this new models. I did play the new TLOU2 video Naughty Dog put out today at 4K and the thing didn't break a sweat, no fan noise no nothing (my old 2015 would go crazy at 4K when it didn't choke straight away...)

By the way, the speakers on this thing are amazing 😎

I noticed that about iStat Menus. Monity works for me though so I can see fan speed.

Monity, a simple but powerful System Monitoring Widget for OS X

... an advanced System Monitoring Widget for OS X which takes it\'s place in OS X new Today View and oversees your components statistics just for you. Having an eye on your systems and network usage without messing around like before with huge and uncomfortable symbols in the menu bar was never...

monityapp.com

 

[alstrike]

I noticed that about iStat Menus. Monity works for me though so I can see fan speed.

Monity, a simple but powerful System Monitoring Widget for OS X

... an advanced System Monitoring Widget for OS X which takes it\'s place in OS X new Today View and oversees your components statistics just for you. Having an eye on your systems and network usage without messing around like before with huge and uncomfortable symbols in the menu bar was never...

monityapp.com

Bjango (iStat menus dev) said on Twitter that a new version/beta with support for 2020 models should be ready in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the Monity recommendation, I hadn't heard about it before.

Edit: I see that the last version on the Mac App Store is a year old, is this still being actively supported?

 

[Mattyman]

Yes without a hitch, however i just played the Costa Rica demo at 4k HDR and the thing went up to 100 pretty much straight away without the fans kicking in, it hovered around 99-98 for a good 30 seconds before the fans started blowing :/

Quite choppy tbh, although i put it on the VP9 Google/Apple feud

Update: I just went for a spin on Gamersyde with Safari and 4K/60 videos play perfectly fine and the CPU is between 60-62 with barely any fan hum.

Stream and download Halo 2: Anniversary gameplay (PC/4K) from Halo: The Master Chief Collection in very high quality

Stream and download Halo 2: Anniversary gameplay (PC/4K) from Halo: The Master Chief Collection in very high quality

www.gamersyde.com

You playing this on the 4TB Version?