MacBook Pro 2020 13" USER Reviews

interbear said:
Very interesting. I’m a little fed up (OK a lot) about the noise my 16” makes connected to an external display (a single 34” widescreen) and am considering opting for the new 13” MBP also. No gaming or video editing required. Just Office apps, multiple Chrome tabs and heavy use of Microsoft Teams for video calls. I installed Turbo Switcher Pro which definitely helps, but I’m also annoyed that this is even required. So if I could switch it for a 13” that runs completely silent, I’d do it instantly. Is this still your experience with the 13”?
Click to expand...
my 13” runs silent plugged into a monitor running office apps and browser.
 
I noticed the same thing after receiving my new 13 inch Pro today. I am moving from a 2105 Macbook Air 11 inch and I usually have that set to just a tick below the 50% brightness setting. The new Pro has to be set to roughly 70% brightness to appear to be the same.

I'm wondering if this may be partially due to the different screen types - the Air doesn't have a glass cover while the Pro does. Either way I'm hoping this doesn't have a detrimental affect on battery life.
 
interbear said:
Very interesting. I’m a little fed up (OK a lot) about the noise my 16” makes connected to an external display (a single 34” widescreen) and am considering opting for the new 13” MBP also. No gaming or video editing required. Just Office apps, multiple Chrome tabs and heavy use of Microsoft Teams for video calls. I installed Turbo Switcher Pro which definitely helps, but I’m also annoyed that this is even required. So if I could switch it for a 13” that runs completely silent, I’d do it instantly. Is this still your experience with the 13”?
Click to expand...
Yep that’s exactly my experience with the 13”. The new iGPU handles all this perfectly, no dropped frames with 2x 4k screens for these tasks. Just make sure you get the 10th gen 2020 not the 8th gen 2020.
 
iDarkTraveler said:
Yea, I though as much. However, I saw some strange speed results posts where osome says that the 512GB has speed < 2GB/s (some slightly more) and some says they measure 1TB to get almost 3GB/s which is a huge difference.
Click to expand...

My 512 GB 8th generation gets ~2900 read and ~2800 write speeds.
[automerge]1591277273[/automerge]
kory108 said:
I noticed the same thing after receiving my new 13 inch Pro today. I am moving from a 2105 Macbook Air 11 inch and I usually have that set to just a tick below the 50% brightness setting. The new Pro has to be set to roughly 70% brightness to appear to be the same.

I'm wondering if this may be partially due to the different screen types - the Air doesn't have a glass cover while the Pro does. Either way I'm hoping this doesn't have a detrimental affect on battery life.
Click to expand...

I'm coming from a late 2013 15" MBP. The 2020 MBP is noticeably brighter - I can actually use it indoors during the daytime. I don't think it's quite at 500 nits, but at least I can use a laptop during daylight hours now.
 
uller6 said:
My 512 GB 8th generation gets ~2900 read and ~2800 write speeds.
[automerge]1591277273[/automerge]


I'm coming from a late 2013 15" MBP. The 2020 MBP is noticeably brighter - I can actually use it indoors during the daytime. I don't think it's quite at 500 nits, but at least I can use a laptop during daylight hours now.
Click to expand...

How has the experience been going from 15 in to 13 in display? I have 2013 15 also and am debating going to 13...I dont need the power of the 16, but am used to that screen size. Thanks
 
I would say that the display isn't any brighter than the one on my 2016 12" Macbook? I'm also not keen on the affect True Tone seems to have on the colours. I guess it might be more natural but to my eye it makes the screen harder to read as the colours become less vivid/vibrant ?
 
jiholl said:
How has the experience been going from 15 in to 13 in display? I have 2013 15 also and am debating going to 13...I dont need the power of the 16, but am used to that screen size. Thanks
Click to expand...
I preferred the screen size of the 15", but I really like the size & weight of the 13". If it were my only computer I would have gotten the 16", but I also have an iMac Pro on my desk for heavy lifting. The laptop is mostly for travel & working not at my desk.
 
iDarkTraveler said:
Has anyone tried whether the 512 SSD performs the same as 1 TB (I suppose, it does)? I am about to max the specs for the 13", but I do not use that much of disk space... using external SSD and clouds.
Click to expand...
KPOM said:
On the Ice Lake i5, my 512GB model gets read and write speeds of about 2000 MB/s.
Click to expand...

I have 1TB (but also the 10th gen i7) and my speeds writes are 2500-2700+. My reads are in the general 2200-2300+ range.

Are you doing anything critical that you need to have the absolute fastest machine possible?
 
naturalstar said:
I have 1TB (but also the 10th gen i7) and my speeds writes are 2500-2700+. My reads are in the general 2200-2300+ range.

Are you doing anything critical that you need to have the absolute fastest machine possible?
Click to expand...
Probably not (medium to slightly over medium load I would say): VM, Xcode, Python, SQL, Chrome (20+ tabs), Safari (5-6 tabs), Zoom/MS Teams, Spotify (all of the time using eternal monitors.) - debugging is the most intensive task...

I was more of a wondering whether there's any difference in the disk speed - the truth is: every SSD MacBook uses are > 2GB/s and this speed is hardly achievable. Maybe like starting the MB, which is out of point. So, I'm more of a curious.
 
The SSD of the 2020 8th generation is ~3X the speed of my old 2013 model according to Blackmagic, but in practice the speed of both SSDs doesn't feel drastically different: both are snappy. While the 2020 does feel a bit faster, I can't tell the difference unless I have both side by side.
 
uller6 said:
The SSD of the 2020 8th generation is ~3X the speed of my old 2013 model according to Blackmagic, but in practice the speed of both SSDs doesn't feel drastically different: both are snappy. While the 2020 does feel a bit faster, I can't tell the difference unless I have both side by side.
Click to expand...
After all, the "highest snappiness" is achieved by RAM speed and processor single core benchmark if I am correct (?) - by snappiness I don't mean any multi-core intensive operations such as exporting etc.
 
iDarkTraveler said:
Impressive, I don't get whether the difference is then... why someone measure 2GB/s. this performance should level with the 4TB SSD 10th gen.
Click to expand...
My speeds are approximate. In any case, Apple has multiple suppliers of NAND, so perhaps that has something to do with it. In any case, few people can really tell the difference between 2GB/s, 2.5GB/s, and 3GB/s (or 1.5GB/s for that matter). Apple probably just sets minimum thresholds.
 
naturalstar said:
I have 1TB (but also the 10th gen i7) and my speeds writes are 2500-2700+. My reads are in the general 2200-2300+ range.

Are you doing anything critical that you need to have the absolute fastest machine possible?
Click to expand...

I have similar speeds as yours. I do wonder why it is lower than someone his 512 gb SSD though.
 
UBS28 said:
I have similar speeds as yours. I do wonder why it is lower than someone his 512 gb SSD though.
Click to expand...

Maybe he has that one-in-a-million SSD. I'm not going to worry about it personally. My MBP is working as I need it thus far.
 
naturalstar said:
Maybe he has that one-in-a-million SSD. I'm not going to worry about it personally. My MBP is working as I need it thus far.
Click to expand...

I suppose I got the luck of the draw? I just retested my 8th generation 512 again (last test was about 2 weeks ago when it was brand new, so that may have had something to do with the high numbers) and I'm at 2632/2617 read/write. Still awfully speedy.
 
AndyRomb said:
After switching off not even close to 500 nits. I assume this is a common issue not just only me based on what people mentioned above.
Click to expand...
My 2020 10th gen i5 is too bright at 100% and plenty bright at about 75% in an office with lots of windows on a very sunny day. That's true whether or not I have "automatically adjust brightness" checked.

One weird thing is that when I have True Tone on, during the daytime the screen temperature shifts back and forth every minute or two between warmer and cooler. It's not a big change, but it's noticeable and annoying. I wonder if the sensor is faulty.
 
I just got mine 10th i5/16/1tb and noticed it does seem to get pretty dang hot even just doing some basic multitasking with two external monitors (only 1080p) connected. At times as warm as 80-90 with average sitting about 75+. Anyone else seeing this? Maybe it just needs to settle in but the whole notion of indexing etc... does that occur on backups?

I know some people in the 16 inch threads said it just took some time for thermals to get more normal. Hopefully this doesn't mean the new integrated graphics while more powerful are also prone to producing a lot of heat. I"m not even maxing the external monitor scenario after all.

Another weird thing is it seemingly runs much cooler when connected to a 4k monitor vs the two 1080p ones. Super weird.
 
Last edited:
Finally got mine today, too. 10th i7/32/1TB. My MBP doesn't get too hot, now with a file downloading, Logic Pro X open and music playing - only 59-61. It does have some very light coil whine, but only if I press my ear to the keyboard. I'm gonna test and see if I can hear it while working in FCPX or PS. Hopefully I'm gonna keep it, unlike two 16" which were both terrible machines with multiple issues
 
roncron said:
My 2020 10th gen i5 is too bright at 100% and plenty bright at about 75% in an office with lots of windows on a very sunny day. That's true whether or not I have "automatically adjust brightness" checked.

One weird thing is that when I have True Tone on, during the daytime the screen temperature shifts back and forth every minute or two between warmer and cooler. It's not a big change, but it's noticeable and annoying. I wonder if the sensor is faulty.
Click to expand...

My experience with brightness is similar to this. I am also in a room with plenty of natural light throughout the day.

I noticed brief True Tone shifting once, but I attributed to the light shifting through the trees during the sunset. I was sitting in the kitchen at the time. I also experienced this on the 2019 refurb MBP, same location, so I figured the shift occurred due to the changes in ambient light before settling.

I’ll keep an eye out, but I’ve been working primarily in my home office lately (where the natural light doesn’t fluctuate so much by tree movement) as I’ve been working on getting the best set up in place for work and personal/business use.
 
Just got mine 13" i7/32/2TB today. Very impressed! This thing is fast and super light compared to my previous MBP 16".
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top