Questions before buying macbook pro 13 10th gen processor

[Tony01]

Hi guys,
I'm about to buy a new macbook pro 13 10th gen, 512gb, 16gb ram etc... and I would like to ask you if there are any "problems" with this model or if there is anything to know before buying.

I want to be sure to make a good purchase

My primary use is for studying computer science. I run very lightweigth programs, such as office, word and python. I would have bought the macbook air but I tried to use it with PyCharm and it is really slow.

Thanks

 

[jakeuten]

I have 0 complaints and noticed much better sustained performance over the MBA 2020.

 

[zehcnassurfero]

I have had two issues, I bought it on Tuesday. One of them was the battery which was draining so fast. And for other part, I had some heat issues.

But I don’t know if this issues are because of its new.

I talked with Apple and they are going to send me a new one, and if the problem persist I am going to give it back to Apple.

 

[ChrisBos]

I'm two weeks (to the day) into the same model, and have no complaints so far.

I will say it feels like heat is more noticeable on the bottom case than my last machine (Early 2015 13" rMBP) when I push it, which is weird considering the dual fans on this and that temps have been significantly lower when I tested it. It doesn't get uncomfortably hot or cause any performance issues, but worth noting.

 

[zehcnassurfero]

I'm two weeks (to the day) into the same model, and have no complaints so far.

I will say it feels like heat is more noticeable on the bottom case than my last machine (Early 2015 13" rMBP) when I push it, which is weird considering the dual fans on this and that temps have been significantly lower when I tested it. It doesn't get uncomfortably hot or cause any performance issues, but worth noting.

How about your battery?

 

[sixtydashone]

I’ve had mine since May and been using it 40hrs/wk working from home connected to an UltraWide monitor and zero issues.

 

[AjTee]

I have not noted any issues so far. Only cosmetic quality issues, I returned 2 of 3.

 

[triangletechie]

Flawless after a month.

 

[ChrisBos]

How about your battery?

I haven’t really stress tested that much TBH. I spend most of the day at my desk plugged into power and a second screen. It’s been fine for couch surfing after work but that’s pretty light use.

I have used a Sidecar setup on my porch a few times and my iPad has died before the MBP.

 

[David58117]

I have had two issues, I bought it on Tuesday. One of them was the battery which was draining so fast. And for other part, I had some heat issues.

But I don’t know if this issues are because of its new.

I talked with Apple and they are going to send me a new one, and if the problem persist I am going to give it back to Apple.

Was it Indexing?

Macbooks will build Spotlight when they're new (called "indexing"), so they're going to run (very) hot and the battery is going to drain fast.

So if it just happened during the first few hours / a day or so, that's normal.

I think you can even check by bringing up the Spotlight bar (Command + Space), type in a few letters to have it show the results screen - if I remember right it should say "Indexing.." or similar in the results.

 

[timmyh]

Had mine for a few weeks now. All good. The only issue I've had is crashes on sleep. Pretty sure that's a known Catalina bug though, not a hardware related issue.

Nice performance boost over my 2015 MBP.

 

[maerz001]

I have had two issues, I bought it on Tuesday. One of them was the battery which was draining so fast. And for other part, I had some heat issues.

But I don’t know if this issues are because of its new.

I talked with Apple and they are going to send me a new one, and if the problem persist I am going to give it back to Apple.

at the beginning indexing and Photos app doing face recognition. If you have a lot of pictures it can take hours till it’s finished

 

[Broko Fankone]

There were serious issues with USB but it seems the latest Catalina update actually fixed those (yay!).

Other than that, thermals are bad on these models and you can, in fact, remedy this by setting manual fan curves using an app like Macs Fan Control. I use two profiles (light / heavy load) and it has done wonders. Simply increasing RPM to 2-3k versus the ~1200rpm it normally sits at mitigates a lot of the heat early on.

If you are OK with putting a little bit more stress on your fans then you will likely enjoy it. It's not a machine for insanely heavy loads, or gaming, but it's my first MBP (2020 i5 13" 16ram 1tb sdd) and despite the hurdles I went through I am enjoying it quite a bit!

Plus, keep in mind thermals and battery are much, much better if you just use it as a laptop without external screens and usb-powered devices.

 

[zehcnassurfero]

Was it Indexing?

Macbooks will build Spotlight when they're new (called "indexing"), so they're going to run (very) hot and the battery is going to drain fast.

So if it just happened during the first few hours / a day or so, that's normal.

I think you can even check by bringing up the Spotlight bar (Command + Space), type in a few letters to have it show the results screen - if I remember right it should say "Indexing.." or similar in the results.

I think that it is indexing but apple said to me that it is not normal and then replace me the MBP.

I checked Spotlight and it doesn't seem that it is indexing now unless.

 

[edubfromktown]

My 512/16 4-port 2 GHz has been awesome.

I’ve been on a 1000+ participant Zoom conference the past 2 days. CPU temps are averaging 46C or so (doing other browsing, etc. at the same time as well).

 

[Tony01]

Thanks
I bought the 16gb, i5 10th gen, 512gb ssd version on Amazon It was on sale but I'll have to wait a month
I do mainly python/university things, so no heavy workloads. I'll follow the suggestion of editing fans curve
I just needed ram because I keep a lot of tabs opened

 

[zehcnassurfero]

Thanks
I bought the 16gb, i5 10th gen, 512gb ssd version on Amazon It was on sale but I'll have to wait a month
I do mainly python/university things, so no heavy workloads. I'll follow the suggestion of editing fans curve
I just needed ram because I keep a lot of tabs opened

Enjoy! I don’t know if i am going to keep the MBP 13” or go to the 16” MBP, I am a student to, why do you decide finally go for the 13 MPB”? Do you have any ipad??

 

[Tony01]

Enjoy! I don’t know if i am going to keep the MBP 13” or go to the 16” MBP, I am a student to, why do you decide finally go for the 13 MPB”? Do you have any ipad??

Because I need portability. At home I have a 24" screen, so I will connect it to the screen. I have a 15" laptop but it's way too heavy (about 1.8kg) to bring with me.

 

[duffyanneal]

I've had my machine for about a month now. It works great and is one of the best notebooks in its class at this time (personal experience). The only issue I had was the first one I purchased had one faulty fan (there are two) that buzzed more than the other. After exchanging it has been smooth sailing.

As far as heat is concerned that is a tricky question. Does this get hot? Well yes and no. As you know no one calls any of these devices laptop's anymore, because they can get toasty when stressed. Normally, my MBP is silent and cool. Occasionally, I'll notice the fans running slowly to cool things down. If I notice that the fans are running full tilt that always indicates something is pushing the machine extremely hard. Usually, that's not me intentionally pushing it hard. A quick check in activity monitor will reveal what is actually stressing the CPU. Usually that is a problematic website (using Firefox or Edge) that has the CPU pegged or a stuck process in some other program. Closing the tab or restarting the program always results in the fans going back to idle only a few seconds later.

As mentioned when you first get your machine it will most likely run hotter and be a little nosier than after it's had a chance to get everything setup. People like to mention spotlight indexing, but there is more to it than that. For example, I have three primary email accounts; and I have a ton of emails going back over twenty years. It took a couple of days for my machine to fully download all those thousands of emails. During that time the machine was a little warmer and the fans cycled more frequently. How did I know this? A quick check in activity monitor showed mail taking over 100% of the CPU. Within mail there was an indication that it was downloading mail. This behavior is also present for syncing of photographs. If you have a large collection of photos in icloud that may take a few days to fully sync. So really the first few days could potentially not be indicative of future performance. Just use activity monitor to check. Launch it and sort the data by the % CPU column. It's free and easy to use.

 

[Patcell]

Enjoy your new machine! When you finally get it... I'm surprised it is such a long wait for a pre-configured option, even through Amazon. I think it will serve you well.

I moved to this (13" 10th Gen i5) from a 2017 15" and I am really enjoying it so far. I thought I would miss the larger screen, but I have gotten used to this very quickly. And the smaller screen is worth the portability trade-off for my use case.

Battery has been fine. I wouldn't call it stellar, but it works pretty much as advertised as far as I can tell. I haven't done any timed tests or anything... and I never just watch movies or browse the web; there are always a bunch of applications running. macOS seems to do a pretty great job of managing energy use while on battery power. Note that I use Safari for browsing; other browsers (particularly Chrome) are not nearly as well optimized for battery life in macOS. I keep Chrome installed pretty much only for 4K YouTube while connected to my larger monitors at home.

As far as heat... I really don't do anything particularly taxing, but I personally have not had a problem. Most of the time my fans are not even on at all. For instance, as I sit here typing this message, I have Safari open with 22 tabs, Calendar, Apple News, Messages, Mail, Outlook, and Photos open in the background and my CPU temp hovers between 38-44C, and the fans are off (0 RPM). Now, when I fire up Lightroom and start manipulating photos, it does get warm and the fans spool up, but I don't consider that really out of the ordinary for a laptop of this size.

Let us know how you like it! All the best.