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Did anyone else notice the latest 13" MBP gained weight? Similar amount to the 2020 MBA with the new keyboard.

It's also a tad thicker, most likely to accomodate for the new magic keyboard.
 
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The 13" MBP is no good for me. I wanted a 13" machine with 32GB RAM, because my workload is not CPU intensive and most of my storage is networked, so either 256GB or 512GB would be fine. To get 32GB RAM on a 13" MBP is a £900 upgrade! That's because for whatever reason the base models have an 8th gen CPU which don't support it.

Just curious - what workflow do you have that isn't CPU intensive yet requires 32GB of RAM?
 
I had originally ordered a Mac air i5/16/512 for 1500 then cancelled once I saw this thread. On one hand I could care less about the touch bar on the other I do care about thermals and the MacBook Pro will have better thermals and 2 more thunderbolt Ports. The up sell is a slippery slope and you could end up spending three times what you intended if you are not careful. I think I will have to sit on this and think about it some more now that the air is cancelled. I could always reorder the air if it comes to that.
 
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the MacBook Pro will have better thermals and 2 more thunderbolt Ports.

Just be aware not all of the 13" MBP's have four ports.

FWIW, for my uses my MBA remains quiet and cool. Yes I do hear the fan if pushing it, such as generating 1000 smart previews in Lightroom, and then it goes back to silent. Bottom case really didn't get warm either.
 
Yes touch bar is crap. I wonder on those benchmarks - I guess its all thermals? On Geekbench 5 they're all pretty much the same, adjusted for number of cores (yes 4 cores are 2x faster in multi core tasks than 2 - whooopdi-do). But i3 all the way to i9 seem to have very similar if not same geekbench 5 scores for single core, and clock speed doesn't seem to matter either - probably due to turbo mode and ??? ... IDK

Anyone have explanations for the geekbench scores?

I am looking for a new computer soon, I think I would get the air because I like gold. Only downsides are
- I am often in hot countries and outside, heat is a problem
- Programming can be CPU intensive - really depends though. Xcode is a pig.
- not digging lower screen brightness - even the MBP isn't bright enough for a sunny day
- Love to have a ton of things running and open, so more cores and more memory is always good

As for the video review up there about Apple gaming - guess what will happen once they switch to ARM / iPad OS... whoops suddenly there's 5 million titles running on Macs... needing only minor adjustments to use keyboard.... Apple is going to leverage iOS to, for almost no extra cost or effort, become the #1 gaming powerhouse in the world.
 
I feel like if I have to throw $1800 at a Macbook pro 13", I'd rather just get a refurbed 16inch and get it over with.
 
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The 13" MBP killer feature is having an actual functioning heatpipe.
Imagine that.

Also the price gap between the 512GB MBA and MBP is only $200.
That already factors the touch bar price.
I'm wondering why don't they drop that gimmick after 4 years of failure, and make a single uncompromised laptop out of the MBP and MBA respective strong points.
 
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So I have $1,300 to spend to replace my 2012 Macbook Pro w/Retina Display. These seem like my best options:

Base 2020 13" Pro - $1,300
Base 2020 13" Air - $1,000
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram - $1,200
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram and Core i5 - $1,300

I have a NAS so 256GB of on-board storage is more than enough. Don't care about the physical size/weight difference. Don't really have a preference either way regarding the touch bar.

I will use it mainly for emails, web browsing (I tend to use a lot of tabs), basic apps like word processing, excel and note taking app, occasionally streaming videos (netflix, etc), light/casual photo editing and uploading said photos to NAS. No gaming, video editing or or heavy photo editing.

Which route do you guys recommend I take?
 
So I have $1,300 to spend to replace my 2012 Macbook Pro w/Retina Display. These seem like my best options:

Base 2020 13" Pro - $1,300
Base 2020 13" Air - $1,000
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram - $1,200
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram and Core i5 - $1,300

I have a NAS so 256GB of on-board storage is more than enough. Don't care about the physical size/weight difference. Don't really have a preference either way regarding the touch bar.

I will use it mainly for emails, web browsing (I tend to use a lot of tabs), basic apps like word processing, excel and note taking app, occasionally streaming videos (netflix, etc), light/casual photo editing and uploading said photos to NAS. No gaming, video editing or or heavy photo editing.

Which route do you guys recommend I take?


From what I see, the base 2020 13" MBP is a faster machine than the Base Air, or even the i5 Air.
I would get the base 2020 13" MBP with 16GB if you can afford it.

The only downside would be the graphic card, which apparently is better on the Air.
 
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No the touchbar is a good thing they just need to open it up more.

They need to make it optional - it might be a "good thing" for you, but not everyone agrees on that (at all).

This is not a tall ask since they've now made the exact same new keyboard, with a TouchID sensor, for other models in the lineup.
 
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From what I see, the base 2020 13" MBP is a faster machine than the Base Air, or even the i5 Air.
I would get the base 2020 13" MBP with 16GB if you can afford it.

The only downside would be the graphic card, which apparently is better on the Air.
The downside on both is the lack of wifi 6 in both the 2019/2020 macbook pro/air. It sucks because I was planning to use my apple employee discount and get a 2020 macbook pro. However, due to them not having wifi 6 I will hold off and keep my 2016 macbook pro with touch bar.

Most if not all all other computer manufacturers have put wifi 6 into their 2019 laptops and especially into their 2020 laptops. Considering wifi 6 was first introduce in mid 2019, it is a shame that the mid 2020 macbook pro still uses wifi 5.

 
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The downside on both is the lack of wifi 6 in both the 2019/2020 macbook pro/air. It sucks because I was planning to use my apple employee discount and get a 2020 macbook pro. However, due to them not having wifi 6 I will hold off and keep my 2016 macbook pro with touch bar.

Most if not all all other computer manufacturers have put wifi 6 into their 2019 laptops and especially into their 2020 laptops. Considering wifi 6 was first introduce in mid 2019, it is a shame that the mid 2020 macbook pro still uses wifi 5.


Looks nice.

But personally, I'll never buy a 1st-2nd generation Mac laptop again.
I currently have a 2017 MBP that suffered from the flexgate problem, and fixing it is very expensive.

I honestly hate having to buy a new laptop because my almost new one is next to useless right now.
And Apple could care less.

And previously I had a 2011 15" MBP, which well, had to be repaired like 3-4 times until it died from the GPU problem.
 
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I wonder if there will heat issues with 13 when using it with an external monitor. I could live with the 13 as long as there is no issues using it with external monitor.
 
I wonder if there will heat issues with 13 when using it with an external monitor. I could live with the 13 as long as there is no issues using it with external monitor.

At least the base model should be fine.
Since it is almost the same as last year.
 
I'm still not even sure the 13" MBP needs to be a product.

I suspect, much to the chagrin of many here, that if SJ were around and running things right now, we'd have the MacBook (the Air) and the MacBook Pro (the 16") and that might be it.

Whatever you think of that particular idea, it's hard to argue that the entire lineup of Apple products couldn't use a ton of pruning and focus. Way too many SKUs and not enough diversity amongst the product lineups given that large number of SKUs.
 
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Looks nice.

But personally, I'll never buy a 1st-2nd generation Mac laptop again.
I currently have a 2017 MBP that suffered from the flexgate problem, and fixing it is very expensive.

I honestly hate having to buy a new laptop because my almost new one is next to useless right now.
And Apple could care less.

And previously I had a 2011 15" MBP, which well, had to be repaired like 3-4 times until it died from the GPU problem.
how is your computer doing now?

You know the other odd thing about Apple not including wifi 6 into their current laptops. The 2020 iPad Pro which i bought with employee discount last month has wifi 6. So does my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

It looks like Apple gave wifi 6 to the ipad Pro released back in late March 2020 as well as the iPhone 11 lineup. Most recently Apple gave wifi 6 to the New iPhone Se 2020 edition released just last week 4/24/2020. Yet Apple left the laptops and the most recent mac mini with wifi 5.
 
how is your computer doing now?

You know the other odd thing about Apple not including wifi 6 into their current laptops. The 2020 iPad Pro which i bought with employee discount last month has wifi 6. So does my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

It looks like Apple gave wifi 6 to the ipad Pro released back in late March 2020 as well as the iPhone 11 lineup. Most recently Apple gave wifi 6 to the New iPhone Se 2020 edition released just last week 4/24/2020. Yet Apple left the laptops and the most recent mac mini with wifi 5.

Right now I'm using my MBP 13" 2017 connected to an external display.
Thankfully since the problem showed up a couple of months ago I've been working 100% home office, so it's not that big of a deal. But I'll need a new Mac soon, when I need to return to the office.

As for WiFi 6, classic Apple as of the last 10 or so years.
Not since my Black MacBook have I ever had a reliable Mac. It had its issues, but nothing that prevented it from working. It is still working right now =).
 
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Right now I'm using my MBP 13" 2017 connected to an external display.
Thankfully since the problem showed up a couple of months ago I've been working 100% home office, so it's not that big of a deal. But I'll need a new Mac soon, when I need to return to the office.

As for WiFi 6, classic Apple as of the last 10 or so years.
Not since my Black MacBook have I ever had a reliable Mac. It had its issues, but nothing that prevented it from working. It is still working right now =).
so the screen doesn't work on your 2017 MBP?
 
Right now I'm using my MBP 13" 2017 connected to an external display.
Thankfully since the problem showed up a couple of months ago I've been working 100% home office, so it's not that big of a deal. But I'll need a new Mac soon, when I need to return to the office.

As for WiFi 6, classic Apple as of the last 10 or so years.
Not since my Black MacBook have I ever had a reliable Mac. It had its issues, but nothing that prevented it from working. It is still working right now =).

I miss my black MacBook :( speaking of unreliable Mac I had a 2012 MacBook Air that had the widespread faulty SSD problem. Then my 2012 IMac the hard drive failed. Then my 2018 IPad Pro got touch disease. I have been skipping updating any of my Macs because of the butterfly keyboard issues they had.
 
So I have $1,300 to spend to replace my 2012 Macbook Pro w/Retina Display. These seem like my best options:

Base 2020 13" Pro - $1,300
Base 2020 13" Air - $1,000
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram - $1,200
Base 2020 13" Air upgraded with 16GB Ram and Core i5 - $1,300

I have a NAS so 256GB of on-board storage is more than enough. Don't care about the physical size/weight difference. Don't really have a preference either way regarding the touch bar.

I will use it mainly for emails, web browsing (I tend to use a lot of tabs), basic apps like word processing, excel and note taking app, occasionally streaming videos (netflix, etc), light/casual photo editing and uploading said photos to NAS. No gaming, video editing or or heavy photo editing.

Which route do you guys recommend I take?

I’d be interested too. I’m kind of in the same boat. My 2011 MBA stopped working in February after almost 10 years of valiant service. I initially ordered the 2020 i5 MBA but I got scared off by supposed the fan noise and heating issues and cancelled the order. My workload is the same as yours and I use mine in a very quiet enviornment on my lap mostly. I‘m OK spending up to $1300 for a new Macbook that will hopefully last me as long as my previous MBA did.

I’ve been trying to decide between the base i3 MBA and the base 2020 MBP. I’m looking at the i3 mostly since my workload is light and fan noise and surface temperature are important to me but the 2 core processor is giving me pause. That‘s where the thoughts of the MBP come in. It has a quad core processor but it has and older 8th gen. It is also supposedly better cooled

All of this 2020 i5 MBA heat/fan talk has left me confused since there seem to be instances of it being and issue for users and then instances to the contrary. If not for those issues it would be my go to choice.
 
All of this 2020 i5 MBA heat/fan talk has left me confused since there seem to be instances of it being and issue for users and then instances to the contrary. If not for those issues it would be my go to choice.

I'd suggest ordering from a place with a good return policy and give it a try for a week or ten days (get past the initial indexing / photos part).

My 2020 i5 MBA is cool and quiet in my general usage and the only times I hear the fan are when I'd expect to such as exporting (converting) severRAW files or building a bunch of previews. Even then it's usually just barely audible to me. It did get a bit more audible when I re-created 1100 image previews, but so does my MBP15 when asked to do that.

As for heat - sitting here with Safari, Mail, and Messages open just puttering around, MBA on my desk, the bottom case temperature 86F according to my infrared thermometer.
 
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I’d be interested too. I’m kind of in the same boat. My 2011 MBA stopped working in February after almost 10 years of valiant service. I initially ordered the 2020 i5 MBA but I got scared off by supposed the fan noise and heating issues and cancelled the order. My workload is the same as yours and I use mine in a very quiet enviornment on my lap mostly. I‘m OK spending up to $1300 for a new Macbook that will hopefully last me as long as my previous MBA did.

I’ve been trying to decide between the base i3 MBA and the base 2020 MBP. I’m looking at the i3 mostly since my workload is light and fan noise and surface temperature are important to me but the 2 core processor is giving me pause. That‘s where the thoughts of the MBP come in. It has a quad core processor but it has and older 8th gen. It is also supposedly better cooled

All of this 2020 i5 MBA heat/fan talk has left me confused since there seem to be instances of it being and issue for users and then instances to the contrary. If not for those issues it would be my go to choice.

Pretty Much. I feel like the Air is perfectly suitable for my use and it would be nice to save some money getting it but I am concerned with the heat issues and on the other hand would be fine spending more on the Pro but have a hard time justifying paying full price for the 8th gen processor/slower ram. The good thing is my current 8 year old Pro runs perfectly fine other than the battery not being what it once was so I really don't have to get something now and can wait it out a bit till the rumored 14" refresh arrives (which hopefully has current gen parts built into the base model).
 
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so the screen doesn't work on your 2017 MBP?

It's pitch dark. If I point a flashlight into it I can see a faint image of the screen.

I tried everything thing possible from PRAM, SMC, etc. And even restoring my Mac. Nothing worked.
 
From what I see, the base 2020 13" MBP is a faster machine than the Base Air, or even the i5 Air.
I would get the base 2020 13" MBP with 16GB if you can afford it.

The only downside would be the graphic card, which apparently is better on the Air.

Not just the video card is better. The air has 3733MHz LPDDR4X while the base 13 macbook Pro has 2133MHz LPDDR3
 
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