13-inch MacBook Pro 2020
Apple (Phil Schiller, Hacker News):
Cupertino, California — Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.
So much for “continuing both keyboard designs.”
For me, this model is neither here nor there. The 13-inch MacBook Air has a better trackpad (smaller and therefore more reliable) and keyboard (no Touch Bar). The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a much better display. Why suffer through the “Pro” input methods on the small display?
After five years, Apple’s era of bad butterfly MacBook keyboards is finally over (except for everybody who still has one.)
10th-generation Intel Core processor options are now available, but only on higher-end configurations starting at $1,799. Lower-end configurations still use Intel’s older 8th-generation processors like the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The high-end configuration can be customized with a 2.3GHz quad-core 10th-generation Core i7 chip with Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz.
Not sure which MacBook to pick up? Read on for a detailed MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air comparison to make the right decision.
Previously:
Update (2020-11-27): Jason Snell:
Beyond the new keyboard, these are very modest revisions to the existing 13-inch MacBook Pro designs. The 13-inch model has not gotten the revamp that the 15-inch model did when it transformed into a 16-inch laptop last fall.
The low-end models are something else altogether. They’re not bad MacBooks by any sense — but I genuinely wonder who they’re for. Most people who want a 13-inch MacBook should definitely get the new Air; those who want or need more performance should get the high-end MacBook Pro. I’m not sure who the people in the middle are, other than those who feel they should buy a MacBook with “Pro” in the name because that sounds better.
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@ Fazal: nope! The Air and the 13-inch 10th-gen Pros are Ice Lake, which is 10nm. You can tell by how much faster their memory is listed by Apple (Intel has yet to backport the newer memory controller to 14nm). Also, by their relatively low clock.
AMD would’ve been nice for more cores and a slight edge on performance, at least this generation. But it’s really the 16-inch and the Mac mini and iMac that are cursed for a year or two of lackluster updates if Apple stays on Intel. The lower end is fine.
8th or 10th generation matters little, they are both stuck at 14nm. I wish Apple would reconsider AMD, even if thei real focus is on an A14-based arm64 MacBook. Who knows, they may revive the iBook brand for it.
As for the keyboard, it went from abysmal to merely terrible. I suppose that’s progress of a sort.