A Look At Apple's New 2020 13-Inch MacBook Pro

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at Apple's new 13 inch MacBook Pro.

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So last year Apple came out with a new 16 inch MacBook Pro to be their larger model. This year they also came out with a whole new MacBook Air. So with today's announcement of a new 13 inch MacBook Pro it means the entire MacBook Pro line is now less than six months old. So what's in this new 13 inch model.

First and foremost is the new keyboard. So the 16 inch MacBook Pro introduced a new magic keyboard that goes back to the old scissor mechanism and hopefully doesn't turn out to have any of the problems that the butterfly keyboard on several years worth of MacBook Pro had. The MacBook Air also adopted this new keyboard and now the 13 inch MacBook Pro has it. Meaning that the butterfly keyboard is now dead. It's not available on any of the currently sold MacBooks. In addition the keyboard has a physical escape key next to a Touch Bar and Touch ID on the other end.

Let's take a look at a the specs here. So the 13 inch MacBook Pro primarily is two different models. There's the model that starts a $1299 and the model that starts at $1799. The specs here break it out into four different models but essentially the first two and the last two are very similar. Here's the main difference between the two models. The first has a 8th generation intel Core i5 which is basically the same as the previous generation of MacBook Pros. So no new processor in these. The higher end one, however, has the new 10th generation intel i5 or i7 processors. So a big boost there for the higher end as long as you're willing to spend $1800 to start.

Now let's continue by looking at storage and memory. So a big change here is basically the storage goes up one level for everything at the same price. Previously the MacBook Pro started at 128GB hard drives and the higher end model starts at 512. So you're basically going up a whole step doubling the drive space for the same price. So it pretty much ends up as a huge price cut because you'd want to get something decent you'd want to get the 256GB anyway. So here you don't have to pay for it and the same thing if you're going higher end. You'd probably want to get the 512GB anyway and here you get it at the base price without having to pay more for it.

Now note you can go all the way up to a 4TB SSD now inside.

Now memory starts off at 8GB for the lower end model which is the same as before. But the higher end models start bat 16GB which is kind of where you want it. Also for the first time now you can go to 32GB on the 13 inch MacBook Pro. Before you had to get the larger model to go to that much memory.

Now no surprise her but the graphics are integrated graphics. A lot of people are saying it's the same integrated graphics. But it's actually not. It's now Intel Iris Plus Graphics which is a considerable upgrade over the previous integrated graphics. It's still integrated. It still doesn't have a dedicated GPU but it is a big performance boost.

If your goal is to use Final Cut Pro on this machine it actually works pretty well with the Intel Iris Plus Graphics. I'm sure though if you're doing 3D modeling or using some other high end video editor you're probably better off getting the 16 inch MacBook Pro with its own GPU.

Now a lot of other things stay the same for this model as it did for the previous model. So the lower end still has two thunderbolt ports like the MacBook Air while the higher end has four. The display is exactly the same. So it's the same display basically in the same case. The WiFi, Bluetooth, and the Camera are all the same. The audio and battery performance are the same as well.

Now in another video note the lower end model actually only supports to a 5K external screen. So it won't drive the new super expensive Apple display which is 6K. But the higher end will. It's kind of interesting that you can get the MacBook Air and drive at 6K display but not with the lower end 13 inch MacBook Pro.

The size and weight are very similar to the MacBook Air. It's a little bit heavier. The MacBook Air is only 2.8 lbs. The width and depth are the same. But, of course, the height of the MacBook Air changes. It goes from a thin end to a thick end. Whereas the height is a pretty consistent .61 inches for the MacBook Pro.

So let's take a look at the prices. Here you can see those same four models shown in the tech specs. You can go as low as $1299 for the base level for the 13 inch. Go up just $200 more and you double the hard drive space. The higher end one starts at $1899. This gives you the newer processor, 16 GB of RAM and a 1/2TB hard drive. Pay $200 more and you get a 1TB hard drive.

Let's say you wanted to upgrade that. Go with the lower end model with the larger drive. So you're at $1500 right there. You could pay $300 for a faster processor. It's still the previous generation though. You can also pay $100 more to double your memory. Pay $200 more to go to a 1TB drive. $600 more will get you a 2TB drive. 

The higher end model and a larger hard drive you're at $2000 already. You can boost the processor for $200. You can go with the new 32GB of RAM for $400 more and you can go all the way up a 4TB drive for a $1000. So if you really wanted all those things you could  max out at $3600 for 4TB storage, 32 GB RAM, and the top level processor.

Where does this 13 inch MacBook Pro fit with the 16 inch MacBook Pro on the one end and the MacBook Air on the other end. Well, clearly if you're looking for a bargain and the lightest possible MacBook then the MacBook Air is still the best choice. If on the other hand you want something that's portable but has tons of power then the 16 inch is the best deal. But if you really need something in the middle you just can't go to the 16 inch size you want and it still be kind of small and lightweight but you need to build some power into it. Then that's where the 13 inch MacBook Pro fits in. 

So in this case the bargains are at either end. The high end bargain is the 16 inch MacBook Pro. The low end bargain is the MacBook Air. But if you're not looking for a bargain and you don't want to compromise. You want lightweight and power then that's the 13 inch MacBook Pro.