May 13, 2020
The New 2020 Apple Macbook Pro 13"
Another minor update from Apple.
Simply neat. The 2020 Macbook Pro 13 inch comes after the update on the 15 inch Macbook Pro. The 2020 Macbook Pro 13 inch has been the laptop for many students, professionals and designers. It sits in the sweet spot of reliability, robustness, portability and features Apple’s amazing MacOS software.
Alternatively, Macbook Air is a super portable laptop but it does not offer as much power as the Macbook pro. But, it is still a great choice for many students as web-browsing and Microsoft suite does not require much processing power.
The Updates
1. Butterfly Keyboard
- Greater Travel
As you can see there is more travel with the keys as compared to the previous versions of butterful keyboards. Apple’s decision comes after numerous complaints about faulty keyboard issues in which keys were not functional. It was due to foreign particles such as food, dust and dirt falling into the keys causing impairment. Furthermore, it was very costly for Apple to repair or for customers to repair the keyboards as the keyboards are designed as an integrated whole with the Macbook.
2. Inverted Arrow Key Placement
Inverted arrow keys are back to faciliate better feel and control over the arrow keys.
3. Dedicated Escape Button
Dedicated escape button seems to be important for people especially for professionals so Apple brought it back to give users more intuitive feel to the keyboard.
Overall, the new keyboard gives a better typing experience as compared to previous models of keyboards.
2. Better Internal Specifications (Power under the hood)
- Intel Quad Core Processors
- Iris graphics improvements (able to drive a pro display XDR)
- Doubled fast-internal memory storage (124 GB to 4 TB)
- Faster RAM (16 GB to 32 GB DDR4 RAM)
Not dedicated GPU option yet. Dedicated GPU that manages the graphic performance of a laptop.
3. Thickness and Weight
It is thicker now. 1mm thicker as compared to previous iterations. With the new butterfly keyboard that features more key travel, Apple has to compromise on the thickness and weight of the macbook. But the difference is minimal.
Amazing as Always
The Macbook pro is amazing as always as it features
- Arguably the best speakers in the market
- Stunning Retina display with 1440p high resolution, colour accuracy, true-tone display and well-lit screen
- MacOS X
- The processing speed: 4-core processor Intel 8th Gen / 10th Gen processors, Up to 4.5Ghz and up to 3.0GB/s of SSD read speed
- Light weight
- Good battery life that will last you for the entire day with light use
- Fingerprint sensor
- Security
- Huge trackpad
- Apple Ecosystem
- Two colour variants: Space grey and silver
The touch bar is still very much a gimmic tho.
In short, it is realiable.
You will never go wrong with a Macbook Pro. Of course, the down side would be the price and the warranty. The price starts at $1,299 for the base model and $1,199 for education customers. If anything goes wrong or damaged, not all damages are covered and it often happens after the warranty period. Moreover, Apple is infamous for charging exorbitant prices for it repairs.
It is good to take note that the baseline configurations are the SAME as the previous model of 2019 Macbook Pro, besides the keyboard.
As we know, Apple’s update of its line of Macbook Pro has been very minor for the past few years. I believe it is because Apple adopts the philosophy that if it is good and it works, they should avoid changing it unless a new revolutionary invention comes. But there are few places that everyone seem to agree that Apple could improve:
- Front Facing Camera
The 720p front facing camera produces lousy quality and grainy images. It is lousy according to any of today’s standards. Apple, the company that produces the one of the best phone cameras in the world, can definitely do better than this.
2. Higher Resolution Screen Display
A 1440p display is good but many laptops such as the Dell XPS has moved towards 4K display and many consumers really love the crisp and sharpness of a 4K display. It would be a nice leap to see Apple moving to 4K displays to feature give normal users, designers and producers more quality and control over their contents.
14 Inch Macbook Pro?
The new Apple’s 13 Inch Macbook Pro is definitely a reliable product and will not disappoint you. But the price would be the major consideration for most.
Despite the ongoing coronavirus situation around the world that has led to many states in the United States and countries to lock down, Apple is still going forward with their releases and updates. There has been rumours of a 14 inch macbook pro that will be released some time later in the year. We shall wait and see WWDC that is still going to take place online later this year, rumoured to be in June.
Here is a link to Apple’s 13 Inch Macbook Pro webpage.
