Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020) Review: Standard Bearer

[harlan4096]

A new keyboard and refreshed internals keep the 13-inch MacBook Pro going.
 

Our Verdict

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is an update that modernizes the MacBook Pro, adding an excellent keyboard and offering long battery life. Just be sure to check that you’re getting a configuration with the newest processors.

For

• Comfortable, clicky keyboard
  
• Bright display
  
• Long battery life
  
• Strong speakers
  

Against

• A pro machine should have more ports
  
• Some apps still need updating to work with macOS Catalina
  
• Base configurations use old processors
  

For a long time, the 13-inch MacBook Pro has been the go-to Apple laptop -- one of the best ultrabooks and premium laptops for anyone who needed more performance than the uber-portable MacBook Air. It’s small enough to fit in a bag and carry around, but still has enough CPU performance to get work done. Starting at $1,299 ($1,799 as tested), the new MacBook Pro 13-inch goes up to Intel’s 10th Gen Ice Lake processors and, in a crucial move, adds the Magic

Keyboard with scissor switches that are far superior to the MacBooks of the last few years.

The design is otherwise the same, but the changes are enough to make the MacBook Pro a standard bearer for macOS for another year.

Design

Apple’s MacBook Pro (13-inch) design is tried and proven at this point, though this one has a slight change that’s almost imperceptible by looking at it: it’s slightly thicker and heavier to accommodate Apple’s “Magic Keyboard,” with scissor switches to replace the unpopular butterfly switches. With this laptop, Apple has wiped the inferior keyboard from its product line. Otherwise, the only difference is on the keyboard itself: the arrow keys are in an inverted T shape.

The MacBook Pro’s lid is spartan except for a reflective Apple logo. Our review unit  came in space gray, but it’s also available in silver. The lid is easy enough to open with one hand and reveals the 13.3-inch 2560 x 1600 retina display. The bezels on the Apple MacBook Pro  are a little thick (particularly along the top) for a flagship in 2020; I wish they were more like the ones on the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro’s chassis is built out of aluminum and feels completely solid. The trackpad below the keyboard is luxuriously large. Like the 16-incher, this one has the Touch Bar between a physical escape key and Touch Id.

The $1,799 model we tested has four Thunderbolt 3 ports -- two on each side. Cheaper models, including the $1,299 base model, only have two of these ports, both of which are on the left side of the device. Additionally, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right side of the laptop. I still think that on the MacBook Pro line, Apple really needs to add more here. An SD card reader for photographers would be a huge addition.

At 3.1 pounds and 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches, there are lighter machines that the Apple MacBook Pro has to compete with. Specifically, its competitors all weigh 2.8 pounds. The Dell XPS 13 9300 is 11.6 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches. The HP Spectre x360 is larger at 12.2 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches, while the MSI Prestige 14 is 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches.
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