Every year you ask yourself why should you buy a new $1,299 MacBook Pro(2020) version, right? Well, to be honest, this year things are different and in a good way, both for Apple and its consumers. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro that has been refreshed this months has some interesting new features that might make you consider buying one this year. We found 3 good reasons that should help you ease your choice.
The Butterfly Keyboard is Gone!
Like the many other refreshes Apple has done this year, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro finally has received the new Magic Keyboard with a redesigned scissor switch. This keyboard is simply superior, it just feels good to type on. Trust us on this, this new keyboard is the most important thing to the new MacBook Pro. It even has a dedicated escape button!
Before, all Apple laptops in the previous years have used the Butterfly switch that you may have heard about. Although these switches allowed Apple to make a smaller device overall, they came with numerous problems such as it simply not working. When dust would fall in the switch, the keys became unusable. To make it even worse, the only solution to this problem is to send Apple the keyboard so they would replace the entire keyboard instead of the single broken key.
Since Apple got rid of the butterfly switches, there are a few things we lose. But they are almost insignificant. Like the overall laptop is .02 inches taller and weighs .08 pounds heavier. You probably won’t even notice this, so we won’t go any further into that.
MacBook Pro (2020) has a new Processor
If you follow the technology industry at all, you will be very familiar with processor refreshes that happen all time. These refreshes boost the performance a small amount, but it’s an amount nonetheless. The higher end models of the 13-inch MacBook Pro will be receiving the new 10th-generation Intel chips. The most notable thing about these chips are the improved Intel Iris Plus graphics. This means that the graphics of these laptops will get a boost and this will be a nice improvement for your games or workflow.
But if you noticed, we said that only the higher end models will get the Intel chips. The base model and the other entry model are still on Intel’s 8th-generation chips. Although on the surface this doesn’t sound too appealing, the processor performance of the two different chips are relatively similar, you are just missing out on the boost of graphics. This may be worth it as the entry models are nearly 500 to 300 dollars cheaper.
There Is More Storage and Memory
If you are anything like me, 128GB is simply not enough for a modern laptop. Even on my Windows desktop I have been struggling to keep my 128 GB SSD empty. However, lucky for us, Apple finally took the leap of faith and made the storage of the base model start at 256 GB with the higher end model going all the way up to 1TB! As this storage is the usual ridiculous fast SSD they always use, this a very welcome change. You usually don’t complain about storage until you run out of it.
On a similar note, the higher end models got a boost to the memory as well. The models featuring the 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor have much faster and larger 16GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory. The downside is that they come with a significant price of $1,799.00 or even $1,999.00 (for the 1TB version). I just think it’s a shame that the two lower end models don’t get a memory boost and are stuck at 8GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory, which is significantly slower for the price tag of $1,299.00.
To wrap it up, the only downside of all these nice upgrades is the price, as you might expect. But for someone that travels a lot and needs to carry a portable device that is small, light and powerful when needed, I think that the $1,799.00 MacBook Pro 2020 (10th-generation Intel Core i5 version) is the perfect choice.
Source: Apple
