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.
“Whether you’re a college student, a developer, or a creative pro, the 13-inch MacBook Pro delivers powerful performance, a stunning Retina display, and all-day battery life in our most portable pro notebook. Today we’re adding the new Magic Keyboard, doubling the standard storage, and boosting performance, making the 13-inch MacBook Pro an even better value for our customers,” said Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. “With these updates, our entire notebook lineup features the Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook, offers twice the standard storage than before, and delivers even more performance.”
New Magic Keyboard
The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro now features the new Magic Keyboard, first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and added to MacBook Air in March. Magic Keyboard features a redesigned scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel for a comfortable and stable key feel, while the new inverted-“T” arrangement for the arrow keys makes them easier to find, whether users are navigating through spreadsheets or playing games. Magic Keyboard also features a physical Escape key, along with Touch Bar and Touch ID, for a keyboard that delivers the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook.
Double the Storage
Customers love the superfast SSDs on MacBook Pro, with sequential read speeds of up to 3.0GB/s. The 13-inch MacBook Pro now comes with double the storage of the previous generation, with standard storage starting at 256GB all the way up to 1TB, so customers can store even more photos, videos, and files. And for pro users who need even more storage capacity for large photo libraries and video projects, the 13-inch MacBook Pro now offers up to a 4TB SSD.
Better Performance
The 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup now offers up to 10th-generation quad-core Intel Core processors with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 4.1GHz. Customers who are upgrading from a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a dual-core processor will see up to 2.8 times faster performance. The integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics deliver up to 80 percent faster performance over the previous generation 13-inch MacBook Pro for 4K video editing, faster rendering, and smoother gameplay. The new graphics also enable users to connect to Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.
Faster Memory and More Memory
16GB of faster 3733MHz memory is now offered as a standard configuration on select models, and for the first time on a 13-inch Mac notebook, customers can choose a 32GB memory option. With 32GB of memory, users will experience better performance while running multiple virtual machines and up to 50 percent faster performance when editing gigapixel images in Photoshop.
Portable Design with a Stunning Retina Display
With a sleek aluminum unibody design in space gray or silver and weighing just 3 pounds, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is both highly portable and packed with performance and advanced technologies. Its stunning and brilliant 13-inch Retina display delivers more than 4 million pixels and millions of colors, along with 500 nits of brightness and support for the P3 wide color gamut. And with True Tone technology, the display offers a more natural viewing experience for design and editing workflows, as well as for everyday tasks such as browsing the web and writing email. The 13-inch MacBook Pro also comes with speakers that provide incredibly immersive wide-stereo sound, Touch ID for easy login and secure online purchases, Touch Bar with dynamic and contextual controls, and the industry-best Force Touch trackpad for precise cursor control and Multi-Touch navigation.
Built-in Security and Privacy
The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with the Apple T2 Security Chip, Apple’s own custom-designed second-generation silicon, which checks that software loaded during the boot process has not been tampered with and provides on-the-fly data encryption for everything stored on the SSD. This allows MacBook Pro and any Mac with the T2 chip to deliver the most secure boot process and storage of any computer. The T2 also protects Touch ID information, so whether customers are unlocking their Mac, entering an online password, or making online purchases, their information stays safe.
macOS Catalina
Every new MacBook Pro comes with macOS Catalina, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system. macOS has always been at the core of the Mac experience, and with apps such as Safari, Mail, Photos, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, customers have powerful tools to do amazing things. macOS also makes MacBook Pro the perfect companion device to iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch with built-in Continuity features that allow users to make and receive phone calls without picking up their iPhone; automatically unlock their Mac with Apple Watch; copy and paste images, video, and text straight from iPhone or iPad to a nearby Mac; and in macOS Catalina, extend the workspace of their Mac using an iPad and Sidecar. Security features keep users better protected, and Voice Control lets users control their Mac entirely with their voice.
Apple Services
Customers can also enjoy Apple services right on their MacBook Pro, including Mac versions of the Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV apps, as well as Apple News. Apple Arcade is available through the Mac App Store, bringing more than 100 new and exclusive games to Mac customers. And for a limited time, customers who purchase a new MacBook Pro can enjoy one year of Apple TV+ on the Apple TV app for free. This special offer is available with the purchase of any Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or iPod touch, and is good for three months after the first activation of the eligible device.
Pricing and Availability
Starting at $1,299 (US), and $1,199 (US) for education, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today on apple.com and in the Apple Store app. It will begin arriving to customers and will be in select Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Resellers later this week. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options, and accessories are available online at apple.com/macbook-pro-13.
MacDailyNews Take: Adios, butterfly keyboard fiasco!
The best typing experience on a Mac notebook would have to be the new MacBook Air, which has actual function keys and not the idiotic touch strip. There’s no substitute for physical keys, and the functionality of the touch strip is eliminated as soon as I plug the notebook into an external monitor and all my gear and have to use an external keyboard. It’s an inconsistent interface element that reduces my productivity when I’m using the notebook as a notebook.
It’s also a bit odd that the two lower-end notebooks get only two thunderbolt ports, while the higher-end models get 4. These are all supposed to be pro notebooks, and one of the distinguishing factors between consumer and pro notebooks in Apple’s line has been that Pro models have four thunderbolt ports. It’s just an odd design choice.
If only Apple would offer an external Magic Keyboard with Touch Bar for desktop users and those of us who use their MBPs lid closed with external monitors (and external keyboards)! The Touch Bar paradigm would instantly become much more widely accepted, supported, and used.
Great point! I’m curious though… why would you use your MBP with lid closed as opposed to a dual display setup? Of course that doesn’t change the point of your comment, I’m genuinely curious about your specific use case.
Less demand on GPU (especially integrated, which takes from main memory) if driving a single display. Sadly Apple doesn’t seem to allow external-only display mode if lid isn’t closed, so the heat that escapes via keyboard vents gets trapped.
Ah! I hadn’t thought about the added RAM load with integrated graphics… Great point.
I had this drilled into my head by a coworker when it came time to order a laptop… he noticed I’d ordered a low-end 15″ MBP without discrete GPU (this was in 2016, don’t think it’s an option anymore), and he reminded me that with the heavy load our development environments put onto the system, I needed as much RAM allocated to apps as possible, rather than having it drive displays. Very glad I listened to him and upgraded my order request; even now, with discrete GPU enabled all the time, I frequently run short on RAM and memory pressure goes into the yellow and red zones in Activity Monitor.
Each of our 16-inch MBP has dual 27-inch 4K displays. (LG 27UK850-W units). We sometimes lift the lids to have three displays, but that’s often overkill for us.
The 16-inch MBPs with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB can easily power all of those pixels.
Even with lids up and three displays, we use external keyboards, not the MBPs’ built in keyboards as they’re way off to the side of the dual main displays (and at desk height, not in our desk keyboard trays).
The only time we get to use the great (magical) MBP keyboards and their Touch Bars is when we’re on the road. We’d love to have external Apple Magic Keyboards with integrated Touch Bars!
More info from Apple: Use your Mac notebook computer in closed-display mode with an external display
There you go! OK…. If you’re already driving dual 27″ displays I can see how that internal display might be a bit less, well, needed. 🙂
For everyone else: why are we down-voting my genuine question to the MDN webmaster?
I upvoted. Thanks for the insight, from both you, and MDN.
I’d settle for a Magic Keyboard with backlighting… I’d be glad to give the touch bar a shot if the price was reasonable. The Magic Keyboard gets no love at all, it’s way overdue for an update beyond the black/space gray they came out with for the iMac and Mac Pros. I use it far more than my Macbook keyboards because I usually have them plugged into an external monitor.
I’m a little shocked they didn’t include the other main update of the 16″ by filling up some of the bezel with a little more screen, i.e., 14″ of retina goodness.
They’ve been hitting a lot of long balls lately, but with this omission this seems more like a bloop double…
…I had been planning to give this a look, but guess I’ll have to save a few more shekels for the bigger one, hopefully with some little spec bumps by then…
just intel graphics, no “discrete graphics”.
Unfortunately I can’t remember there ever being a 13″ Macbook Pro with discrete GPU.
Typical current day Apple. Two of the four offered chips are 8th gen chips that have been shipping for well over a year (and depending on the specific model even longer than that). The two 10th gen chips are atypically configured and have been shipping for about six months.
At the low end, the MacBook Air is the better deal than the Pro. For $350 less the Air has a 10th gen processor, bit less weight, and a slanted keyboard for better typing. Battery life is less but other specs are otherwise same as the Pro. Some reviews complain about poor thermal management, but this can be mostly controlled with the Turbo Boost Switcher app.