Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020) edition is a noteworthy release for a variety of reasons, Jeff Benjamin writes for 9to5Mac. The most compelling reason is that Apple’s finally dropped the oft-maligned butterfly keyboard in favor of the much-improved scissor switch Magic Keyboard.
First and foremost, I recommend ignoring any “new” MacBook Pro model below the $1799 version. Yes, they all feature the Magic Keyboard now, but cheaper models come with older 8th-generation Intel CPUs, and much-less-capable integrated graphics, among other deficiencies. If you just need a cheap Apple laptop for basic computing, I recommend looking at the MacBook Air (2020) instead, as it also has the Magic Keyboard.
After last month’s update to the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro was the only remaining laptop in Apple’s lineup that hadn’t yet ditched the horrific butterfly keyboard in favor of Apple’s Magic Keyboard with scissor switch mechanism.
Needless to say, the Magic Keyboard on the 2020 MacBook Pro is amazing to type on compared to the butterfly switch keyboard found on older hardware, and this change by itself may be worth the price of admission if you’ve found the prior model unreliable and/or difficult to type on.
MacDailyNews Take: For the scissor-switch Magic Keyboard alone — with a physical Escape key, no less — the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020) is a worthy upgrade over the 2019 model.