Apple Launches New 13" MacBook Pro: 10th Gen Ice Lake and New Scissor Keyboard
by Andrei Frumusanu on May 4, 2020 10:00 AM ESTToday Apple is releasing new revamped versions of its 13” MacBook Pro line-up, most notably updating the series with the new scissor-switch style Magic Keyboard, as well as giving the option for Intel’s new 10th generation Ice Lake CPUs in the higher end models.
Apple last winter had rolled out its new 16” MacBook Pro which had introduced the new Magic Keyboard, making the choice to drop the controversial butterfly switch keyboard back to a scissor switch design. Today’s 13” line-up adopts the same changes across the smaller form factor models, including the new Touch Bar design that has been narrowed down to now include a physical escape key on the keyboard.
The new design otherwise doesn’t significantly diverge from its summer-2019 refresh, although this year it’s every so slightly thicker at 1.56cm instead of 1.49cm – certainly unnoticeable in everyday usage. It’s also 30g heavier at up to 1.4kg now (3.1lbs).
The most significantly internal change is the option for a new 10th generation Intel Ice Lake based CPU, running at 2.0GHz base clocks and Turbo Boost to up to 3.8GHz. As always with Apple products, this likely is a custom SKU just for Apple’s line-up as there’s no matching public part with these frequencies – the closest part is an i7-1060G7 which features the same peak clock, but only a meagre 1.0GHz base clock. Apple here likely is running a higher base TDP of 20-25W. For a $200 upsell, you can choose a higher-end 2.3/4.1GHz CPU configuration.
Edit May 10th: Intel has added the new i5-1038NG7 and i7-1068NG7 to their Ark database. These are 28W processors.
Whilst the Ice Lake based parts are new, Apple will continue to sell 8th generation Coffee Lake based parts at the lower end price spectrum in the $1299 and $1499 price points. Aside from the CPUs themselves, the two generational offerings of CPUs will also differ in their DRAM configuration as the new ICL parts come with 16GB of LPDDR4X-3733, whilst the CFL parts continue to just offer 8GB of LPDDR3-2133. The ICL parts are upgradeable to 32GB for an extra $400, and the CFL parts upgrade to 16GB for $100.
The display panel seemingly remains unchanged, featuring a 13” 2560 x 1600 IPS LCD panel with a wide Display P3 colour gamut, 500 nits peak brightness, and True Tone ambient colour adjustment.
MacBook Pro 13-Inch 2020 | ||||
Model | 2020 13-Inch Higher-End |
2019 13-Inch Higher-End |
2018 13-Inch Entry-Level |
|
CPU | 2.0 GHz/3.8 GHz Core i5-1038NG7 2.3 GHz/4.1 GHz Core i7-1068NG7 4 CPU Cores (Ice Lake) |
2.4 GHz/4.1 GHz Core i5-8???U 4 CPU Cores (Coffee Lake) |
1.4 GHz/3.9 GHz Core i5-8???U 4 CPU Cores (Coffee Lake) |
|
GPU | Intel Iris Plus | Intel Iris Plus 655 (128MB eDRAM) |
Intel Iris Plus 645 (? eDRAM) |
|
Display | 13" 2560 x 1600 IPS LCD DCI-P3 Gamut True Tone |
|||
Memory | 16 GB LPDDR4X-3733 | 8 GB LPDDR3-2133 | ||
SSD | 512 GB PCIe SSD | 256 GB PCIe SSD | 128 GB PCIe SSD | |
Touch Bar | Yes | |||
I/O | 4x Thunderbolt 3 (supports DP1.2 & USB 3.1 Gen 2 modes), 3.5mm Audio |
2x Thunderbolt 3 (supports DP1.2 & USB 3.1 Gen 2 modes), 3.5mm Audio |
||
Battery Capacity | 58 Wh | 58.2 Wh | ||
Battery Life | 10 Hours | |||
Dimensions | 1.56 cm x 30.41 cm x 21.24 cm | 1.49 cm x 30.41 cm x 21.24 cm | ||
Weight | 3.1 lbs (1.4 kg) | 3.02 lbs (1.37 kg) | ||
Launch Price | $1799 | $1799 | $1299 |
Connectivity-wise, the new 2020 13” MacBook Pros come in two flavours: the lower-end $1299 and $1499 Coffee Lake based models feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports, whilst the Ice Lake based parts get four. We also see an addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unfortunately, Apple seemingly hasn’t upgraded the Wi-Fi on the new models, and WiFi 6 / 802.11ax still isn’t present as they still make due with WiFi 5 / 802.11ac capability.
Battery-wise, there’s no changes in capacity as we’re still looking at a 58Wh unit, and Apple claims an identical “10 hours” of usage for all new models – the same as last year’s Coffee Lake models.
The higher-end Ice Lake parts come now with the aforementioned base 16GB of DRAM config at a $1799 price point with a 512GB SSD, or a $1999 option with a 1TB SSD. Storage configurations for the ICL models are doubled across the board, with the possibility to choose up to a 4TB configuration for an extra $1200.
The new 13" MacBook lineup is available for order directly from Apple starting today.
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Source: Apple
85 Comments
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PeachNCream - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
If taken in a bubble of Apple-only devices then yes, it is an upgrade over the previous version. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other non-Apple options out there and they make this seem rather underwhelming to say the least given the price for the specifications.Deicidium369 - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Yeah lot of meh here - nothing here is any better than the Ice Lakes from Dell last year... Seems like they may be getting the 1068G7 as an option.repoman27 - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
So nothing is better except the things that are better? Like the CPU, Max RAM capacity, max SSD capacity, screen, trackpad, 4 integrated Thunderbolt 3 ports, etc...psychobriggsy - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
The $1799 version is a reasonable upgrade with the 16GB fast memory, upgraded processor, and so on.The $1299 / $1499 version is less exciting - same old processor, same old RAM, a bit more storage and the major feature is a 'working keyboard'.
Feels like a stopgap until the ARM Macs next year.
id4andrei - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Reasonable upgrade you say?13" Razer ultrabook for the same 1800$ you get extra a 120Hz display, core i7 10th gen, GTX 1650 Ti 4GB. Bonus, no touchbar.
tipoo - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Just reading that out loud, you should already know battery life isn't going to be comparable. And indeed it's about half of that of the MBP 13, before this update.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Razer-Blade-Stealth-...
The 4K screen also pushes it above the Ice Lake MBP 13's price for that config.
Would I argue that Apple offers the most for the money, never, but these comparisons never seem to be Apples to, er, Apple. I think Dell can come the closest on configurations to the Macbook Pro, and once you spec it out the price is also nearly identical to Apple.
If you want a dedicated GPU and don't care about battery life, I'm sure the Stealth is awesome, but the smaller macbook pros are more battery than GPU for sure, just a completely different optimization target.
id4andrei - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Tipoo, if you don't game Optimus assures you that the battery life will be more than decent. The GTX is there just in case. Also the config I referenced does not have a 4k screen but a fhd one. Your link points to the 4k screen.lmcd - Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - link
Optimus laptops are never as good as advertised. It's an imperfect solution that is regularly flawed in implementation as welltipoo - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Any idea why it's not using Ice Lake's onboard wifi 6 support? They'd have to design antennas around it but it seems weird that they'd pay for one extra chip while supporting one wifi generation lower?brookheather - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Because Apple only use Broadcom for their wireless chips - there are no Intel wireless drivers for macOS (which is a shame for Hackintoshers...)