Apple has always been a trendsetter in the tech community no matter what type of device we are talking about. Today we are here to cover the newest edition of the MacBook Pro 13, which comes with technology, which garnered the interest of the whole world.
Of course, we are talking about the Apple M1, which turns out, holds true to the leaks that we shared with you not longer than two months ago. But the M1 isn’t the only exciting part of this laptop, since it also features an amazing display, speakers, battery life, and is overall one of the best devices to come out every year.
With that said, here are LaptopMedia’s Top 5 picks about the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2020).
You can read our in-depth review of the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2020) here: https://laptopmedia.com/review/apple-macbook-pro-13-late-2020-review-the-m1-does-make-the-difference/
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/apple-macbook-pro-13-touch-bar-late-2020/
4 reasons to BUY the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2020)
1. The Design and Build quality
Starting off with the exterior of the laptop, the MacBook Pro is built entirely out of aluminum. The device uses, what Apple calls “low-carbon aluminum”, with 35% or more recycled plastics in the internal components, and 100% recycled materials in the solders. Going back to the aluminum unibody, it is as sturdy as it gets, and we are certain that it is one of the best-built laptops that we have ever had the chance to review.
2. The Display
The Apple MacBook Pro 13 uses a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 2560:1600 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 16:10. This gives it more room on the vertical axis, meaning that you can fit more apps on your screen at once. Additionally, the screen has comfortable viewing angles, high maximum brightness, a very good contrast ratio, and crispy images tanks to the high resolution. It has great color coverage, covering 100% of the sRGB color gamut.
The color accuracy is good as well, with our test giving us an average dE value of 1.4.
3. The Speakers
With audio being an important part of a laptop, we are glad to say that this new MacBook Pro has great speakers, which produce a rich, loud, and clear sound. Additionally, in our audio test, it showed no deviations across the entire frequency range.
4. The Performance
And for the most important part of the MacBook Pro, the performance, it excels at everything we throw at it, all while maintaining great temperatures and power-efficiency. The Apple M1 is an SoC and it has everything that a computer needs to operate, all under one roof. The CPU has eight cores and uses the big.LITTLE architecture, with four cores for performance, and four cores for power-efficiency.
| CPU Benchmarks | single/multi Geekbench 5 |
|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro 13 M1 | 1727/7564 |
| Apple MacBook Air M1 | 1732/7574 |
| Apple iPad Pro 11 2020 | 1118/4636 |
| Cinebench R23 | |
|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 7 4800H | 10590 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 4800U | 10156 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 4600H | 8934 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 4600U | 8044 |
| Apple M1 (Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2020)) | 7782 |
| Apple M1 (Apple MacBook Air (Late 2020)) | 7688 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 7314 |
| Intel Core i7-1185G7 | 6264 |
As for the iGPU, it is an eight-core as well and it offers exceptional performance, considering the fact that it is a part of an SoC. Below we have some test results of the iGPU against other SoCs and laptops.
| GPU Benchmarks | 3DMark Wildlife | GFXBench Manhattan 3.0 (1080p offscreen) | GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 (1080p offscreen) | GFXBench Aztec Ruins OpenGL (1080p offscreen) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro 13 M1 | 17752 | 407 fps | 274 fps | 215 fps |
| Apple MacBook Air M1 | 17698 | 404 fps | 273 fps | 214 fps |
| Apple iPad Pro 11 2020 | 13357 | 186 fps | 130 fps | 110 fps |
1 reason NOT to buy the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Late 2020)
1. The upgradability
One area where Apple doesn’t deliver is in the upgradability, with their device’s memory being inside the SoC, and that is how we get the speed and quickness of the M1. As for the storage, it is soldered onto the motherboard, meaning that if you want the laptop to be as future-proof as possible you will have to open up your wallet even more and spec the machine out to the limit.
The motherboard of the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (Source: iFixit)