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.
Related Reading:
Source: Apple
85 Comments
View All Comments
tipoo - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
I'm disappointed by that too, but I do see the possibility that it's a chip constraint, as an individual model the 13" base Pro likely outsells all the flagships of the HPs and Dells of the world.s.yu - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
...combined?Alistair - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
I mean Apple charges an extra $700 CAD for basically the same CPU in the upgraded Air, but in the 13" pro now. This was on the very high side of my expectations for the Pro refresh.Alistair - Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - link
I guess we're both hoping for ARM to save Apple's Mac division from ridicule. I'm not holding my breath anymore.Valantar - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
So the upgraded CPU is the 28W i7-1068G7 finally showing itself after months and months.I would guess that makes the entry model something like an i5-1038G7 or some such - the 1035G7 is a 15W 4c8t 1.2-3.7 GHz SKU, which would make a theoretical 28W 1038G7 at 2/3.8GHz a similar step up as the 1068G7 is from the 1065G7.
Alistair - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
It says right in the article, the entry level is the old comet lake.KPOM - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
I think he meant the entry-level 4-port model. That does seem to be an i5-1038G7, which is not part of Intel’s published roadmap. However, Apple ordered bespoke chips for the Air, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they did so for the pro.repoman27 - Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - link
Coffee Lake. The entry level models are using 15W CFL-U 4+3e chips, which are only found in MacBook Pros and only saw the light of day in July of last year.The higher end models use 28W ICL-U(N) CPUs. No other OEM has released a product with these processors yet.
The MacBook Air uses 9-10W ICL-YN chips, which also appear to be an Apple exclusive at this time.
If you’re going to bitch so loudly about the CPUs in Apple products, you might take a moment to figure out what’s actually in them, and that Microsoft and Dell do not currently offer devices with the same processors.
Valantar - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
As noted by several people here, I was talking about the entry-level 4-port machine. This ought to be obvious - the 2- and 4-port models are different products, after all, which means the i7-1068G7 is in no way an "upgrade" from the 2-port machine. It's the next model up in the stack. The interesting part here is the unannounced ICL CPU, not the old rewarmed Coffee Lake (kind of fitting how rewarmed coffee is disgusting I guess).repoman27 - Monday, May 4, 2020 - link
Yep. I’d even go out on a limb and say they’re not just ICL-U 28W, but also ICL-UN 28W. Maybe Core i7-1068NG7 and Core i5-1038NG7?