UPDATED 15:52 EDT / MAY 04 2020

APPS

Apple refreshes 13-inch MacBook Pro with quad-core Intel chips, new keyboard

Apple Inc. today pulled back the curtains on a refreshed version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with quad-core processor options, significantly more storage capacity and, perhaps most important, an overhauled keyboard.

The laptop will start shipping to customers this week. It’s arriving hot on the heels of the new MacBook Air that Apple introduced in March, which is described as up to twice as fast as the previous version thanks to the inclusion of a 1.2-gigahertz processor.

Apple is promising an even bigger maximum speed improvement of 280% with the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. The laptop comes in four models with base prices ranging from $1,299 to $1,999, all of which run on quad-core Intel Corp. processors. The two low-end variants feature eight-generation processors with a 1.4GHz base speed while the two high-end variant use newer, faster 10th-generation chips running at a default frequency of 2.0GHz.

The 10th-generation CPUs also sport the latest version of Intel’s Iris Plus integrated graphics card. According to Apple, the new silicon allows high-end MacBooks to run video editing applications up to 80% faster when the user is working with 4K resolution clips.

On the storage front, the company has doubled the base capacity of all four models. Whereas the two low-end versions of the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro shipped with 128 gigabytes of flash by default, the new variants pack 256 gigabytes. The top-end models now come with 512 gigabytes and the maximum storage upgrade limit has been doubled as well to a terabyte.

Externally the refreshed MacBook Pro brings with it just a single major change, though a significant one. Apple has replaced  the failure-prone “butterfly” keyboard in the previous version of the laptop with the newer and more well-received Magic Keyboard design that can also be found in the latest MacBook Air. 

“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. 

The 13-inch MacBook Pro could be one of the last Mac machines to feature Intel silicon under the hood. According to recent reports, Apple is developing its own five-nanometer, 12-core processor for Macs based on an Arm Ltd. design that could start shipping with low-end MacBook models as early as next year.

Photo: Apple

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