It’s also longer than Huawei’s MateBook X Pro and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3. It lasted more than 7.5 hours when that workload also included two hours of photo editing.įor perspective, that’s well over an hour longer than the similar spec 2017 model and about the same as the entry-level MacBook Air with a dual-core Core i3 processor. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardianīattery life was also surprisingly good lasting more than 9.5 hours with light usage, mainly browsing in Chrome and Reeder, email, instant messaging and writing duty with the brightness set to 75%.

If you want a powerful but quiet machine, this is it.Īpple’s all-aluminium build quality is second to none in laptops. It was totally silent even while photo editing, only audible while doing really intensive tasks and when connected to power – not something that can be said for every machine. One thing to note is that the laptop ran super cool. The only power-feature missing is a dedicated graphics card, which is reserved for Apple’s top 16in model but that machine comes with a significant portability penalty compared to the 13in model. It handled complex image editing jobs in Affinity Photo, some 4K video editing and all general computing with ease. The four-port 13in MacBook Pro, tested with the 10th-generation Core i5 processor and 16GB of RAM, performs as you would expect from a top-spec machine.īenchmarks place it as roughly 15% faster than the previous generation and the cheaper two-port machine with older chips. Some other laptops have good, precise and large trackpads but nothing comes close to the precision, accuracy, size and utility of Apple’s force-sensing trackpads.īoth models of the 13in MacBook Pro have two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on the left side of the laptop, which can be used for charging or connecting peripherals. It’s also worth pointing out that Apple’s trackpads are unparalleled. If you were put off purely by the previous keyboard, you are now safe to buy a 13in MacBook Pro. I’ve found it useful, particularly in Affinity Photo, where being able to change the brush size and other adjustments on-the-fly using a slider on the Touch Bar is a godsend. The keys feel good with a subtle doming, and the 1mm key-travel – the distance the key sinks when pressed – is enough to be satisfying while still being firm and stable. It’s one of the best fitted to any laptop, coming very close to Microsoft’s best-in-class design. It’s the same keyboard as the MacBook Air and 16in MacBook Pro and is just as good here. The new bit is the Magic Keyboard, which is Apple’s name for the more traditional scissor-switch mechanism that replaces the issue-prone butterfly keyboard. The Magic Keyboard is great, prioritising function over form, as it should, and complementing the truly best-in-class trackpad.

Test mac pro battery life