Apple
- Apple latest 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with some welcome upgrades, like a better processor and a few tweaks that make certain parts a little easier to repair.
- Still, Apple’s MacBook Pro isn’t a DIYers dream, as the company hasn’t made some key parts easily removable.
- Since their release in 2016, the USB-C MacBook Pros have been Apple’s most controversial laptops.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Apple recently updated its 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup, and while they look identical to previous models on the outside, there are quite a few changes within, according to gadget teardown site iFixit.
The biggest change that most will pay attention to is new processors, which promise better performance. No doubt, this is a good thing.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro models all come with a Touch Bar, too — even the base model. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you. But having a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on even the base model is hard to argue against.
Check out all the changes in the latest 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro:
The good:
iFixit
- Apple gave the 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup faster chips, which means better performance.
- The latest 13-inch models also come with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which makes logging into laptops much more convenient than using passwords.
- The USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports — which are susceptible to wear and tear from plugging and unplugging devices — can be easily replaced in the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro. Older USB-C MacBook Pro models had the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports soldered onto the logic board, making repairs costly and inefficient.
- If the headphone jack fails in the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro, it can also be replaced pretty easily without swapping out the logic board.
- The new 13-inch MacBook Pros have slightly larger batteries, but iFixit doesn’t expect battery life to be noticeably improved. iFixit supposes that the addition of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and Touch Bar is the reason behind the slightly larger battery.
The "meh."
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
- iFixit also saw the latest version of Apple’s butterfly keyboard in the latest 13-inch MacBook Pros — the same one from the 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro that was released in May. The latest butterfly keyboards have the latest mechanisms in place to improve reliability, but reliability still isn’t guaranteed at this stage. There’s still time for users to discover issues with the latest version of Apple’s butterfly keyboard. Still, Apple included the latest MacBook Pro with the latest version of its butterfly keyboard in its keyboard repair program.
- Apple also gave the base model of its 13-inch MacBook Pro models the Touch Bar strip, which replaces the mechanical row of "F" function keys above the keyboard on the base model from last year.
Other changes under the hood.
iFixit
- The 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro may not cool its internals as well as previous models, as Apple seemingly trimmed the heatsinks inside the laptop. Still, the difference seems minimal. iFixit presumes that trimming the heatsink was a way to make room for the Touch ID sensor and the questionable Touch Bar. Less cooling can lead to lower performance, or at least lower sustained performance over a long and intense workloads. But those who have tried the latest MacBook Pro, like YouTuber Jonathan Morrison, say it’s still fast regardless.
- The speakers inside the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pros are slightly smaller, but it’s unclear if sound is affected. The speakers in the pre-existing MacBook Pro are so good that they’re in a league of their own, so it would be a shame if the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro didn’t sound as good as its predecessors. We haven’t tried them out for ourselves yet, so we can’t say for sure how the smaller speakers sound.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Antonio Villas-Boas)