Apple MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) is the first Macbook to features Apple’s M1 processor. Apple launched another Macbook Pro on November 10, 2020, aside from the variant launched earlier this year. At its “One More Thing” event, Apple launched a range of Mac computers like the Macbook Air (M1 2020) running on its new Apple-designed processor “Apple M1 chip” that is dubbed “world’s fastest CPU core,” in place of Intel processor and graphics options.
This new Apple MacBook Pro (M1 2020) comes with the same 13.3-inch Retina display with an active cooling system, 4 thunderbolt/USB, up to 16GB RAM, and up to 2TB SSD. It also comes with an advanced camera ISP and offers up to 220 hours of battery life.
Design
Apple MacBook Pro (M1 2020) comes with a 3-pound compact design, also known as the wedge design which is the same design as the previous model.
Instead of creating a new design, the major changes on this new laptop are basically on performance and battery life. Although, Apple makes slight changes to the display by cutting down on the display bezels.
However, the MacBook Pro is still crafted using aluminum material making it slim, light, sleek yet durable. It measures a dimension of 11.96 x 0.61 x 8.36 inch and weighs 3.0 pounds (1.4kg). This laptop could have been slimmer but it comes with cooling fans to give a powerful cooling solution. It still comes with a large Force Touch trackpad, speakers at the side of the keyboard.
Furthermore, Apple MacBook Pro (M1 2020) comes with a redesigned Scissor-switch Magic Keyboard. Apple has traded out some of the function keys, and now inputted the Touch Bar instead of physical function keys.
The Touch Bar, a thin OLED screen is positioned at the top of the keyboard with touch-based controls and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor that can be used to unlock the Mac, make purchases, and more, with Touch ID protected by the Secure Enclave.
Above all, it’s got dual Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports on the left side and a headphone jack on the right side. It comes in gold, silver, and space gray, just like the previous MacBook Air.
Display
Apple MacBook Pro (M1 2020) features the same 13.3-inch Retina display built on a LED-backlit IPS panel. The display features a 2560 x 1600 resolution resulting in 227ppi per pixel density, 500 nits brightness, P3 wide color support for vivid, and true-to-life colors.
It also comes with a True Tone feature that matches the color temperature of the display to the ambient lighting for a more natural viewing experience that’s easier on the eyes.
Performance
This ARM-based processor features an (eight) 8-core 5nm CPU with (four) 4 high-efficiency cores and (four) 4 high-performance cores along with an integrated GPU that has 8 cores. The M1 8-core chip has a base frequency of 3.2GHz, however, when paired with the MacBook Pro’s active cooling system, it offers up to 2.8x faster than the previous generation, thus, delivering game-changing performance when compiling code, transcoding video, editing high-resolution photos, and more.
According to Apple, the 8-core GPU is up to 5x faster, allowing users to enjoy super-smooth graphics performance. It also comes with up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities and battery life up to 2x longer than before.
This laptop also comes with Apple’s latest image signal processor (ISP) improves camera image quality using a 16-core Neural Engine to offer better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, and improved auto white balance and ML-enhanced face detection to offer the best picture results.
Finally, the laptop runs on macOS 11 Big Sur pre-installed to gives you more of everything you love about Mac. This latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system is packed with new enhancements for key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, as well as new privacy features.
Other Features
This Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1 2020) comes with studio-quality mics for super clear recordings and calls. It also supports connectivity for Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution. Thanks to the macOS Big Sur delivers best-in-class security coupled with Secure Enclave technology in the M1 and Touch ID.
Furthermore, Apple MacBook Pro (M1 2020) also uses the same old 720p FaceTime camera as the previous version. It also supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and Touch ID.
According to the company, the MacBook Pro (M1 2020) delivers up to twice the battery life of the previous generation and the longest battery life ever on a Mac. It offers up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 20 hours of video playback.
Apple Macbook Pro (M1, 2020) Key Features and Specs
- 13.3-inch IPS Retina display, 2560 x 1600 Pixels
- True Tone display and Touch Bar
- Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU
- 8 or 16 GB of unified RAM
- Up to 2 TB SSD storage
- Scissor-switch Magic Keyboard
- macOS Big Sur
- Active Cooling System
- 720p FaceTime HD webcam
- Integrated Fingerprint Scanner
- Wi-Fi 6
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Stereo Speakers + Studio Quality Mics
- Up to 20 Hours Battery Life
- Integrated Touch ID sensor
- 16-core Neural Engine
- Active Cooling System
- True Tone display and Touch Bar
- Webcam: 720p FaceTime HD Camera
- USB Ports: Yes, 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2
- HDMI: Yes (via Thunderbolt with adapter)
- Thunderbolt Ports: Yes, 2 Thunderbolt
- DisplayPort: Yes (via Thunderbolt)
- VGA: Yes
- Ethernet (RJ-45): Yes
- WLAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth: Yes, Bluetooth 5.0