If you’ve been thinking about buying a 13-inch MacBook Pro for music-making, you’d be well advised to hold off for just a bit longer, because it looks like there could be a new, significantly improved version on the way.
Our sister site TechRadar reports that a leaked Tweet by a @_rogame shows this potential new machine being benchmarked against the the second-highest configuration of the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro. This same user previously posted accurate benchmarks of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, so the source seems reliable.
• The best MacBook Pro deals 2020: get a great price on a new Apple laptop
• MacBook Pro vs Dell XPS 13: which laptop is best for music making?
• The 10 best laptops for music production 2020
It looks like this 2020 configuration of the compact MacBook Pro has a Core i7-1068NG7 processor with a 2.3GHz base clock and a Turbo Boost of up to 4.1GHz clocks. A previous Tweet from @_rogame indicated that the machine in question had 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, specs that are likely to delight power-hungry mobile musicians.
The benchmarks indicate a 12% improvement in CPU performance when compared to a current 13-inch MacBook Pro with an 8th-generation Intel Core i5-8279U processor with a 2.4GHz base clock (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz), though it’s worth repeating that the comparison isn’t with the top spec i7 version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro that you can buy today.
It remains to be seen if Apple will adopt the Scissor Switch keyboard that made its debut on the 16-inch MacBook Pro; this represents a marked improvement over the previous Butterfly Switch offering, so we certainly hope so.
More news as we get it.
