Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSurprisingly Impressive
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2019
Note: This review is regarding the i5 1.4Ghz, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage (aka the base model) 2019 Macbook Pro 13 inch.
Background:
I've been a Macbook user since 2013. My first was a 2013 15in Macbook Pro, which lasted me till 2018 when I decided to hand it to a family member and thus upgraded myself to a 2018 Macbook Pro 15 inch. I still use that Macbook today, but the overheating problems along with the fact that it barely fits into my favorite backpack got me wanting a smaller laptop that runs macOS. When I saw this 2019 13 inch MBP available on Amazon Warehouse with an additional 20% off, I decided to pull the trigger given Amazon's easy return policy.
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Physically, this laptop is every bit as premium as the $2k+ that I paid for my 15-inch MBP. I especially dig the Space Gray finish. It is much lighter than my 15-inch and sort of encourages me to take it on the go when I get the chance.
The ports are pretty slim, with only 2 thunderbolt 3 ports on the left of the laptop and one 3.5mm audio jack on the right, which means that carrying a dongle with this computer is a must! I have a 5-in-1 adapter from Anker, but any usb-c adapter from a reputable brand should work just fine.
The performance is what really surprised me on this laptop. Having a mere i5 4-core CPU with a base clock of 1.4 GHz, I was initially pretty worried if it would be able to perform the tasks I usually do (using Logic for real-time audio processing, Adobe Lightroom and Premiere). Turns out it actually can handle them pretty well! The CPU can maintain a pretty healthy boost clock of above 3.6 GHz for pretty much as long as I need it to, and the temperature of the CPU hovers just under 90 degrees C. While that is definitely hot, it is actually an improvement over my 2018 15-inch MBP that shoots up to 95 C just watching a YouTube video. This is especially impressive since it only has one exhaust fan compared to the 2 in every other model of the MBP lineup. Just make sure you don't touch the part above the touch bar during a heavy workload; it can get toasty. Also, don't let the 8GB of RAM fool you. Thanks to macOS's really good RAM management, I have yet to run into a situation where the amount of RAM became a limiting factor in what I wanted to do.
I do have to say though, 128GB of storage is quite limiting. I've been pretty selective with the files and apps I put on this computer, and even then I would be cutting it pretty close. My solution now is to save my Logic libraries, photos, and video files on a thunderbolt 3 external 1TB NVMe SSD. Thanks to the huge bandwidth of TB3, I don't really notice any lag when working on these files. On the other hand, it is definitely not the most convenient solution.
The battery life is really good, but with a caveat, and that is Google Chrome. When using Safari instead of Chrome, I can easily last 5 - 6 hours with my typical workload. When using Chrome, that number quickly diminishes to 3 - 4, and sometimes even less. Chrome is known to be not very optimized on both Windows and macOS, so I have switched to mainly using Safari now, and only using Chrome sparingly when I need to use that one extension or need to watch YouTube videos in a resolution that's higher than 1080p.
The keyboard to me is fine, but I can definitely understand the general complaint about them. I agree with Linus Tech Tips' conclusion: they're good for typing in short bursts, but might be a little annoying to constantly type on over a long period of time.
A few things to note: this i5 1.4Ghz model actually has a slower SSD compared to the higher-end configurations. It won't be noticeable in the majority of use cases, but if you're editing high bitrate videos, for example, it might be slower. Also, the speakers in this model is also a little tinnier than the higher-end ones. They're still decent, but my 15-inch MBP is definitely miles better than this.
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So all in all, this is a surprisingly powerful laptop given its portability and price point (relatively speaking). It does have some flaws, but none of them are really dealbreakers to me. In previous years, Apple has always crippled the entry-level 13-inch MBP to the point that it's almost a different product compared to the higher configs, but this year (2019), the entry model is finally up to par with its more premium siblings.
