MacBook Pro 13-inch 2GHz Late 2016

A new low-end Pro, or a new high-end Air?

- Matt Bolton

You could be forgiven for thinking that the lower-end model of Apple’s newest MacBook Pro is a Pro in name only. When Apple talks about it, it compares it to the MacBook Air, rather than the previous Retina MacBook Pro models. It didn’t equip it with its new Touch Bar control strip. And compared to the two models with Touch Bar, it has fewer ports, and a considerably lower processor speed at 2GHz (the $1,799 13-inch model is 2.9GHz). Apple emphasizes that this new MacBook Pro is actually thinner than the MacBook Air at the Air’s thickest point, has a smaller overall footprint, and is essentially the same weight. Based on a quick glance, you almost feel like it would make more sense if Apple had made this a new 13-inch version of the MacBook, with the Pro name reserved for models with the Touch Bar – it would have made for a clearer line-up, arguably.

As we started to test and use it, we could see why Apple was happy with the Pro name for it, though. Its dual-core Intel Core i5 processor seems like it could be lightweight, but it actually proved to be approximately as powerful as the 2.7GHz processor in the previous-generation entry-level model (which is still available). That machine managed our real-world video encoding test in 57 minutes, while this machine took 55 minutes. This amount of processing power makes it more than capable of mid-range video editing and photo work – impressive to fit in a smaller, lighter frame with the same battery life.