The 2019 13″ MacBook Pro saw a slight bifurcation in the way the product was sold. They added a TouchBar to the 2x Thunderbolt Port Model, and started differentiating them in name by their amount of… thunderbolt ports. The 13″ model stuck around with 8th gen CPUs whilst the 15″/16″ made the leap to 9th gen. The 4-Thunderbolt Port 13″ model from the following year (2020) was the only Intel ‘Book to have ever shipped with a 10th-Generation Ice Lake CPU. The 8th generation of Intel CPUs were re-introduced in new models several times in 2018, 2019, and in 2020.

Butterfly Keyboard Issues

The main deal comes down to the way the butterfly keyboard was designed in and of itself. The hinge in the middle that holds together the two keyboard switch parts, allows a lot of gunk to get into it. Then, the key gets stuck, could repeat-type the same character, or just stop working altogether. In a world of computers, this was and still is a bit of a race car. But like a race car, some of these had to be rebuilt. The 2018 13″ MacBook Pro remedies this somewhat by adding a silicon membrane under each keycap. Despite this, the issue persisted albeit to a lesser degree.

The Intel UHD/HD line of Integrated Graphics continue trend of “vampire video” (that’s where the video bites into system memory). The 2006 Mac mini was the first Mac in a long, long time to do this, and more Macs started doing this in the late 2000’s – early 2010’s. Apple Silicon GPUs have unified memory, changing the traditional views on how system memory is used and shared throughout the system.

What You Need to Know

• Most of these ‘Books shipped with 8 GB of RAM which is fine for basic tasks, but is increasingly impractical these days. For a serious speed boost, opt for 16 GB of RAM, and more storage. Chipset supports 32 GB of RAM but requires soldiering. Support for 32 GB on Macs have not been confirmed but cannot be denied.
• Multiple NANDs allow for parallel processing/RAID, increasing Read/Write speeds for the main boot drive.

Closed Lid Mode: All Intel ‘Books support “lid closed” (or clamshell) mode, which leaves the built-in display off and dedicates all video RAM to an external display. To used closed lid mode, your ‘Book must be plugged into the AC adapter and connected to an external display and a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you might also want to consider external speakers). Power up your ‘Book until the desktop appears on the external display and then close the lid. Your ‘Book will go to sleep, but you can wake it by moving the mouse or using the keyboard. The built-in display will remain off, and the external monitor will become your only display.

To resume use of the internal display, you need to disconnect the external display, put the computer to sleep, and then open the lid. This will wake up your ‘Book and restore use of the built-in display.

Battery life is claimed to be 10 hours of wireless web, 10 hours iTunes movie playback, and up to 30 days of standby time.

eGPU Support

All Core branded products in the 8th generation have AVX 2, so it shouldn’t have issues with hardware acceleration even if the OS is unsupported when using Polaris/Navi eGPUs.

Details

• Announced May 21st 2019
• Apple model number: A1989 (EMC 3359)
• Model ID: MacBookPro15,2
• Order: MV962LL/A (Space Gray 256 GB)
  • MV992LL/A (Silver 256 GB)
  • MV972LL/A (Space Gray 512 GB)
  • MV9A2LL/A (Silver 512 GB)
• Discontinued May 4th 2020

Mac OS

• Requires macOS 10.14.5 Mojave (Build 18F132) or later.

Core System

All CPU options are Quad-Core, Hyper Threaded, 14nm Coffee Lake i5/i7 CPUs.
Sockets supported: FCBGA1528

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache

Two Thunderbolt Ports

• Intel Core i5-8257U ($1299): 1.4 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.9 GHz Turbo
  15W TDP, 14nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 6 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 2, EIST, XD Bit, VT-x, HTT, vPro, SGX
• Intel Core i7-8557U ($1599): 1.7 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 4.5 GHz Turbo
  15W TDP, 14nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 8 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 2, EIST, XD Bit, VT-x, HTT, vPro, SGX

Four Thunderbolt Ports

• Intel Core i5-8279U ($1799): 2.4 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 4.1 GHz Turbo
  28W TDP, 14nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 6 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 2, EIST, XD Bit, VT-x, HTT, vPro, SGX
• Intel Core i7-8569U ($2099): 2.8 Ghz, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 4.7 GHz Turbo
  28W TDP, 14nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 8 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 2, EIST, XD Bit, VT-x, HTT, vPro, SGX

Memory

• All models: 8/16 GB 2133 MHz PC3- LPDDR3 SDRAM @34.1 GB/s
  • 16 GB (+$200)
  • Chipset supports up to 32GB but requires soldiering. Apple options: < 16 GB.

Video

• Two Thunderbolt Ports: Intel Iris Plus 645 GPU
• Four Thunderbolt Ports: Intel Iris Plus 655 GPU, 300 MHz – 1.05 Ghz
  • 128 MB eDRAM, 32GB Max VRAM Allocation, PCIe 3.0
• 13″ IPS TFT LED-backlit LCD Retina display, 2560 x 1600 @227PPI
  • Support for millions of colors
  • 500 nits brightness max
  • Wide Color (P3)
• “Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and”
  • 1x 5120×2880/60Hz, 2x 4093×2304/60Hz Millions, 2x 4K60 Billions of colors

Drives

• 256 GB PCIe SSD (Base model), PCIe v3.0, ~2.5 GB/s Read/Write
  • 512GB (+$200), 1 TB, 2 TB
• *128 GB Standard on 2-Thunderbolt Port models

Expansion/Misc

• 4-ThunderBolt Port Models: 4x USB-C style Thunderbolt 3 ports (40 Gb/s), with support for USB 3.1
• 2-ThunderBolt Port Models: 2x USB-C style Thunderbolt 3 ports (40 Gb/s), with support for USB 3.1
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• WiFi: 802.11ac (a/g/b/n)
• Bluetooth: BT 5.0 built in
• 720p FaceTime Camera
• 2 Microphones
• High Dynamic Range Stereo Sound, 2x Speakers
• Charging via USB-C

Battery

• 10H Web / 10H iTunes Movies, 30 days standby.
• 58 W/h Li-Ion Polymer battery

Included Peripherals

• MacBook
• 61W Power Brick + Cord

Physical

• Size:H/W/D 0.59 x 11.97 x 8.36 in/1.49 x 30.41 x 21.24 cm
• Weight: 3.02 lb./1.37 kg