Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch i5

5owners with an opinion

80%of verdicts positive

0/1positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for noise and value; criticized for performance and display.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it

I replaced my 2019 Macbook Pro 13" i5 16gb/256gb, with an M4 Pro 48gb/1TB 16". It just wasn't worth it anymore, it would stall opening some large files, the fans would spin up for inexplicable reasons, the screen was mid... it was just barely serviceable for my needs and wasn't worth being so frugal about anymore. Yes technically I could use something from the 80s to write text files if I wanted to most of the time, and I'm somewhat anxious about the possibility that some component soldered to the MB will short one day and kill my SSD, but it's still quite a worthwhile upgrade.

Doesn’t like it

I'm always interested in what else is out there on the market and how people evaluate them, which did you get? I'm personally looking at the middle tier M4 Pro 16" 14/20 with 48gb of ram to replace my 2019 13" i5 with 16gb and 256gb ssd. It's somewhat frustrating, but although technically I can get by with my current machine, it's starting to feel foolish and needlessly frustrating to hang onto it longer, it's just so sluggish these days. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had got a more higher-end one 5 years ago. Windows remains as my old gaming PCs OS, idk that I'd want to contend with it daily for work or anything unless the software required it, but then I'd probably just upgrade the bits in my PC and stick with my older mac laptop for basic personal use. Even though I did buy it, I can't say I can get past the cost of upgrading the various bits, but just decided that I should pick a reasonable option and not stress about it too hard, it'll be a nice change, I might even return it within the window if I feel sufficiently robbed. I couldn't wrap my head around the even more comical Max versions. Maybe they're just trying to capture missing revenue from us never-iPhone people. It's the only part of the Apple ecosystem I participate in aside from an ancient iPad.

Likes it

I have a work issued M1 Max, which has an incredible amount of computational power. I wanted a personal computer, and purchased an identical machine, M1 Max, 64Gig, whatever. I realized 4 days later that it wasn't possible for me to push my personal machine anywhere near this machines limits. I returned it, and bought an extremely cheap ($240?) MacBook Pro, i5 - 2017. It hasn't slowed me down, and my strategy is to use macOS and not sign in with my Apple ID. No Mac App Store, iCloud, etc. I use App tamer and little snitch to eke out any performance gains possible... it's an excellent machine, and I'm so happy with it. I want to thank Apple for introducing this express route in the rat race, which has lead to an extremely friendly second market of intel, and 1st generation M's. I implore you to ask yourself if you really need the next generation, or even the previous one before purchasing

Likes it

I'll scream about Apple's bad practices any day of the week, but I used to go out of my way to configure my Macbook Pro's with max RAM, upgraded SSD, and an i5 specifically because that meant my fans were never audible. Yeah, everything i7 was a thermal problem, but that wasn't unique to Apple. And the i9 systems were laughable. However, with an i5, I never had noticable thermal issues. If you're having thermal issues with an i5, something specific to your computer is broken. Now, my daily driver is a Lenovo Carbon X1 7th Gen. I'm quite happy, but I did the same thing. Big RAM, big SSD, and a reasonable i5. I never hear a fan.

Likes it

Strange. My work laptop is a 2019 13" pro with only an i5 and 16GB RAM, and I very rarely have any problems. On the rare times I do, it's usually because some app went nuts and needs to be killed. Google Hangouts, however, is a pig. But then, when on a Hangouts (now Meet, I guess) call, I typically won't be pushing any of the other apps; they'll be idling.

Likes it

Laptop model: Thinkpad T440p CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ CPU @ 2.50GHz × 8 RAM: 12GB Screen: 14" Matte Personal comments: Debian works well. Wish I upgraded the screen. Battery life is meh ~4hrs and drains while sleeping. Bit thick and takes a lot of space in backpack. Intermittently, the fan will sound like it's hitting something and make a terrible whirring noise. Gets taken care of by a few spurts of compressed air. Used as my 'desktop' at home. --- Laptop model: Mackbook Pro 2015 CPU: i5 - 2.7ghz RAM: 8GB Screen: 13" Personal comments: Decent battery life and works well for travel. Good keyboard like T440p. Not a fan of the OS but hardware-wise works very well. Used as my personal travel laptop. --- Laptop model: Mackbook Pro 2018 CPU: i7? RAM: 16GB Screen: 15" Personal comments: Very good battery life. 15" is bigger than I'm used to, but I've started to appreciate the screen real estate without external monitor. Probably my least favorite laptop to use simply because the keys consistently double tap and I can't feel for fn keys (fn, volume, brightness). Work-provided laptop. In summary, I'd lean towards a Thinkpad carbon for the ideal combination of portability, keyboard, and ability to run Linux. Never appreciated quality screens until using Macs - will definitely be upgrading future laptop screens.