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Tech · Apple · 2020

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020)

An M1 Air with a fan and a Touch Bar. Worth it only when it costs about the same as the Air.

Refurbished MacBooks: five Apple-silicon picks on eBay — #5

Overall

8.0

out of 10

Axis scores

Strongest on Value (8.4), weakest on Design (7.4), a 1.0-point spread. The 8.0 overall is the plain average of all 5 Tech axes, with no weighting.

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — axis scores out of 10Horizontal bar chart of editorial scores out of 10 across 5 axes. Bars run from a shared zero baseline; longer is better. Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020): Performance 8.2, Value 8.4, Durability 8.2, Ease of use 7.8, Design 7.4.PerformanceApple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — Performance 8.2 out of 108.2ValueApple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — Value 8.4 out of 108.4DurabilityApple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — Durability 8.2 out of 108.2Ease of useApple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — Ease of use 7.8 out of 107.8DesignApple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) — Design 7.4 out of 107.4Editorial score out of 10 — higher is better
  • Performance — How well it does the core job
  • Value — What the same money buys elsewhere
  • Durability — Failure and fade reports past the one-year mark
  • Ease of use — Setup, daily operation, cleaning, maintenance
  • Design — Build quality and how it sits in a room

Specs

Display
13.3-inch Retina (LCD)
Chip
Apple M1 (8-core CPU)
Memory
8GB or 16GB
Ports
2x Thunderbolt / USB 4, headphone jack
Touch Bar
Yes
Battery
Up to 20 hrs movie playback
Weight
3.0 lb

As published by the manufacturer. We didn't measure these ourselves.

Is it for you

Buy it if

  • Long exports or compiles, where the fan holds speed after the Air would throttle
  • You want the longest rated battery life of the M1 laptops

Skip it if

  • You rely on function keys; the Touch Bar replaces them
  • The same money buys an M2 Air; that's the better laptop

The 13-inch M1 Pro is the same chip and nearly the same screen as the M1 Air, plus a fan. The fan matters only for jobs that run several minutes at full load. Reviewers who ran long exports found the Air slowing down where this one held steady. For everything shorter, the two are indistinguishable.

The Touch Bar is the reason it ranks last. Owner opinion was split from day one, and on a used unit it’s one more part that can fail. Check that it lights up and responds in the listing’s photos or videos.

Battery life is the one place it clearly leads: Apple rated it two hours beyond the Air. Watch for model confusion as well. Apple sold Intel 13-inch Pros in 2020 too, and eBay listings mix them up. Look for “M1” in About This Mac, not just “2020” in the title.

Last updated . The scoring method is on how we rank.