Apple impressed us this week with the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar and uses the latest 8th-generation Core quad-core processors from Intel. But the more good news for the tech giant, benchmarks for the 2019 model have now surfaced, and it's looking really good.
The results of Geekbench 4 scores reveal that the base 2019 model with an 8th-gen 1.4GHz Core i5 processor is faster by 6.8 percent in single-core performance and up to 83.4 faster in multi-core. This is in comparison to the previous iteration in 2017 that uses a 7th-gen 2.3GHz dual-core Core i5 processor.
Based on eight Geekbench results, the 2019 MacBook Pro scored 4,639 in single-core and 16,665 in multi-core specifically. In the 2017 model, the scores were 4,341 for single-core and 9,084 for multi-core.
The upgraded 13-inch MacBook Pro has Intel's Core i5-8257U chips, which you should know is a customized version of the Core i5-8257U processor made specifically for Apple. The 15W chip is part of the Coffee Lake family and has a max Turbo Boost frequency of up to 3.9GHz.
Owners of the 2019 model can upgrade the device to an 8th-generation 1.7GHz quad-core Core i7 processor. This configuration has Intel's Core i7-8557U, which reportedly is a custom version of its Core i7-8550U processor, with a TDP of 15W and a max Turbo Boost frequency of up to 4.5GHz.
So far, one Geekbench result has appeared for the 1.7GHz config, showing a score of 4,835 single-core and 15,515 multi-core. Of course, we'll be waiting for changes in these results as more benchmarks are expected to be conducted. But already, the increase in performance in this Geekbench reveals a 60 percent increase compared to the 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro.
According to Apple, the newest version of the 13-MacBook Pro is "two times more powerful" than the 2017 model. Benchmarks results show an 83% increase in speed, but performance-wise, it could be different in real-world usage.
It should be noted that the more affordable variants of the 13-inch Pro laptops use the same chassis as other notebooks in the series, which means the thickness and weight are the same: 1.49 cm and 1.37 kg. The devices are equipped with a 58.2 Wh battery that can power the machine for up to 10 hours on a single charge.
You can buy the base model with two Thunderbolt 3 ports directly from Apple for $1,300 and $1,500 depending on the configuration. US college students get a special price starting at $1,200.
