I’ve complained about the 13-inch MacBook Pro for years, often referring to it as the worst Mac in the lineup. But at Apple’s Scary Fast Mac event today, the company definitely killed the product — at least for now.
Instead of updating the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new M3 chip, Apple has replaced it in the lineup with a new configuration of the 14-inch MacBook Pro featuring the M3. Acting as the entry-level MacBook Pro, this new configuration removes the leftover oddities from its bygone era on the 13-inch MacBook Pro, such as the Touch Bar, poor screen, outdated webcam, outdated port selection, and large Bezels. But as of today, this 13-inch MacBook Pro is no longer being sold by Apple – and we should all be happy about that.
While the new 14-inch MacBook Pro is a bit thicker and larger, it comes with a number of advantages. It has the same Liquid Retina XDR display that comes in other MacBook Pros, which is still the best display in a laptop you can buy. It also has a 1080p webcam with FaceTime, an improved six-speaker audio system, a better microphone, larger function row keys, the inclusion of an HDMI port, and a MagSafe 3 charger. Of course, there’s also the M3, which brings a nice improvement in performance over the M2 with better CPU and GPU cores.
You get all this for the same $1,599 price as the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, there is a catch. Apple used to sell the 13-inch MacBook Pro with only 256GB of shared memory for $1,299, and that configuration no longer exists. The $1,599 model comes with 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage, but that’s just as little.
So, Apple is no longer selling the MacBook Pro at that affordable price, but it is a In fact Good thing. There was very little about that laptop that made it “pro”, especially compared to the M2 MacBook Air. Removing the 13-inch MacBook Pro makes for a very clear distinction between the Air and Pro models, protecting the identity of both and making it much easier for buyers to find what they need. This is especially true right now, as the MacBook Air is still waiting for its update to the M3.
We don’t know for sure that Apple will never bring back the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Although it has been removed from the lineup today, there’s no guarantee that Apple won’t bring it back in 2024 with an M3 MacBook Air update, which is definitely in the works. But for now, I’m quite happy that Apple has replaced it with something definitely more worthy of the “Pro” brand.
The new M3 14-inch MacBook Pro is available for preorder starting today.