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Pardon the hyperbole, but I got a thing for 13-inch laptops. They are just the right size for a writer tapping out a story at a cafe or punching out the latest news while sitting in the lotus position at an event.

We used last year’s 13-inch MacBook Pro sole video editing workhorse at the office. Despite its shortcomings, I cannot deny its reliability. The amount of workload it had to handle was comical. At the end of the day, the video editor would burn out first without fail.  

According to Apple’s press release the new 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 per cent faster graphics performance and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations.

As the everyday sentence assembler, all that power just goes over my head. But, as someone who also aspires to edit videos, the feature set looks like a dream.

In addition to powerful quad-core processors, there is also the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar (for streamlining workflow) and Touch ID (biometric security and enhanced workflow). Stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in a portable design, is the icing on the cake.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at RM5,599, and RM5,169 for education. I would love to have one, but that’s way above my paygrade.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t leer at the New 13-inch MacBook Pro’s other features.

The new Magic Keyboard, promises to be a writer’s best friend. First introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and added to MacBook Air in March, it is now featured on the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

A good keyboard makes a world of difference when all you do is tap tap tap on those keys for hours in a workday.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro now offers up to a 4TB SSD although most users will start with 256GB all the way up to 1TB.

If you’re like me, where most of my work is stored in the cloud, storage capacity is not important. However, if you are also like me and want to record and edit my own videos. That 4TB looks good.

Actually, photographers would appreciate the large capacity as well. I’ve seen journalists and editors requesting photos taken months ago from a photographer. Photos that they may have deleted because they ran out of space.

For performance, the 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup now offers up to 10th-generation quad-core Intel Core processors with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 4.1GHz.

Those who are upgrading from a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a dual-core processor will see up to 2.8 times faster performance. If all you’re using it for is word processing or cloud-based word processing, this is overkill.

The integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics deliver up to 80 per cent faster performance over the previous generation 13-inch MacBook Pro for 4K video editing, faster rendering, and smoother gameplay.

The new graphics also enable users to connect to Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution, if you want your videos to be future proof.

16GB of faster 3733MHz memory is now offered as a standard configuration on select models, and for the first time on a 13-inch Mac notebook, customers can choose a 32GB memory option. This is perfect for photoshop artists.

Productivity or production, we can all appreciate a good display and probability. Weighing just 3 pounds (or approximately 1.4kg) there is a 13-inch Retina display within that sleek aluminium unibody design.

Along with some quality of life and workflow enhancing features like wide-stereo speakers, Touch ID, Touch Bar, and Force Touch trackpad.

Included in that price tag we looked at earlier is security in the form of Apple T2 Security Chip. it checks that software loaded during the boot process has not been tampered with and provides on-the-fly data encryption for everything stored on the SSD.

It also protects Touch ID information, so whether we are unlocking our Mac, entering an online password, or making online purchases, our information stays safe. (I can dream, can’t I?)

Of course, running it all is the macOS Catalina.

Did I mention the price starts at RM5,599, and RM5,169 for education?