Apple MacBook Pro 13.3" MWP72LL/A Silver 2020

The refurbished 2020 MacBook Pro is a well-built 13-inch laptop with a great screen and keyboard, but its Intel Core i5 chip and integrated graphics are seriously showing their age. It's a decent buy for basic tasks if you can find it for under $480, but Apple's M1 MacBook Air is a much better computer for not much more money. Only get this if you absolutely need an Intel Mac.

The 10th-gen Intel Core i5 here is a 4-core chip with a base clock of 3.8GHz, and it sits in the 72nd percentile for CPUs in our laptop database. In practice, that means it handles everyday tasks like web browsing, email, and office apps without breaking a sweat. You can even do some light photo editing in Pixelmator or Lightroom without too much stuttering. But push it with a big Final Cut Pro project or a ton of Chrome tabs, and you'll hear the fans spin up and feel things get a little sluggish. The 16GB of RAM is right at the 50th percentile, which is enough for most people but not exactly future-proof.

The Intel Iris Plus Graphics are the real weak spot, landing in the 52nd percentile. This is an integrated GPU, so it shares memory with the system and isn't designed for heavy lifting. You can forget about playing modern AAA games, our gaming score for this machine is a dismal 10.6 out of 100. It's fine for casual Apple Arcade titles or streaming video, but that's about it. The 512GB SSD is fast for booting up and launching apps, though its capacity is only in the 39th percentile, so you might need an external drive sooner than you'd like.

Stacked up against the current competition, this MacBook Pro feels like a classic car, beautiful and well-built, but outpaced by modern engines. The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition both run on newer, more efficient ARM-based chips that deliver better performance per watt and all-day battery life. The Surface Laptop, in particular, has a more modern design and a sharper display. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i and ASUS Zenbook S are also strong Windows alternatives with newer processors and often more RAM and storage for a similar price.

The biggest competitor, though, is Apple's own M1 MacBook Air. It's fanless, faster in both single and multi-core tasks, and has significantly better graphics performance. The only real advantage this Intel Pro has is its four Thunderbolt ports and a slightly brighter screen. For most people, the M1 Air is the smarter buy, even if it costs a tiny bit more. This Intel model is really only for someone who absolutely needs Intel compatibility for Boot Camp or specific legacy software.

Pricing on this refurbished model is all over the place, with a spread from $430 to $565 across different vendors. At the low end of that range, it's a decent deal for a Mac with this build quality and a good keyboard. You're getting a premium unibody laptop with a great screen for less than the price of a new iPad Air. But once you creep up toward that $565 mark, the value proposition gets shaky. For that kind of money, you're dangerously close to a used M1 MacBook Air, which will run circles around this Intel model in both performance and battery life while staying completely silent. If you can snag this for under $480, it's a solid buy for a student or someone who just needs a reliable Mac for writing and browsing.

The Apple MacBook Pro MWP72LL/A is a bit of a throwback at this point, but it still holds up for a specific kind of user. This is the last 13-inch MacBook Pro with an Intel chip and the controversial Touch Bar, and you can find it refurbished for a pretty reasonable price. If you've been searching for a compact MacBook that still feels premium without dropping $1,500 on a new model, this Geek Squad Certified unit is worth a look. It's rocking a 10th-gen quad-core Intel Core i5, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, all wrapped in that familiar aluminum unibody. The 13.3-inch Retina display is still a standout, with True Tone tech that adjusts the white balance to match your room's lighting, making it easier on the eyes during long work sessions.

This machine is clearly built for productivity and media consumption, not gaming. Our database shows it scoring a 96.5 out of 100 for compactness and a 91.8 for business use, which makes sense. It's light at 1.41kg, the keyboard is a joy to type on after Apple ditched the butterfly mechanism, and the four Thunderbolt 3 ports give you a ton of flexibility for docks and external displays. But that integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics is the bottleneck. It's fine for spreadsheets and Netflix, but don't expect to do any real creative work or gaming on it.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a refurbished model, so you're not getting the latest and greatest. The M-series chips in newer MacBooks absolutely smoke this Intel processor in both speed and battery life. But if you need a Mac specifically for the operating system and a few key apps, and you don't want to spend a fortune, this is a solid entry point. The build quality and reliability are top-tier, landing in the 97th percentile in our rankings, so it should last you a good while.

Most people should skip this laptop. If you're a student, a writer, or just someone who wants a reliable Mac for everyday tasks, get a used or refurbished M1 MacBook Air instead. It's faster, has a longer battery life, and stays cool and silent. Gamers should obviously look elsewhere entirely, this integrated GPU can't handle modern games. Creative professionals who work with 4K video or large photo libraries will also find this Intel chip too slow. The only person who should buy this is someone who needs an Intel Mac specifically to run Windows via Boot Camp and can't use virtualization software on a newer Apple Silicon machine.

The MacBook Pro MWP72LL/A is a tough one to recommend without a few caveats. If you can find it at the bottom of its price range, around $430, and you specifically need an Intel-based Mac for software compatibility or running Windows via Boot Camp, then it's a solid, well-built machine that will handle the basics without complaint. The screen is lovely, the keyboard is great, and the port selection is generous. It's a nice computer for writing, researching, and streaming.

But for almost everyone else, we'd say skip it. The performance and battery life of Apple's own M1 MacBooks, even the fanless Air, are so far ahead that it's hard to justify buying this older Intel model unless you get a screaming deal. The integrated graphics are a dead end, and the Touch Bar is a feature most people will ignore after the first week. This is a niche product for a niche user at this point.