2012 MacBook Pro

[Caseih4240xl]

Hi Guys

My sister has tried to pawn off her old Macbook pro on me for internet, streaming, MS Office and itunes purposes.

Would it still be a decent machine for that type of work?? In a general sense. (Its actually in mint condition).

I wouldn't be using it for games or the like.

[mmm-five]

Which specific MacBookPro? What spec?

There are a few from 2012, and the faster ones will of course be better than the slower ones...


They'll all be fine for light work, as long as it's one with an SSD rather than a HDD.

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 15th July 13:55

[wyson]

I know lots of people use their machines for ages, but in my view a 10 year old machine is past it, even for light use.

All the standards have moved on. RAM, Storage, Connectors, WiFi etc.

Also can’t imagine what the battery will be like on that machine, considering I replace the ones in my laptops every 3 or 4 years. I generally replace the battery once and when that dies replace the machine. By that time its 6 - 8 years old and technology would have moved on significantly.

Unless you are severely budget restricted, just say no to your sister. Someone posted a £380 Asus with a OLED screen and a 11th gen processor recently. That will run rings around any Macbook from a decade ago.

Edited by wyson on Saturday 16th July 09:54

[rustyuk]

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and it's fantastic.

I'm a software developer and it's my favourite machine to work on.

[malks222]

I still use a 2012 macbook pro (the last non retina with a cd drive) but I did upgrade to maximum ram and install a SSD about 4yrs ago and it is a great machine.

I’ve had the machine for 10 years and was happy to spend couple of hundred to speed it up, because at the time it was £300 to upgrade or £1800 to replace with an equivalent! but don’t know if I would spend £300 now to refresh 10yr old tech now.

if it’s free it might be worth taking and seeing how you get on/ how fast it runs, but don’t know how much cash i’d throw at it

[silentbrown]

Battery is likely to be needing replacement, if it hasn't been already
Machines of this age suffer from the "Staingate" display problem ,but many will have had the display replaced FOC.

Otherwise, if it's an SSD one it should be fine for most stuff, although I expect it's close to EOL as far as MacOS updates go...

I "retired" my 2012 MBP Retina about 5 years ago and passed it on to daughter for school work. It's still going strong.

The Dell XPS I replaced it with has been an overheating pile of junk, and sits unused for most of the time...

[numtumfutunch]

2015 here

Its brilliant however has an integrated and bloody irritating battery which is past its best and uneconomic to replace

The mid 2000's white plastic MB it replaced had a removable battery which was so much more simple when it reached the end of its useful life. Progress..................

New MB is on my list of things to do however the battery issue is really grating on me. For the record Im by no means committed to Apple as I have an Android phone - apart from Photos they play together nicely

Cheers

[Jakg]

numtumfutunch said:

2015 here

Its brilliant however has an integrated and bloody irritating battery which is past its best and uneconomic to replace

The mid 2000's white plastic MB it replaced had a removable battery which was so much more simple when it reached the end of its useful life. Progress..................

New MB is on my list of things to do however the battery issue is really grating on me. For the record Im by no means committed to Apple as I have an Android phone - apart from Photos they play together nicely

Cheers

I don't know about the 2015 MacBook specifically, but the battery on my 2013 MacBook Retina was "non-removable" but not hard to replace with a bit of heat and dental floss, and well worth it after many years of use.

Would I be buying an "obsolete" (Apple's words, not mine) MacBook in 2022? Probably not.

rustyuk said:

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and it's fantastic.

I'm a software developer and it's my favourite machine to work on.

I had a 2013 Retina until last year and was very happy with it - but the Retina ones had an SSD as standard, and mine was a decent spec.
But 2012 could also be the non-retina ones, with a magnetic HDD, rubbish screen and heavier - I had one of those too and there's no way I'd of kept it for 8 years!

[Donbot]

Can't you just try it?

[GranpaB]

Still running my 2014 MBP, although the battery needs replacing, which i will do when i can be bothered.

[colin79666]

I wouldn’t bother. A 2015 onwards will at least run the current MacOS release, the 2012 lost support a while ago so will only fall further behind. Lack of security updates probably doesn’t matter as much on Mac but I still don’t think going online with an unpatched machine is a good idea.

Unless you plan to put Linux on it?

[silentbrown]

colin79666 said:

I wouldn’t bother. A 2015 onwards will at least run the current MacOS release, the 2012 lost support a while ago so will only fall further behind. Lack of security updates probably doesn’t matter as much on Mac but I still don’t think going online with an unpatched machine is a good idea.

Unless you plan to put Linux on it?

2012 MBP can run MacOS Catalina. It's still getting security updates, but that's likely to stop once the next MacOS version is released (i.e., the one after Monterey)

[dictys]

I have a 2012 retina, whilst not my main machine, is used in the office on a daily basis, runs office apps etc with no issues, an i7 with 16gb ram. It is permanently plugged into a Thunderbolt Display so can’t say how good battery is, but otherwise fine.

[tog]

Caseih4240xl said:

Hi Guys

My sister has tried to pawn off her old Macbook pro on me for internet, streaming, MS Office and itunes purposes.

Would it still be a decent machine for that type of work?? In a general sense. (Its actually in mint condition).

I wouldn't be using it for games or the like.

For light use like that it should be fine. I'm using a 2010 Mac Pro as my main work machine, slightly upgraded admittedly but still only running Mojave, and have no problems.

[sutoka]

rustyuk said:

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and it's fantastic.

I'm a software developer and it's my favourite machine to work on.

I'm still using a 2013 15in MacBook Pro daily and having no issues whatsoever, just fit a new battery every two years.

[Magnum 475]

sutoka said:

rustyuk said:

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro and it's fantastic.

I'm a software developer and it's my favourite machine to work on.

I'm still using a 2013 15in MacBook Pro daily and having no issues whatsoever, just fit a new battery every two years.

I’ve just replaced my 2013 15” with a 16” M1 Pro. The 20 13 machine was still giving me over 3 hours on the original battery, but it did spend most of its life plugged in.

[nute]

I have a 15 inch 2015 and a smaller 2010 which I use when I’m travelling. As has been said above if you are going for an older one I’d be happier with an SSD rather than a HDD but even the older one I have if fine for internet browsing, emails etc. It struggles running very high res video from my GoPro but it’s fine for everything else.

[gangzoom]

My Late 2013 MBP is just better to use from the work productivity point of view compared to my 2021 work issue HP EliteBook.

I had a new battery put in the MBP by Apple 5 years ago, and about 3 years ago it needed some repair work done to the GPU by a third party company.

Still works beautifully, I now do most of my presentations on Prezi, and with Office 365 been forced on us, along as it can keep running the latest version of Chrome/Safari it'll remain the machine I go to for all my formal report writing, presentation preparation etc.

[Caseih4240xl]

Guys thank you all so much.

I will give it a spin and see how it goes. Its free after all and has upgraded ram and an SSD.

[HairyMaclary]

I think the fanboys have their mac tinted specs on.

I have an i5 2.0 2020 mbp with 16gb ram/1tb ssd.

It's my first venture into the world of macs. Its a thing of beauty build wise but its not quick, runs hot and is a bit meh for every day use. The screen makes up for it to the point I'm considering chopping what I have for a m2.

Seeing the speed of the latest Intel mac and comparing it to one of the first I dread to think how a 10 year old machine would cope with basic browsing let alone using office apps.