Oldest (i.e. cheapest) MacBook Pro worth buying

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

Surprised a question like this hasn’t been asked before (if it has, I couldn’t find it). What would the fine people of this find forum say is a MBP that offers the best balance between newness & cheapness in 2019?

I saw a base-configuration non-retina 2012 13 inch MBP for £385 (~$500) and considered buying & upgrading it - given I gather it’s from the last generation of practically user-upgradable Apple notebooks - as a replacement for my frustratingly slow & barely-able-to-hold-a-charge-for-more-than-a-couple-of-hours current laptop (a Pentium-powered, ironically-named Acer Aspire E1-510P, gifted to me by a family member who never used it a couple of years ago), but then I’ve seen conflicting reviews online; some saying it’s still a beast as is, others saying it’s only good for the most basic of tasks even if maxed-out on RAM & with an SSD.


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[ferrarr]

Opinions will always differ. What will you be using this for? School? Home? Work? Basics or other?

This question is always asked, just worded differently. And as the years change, the response do as well.


Bob -

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[iggibar]

So it looks like what you are looking for is what is called the "unibody MacBook Pro". This is the chunky generation of the aluminum-bodied MacBook Pro series that allow for user friendly upgrades of HDD and RAM. 2012 was a good year for the 13" MacBook Pro.

Personally, I would rather go with a top spec 2013 MacBook Pro for the better screen, much quicker, and slimmer design which is still used. The 2012 MBP is still good IMO, and they was pretty dang reliable. I would shop for one with the highest specs you could afford.

 

[krs]

Two in my family each are using 13-inch MacBook pros late 2011 with i5 processors.
No problems except the batteries which were replaced, but OS upgrades are limited to maacOS 10.13

If I bought a used MacBook pro today I probably would not want anything older than the 2012 Retina.

 

[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

Opinions will always differ. What will you be using this for? School? Home? Work? Basics or other?

This question is always asked, just worded differently. And as the years change, the response do as well.


Bob -

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I was primarily asking in the sense of is the specific MacBook I saw on sale good value at that price, or is it a bargain, or is it a bit expensive, or is it not really worth buying at any price these days (insofar as any money spent on it would be better put towards part of the cost of something newer); and generally asking at what kind of age, on average, the usefulness of MacBooks starts to drop-off faster than the price.


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[Ctrl-Opt-Del]

So it looks like what you are looking for is what is called the "unibody MacBook Pro". This is the chunky generation of the aluminum-bodied MacBook Pro series that allow for user friendly upgrades of HDD and RAM. 2012 was a good year for the 13" MacBook Pro.

Personally, I would rather go with a top spec 2013 MacBook Pro for the better screen, much quicker, and slimmer design which is still used. The 2012 MBP is still good IMO, and they was pretty dang reliable. I would shop for one with the highest specs you could afford.

Going up to the baseline 13” i7 model ads £70 (~$90) taking it up to £455 (~$590), would you say that was better value for money than going for the cheapest option, despite being ~18% more expensive?


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[Rod]

I'd prefer the early 2015 MBPr you get all of the old USB ports, card reader, HDMI etc plus 10.14 compatibility and beyond.


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[jasongoldworthy]

don't go with anything older than the 2012 MacBook Pro

that way you will still get updates passed 10.13 and will be current for a while yet.

my opinion

 

[Rod]

And one other thing is that the model with the least storage will be cheaper but it's false economy in my mind because you will just need to buy less convenient, slower external memory eventually. Definitely need 256Gb +


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[driffty]

The nice thing about the unibody MacBook pros is you can still get in there and upgrade things relatively cheaply.
Upgrade to an SSD for starters. Also, you can remove the DVD drive, buy a hard drive caddy from eBay and add more storage that way.
Have you looked on gum tree. Usually a fair bit cheaper than eBay.

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