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Apple Adds Last MacBook Pro With CD Drive to Obsolete Products List

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Apple today added the Mid 2012 model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro to its obsolete products list worldwide, according to its website.

13-Inch-MacBook-Pro-Mid-2012.jpg

Released in June 2012, this 13-inch MacBook Pro model was the last Mac with a built-in CD/DVD drive sold by Apple, and it remained for sale until October 2016 as a lower-priced option. Apple continues to sell an external SuperDrive for customers who need a CD/DVD drive, but a USB-C adapter is required to use it with modern MacBooks.

Apple considers a device to be "technologically obsolete" once more than seven years have passed since the company last distributed it for sale. Apple says MacBooks "may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability."

On the software side, Apple dropped support for the Mid 2012 model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with macOS Big Sur in 2020.

Apple discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro entirely last year.

Article Link: Apple Adds Last MacBook Pro With CD Drive to Obsolete Products List
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/31/mid-2012-13-inch-macbook-pro-obsolete/
That was the last truly upgradeable laptop. Soldering the RAM to the motherboard after that was a giant middle finger to the consumer and force them to buy whole new laptops instead of a simple small upgrade. You just can't respect Apple for that... their 'environmentally friendly' claims are complete garbage.

That said, pro-consumer policies don't concern Apple which is why they're now worth 3 trillion dollars... by ripping off consumers. Nice.
 
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blazerunner said:
That was the last truly upgradeable laptop. Soldering the RAM to the motherboard after that was a giant middle finger to the consumer and force them to buy whole new laptops instead of a simple small upgrade. You just can't respect Apple for that... their 'environmentally friendly' claims are complete garbage.

That said, pro-consumer policies don't concern Apple which is why they're now worth 3 trillion dollars... by ripping off consumers. Nice.
Click to expand...

Other companies are starting to copy them, too. My Dell work-issued laptop has soldered ram.
 
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blazerunner said:
That was the last truly upgradeable laptop. Soldering the RAM to the motherboard after that was a giant middle finger to the consumer and force them to buy whole new laptops instead of a simple small upgrade. You just can't respect Apple for that... their 'environmentally friendly' claims are complete garbage.

That said, pro-consumer policies don't concern Apple which is why they're now worth 3 trillion dollars... by ripping off consumers. Nice.
Click to expand...
I have no problem with them soldering RAM, heck if they can have the RAM as part of SOC, it would be amazing. I will take performance over upgradability for Laptops. If I want upgradability I will buy a workstation, like my AMD/Nvidia workstation. Best of both worlds, capable compact MBP and an upgradable workstation.
 
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GMShadow said:
Was it the low quality screen, the crap design of the SATA cables that resulted in frequent failures, or the meh performance at launch that grabbed you?

View attachment 2343513
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I don't really care about screen quality past a certain point, so that was fine for me.

I did have to replace the SATA cable five times in eight years; twice under warranty, then the other times myself via iFixit.
 
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abatabia said:
Still the best MacBook ever made.
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Yep. I bought the 2010 13” MacBook Pro because I needed a laptop back then, but if I could have waited a couple of years, this MacBook Pro upgraded with 16GB of RAM would have been awesome compared to mine. Although mine had a great battery life and the last integrated NVIDIA graphics, but still, the 2012 would have been a better purchase, for me anyways. Also the SATA connector on my 2010 was just a SATA II while on that model it was a much faster SATA III, that could have allowed me to take better advantage of the SSD I put in.
 
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At 4 years, only the Macintosh Push was produced longer. Up to 16GB of ram, Ivy Bridge, bluetooth, FW and Thunderbolt. My fave thing to do was upgrade these to 16GB of ram and SSDs. They really held their own for a very long time.
 
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TechnoMonk said:
I have no problem with them soldering RAM, heck if they can have the RAM as part of SOC, it would be amazing. I will take performance over upgradability for Laptops. If I want upgradability I will buy a workstation, like my AMD/Nvidia workstation. Best of both worlds, capable compact MBP and an upgradable workstation.
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Do what you like, but as someone in IT, I kinda hate the soldered/integrated everything. Yes, that's great for performance, but terrible for repairing. It's not even about upgrading for me (though it is nice). Plus for places like public schools, or non profit organizations, repairability is far better than having to replace the whole thing just because a single component failed. Plus more important than performance.
 
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Sorinut said:
I don't really care about screen quality past a certain point, so that was fine for me.

I did have to replace the SATA cable five times in eight years; twice under warranty, then the other times myself via iFixit.
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Like the cable for the disk drive? I've upgraded about 5 times -- no one will ever need a hard disk bigger than 640K :) -- and have never had a problem. I'm not even sure I knew it was a thing. It's up to a 2TB SSD.
 
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NMBob said:
Like the cable for the disk drive? I've upgraded about 5 times -- no one will ever need a hard disk bigger than 640K :) -- and have never had a problem. I'm not even sure I knew it was a thing. It's up to a 2TB SSD.
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The cable going to the HDD/SSD from the logic board. They were notorious for failing.
 
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Released in June 2012, this 13-inch MacBook Pro model was the last Mac with a built-in CD/DVD drive sold by Apple
Click to expand...

Was it really, though? I'm still using my mid-2015 MacBook Pro Retina that came with a built-in DVD drive.

EDIT: Never mind, I think I figured it out: I think the qualifier is Mac available for sale, not model year.
 
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BanjoDudeAhoy said:
Ah, that was the first Mac in this household. We bought it used in 2020 and have since moved over to Mac almost entirely 🥲
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Same, though I bought my 2009 new. Kept it going for 8 years with a memory and SSD upgrade... It sounds crazy now to think about opening up any MacBook and "replacing parts..." :D

It still sits in the closet as the one non-gaming-console optical drive in the house, "just in case." What strikes me most about it, 3 MBAs and an rMBP later, is that 4.7 lbs is A LOT. Those original unibodies were tanks.
 
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