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Apple Revises Vintage-Obsolete Date of 2012 15-Inch MacBook Pro With Retina Display to End of 2018
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That’s not apples fault6 year old 'obsolete' machine has only about 30% cpu difference with 2017 model:
https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks
No but (without wishing to put words in @trifid's mouth that he may not have intended) the implication there is that it's still a useful machine so perhaps obsoleting it is premature.
Unfortunately I think in this case it's no so much the CPU, but the GPU that has motivated Apple to obsolete. They are focused on Metal everywhere.
And remains superior to the modern ultra thin USB-C handicapped models.
My kids still use their 2012 MBP, 2013 Air. Wife still has her 2011 iMac.
Materially what does it mean to me when they become flagged as obsolete? Very little... If they fail catastrophically and irreparably they will be replaced, most would be in the 7+ year age category.
Do they look modern? Yes (unless placed directly against their new equivalents... at which point you realise they miss taskbars, are fatter/thicker, battery life has degraded etc.)
Do they perform? Yes but with constraints, they have less memory, less cpu grunt, less disk space. They meet the original expectations but cant not the modern (The iMac really suffers with rendering a lot of websites now.. their content really is quite obscene in quantity at times).
Materially what does it mean to me when they become flagged as obsolete? Very little... If they fail catastrophically and irreparably they will be replaced, most would be in the 7+ year age category.
Do they look modern? Yes (unless placed directly against their new equivalents... at which point you realise they miss taskbars, are fatter/thicker, battery life has degraded etc.)
Do they perform? Yes but with constraints, they have less memory, less cpu grunt, less disk space. They meet the original expectations but cant not the modern (The iMac really suffers with rendering a lot of websites now.. their content really is quite obscene in quantity at times).
I find it incredible that people tolerate using old technology. 2012 is ancient in technology terms.
You should be upgrading every three years maximum, which not by coincidence is the maximum length of an AppleCare warranty.
You should be upgrading every three years maximum, which not by coincidence is the maximum length of an AppleCare warranty.
I would agree if I lived in the USA, where even expensive devices are relatively inexpensive compared to the rest of the world. I don't plan upgrading my early-2013 retina Macbook Pro before 2020. Cheaper consumer electronics, like an iPhone, I would tolerate upgrading every three years.
That's a fair point. I lived and worked in a part of South America for several years and the costs of imported electronics were incredible to me with the import taxes charged. Pretty much everything was far, far more expensive than the US and Europe - and certainly out of reach for most local people. Even if they were priced at US/European prices it would be very difficult for alot, but when these items cost 50% more it was completely impossible.
I would have agreed with you 10 years ago. Performance increases are minor now. At my office we run PCs 5 years plus with few issues. Three years is short now, especially at $2300 starting for a 15”.
Indeed that was my intent. And I agree there have been much greater advances in GPU than CPU, so there is definitely an advantage of newer machines having far better GPUs. But regarding Metal, I don't think that's the reason that motivated Apple to obsolete it, because it will get Mohave support unlike others, so there's gotta be something else going on.
Didn't realize they got official Mojave support. I agree then, it's strange to support it in the OS but "obsolete" the hardware in the same year.
It depends if the machine still serves its purpose, and excels at it compared to newer models. I'm running a MacBook Pro (17-inch Mid 2009) and MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012 Classic) still because the 17" is unmatched for watching movies with its screen and 4-speaker sound, and the 15" is powerful, durable and easily serviceable.
Both machines were worked on extensively in the last year. New Top Case w/ Keyboard, Trackpad, SSD, Memory and Battery in the 2012, and a replacement battery, SSD, Memory and components on the Logic Board (circuit rework to correct a power issue) in the 2009. Sounds expensive, but since the Top Case and Trackpad was covered under warranty, the batteries, '09 SSD and RAM were scrap machine salvaged but otherwise barely used (<50 cycles), and I performed the board repairs myself, the overall cost for new components came out to somewhere around the $400 mark including tools.
I wouldn't expect these machines to be due for replacement for some time now. It's pretty remarkable how far some older machines can be carried with some minimal cost, time and sometimes, creative solutions. I'm impressed with how they perform too, especially the 2012, which is crushing it in VMware and Windows at the moment.
So when it comes to technology, I stopped recommending regular upgrade intervals to clients and now only recommend upgrades if the machine is becoming incapable of serving its intended purpose (or if the client feels like something newer). If a Commodore 64 can still be accurately balancing driveshafts in Poland, then it's fair game for almost any machine I say, regardless of age.
I had a 2011 11" MacBook Air come in that needed a little work doing on it this week. You know what I had forgotten what cracking little machines these are 2 x USB 2 ports and Thunderbolt 2 (not restricted to USB-C).
There is a valid argument that pre USB-C Macs are better for productivity no need for dongles, stations and adapters. One such Mac that ticks all the boxes is the 15" 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. It is nothing short of a crime that Apple are to been it obsolete after just six years of marketing it as a flagship model.
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There is a valid argument that pre USB-C Macs are better for productivity no need for dongles, stations and adapters. One such Mac that ticks all the boxes is the 15" 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. It is nothing short of a crime that Apple are to been it obsolete after just six years of marketing it as a flagship model.
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Yeah right like the average Mac user is going to renew their Mac every three years. Meanwhile back in the real world.
Yeah, uh, Apple doesn't stop you from using your computer at midnight on the day they become "obsolete" - they just don't get hardware support in the genius bar anymore. Pretty easy to understand. What happens when you take your 3 year old HP to the HP Computer store? Oh, wait...hah.
I knew some of you find a way to complain about this. Please stop poisoning the Mac community. Go use Windows on your vintage Mac hardware and have fun with that. Should be a great user experience.
Amazing how negative this place is these days.
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I'd bet anyone the full cost of a new MacBook Pro that less than 10%, probably less than 5% of cMBP owners "upgraded" their machines. They're fast enough for years out of the box. Then you buy a new one. That's just how computers generally work. You're not forced to do anything. Don't like them? Don't buy them. Very easy.
Holy cow!
Thank god the Mac mini 2012 isn't considered vintage!
Thanks Timmy Cook!
BTW love the new watch bands and emojis!!!
Thank god the Mac mini 2012 isn't considered vintage!
Thanks Timmy Cook!
BTW love the new watch bands and emojis!!!
"Apple says it "incorrectly classified" the notebook as vintage or obsolete on June 30, and revised the date to December 31, 2018."
i wonder if its just a coincidence it just happens to be New Years eve as well..
Still good anyway. The extension could be just falling in line with other vintage products.
i wonder if its just a coincidence it just happens to be New Years eve as well..
Still good anyway. The extension could be just falling in line with other vintage products.
Don’t know how anyone can accept this. It’s a case of computer giving them too much trouble as opposed to retiring it due to long life. The 17” MBP & the 2012 15” Retina should’ve lasted another 1 & 2 years respectively (considering my mid 2012 13” & mini are still trucking), but I suspect all the hassle of dealing with it caused them too much ache, welcome to the new world of Apple (again!) clearly they don’t give a toss!
THIS IS VINTAGE!
Yeah. I agree. They could have used Vulkan to support the older GPUs I'm pretty sure.
And a great machine it was too but that was from a time when Apple were forward thinking and innovative. I hate to use the cliche but that side of Apple died with Steve Jobs.THIS IS VINTAGE!
Apple is all about shareholders and profit these days such a shame.
How difficult was the battery to do? - I'm thinking of doing the replacement myself. Any scary parts during the operation?
Yes, because Windows PC's are a staple of quality.
some are, some don't.
my first pc, 386, had a huge 80mb hard drive in the early 90s and everybody was making a joke "if only we had a gigabyte or terabyte". That time many used softwares that were supposed to double the space which they never did and indicated the space always wrong. I think I used a software called DoubleSpace or something like that trying to increase the space somehow magically. Of course I was a kid and knew only a little about compression and a real benefit of it.