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Apple's First 13-Inch MacBook Pro With Retina Display Now Classified as 'Obsolete'

I really need to get that new battery for my late '13 15"... still going strong. Best computer I ever had. Got it when I was an independent IT consultant, and it was sooooo nice compared to whatever Windows machine the others had. Actually, it's much faster than the notebook the company I work for now gave me...
 
My best and main laptop is the 13-inch 2012 MacBook Pro. Just upgraded to it from a 2008 white plastic MacBook a couple years ago.
 
baryon said:
Going from the non-retina to the retina machines, that also had flash as standard was a huge deal.

Compare that to when the touchbar Macs came out, which had a worse keyboard, a touchbar, and no USB-A, as well as no magsafe, no SD card reader, no HDMI, and a T2 chip that had no noticeable benefit to the user but it would crash... as for advantages it had a bigger trackpad, a fingerprint reader, and had the usual speed bumps that every computer has every year. That was it.

I was in need for a machine but held out several years until the 16 inch MBP. But even that has no real benefit over the original Retinas, other than just being faster as all newer machines always are, and carries the same problems as the touchbars, except for the faulty keyboard of course. Actually, putting the 16 inch MBP and the original Retina side by side, the original has a better screen (same colors but much faster response time).

Of course M1 is a much bigger deal, but if your current computer is fast enough for what you do, again you won't really notice any difference with that.
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The 2012-2015 rMBP was indeed the gold standard for laptops. Glad to see Apple returning to that state. Though, 2013 was when they fixed all the issues of the 2012 one that were keeping the contemporary non-retina MBP viable, and most people I know have a 2013 one rather than 2012. HD -> Iris graphics (somewhat necessary for that screen res), way better battery, cheaper IIRC.
 
I bought a used 2015 13 for $650 two summers ago. 128 SSD and 16 gigs of ram. Apple replaced the screen for free this past January and I’m tempted to get them to replace the battery this summer, before I grab a bigger SSD and keep this bad boy running for three more years at this point. as long as drop box supports it, all my programs run smoothly as hell. Love the airs, and love the rumored 14 but these machines really do rock.
 
subi257 said:
Not even close, no other brand of computer (desktop or laptop) has the lifespan....and support lifecycle of Apple computers. even 5 years is borderline dinosaur in computer lives.
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I have a Toshiba laptop from 2007 with a Core 2 Duo processor running Windows 10 (originally came with Windows Vista). It's slow, but it still runs and is supported by Microsoft.

I have another Toshiba (belongs to a friend) from 2009 (originally came with Windows 7) that I recently upgraded to Windows 10.

Microsoft supports PCs much longer than Apple supports Macs.
 
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Got one. Used it today. It's still got half a decade of life in it, I think. Not thrilled at the idea of a third-party battery replacement though.
 
I still use an early-2013 MBP at home, and a mid-2013 MBA at work. Both are running Catalina and still run great (*the MBA can be upgraded to Big Sur but I don't like it). The amount of heat the MBP generates is annoying though. I swapped out the MBA's 256GB SSD for a 1TB OWC SSD. The extra storage has certainly extended the useful life of the MBA, however, what's not widely known is that the boot rom in these old devices doesn't fully support hibernation with non-Apple SSDs, so the Mac would often reboot when when trying to wake. To get around this you can disable hibernation, but now the MBA chews through 10-15% of battery overnight while sleeping as it doesn't go into low power hibernation.
 
sw1tcher said:
I have a Toshiba laptop from 2007 with a Core 2 Duo processor running Windows 10 (originally came with Windows Vista). It's slow, but it still runs and is supported by Microsoft.

I have another Toshiba (belongs to a friend) from 2009 (originally came with Windows 7) that I recently upgraded to Windows 10.

Microsoft supports PCs much longer than Apple supports Macs.
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Okay, so it's supported by MS for the OS (which is a current OS....the latest in fact)......but is the actual laptop hardware still supported by Toshiba? If the hardware takes a crap, does Toshiba still have parts available to fix it?

Hey, not being a di** here, but everything has it's lifespan. manufacturers can only support a product for so long. Especially in the technology/computer world. I have a broadcast Ross Xpression video graphics unit....in the $20k range, only 7-8 years old. One morning it took a crap, no booting. Motherboard died, no longer made, so not available. I looked online it's a Asus board, no longer being made and I can only get a used one off eBay. We have to replace Avid Video servers every 5-6 years because they get EOL'd
 
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otternonsense said:
What an exciting computer that was, especially the first retina 15" MacBook Pro. It was mind-blowing. You just wanted to show that screen around. I don't think I've been excited about a Mac again ever since :(
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Get real. There was nothing MIND BLOWING about that computer. 🙄
 
Zdigital2015 said:
I really think some of you in this thread think of your MBP as that hot girlfriend you never had, but didn’t and still don’t realize why 10 years later, but I digress.
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fruits-basket.jpg


I’ll pass my regards on 🙃
 
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Maconplasma said:
Get real. There was nothing MIND BLOWING about that computer. 🙄
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No. Thats true. I still have and use my 2000 Powerbook Pismo, 1GB, G4 upgrade, 240GB SSD, superbright screen, airport, firewire, leather coating and just drop dead gorgeous. Last battery from 2016, running OSX and Linux.
There is nothing, past, present, future, that comes close to this antique.
should run at a snails pace looking at my other machines. But you would be surprised.
Obsolete? My foot.
 
sw1tcher said:
I have a Toshiba laptop from 2007 with a Core 2 Duo processor running Windows 10 (originally came with Windows Vista). It's slow, but it still runs and is supported by Microsoft.

I have another Toshiba (belongs to a friend) from 2009 (originally came with Windows 7) that I recently upgraded to Windows 10.

Microsoft supports PCs much longer than Apple supports Macs.
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Win10 has gotten better, but it's still pretty hit or miss. For years Windows10 didn't support my Radeon HD 4200 and then one day out of the blue it added full DirectX12 support(Still no official driver from AMD/ATI, but Windows update found a generic DX12 driver spontaneously). https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...er-issue/52e861ee-7cac-4ed9-a485-0183ca7963fb

Oddly, the worst hardware driver support on Windows I've had has consistently been Microsoft's own hardware. I've had enough terrible experiences I will never buy any hardware with Microsoft's name on it.

Microsoft dropped support for the extra buttons on their own IntelliMouse(USB optical mouse) in Windows7... There are hacks to get it working again... but SOOOO infuriating and punitive.
http://www.yakkowarner.com/2010/10/intellimouse-explorer-10-in-windows-7.html
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...74-8910-3d60507ee834/intellimouse-driver-woes

I also had a Microsoft-brand 802.11g wifi card (mn-720) that Microsoft decided to support for exactly one OS release(only Windows XP). The card was just a generic Broadcom Wifi card, so the Microsoft Wifi card worked fine in Linux...
 
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Chlloret said:
No. Thats true. I still have and use my 2000 Powerbook Pismo, 1GB, G4 upgrade, 240GB SSD, superbright screen, airport, firewire, leather coating and just drop dead gorgeous. Last battery from 2016, running OSX and Linux.
There is nothing, past, present, future, that comes close to this antique.
should run at a snails pace looking at my other machines. But you would be surprised.
Obsolete? My foot.
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The Pismo was truly a marvel but you know what was truly mind blowing? The first 17" Powerbook introduced at Macworld San Francisco 2003. It was the first 17" screen laptop ever. It was also the first laptop in the industry to feature a backlit keyboard, and with ambient light sensor. It had audio line in and line out. First Mac with Firewire 800. First Mac that made of aircraft-grade aluminum alloy that was not painted like the Ti-Book. The 17" was also much lighter in weight than most every laptop with screens as small as 15"
 
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Think creative said:
I bought a used 2015 13 for $650 two summers ago. 128 SSD and 16 gigs of ram. Apple replaced the screen for free this past January and I’m tempted to get them to replace the battery this summer, before I grab a bigger SSD and keep this bad boy running for three more years at this point. as long as drop box supports it, all my programs run smoothly as hell. Love the airs, and love the rumored 14 but these machines really do rock.
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You better take a look and make sure the SSD is removable, I seem to recall some of the later models having soldered in SSD.
 
Macbooks are really amazing machines. I gave my first gen 15" retina MBP to my mum a few years ago and to this day it's still running like new, yes she only uses it for YouTube, Facebook and emails, but it doesn't feel bogged down and can probably still run for another 5yrs without issues.

Waiting for the day till my 2014 13" MBP becomes part of that obsolete list.
 
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