Interim upgrade from 2012 rMBP?

[twanj]

I have a 2012 retina MBP 15" (2.6Ghz i7/16GB RAM/256GB SSD/Intel HD 1.5GB/GeForce GT 650M). It's the best computer I've ever owned! I have some VMs and compile stuff (with Homebrew) regularly. No gaming.

(Luckily I got AppleCare, and they replaced the screen, the logic board, the aluminum shell, battery, and power adapter at separate times.)

I've been wanting to upgrade for a few years, but haven't been impressed by the Touch Bar (or, well being forced to pay as much for it) and keep deciding to wait for next year. I'm pretty locked in to Apple (AppleWatch S3 & S4, iPhone X, iPad Pro, Apple TV 4K), but wish Apple had paid more attention to the Mac. I keep saying next year they'll get it right.

At this point, my battery doesn't hold a lot of charge (73% via coconut Battery), gets hot sometimes, and the charger doesn't always light up when I connect it (I need to flip it sometimes - any idea what's wrong?), and I really need more space (512GB or 1TB).

2018 is the first year I can get more than the 16GB RAM I had 6 years ago. For the 2018 model I'm also concerned about the keyboard issues, it not using low power ram (LPDDR), the i9s running hot, and also the retina screen being the same resolution as 6 years ago (wider color gamut seems nice tho). I am excited about Thunderbolt 3/USB-C even with dongles! I've used new MBPs at work briefly and they are nice, would I fall in love again despite the shortcomings?

The MBP 15" I'd want is something like $4,000 - and like I said I don't really want it. If it was just right I wouldn't mind paying.



I've thought about getting the new Macbook Air (don't know if I could handle the downgrade to 13") or lower specced MBP 15" as a stopgap until Apple comes out with the right model "next year" or the year after. What to do?

 

[spyguy10709]

Well, try cleaning your macbook pro and charger's pins with an eraser (if not maybe a q tip with isopropyl alcohol)

I'd recommend upgrading your Mac's SSD with a PC Msata SSD like this one https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-860-mSATA-Internal-MZ-M6E1T0BW/dp/B0781VNJVJ/ with this adapter https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Adapter-MacBook-Replacement-Converter/dp/B01LXLU3A9

That will give you 1TB of space on the (relative) cheap. If you fix your charging issue and get a bigger SSD, maybe you can live with the 75% battery until a (really) new machine comes out?

 

[twanj]

Thanks for the reply @spyguy10709!

The charger's just gotten dirty? Thanks, I'll try cleaning it! That could be it...

I don't want to put $200 more to a 6 year old laptop. I'm getting by, I just don't have what I want available. I have a bunch of external drives, but maybe something smaller like a Samsung T5 would do.

Frankly, I need quite a bit of space for music & photos so maybe a WD network drive would do.

 

[maflynn]

At this point, my battery doesn't hold a lot of charge

The battery is 6 years old, I too owned a 2012 rMBP and replaced the battery last year. I don't think cleaning the contacts will do anything meaningful. Batteries do not last forever and yours lasted a long time. If you want to hold onto it, then reach out to apple and get the battery replaced.

 

[twanj]

The battery is only a few years old. Apple replaced it for free. It doesn't hold a whole lot of charge, but enough. I could use it plugged in most of the time if I needed too.

 

[maflynn]

The battery is only a few years old. Apple replaced it for free. It doesn't hold a whole lot of charge, but enough. I could use it plugged in most of the time if I needed too.

If its fairly new, bring it in, and they may replace it again, as its defective.

 

[axboi87]

A high end Mac like that should easily net you 10+ years of ownership. I still regularly use an 11 year old iMac 2007 (just recently upgraded so it can run high Sierra and has 802.11ac and bluetooth 4.0) that I'll likely get 3-4 more years out of.

My daily driver though is an early 2013 15" rMBP and I'm def going to hang onto it for at least 3-4 more years, if not more

 

[spyguy10709]

The battery is 6 years old, I too owned a 2012 rMBP and replaced the battery last year. I don't think cleaning the contacts will do anything meaningful. Batteries do not last forever and yours lasted a long time. If you want to hold onto it, then reach out to apple and get the battery replaced.

You're a brave man. I work as a manager of a tech repair shop and even I wouldn't replace my rMBP battery myself. Too high risk.

I'm about to take the SSD upgrade plunge myself on a 2013 after watching a coworker do it. Our pros are still within a traditional 1-generation margin compared to a modern machine. I mean this - a new pro would be $3000 at minimum and I wouldn't even double the speed of my 5 year old computer? Moore's law is broken. If I had that money - sure. Maybe. But I see $200 to keep yourself happy for a few more years (especially if you can fix your charger!) as a better solution than spending $3000 on something that honestly might not last much longer.


Looking at future roadmaps from AMD, Intel and Apple's move to A* chips has me thinking the next generation might just be the last of the Mohicans - the g5 quad or Macintosh SE/30 of today, the ultrapowerful last ditch effort to squeeze everything out of an architecture that ultimately proved more useful for their service life than the early transition machines. Time will tell but... I wouldn't bet on today's hardware if I were in the same position as you.