Macbook Pro 13" Mid 2012 still worth it?

[bboysmax]

Hi guys,

I just want to know if a Macbook Pro 13" Mid 2012 with i5 processor, 16GB RAM & an SSD is still a decent option in 2018?
At the price point I can get one for I can get a much newer Windows machine, like the Samsung Tab Pro S 12.2 or the Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6.

Whats the life expectancy in regards to updates in the future for the Mid 2012 Macbooks?

 

[LarryJoe33]

What's your question? Do you have the 2012 machine? You are talking Apple and Oranges when you start comparing Windows machines and Mac's. Especially when you bring the low price point into the argument. You either want a Mac or you don't. Start there.

I have a brand new Dell laptop at work and it's "loaded". It's a piece of garbage.

 

[Naimfan]

Yes. Good machine.

Only caveat: if you do graphics intensive work, the HD4000 will not work well.

 

[bboysmax]

PS: I am talking about the non retina version.

I'm interested in a machine to do light photo editing and 1080p video editing. Nothing professional, just trimming and compiling some clips. I'd like a Mac as i have an iPhone X and think they will play together better.
Question basically is it still worth getting compared to something else similar priced? Wether that be a Windows machine or something like a Macbook Air from around 2013-2014

 

[Mockletoy]

My sister has a late 2011 MacBook Pro that she'd put aside because it was "slow." For Christmas I got her some RAM to max it out and I replaced the spinning hard disk with an SSD and replaced the SuperDrive with a caddy for the original hard disk, which I wiped to give her some extra storage space. I also replaced her battery, which was in pretty bad shape.

I was pretty shocked that such an old machine still felt so snappy and responsive. For surfing the web and dealing with her personal photo library, it seemed perfectly adequate. It certainly didn't feel old or limited in any way.

Now, I don't know how long it'll be before Apple obsoletes the 2011s and 2012s and they stop getting OS updates, but I imagine you'll be able to find replacement parts for them for a good long time to come.

Anyway, that's just my anecdotal experience.

 

[treekram]

PS: I am talking about the non retina version.

I'm interested in a machine to do light photo editing and 1080p video editing. Nothing professional, just trimming and compiling some clips. I'd like a Mac as i have an iPhone X and think they will play together better.
Question basically is it still worth getting compared to something else similar priced? Whether that be a Windows machine or something like a Macbook Air from around 2013-2014

"Nothing professional" photo editing should not be a problem on the non-Retina 2012 MBP. The thing about video editing is that simple editing (trimming, cutting, pasting) as far as just the editing process should not be an issue. However, video editing programs that I have used (and consider me part of the non-professional crowd) re-encode the entire video no matter how little editing you do when you do an export. So on my quad-core 2012 Mini (so a 2012 MBP would be about half the speed) takes about 10 minutes or so to export a 42-minute (typical hour-long TV/cable show) 720p MPEG2 (MP4 would take longer because of the compression it needs to do) - using Adobe Premiere Elements. So if you consider just the editing part of the workflow, the 2012 MBP is probably fine for your stated requirements, but if you want the exported version more quickly, then the 2012 MBP won't work for you.

You typically find better performance for the price in non-Apple PC's. A lot of people consider the 2012 MBP's still viable computers (I have one). My opinion would be that viable would start at the i5/i7 computers, so higher-end 2010 or later.