Hi Matt,
I respect your perspective and you do know more about how little the Macbooks have advanced since 2012.
It looks like they have the same ports. Has Apple been using the same chipset since 2012? Surely they must use a processor older than haswell, therefore making the cpu-cpu comparison more complicated? Last I heard, single thread performance is still more important than mass parallization in most cases.
I have also found that battery life is an issue. My 2008's bottom cover couldn't close because of a bulging battery when I sold it. What happens if these new "sealed" systems start to get bulging batteries? If you send it in to apple for a replacement, how long does that take and how much does it cost (surely >$100)?
SSD's can be problematic, I know published MTBFs are huge, but I've lost two drives to corrupted SSD (on a hardware level), and I'm going to go ahead and attribute that to age of the SSD.
Is it your experience that the resale value of Macbooks flatten out with time?
Ebay does seem to have some good options along the lines of what you propose.
Thanks!
In terms of CPU power, the baseline 2012 rMBP has 95% the processing power of the 2013 model. It has an Ivybridge CPU, which was the microprocessor lineup released in 2012. The Haswell CPUs in 2013 did not gain much on the end of power, but did benefit from efficiency (battery life). Strangely, both the 2012 and 2013 models were rated for 7 hours of battery life. This may be in some way related to the 2012 model having two GPUs (gtx 650m & Intel HD 4000), with the higher power one only kicking in for tasks that it was needed for. The 2013 model has a single GPU (Intel Iris Pro) that is always running, so it may be less efficient. The 650m is about 5% faster than the Iris Pro by the way.
The only major differences between the 2012 and 2013 models were AC wifi and PCIE flash. For most scenarios, these will provide little to no benefit. The machines weigh the same, have the same ports, the same screen, the same camera, the same speakers, and the same fans. Of the computers upgraded during 2013, it was the least impressive.
As with any product, Apple computers depreciate over time. A common example is a luxury car. Right when you take the car off the lot, the value drops. The age and the usage of the car affect the resale value as well. When the car is newest it depreciates most quickly, and then over time it depreciates less quickly. For example, a $50,000 car may drop to $40,000 in a year. In the second year, it may drop from $40,000 to $32,500. By the 10th year, the price will probably drop by $1,000 per year. Also comparable to a computer, any add ons depreciate at a faster rate than the price of the car itself. A premium sound system may cost $3,000 up front. After the first year, the value may drop to $1,500. This is why buying a car a year or two old can get you significant savings up front, and it will save you on depreciation as well.
The same applies for computers. If you buy a used laptop, it will depreciate less quickly than a new one. Any upgrades on a new laptop will cause it do depreciate more rapidly.
In terms of battery/SSD failure and other issues, I thought you were only keeping the computer for a year. When you get a new computer, make sure to buy AppleCare. The rMBP lineup is not old enough to really tell what issues come with old age. To be fair, most repairs will be expensive. All Apple products are currently in that boat though, so the rMBP in comparison to other computers is not any better or worse off, especially in the next year.
Matt
