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2015 I would say

Yeah, I figured a nice comparison at everymac and was thinking the same. The graphics are going to be okay on the 2015? Only integrated versus a dedicated 650m? However, the other things are too much to give up - force touch trackpad to begin with and a larger battery. Plus of course, the service life.
 
Bought a secondhand 2012 rmbp with 120 cycles.
Had some KP's so I replaced the cooling paste with artic silver and removed dust from the heatsink.
Running 15 degrees(celsius) cooler.

Hope to use it until Apple get's their act together and releases a reliable machine.
Might look for a 2015 if it takes too long.

I am wondering how no one told you to buy the Windows laptop yet, lol.

Now seriously, I think that the 2015 is still a solid machine. But the problem is that you do not have much time left until Apple ditch it away. I think 2021 will be maybe the last year of official support from Apple (that is 6 year).

But, since the last OS is receiving the Safari and security updates for about two more years, then your machine will be good up to 2023, actually. Actually, that ain't so bad.
 
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2012 15” Unibody, base i7, bought it in Dec, 2012. Immediately upgraded the RAM to 16GB (Corsair Vengeance,) and went from stock 320GB HDD to 250GB SSD, and then to 500GB SSD a year later, and also replaced the optical drive with a 1TB HDD (Toshiba Or HGST ... I can’t remember which at this point.)

It still works, but I rarely use it now. I think I power it on maybe once every month or two at this point, just for software updates. I don’t really have a need for any laptop these days, aside from the one I use for work now (Thinkpad W540 with 32GB RAM.)
 
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Hi All
Mine is a mid 2009 13" MBP other then a track pad replacement and needing a new battery it has always worked great. I just upgraded the
operating systen and still working that out. But all in all it has always
been first class.
Thanks
Michael
 
My girlfriend has a late 2011 MBP.

I'm more than a little worried about how I'm going to get it on Mojave, but I just finally talked her into getting rid of her ancient G3 iMac, so I'm too busy riding the high of getting rid of that thing to care too much.
 
Late-2009 13" MBP with SSD and Mojave OS. This was my daily-driver until the 2018 MBP came out. It still gets used a lot though due to its ports and 3 internal drives.

With normal productivity apps it runs just as quick as a latest MBP and, arguably, it can do a little more due to the ease of use. Only running anything CPU intensive do you get a rude reminder how tech has moved on.

Still, 9 years of serious use out of a laptop has to be good and a good part of that longevity was due to the performance increase we all got when SSDs became mainstream. It is on its 3rd battery and gets the dust blown out every year but beyond that it has needed no maintenance or repairs.

I just don't see me using my 2018 MBP in 2027 though.
 
Late-2009 13" MBP with SSD and Mojave OS. This was my daily-driver until the 2018 MBP came out. It still gets used a lot though due to its ports and 3 internal drives.

With normal productivity apps it runs just as quick as a latest MBP and, arguably, it can do a little more due to the ease of use. Only running anything CPU intensive do you get a rude reminder how tech has moved on.

Still, 9 years of serious use out of a laptop has to be good and a good part of that longevity was due to the performance increase we all got when SSDs became mainstream. It is on its 3rd battery and gets the dust blown out every year but beyond that it has needed no maintenance or repairs.

I just don't see me using my 2018 MBP in 2027 though.

Did you have to do anything special to get Mojave installed on your 2009? Also, which brand of battery did you use? My mid-2012 is in need of a replacement.
 
Just used the dosdude patch like many others on this forum; it's simple and effective. Loads of threads on running MacOS on unsupported Macs on this forum and elsewhere. As for batteries that is probably region specific thing. I managed to get original Apple batteries but they were hard to find.
 
This is the Macbook I use daily for work. Shortly after purchasing it, I upgraded the RAM and added an internal SSD. It's still running great. However, I'll be upgrading soon. It'll be passed down to my kids so they can use it for their schoolwork. Geekbench: Single Core 1619, Multicore 2785.

Screen.jpg
 
This is the Macbook I use daily for work. Shortly after purchasing it, I upgraded the RAM and added an internal SSD. It's still running great. However, I'll be upgrading soon. It'll be passed down to my kids so they can use it for their schoolwork. Geekbench: Single Core 1619, Multicore 2785.

View attachment 799198

That’s exactly what I did with my mid-2012 after I picked up a 2015 a couple weeks ago. Gave it to my kid for schoolwork. It has 8Gb ram and a 512Gb SSD. Runs great.
 
I'm using a 2016 nTB MBP as my daily driver. I got it with 16GB of RAM and a 512SSD so I hope it will last me another two or three years. It's been problem free so far.

I also have a 2015 11" MacBook Air that I use for traveling. It is the base model but I just put in a new battery and a 256GB SSD and it is running great. Perfect for short trips when I don't need to do much work.

It's not a MBP or MBA, but I also have a 2012 mini that has been running as a media server basically 24/7 since I got it as an Apple refurb in mid 2014.
 
Early 2011 13" MBP, upgraded to 8gb ram and crucial mx300 525 ssd. Runs perfect on Low Sierra. I'm planning to keep it on LS as long as it gets security updates. Maybe I'll update it to high Sierra or patch to Mojave next year.
 
I've got a black 2008 Macbook, with new SSD and upgraded RAM. Still kicking but don't use it much since I got a used 2015 13" MBPr a few months ago. Still love it though!
 
I am currently using a base 2010 2.4 C2D MBP 13 with 8GB RAM and a 320GB HDD at home and a base 2011 2.3 i5 mini with 8GB RAM and a 500GB HDD at work.
 
Mid 2009 13" MBP - have gone from 2 to 4 to 8 GB RAM and swapped the original spinner for an SSD. Also, on its 3rd battery.
 
2010 MBP... 10.12 Sierra...

Tried HS, but fan speed gets jacked up easily on simple tasks...
 
Late 2008 MBP 15"
8 GB's RAM, 500 GB SSD
El Capitan is last OS X it will take.
Daily driver...runs great.
 
Mid-2010 2.66 GHz i7, still my daily machine. I never liked this machine. I had an original late-'08 unibody 15" MBP that was a top spec 2.8 GHz C2D BTO machine that was over $3k as my first Mac and I loved it to death. Unfortunately the hinge plastic broke a couple times and I had several logic board failures, and then the last straw was Apple scratching the bottom plate pretty bad during one of the repairs, so I ended up getting this mid-2010 as an AppleCare replacement.

I was happy they did the right thing, but at that time there was then a hi-res screen option, and the AppleCare rep wouldn't let me pay the difference to get that hi-res screen or to max out the machine, or to pay the difference to upgrade to a 17" which still had the Express slot like my '08 (they always said Apple would never downgrade you on specs but they didn't seem to care that I had to give up my Express slot in favor of an SD card slot). I never understood why they wouldn't let me just max out the machine and pay the difference, it would've been more money for them to help them offset the replacement cost. Basically, this machine is a better machine than my '08 in basically every way, but I've never loved it because it wasn't maxed out/wasn't the machine that I spec'd out myself. I know that's kind of weird.

Maxed out the RAM at 8 GB a few years back and replaced the 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD with a cheap 120 GB SSD because I didn't really care about the machine and wanted to put minimal money into it. SSD just filled up a few weeks ago and I was dead set on finally replacing it and not putting anymore money into it, but all of Apple's current laptops are plagued with problems and/or compromises, so now I threw SSD #2 into it and put a new battery into it (old one had 1001 cycles), and a clean install of High Sierra (latest supported OS) and removed the fans and cleaned them out. Aside from a pretty rare occasional graphics glitch, it runs perfect and now that I spent all that time setting it up again, I guess I am now hoping it lasts a couple more years.

So many times in the past I wished it would just die so I could spec a new retina machine the way I want, but it just keeps going - I gambled by NOT buying AC for this one despite my '08 clearly needing it and this machine has never had a single problem, so I won on that front too.

As for my wife, she's on a loaded BTO 13" late-2013 machine and it has been flawless, I think that machine cost like $2400...and honestly it feels brand freaking new still, she barely ever uses it and I seriously wouldn't doubt that it has less than 10 cycles on the battery (I should probably cycle it, on that note).
 
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2008 early Penryn.

With added RAM and SSD and replacement parts including the logic board, screen and screws; it's better than the original release.
 
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