Is the 2012 Non Retina Macbook Pro the new Macintosh Plus?

I was thinking about something tonight…

Those of you familiar with vintage Apple will know about the Macintosh Plus - Introduced in 1986 and sold till 1990 it holds the record for the longest selling Mac ever, and the last of the original design all in one black and white macintosh (The Classic had a new design).

Today we have the Mid 2012 Macbook Pro still for sale. Introduced in June 2012, the Macbook Pro Mid 2012, it is the last Macbook to have the original Unibody Macbook Pro design. Why is it still sold? I’ve read and been told numerous times that the non Retina Pro sells in high numbers despite its age, due to the large storage, optical drive and for some, the ports.

I wonder if the Non retina pro will beat the Macintosh Plus to be the mac sold for the longest period - that would require being sold until April 2017. I assume that it will at least end up in second place.

I persoanally rate this Macbook as Apple’s best ever. Its also lucky for me that they’ve sold it so long. purchased one in September 2012, and again in August 2015. Apple actually gave me a 2015 Retina Pro, 2.9 GHZ + 512GB SSD, which I quickly realised it was the first time a computer ‘upgrade’ because a ‘downgrade’, so I sold it and purchased another 2012 Macbook Pro - this time with the 2.9GHZ i7.

You might question my sanity but I had the following reasons:

  • The Need for at least 1TB of storage. I was able to purchase a 1TB SSD with the difference between the Retina Pro and the Non Retina Pro.
  • I wanted the ability to upgrade to 16GB of ram in the near future.
  • I use ethernet + firewire regularly and enjoy doing so without an adaptor
  • I prefer the old trackpad + the feel of the keyboard over the new force touch track pad and the retina pro keyboard.
  • I use the optical drive a lot.
  • I use the IR sensor a lot
  • I like the sleep light
  • I like the battery indicator
  • I like the ability to replace the battery without replacing the whole top case. Given the inevitability of battery replacements ( I go through batteries fast), this is important.
  • The i7 2.9GHZ benchmarks fairly close to the 2.9 GHZ i5.

So in the end I’ve ended up with a souped up nearly perfect laptop for me. The only caveat is the ageing graphics, and battery life, which in all honesty, is still fairly good at 7 hours. If Apple were to chuck in a Broadwell processor with Iris graphics, this thing would be amazing.

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I took ownership of one of these on Friday. It was a unit that someone dropped and killed the hard drive in. The business was throwing it in the bin as it would cost them $300 to get he HDD replaced. My wife grabbed it for me and I’ve since put in 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD (thank you Amazon sale).

It’s a great machine and a worthy upgrade from my 13" 2009
It has usb3 and thunderbolt. I can’t find too much speed difference between it and my wife’s maxed out 2014 13" Retina.

Oh wow! I’d love to be lucky enough to find a spare one. They’re pretty great, and with the SSDs the speed difference is fairly negligible.

I’ll go to 16Gb of ram when funds permit :slight_smile:

Wow, throwing away a Mac just because it needs a new drive? Wish I found one of those.

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Fascinating. The good ol’ MD101 strikes again.

The only other Apple product that’s been on sale for a longer period of time has been the 7th generation iPod classic, but even that was revved when the storage went from 120GB to 160GB. By comparison, even the iPad 2 wasn’t sold for as long, and people thought that was getting long in the tooth.

Good pickup, @Oldmacs.

I have a 2012 retina MBP and waiting desperately for a new one to come out before I upgrade. Later this year… Soon… Soon…

I came across this: Why the 2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro still sells – Marco.org when researching MBPs last week and found it gave a pretty good summary of why someone would choose the d101. For me it’s a case of upgradable RAM/HD, all the useful ports and everything else is good enough.

I’d expect the mid-2012 13" MBP might stick around as long as Intel still makes chips & demand for it continues–several other major PC makers selling Win7 booting systems had to stock up on Ivy Bridge & Haswell CPUs because Intel was going to use Broadwell as an OS cutoff point(Win8.1 Pro/10 only).
In the science/gov’t sector there are contracts which force Intel & AMD to make “X” number of vintage chips and hardened chips–quite sure Apple’s close ties with Intel netted them a similar agreement. Plenty of workplaces still demand onboard ethernet(no adapters but docking stations are fine), some ISPs won’t setup internet service or support you if there isn’t an ethernet equipped computer or require a lease of their wifi router/modem+wifi gateway.

Reminds me of my experience with Telstra recently. I have Velocity (a rare, new estate version of NBN like hardware before NBN). They were very surprised when I said I didn’t need their router. Works perfectly with an AirPort Extreme doing PPoE. :slight_smile:

LOL they still billed me for a modem I didn’t need, want, ask for or receive. Fun times!

155 days to go! By my calculations, the mid-2012 MacBook Pro will become Apple’s longest-selling Mac on March 10, 2017.

I dunno if it will last that long!

My workplace (teriary institution) recently removed the 2012 MBP from the shortlist of machines one can request — now limited to Retina MBP and 21.5" iMac.

A sign perhaps?

I work in education and they’re still buying them :stuck_out_tongue:

Mine’s going as strong as ever… typing on one right now!

I love mine to death - especially happy I got the i7 and put an SSD in :stuck_out_tongue:

Picked up one of these machines the other day for the reasonable price of zero dollars, complete with a complimentary cup of coffee throughout the keyboard. The rest of the machine is in immaculate condition however so it’s another restoration job.

I see so many of these machines completely trashed, with water damage, cracked screens, broken clutches, dents, bends, abrasions, missing keys and internals choked with fine dust and dirt that it’s a wonder they continue to work at all. I can’t say I would consider them a great computer, but I sure do have respect for their longevity.

I’m so jealous of you finding these machines, would kill for one haha

I do consider them a great computer :smiley: Fantastic machines for their flexibility and just about everything else.

Missed it by 133 days. RIP, MD101X/A.

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Well then, I’ve bought my last MacBook Pro.

I need to borrow your crystal ball for a second. No, not to tell me what the future of Apple’s product lineup is, but so I can see what I’ll be doing in 5 years time.

/eyeroll