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Comment by forgingahead | Hacker News Reader

I regret not buying a stash of 2012 Macbook Pros and hoarding them for my own use.

Edit: And iPhone SEs as well

Mid-2015 rMBP is the peak, I believe.

I think the issue with all models after 2012 was the lack of being able to replace the parts since everything was soldered on -- I could be wrong about the year though.

I know that on the 2015 rMPB the SSD is replaceable. You can even get a recent Samsung SSD and install it (provided you have the right adapter)

https://medium.com/@MaestroVolis/samsung-960-pro-in-15-macbo...

I ended up doing this last year. I bought a Sintech adapter and a Toshiba XG4 SSD for my 2015 15” rMBP. It works just fine but the battery life ended up being terrible compared to the stock SSD. I was getting around 60% of the battery life of the stock SSD with the XG4 + adapter combo.

Shame about the glued-in battery

Careful on the mid-2012 MBPs... as much as I love that machine, they also have their own flexgate [1]. The internal SATA flex cables bend across the Superdrive and rub against the slightly abrasive back plate, so they have a high failure rate if you actually use your device as a laptop (eg travel with it, keep it in an backpack). Apple seems to have had a problem with flex cables for nearly a decade now.

My MBP 2012 has had 6 SATA flex cable replacements by Apple in 3.5 years (I bought mine in 2015). The last few repairs have all been ~3 months apart. It's easily the most unreliable laptop I've ever owned. Thankfully Apple did all the SATA cable replacements free as required by law in Australia.

That said, you should be able to find mid-2012s for about $450 - $650 US refurbished from mom & pop Mac repair stores. [2]

[1] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sata-cable-problem-in-m...

[2] https://www.macofalltrades.com/apple-macbook-pro-13-inch-glo...

I'm still on a late 2011 13". I hit the SATA cable issue once, and called in a lot of favors to get an official replacement (the quote was absurdly high).

The second time it happened, I ordered a couple more cables through ebay. That was 2 years ago, and the second one is still sitting in my drawer...

Okay real talk do people just not take care of their machines or have my friends and I been insanely lucky?

I use my computer daily and travel with it in a backpack all the time and have never once had anything on 5 Mac's I have owned (3 different work computers, 2 personal) break up until this year with the keyboard on the 2016/2017 MBP which in indeed a mess/huge fuckup. I still own both my personal Mac's and besides being pretty slow the 2012 can still run great in a pinch.

Many of my friends also own Mac's and not one has had issues with flex cables, screens, speakers, ports, you name it, until the butterfly keyboard issues. I can't help but wonder if it's a matter of treatment and defining what "regular" use is.

I mostly agree - I have a Pismo G3, 2006 Black MacBook & 2007 Black MacBook that are still in working order. The 2006 had one minor repair but has been fine ever since. I've been that guy who evangelized Mac reliability & AppleCare service to others.

I've been scratching my head trying to work out what I might be doing differently with my 2012 that others don't. The only thing I can think of (besides the backpack) is that I still make use of the internal DVD drive, and that I still have a spinning disk rather than an SSD (I need storage more than I need I/O speed). Perhaps the vibration from those devices causes some of the abrasion on the flex cables.

My wife's mid-2012 MBP's SATA cable failed last week, and it made me wonder if Apple deliberately started soldering hard drives down to avoid these sorts of issues.

Only the 13" has the cable fail issue.

I've had my 15" 2012 for three years, and hope it lasts for a long, long, long time.

Same here, have an early 2011 and this thing breaks usually after 1 year. I am only using the bay where the SuperDrive was these days because it broke once again a couple of weeks ago.

I bought the first touchbar MacBook Pro. Promptly returned it and bought the last high end non-touchbar pro. Best decision I ever made. This thing works just like it should. I don’t expect anything more from it. Yet Apple keeps thinking I do.

Bought first Macbook Pro retina in 2012 with a hefty $2500 price tag. It's been seven years and it still just works fine. Not looking to upgrade

But, important thing to say, I hold on to my Macbook Pro 2013 because of the bad quality of the new versions, not because I’m happy keeping my 2013. The money is still available and I would happily throw €3000 at Apple. It’s just that, they don’t want it, as if I’m not in their target audience. I don’t write enough emojis to benefit from an emoji bar.

Yeah, there's a ton of money just sitting there for whoever makes a viable replacement for the 2012-2015 rMBP. Anything with windows on it is disqualified, and I don't have the inclination these days to deal with driver issues from running Linux on something unsupported.

The closest I've seen are the Dell XPS 13/15 and Thinkpad X1 Carbon/X1 Extreme, but I'm not a fan of the Dell build quality, and the linux support on the Lenovos isn't quite good enough yet (Nvidia Optimus driver issues mostly, and issues with battery life relating to it).

The other potential option is System76, but their laptop hardware just isn't up to par - their POP!_OS seems pretty good though, despite the horrible name, so they are part of the way there.

Anything with windows is disqualified? To me is the other way around, anything with mac os x is disqualified, immediatelly with no mercy :)

Same boat. I rationalized to myself when I bought it that this would be the laptop I stuck with for a decade. I didn't realize the reason I'd be doing that is because the current generations are just so bad. (Keyboard, touchbar, aggressive port diet, etc.)

If someone were to steal this, I'd probably get a Thinkpad at this point. At least their keyboards don't suck, and I can get by with the half-decent touchpad. Maybe even convert to the red little nib...

The little red nib is great once you get used to it. I was a Mac user for many years but I've become a convert to Thinkpads (running Linux, not Windows).

That's the impression I get. I have a company-issued Thinkpad (X270, love it) and I use it about 95% of the time on a dock with external screens and keyboard.

But whenever I use the builtin keyboard, I force myself to ignore the touchpad and use only the trackpoint. It's still weird and clumsy, but I am getting better at it.

iPhone SEs (refurbished) are still available for the hoarding! I bought two earlier this year, and it made me sad realizing that buying two of them was still cheaper than buying one of their newer models.

I have a refurbished from January 2017 that is still performing flawlessly, currently at 88% max battery capacity.

I should get my hands on another 2015-era macbook pro retina though...

I did that for Iphone 6s, the last iphone with an audio jack!

iPhone SEs show up from time to time in the clearance store for $249.

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