You would have a difficult mission to believe me if I tell you that the last good MacBook you could have bought was thought more than 7 years ago. What's more, its industrial design precedes the wedge type of the Air model and that it is a sandwich type that rather comes from 9 years ago, just because it released the famous Apple steel.
It is, of course, the MacBook Pro Mid-2012. That chubby one, without a Retina display, with Super Drive and a solid case that inherited the Air range, with the shiny apple. The mother of the slimmest model but without Super Drive.
For a long time it was considered, with the death of the white acrylic MacBook (in Mexico, because in the US they were made of steel), as the cheapest Mac when compared to the Air and the somewhat expensive and compact version, which said goodbye to optical readers and used the new MagSafe connectors, with marginal improvements in the internal irons.
In the end, nothing beats the Pro Mid-2012 (not to be confused with the 2012 or previous ones of the same design) for a simple reason: its specifications were not designed with the then new philosophy of Apple around generating proprietary parts, in format unibody and basically with a hardware architecture that loses functionality in search of miniaturization.
That is why its permanence in the market (and even the shipment of equipment to developing countries like ours) remained current and without many complaints, still being able to find it new in 2017, exceeding the life expectancy of a later machine (the Pro without super drive) and some Air models, such as the 11-inch.
And there we are entering a rare time for Apple, concentrating power as a company before the Stock Market after the death of Jobs, with Macs as the last priority before the rise of the iPhone. This stalemate tried to be solved with unsuccessful experiments like the first modern MacBook (the 12-inch one), or the new wave of Pros with faulty keyboard.
In the end, I insist, the home-made expansion capabilities (without depending on Apple) of the MBP Mid-2012 are what make it indispensable and a good buy:
- You can increase the RAM yourself or in a specialized workshop, without much problem.
- The hard drive is replaceable with a solid state one.
- The only thing that cannot be changed is the processor, but the MBP Pro Mid-2012 already came from the factory with Intel chips (from the i5) more than capable.
- You can even remove the Super Drive and put in another hard drive, being confident that both worlds (hard drive and solid state drive) could be tested.
All other MBPs and Airs have an internal circuit board that does not allow modifications. It is intended for zero expansions. You had to choose the model well and marry with 4GB of RAM or 8. Many times in the store I did not make options. And that was the beginning of Apple's break with pro users.
And do you have the best Mac in the world yet?
**
More info on Motherboard
No Comment