It may be puzzling to some why exactly Apple is still offering their non-retina MacBook Pro on their site and in stores for $1,099. It features specs congruent to that of the Mac Mini before its recent update, which results in 2012 caliber specs.
What may be even more puzzling is that I bought one this August. But, apparently, I’m not alone.
According to the representative that sold me the device, the model that I had chosen was one of, if not the best selling model for MacBooks at my particular store. Though he reported that it was due to the larger storage option for a much lower price.
When I was making the decision prior to actually purchasing the device, I did keep that in mind. On a stock level, you get a 500 GB 5200 RPM drive, 4 GB of RAM, and the option to upgrade both. As a result, mine now has a 1 TB 7200 RPM drive, and 8 GB of RAM. For people who know what they are doing, this is essential freedom. It allows the upgrade of both the Memory and Storage, yet keeps the warranty intact (both are considered user-serviceable). It is also the ability to repair a broken HDD or faulty set of RAM on your own, without dealing with the zoo of an Apple Store.
Also note that although the MacBook is sporting 2012 specs, they’re not bad 2012 specs. (click HERE to learn more) For most normal users, who do general mainstream tasks and use the occasional intensive application, the 2012 MacBook Pro is a great option. It supplies plenty of storage, the option to upgrade, and even a built in SuperDrive, all in a portable package. Though the screen is… well, old, and some of the ports are… outdated (Hmm…. FireWire), on a general outlook, the 2012 MacBook Pro is still an incredible option for a good deal of users.
I am a student who loves to write, use Photoshop, and maintain my website (You can check my site out HERE) and my 2012 MacBook Pro does all of that just fine.
So what is your opinion on the Mid-2012 MacBook Pro? Be sure to leave a comment down below, and thanks for reading.
The 13″ Air does this much better with improved battery life and a 1440×900 display.
I can’t think of a single time in the last two years that I’ve needed to use a Superdrive, let alone willingly buy in to outdated technology. Sure, those 2012 internals aren’t the worst running 10.10 Yosemite in 2015 but think about how it’ll perform running 10.13 in 2018.
Richard, I can see your logic in not needing the Superdrive, which seems to be the same for many people. My high school student is active in the music program at his high school. He intends to pursue music as his vocation and get a degree in music. As I have read articles from those in the music industry, he will make use of the Superdrive. So in this case it will be beneficial. I on the other hand have not used the Superdrive on my 2012 Macbook Pro and will soon install a Data Doubler from OWC using the original 500GB SATA drive as a second drive.
I am a musician (teacher and student) and I definitely use my superdrive. I burn CDs all the time to listen in the car to practice and learn lyrics.
WARNING: When adding a OWC DataDoubler you need to bear in mind a design or production flaw which can result in the DataDoubler damaging the wifi cable that runs diagonally over it in at least some MBP models. See my Tweet here https://twitter.com/nicklightbody/status/641559521652027392 for details.
A tall and sharp solder blob on the hinge end of the DataDouble connector circuit board damages the wifi / bluetooth cable that runs over it trapped against the lower section of the case. In my case this resulted in a damaged motherboard, I have meet someone else who had exactly the same thing happen to them, but without the motherboard damage, a few months ago so this is not a one off.
The remedy is to either file off the solder blob to a smooth safe shape or buy a different type of chassis for fitting your SSD which doesn;t have this flaw, the AngelBird looks a possibility, I am about to try one.
I now use a 2011 13.3 MacBook Air. I am in the market for a 13.3 inch Macbook Pro because of the inexpensive drive upgrade-ability and most importantly for me, the ability to upgrade the RAM. I currently have 4GB of non-upgrade-able RAM and I often see it getting maxed out when I use the laptop. I have a OWC 512GB Aura drive and it constantly benchmarks writes in the 200mb’s instead of the common 400mb’s of current SSD’s (I believe it has a SATA1 drive BUS). I am looking forward to getting the full advantage of using a modern SSD, like a Samsung EVO in a MacBook pro.
I ordered a used Mid 2012 from OWC in excellent condition for $779 after comparing the specs of a new one on Apple’s site. My brother and I couldn’t find a difference between the two. This article confirms my assumption they were two in the same. Thanks.
I love my 17″ 2012 mac book pro. It offers the best of all worlds and I’d recommend one anytime.
I had a Macbook Pro 15″ retina (2012). It was a great laptop, but what annoyed me was the lack of space on the 256Gb SSD. I had bootcamp with Windows also for work, and trying to keep track of all the files on both OS’s via a portable HDD was a nightmare, I lost files more than once with having to delete files to keep enough space free. There was no way I was paying £450 to upgrade it to 512 which would still not be enough for my needs. Therefore I just sold the thing and got the non-retina model, upgraded it with a 1Tb drive and still had money left over. Having a built in DVD drive also meant I could ditch the portable DVD drive.
I guess Apple will scrap the non-retina model in the coming year, its the last true Apple laptop. Modern laptops are much more like tablets and soon the whole idea of a Laptop will be dead, the desktop is pretty much dead except for corporate markets.
Where will we be in 10 years, it will all be inside us maybe?
Check out Other World Computing, which is recommended by Apple techs. You can upgrade to a larger SSD, great prices and service.
If people start switching to PC’s, hopefully it will hopefully make Apple more inclined to see that the MacBook runs more smoothly without the aid of free software like detoxmymac.org – I have been frustrated with my MacBook’s performance prior to fixing it and would like Apple to get back to products that run smoothly out of the box. Perhaps switching is a step in the right direction.
Kacey, what year and specs of your Mac?
I cannot agree with you more regarding the direction I see Apple going. I feel the problem is that they are moving away from the foundations established by Steve Jobs, no out sourcing for anything with everything done in house. It seems to me that the problems being experienced by Yosemite can be traced to their possibly releasing the OS prior to it being stable enough for release. Something Microsoft has been doing from the very beginning. So my thought is that if Apple does not return to its roots I am very concerned that it will eventually be no better than Microsoft.
I have a Macbook Pro 15 (late 2011) non-retina and I just ordered the Macbook Pro 13-Mid 2012 (I7, 8gb ram, 750 from Apple refurb) for the exact same reason. Flexibility! I don’t (probably never will) work in the “high intensity” world of photo editing, etc., etc. so I don’t have a pressing need for a model so high end. Personal preference. I ordered another non-retina because i am sure they are going the way of the dinosaur after this year and I did not want to kick myself and miss an opportunity to buy into the last “great notebook” or perfectly good (exceptional) piece of engineering! My current is MORE than fast enough, screen pops (at least on my 15), and the heft is no big deal as I rarely need to transport it except to the library with my son.
The incoming 13 ( will be here tomorrow) may have a slightly lower resolution (I tried it in the store), but not enough for me to notice. Will upgrade to SSD drive and will max out ram at 16 when I am in the mood, but right now I just want to be sure to have this option down the road vs. the REALLY expensive retina models. No offense to any of you retina owners out there but with the limited memory/ram you pay top dollar for, it would really annoy me if I ran out of space, and nothing bothers me more than running out of space!
Just call me old school!
I have a 2007 Macbook 13 inch that my 16 year old is using for high school assignments. I upgraded it to Lion, 4GB RAM, and a 256SSD, which greatly increased its performance and it boots from off in 20 seconds. For this reason I am considering the 2012 as a graduation gift for his college studies. I intend to upgrade the 2012 to 8GB RAM and a Toshiba or Seagate 1TB Hybrid, which has 8GB SSD and 1TB SATA and is not that much slower than SSD for only about $100.00 from OWC.
I use a mid-2012 w/ 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. As a developer, I use it all day and run VMWare Fusion to work simultaneously in Win7. I am just about wanting to upgrade, but this thing is still a powerhouse.
I have the 4GB Ram version of this Macbook since it was released. Now with the latest OS it runs so damn slow. I click Safari and after 2 minutes it will open….the same with pretty much all the apps.
Im continually “cleaning” the RAM usage with a memory hog app.
I was prepared to shell out for a new Macbook but to get the 500GB I need, I’m looking at £1400 which is a farce considering I just get a small processor upgrade, Retina display and more RAM.
So now I’m thinning to just add more RAM to this machine if it will speed it up
Just add a SSD and as much RAM as it will take – the machine will be unrecognisable and you will not need a new one.
I bought one of these a few days ago at BestBuy while it was on sale. The sale price along with $60 in BestBuy certificates made the price $839. I wanted a computer separate from my 2015 retina 15″ MBP to use for my iTunes music and podcasts and have a burner built in.
I’m heading up to CU Boulder to start school later this month and I’m thinking the 2012 will be the one I take with me to class.
15″ 2012 i7 mbp with 16gb ram, ssd 120gb + hdd 750 (superdrive removed). Yosemite boots in less than 10 seconds, photoshop 2 sec, lightroom 4 sec (empty catalog) final cut pro x 2 sec… I still seeing it like one of the best laptops, it has 3 years and i can edit 2,5k & 4K (raw and prores4444xq) perfectly. Lets see El Capitan… Metal seems to improve even more the graphic preformance for image/video…. So if you see a deal like the above one, dont doubt it. I still prefer this2012 than the new retina.
Albert, I have the similar specs. I was looking at getting a new external monitor. Apple says (https://support.apple.com/kb/SP694?locale=en_US) that it will drive an external monitor at 2560×1440. Have you tried yours with an ultra wide (3440×1440) or 4K (3840 x 2160) monitor? I’m not doing intensive work. But having the screen real estate would be nice.
I have a mid 2012 mac and tbh I didn’t have satisfied from day first, I don’t know if I am a stupid user or Its because of its 4MB RAM, but its never works like a mac. I really don’t what to do?!
I don’t use any special app, just a normal user. I restore to factory setting once and upgraded to Yosemite, but the situation became worse with frequent crash!
Do you have any recommendation that I can get rid of these regular hassles?
Thank you in advance.
Kamran
If you’ve been using Mac Book Pro for a half dozen years, and bought a new 2012 edition. The FireWire allows me to access hard drives from years past. Otherwise, you have to transfer gigabytes and terabytes to new drives for editing on Final Cut Pro. Somebody tell Apple: I don’t want everything to be obsolete! Continuity works
I’ve the exact same model, my 13″ MBP specs are i7 2.9GHz, 750GB SATA 5400RPM and 8GB DDR3.
I don’t recall Apple offering 7200RPM SATA HDD as an option and to correct your article, there is no 5200 RPM HDD in the market.. Only 5400 RPM :)
When I purchased my MBP, it was running on Mountain Lion and it was so smooth (almost liquid smooth). I had no problems with it whatsoever.
In fact, I even skipped the Mavericks update as I heard there were so many problems with it.
Then I finally updated to Yosemite when it was launched and finally experienced sluggishness for the first time on my MBP. However, that problem was also resolved eventually with the updates.
As I type this, I’m currently updating to the latest OSX i.e. El Capitan and I can only keep my fingers crossed that it won’t screw up my MBP like before.
Overall, I have to say that my experience with my MBP has been great and Apple’s latest MBP seems ridiculous to me. The mid-2012 MBP model is the best model out there if you don’t need “retina display”. Well, if I had an option.. Then I’d have gone for the retina display instead but I’m happy with what I’ve chosen. My MBP have been reliable to me and I don’t see the need to upgrade or change it any time soon.
I also have a Dell Inspiron 7000s series but I still prefer to use my MBP due to its reliability and faster response time as compared to Windows 10. Windows will only be used due to work and it’s versatility but OSX will always be more stable than Windows.
If you need a laptop to work, edit photograph/video, burn DVD/CD, work with music and to last out for your university studies/research.. The mid 2012 MBP model is more than enough to accommodate those requirements. I’ve been using computers since DOS and I’ve used every OS on Windows.. There is nothing better than OSX and you can’t go wrong with the Apple MBP.
Have a good day! :)
I have had a very bad experience with the 2012 MBP. It is very slow and laggy, even when just using Safari and Chrome. Even just switching from one tab to another. I’m not running more than 2-4 apps at time, just Word and two browsers. We have very good WIFI at work. Any ideas?
I have the same issues, well documented with Apple… I have AppleCare, but the diagnostics they run at the apple store can’t recreate the problems. My senior advisor at Apple promised a replacement logic board, memory and hard drive, but the store doesn’t want to do it. I had the same issues within the first couple of months that I owned it, they replaced those same parts, but it just kept happening. I am incredibly frustrated… Any ideas?
My little Macbook Pro 13′ 2012 Mid is 4 years old and it’s still working great with the Intel® Core™ i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4(Can be Turbo Boosted to 2.8Ghz),120GB SSD,Yes,don’t judge me,4GB of RAM.It’s an absolute beast.It can still run games like Dota 2 in medium graphics,OverWatch in low graphic and of course,the one and only,Minecraft,in highest graphic settings and i get like 80fps which is not too shabby.It’s hardwares are still in excellent condition except for the MagSafe board which I replaced few months ago because it wore out :P I won’t recommend using hard drives as they are prone to damage if you always dump your Macbook on your bed when your home from school (thats how my hard drive died XD).So going for an upgrade of 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD when you would want to go for the MBP 2012 Mid is a pretty good idea :D
I have a MacBook Pro 15″ mid 2012 non retina model. It has a Quad Core 2.3GHz Intel I7 processor, 16GB 1600MHz PC3 12800 Ram (upgraded from 4GB), antiglare display (Upgraded from regular screen by 3rd party screen vender) & Samsung 850 Pro 512GB solid state drive(upgraded from 5400RPM 500GB hard drive)! I love how customizable this model is. It is way cheaper to upgrade on your own with this model. With the retina models you lose the ability to change non functioning ram or hard drive. You also lose the ability to customize your laptops specs to whatever you want. What you buy is what you get with the retinas. Now if you have the money that may not be an issue since you can buy the laptop with the best specs available but if something fails you have to trade in laptop because no parts can be replaced as opposed to the mid 2012 models. On the retina models you can’t even switch out ram, that sucks! If your ram fails you have to go to apple and get a whole new laptop. & if your out of warranty you gotta pay a hefty price for this replacement. With the mid 2012 model like i said earlier if ram or hard drive needs replacing you can do it by your self while saving money, time spent at packed apple store & you get to keep same laptop. I’m not sure about retina models but another benefit of mid 2012 model is that you can replace the screen. And honestly a Quad Core I7 intel at 2.3GHz that can turbo boost to 3.3GHz is already very fast. The new retina models processors are a bit better but to notice the difference you have to be doing intense activities on laptop and retina performance is not that noticeable over the non retina performance. Of course this is comparing the 15″ inch retina & non retina models that both carry Quad core intel I7. Overall personally i do not like the retina models because you can’t customize or replace almost anything inside (screen HOWEVER I’m not sure if retina screen can be replaced, hard drive, ram etc.) One last thing i want to mention is storage. You can switch out optical drive (recommend a professional installation) and get more memory than you can on retina models. It’s possible to get 1TB SSD and switch optical drive to and put a SSD with 1TB and you got 2TB of memory on it! That is more than any retina model can offer. Samsung also just released a 2TB SSD model and I’m not sure if its compatible but if it is that means you can get 4TB of storage on the laptop! That’s insanely great if it’s compatible with the laptop which i see no reason why it would not be compatible. I’m actually going to look into getting two 2TB for my laptop and I will let you know if they re compatible but again i don’t see why not.
Another advantage, and for me the main one, is that you can add a 2nd onboard HDD by swapping out the optical drive. I have a Samsung EVA 1TB SSD as my main hard drive, and a 2nd 1 TB Hitachi 5400 rpm as my data drive.
It means I’ve got pretty fast access to 2 TB of data/apps, without needing any external HDD via USB.
I’ve also upgraded to the max RAM: 16 GB.
My understanding is that the mid 2012 machine is the last one where you can do all these changes.
So sure, it’s bigger and heavier than an Air, but I USE that space.
I have BootCamp for running Windows fast, with all system resources if needed.
And I also have Parallel’s Desktop so i can run Windows when needed.
I also installed El Capitan to try it out via Parallels.
All that uses SSD/HDD space.
The non-Retina screen is not an issue for me, since 90% of the time I use it with a 2nd much bigger screen, even two more screens.
At home I have two Samsung 21″ screens using a Matrox splitter.
So in effect, at home I have three screens (with the laptop 13″).
For portability, I just bought an Apple Pro tablet that has a Retina 13″ screen: which makes sense since I DO use the screen. And it’s light(ish), and it can use Apple plus the various Office software (not perfectly, but enough to at least access documents).
As a commercial photography student I can tell you photographers and digital techs who often use medium format camera’s seek out this model of mbp due to it’s power output from the ports being high enough to power any camera back. On top of that I believe this is the only MBP that ever had firewire, thunderbolt, usb3 and a cd drive! The “improved” battery power they speak of in new mbp’s is a cut of power to the ports and such.
if the change the basic configuration of a new 2012 model will my warranty be void
No, upgrading the ram & hard drive is classed as user replaceable so you wont void your warranty.
Trying to decide between the mid 2012 13″ and the 2015 pro with retina display. I need storage for pictures/videos, and to start blogging. The price difference between the two are crazy, so I really need a good reason to get the 2015…???
my 13 inch mid 2012 runs perfect 2.9ghz with a i7, i have upgraded the ram to 16gb and 500GB solid state hard drive myself, startup is almost instantly and once i type my password everything is open and running within a few seconds the option of the cd drive is good for ripping my music collection onto the computer buying used CDs is a lot cheaper then paying per song online
Thanks for the info. I went ahead and got the mid 2012 with i5. I would like to upgrade soon after it comes in. The apple site says it it is only compatible to 8gb RAM? But I’ve heard of people upgrading to 16gb (like yourself). Have you had any problems? Would you say it makes that big of a difference to upgrade to an SSD instead of keeping the hard drive? What brand/company did you go through to purchase the SSD and RAM memory? Lastly, how do you reinstall the operating system after you swap out these things. Sorry so many questions. I’m kinda new to the upgrading world.
Thanks for the info. I went ahead and got the mid 2012 with i5. I would like to upgrade soon after it comes in. The apple site says it it is only compatible to 8gb RAM? But I’ve heard of people upgrading to 16gb (like yourself). Have you had any problems? Would you say it makes that big of a difference to upgrade to an SSD instead of keeping the hard drive? What brand/company did you go through to purchase the SSD and RAM memory? Lastly, how do you reinstall the operating system after you swap out these things. Sorry so many questions. I’m kinda new to the upgrading world.
I upgraded a mid 2012 13″ MacBook Pro with 16 GIG of ram. Also swapped the hard drive for a Samsung Evo 500GB solid state drive. Videos on uTube show how. The Samsung Evo upgrade make a massive difference. It is a completely different experience. I would highly recommend going the whole hog and getting 16GB of ram, you will need it. Well worth the little bit extra you pay over the 8GB or 12GB (4 + 8). I used a Time machine backup to install the operating system. I had a back up of a clean install with just a few important software items on it. Clean is good, leave out all garbage that accumulates over time and slows down your laptop. Took all of 60 seconds to take the back of the MBP and put in the SSD. Ram also very easy. A 27″ external monitor is so much better than a tiny 13″ retina screen. A friend did the same with a 2011 MBP, the results were equally excellent.
I upgraded a mid 2012 Macbook Pro with 16 GB of ram and a 500GM Samsung Evo Solid state drive. The solid state drive made a massive difference, a completely new experience, like having a new computer. A friend did the same with a 2011 MBP with equally outstanding results. I highly recommend going the whole hog and getting the full 16GB ram, you will need it. Initially I just got a single 8GB stick and swapped out one of the 2GB ram sticks that it came with. 2 x 8GB sticks were much better. It took about 60 seconds to take of the back of the laptop and put in the solid state drive. Ram is also very easy, there are videos on uTube. I had used a Time machine backup of a nearly new operating system install that just had a few important software installs added. A clean install is great, leaves out all that garbage that we accumulate over time that slows down our laptops. When you put in your SSD do not forget check that TRIM is enabled. I went to Launchpad searched for Terminal and typed in ‘SUDO trimforce enable’. If you don’t have a passwork on your laptop, you will need to put one before you do this, (it will ask you for your password). You can check if TRIM is enabled on: About this Mac/ System report/ SATA / Trim Support:
most of the people to buy good performance and easy to carry budget based product I think MacBook pro mid-2012 is best that why apple selling this product may be mac -air and retina are best they don’t have SuperDrive , battery indicator, rf receiver
I think Mac users get a bit of a raw deal in terms of what tech they end up with when they buy a machine in most cases if you consider Moore’s law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law I’ts hard enough for one company to keep up with others in the PC market but to have to support the OS software as well as tablets and phones you can understand how some of their computer technology tends to fall behind a little bit.
I fix electronics for living (Apple mostly), performing advanced reworks on all kind of devices. And IMHO this is one of the best models produced by Apple ever. It is durable, solid, open to modifications and upgrades, and most important, it’s perfectly repairable. I live by the sea, and I’m getting lots of repairs related to the new Retina machines. Besides being more fragile, the fine sensitive electronic components that Apple started using on late models are just not that durable and resistant as on these Mid 2012 models. Here we crossing the line of physical size of the electronics parts and their vulnerability to external damage, oxidation mostly. This is not a secret that a little humidity accumulated because of external conditions could “eat” small micro-transistors or 0.25 balls used to solder IC or other chips on fine thin models much faster than 0.5-0.6 soldering used on this model. Also, the new technology used to solder latest logic boards is just not accessible for any small repairs, which could’ve been easily performed on previous models. Essentially, latest laptops from Apple are big iPads with keyboard and high res screens (incredibly expensive and prone to damage). I understand, users are happy while these machines are new, they look solid, light and work fast. With time these machine start failing, one way or another and mostly after the Warranty or Apple Care have expired. And here it comes, tears and cries about data loss, 3K thrown on the wind and other “average user” whining. What these “average Apple consumers” don’t understand is that each time they choose to buy all these iPads with keyboards, they make Apple think this is what user really needs. Instead of having durable, solid, long lasting piece of equipment. Which most current Apple models unfortunately aren’t.
love this model..running on 2TB SSD RAID..16GB RAM..so perfect…using Macbook Pro 2012 2.9ghz i7..
anyone is having microsoft office 2007 or 2010 copy for macbook pro
u can dload online for Microsoft office 2016..
It’s because Mac buyers don’t know they’re buying a 4 year old Mac, and probably wouldn’t if they knew Apple was charging 1100 dollars for old tech.
Well,the 2012 mid version of MBP is still a pretty good laptop which I’m using now :P
Personally I’m glad they’re still selling the old model of MacBook Pro. In fact, I wish they still sold the old 2012 15″ model. I purchased this model used for $900, upgraded it with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SanDisk SSD, and had cash left over compared to the base-level 13″ Retina MacBook Pro. The discrete Nvidia GT 650M graphics and 2.3GHz quad-core Ivy Bridge i7 processor supply plenty of power for my needs (writing, music and video editing, and (very) light gaming) and it includes support for all the goodies that we have come to expect from Macs (such as Handoff, Continuity, AirDrop between iOS and macOS, AirPlay, and Thunderbolt) while being less expensive (and more powerful!) than my brother’s 13″ 2013 rMBP. I think that this model provides the best of both worlds for Mac users, since it provides great flexibility while retaining semi-competitive specs.
I’ll be using the 2012 13″ pro for as long as I can. I have a 500GB SSD installed in the DVD bay, and a 2TB data drive installed. For those that need a lot of data storage, the newer mac pros are not an option. I don’t want to lug around an external hard drive all the time either. The screen resolution is good enough for productivity work that I do. 2012 MacBooks are still the best, and most flexible laptop apple has made in my opinion. Storage limitations on all the newer models is the main deterrent for me.
I use a Mid 2012 model because I can swap the super drive for an extra hdd, my current config is 1TB of storage in total, planning on having 2 1TB 7200 RPM drives since i like to carry alot of my content on board, and i have a bootcamp partition.
im using Macbook Pro 2012 2.6ghz i7 Non Retina 16GB 1866mhz RAM 4TB Samsung 850 EVO RAID 0 (2tb x 2)….lovin’ it
I just bought a Certified Refurbished 13″ 2.5 i5 stock version and am maxing the RAM and adding a SSD. This is my first Mac ever, and I think I made the right choice, even with it 5 years old now. If the battery, or RAM, or HDD have issues, I can still replace them myself. For my first Mac, I could have done a lot worse. It may not be the shiniest new Mac, but I have every confidence it will do what *I* need it to do for at least 4-5 years.