The MacBook Pro without a Retina Display has been whittled down from 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch to just 13-inch, and this thing hasn’t received a single update except a price cut on June 2014. When Apple debuted its super thin Touch-Bar MacBook Pro 13-inch and 15-inch, the 13 inch Non Retina (a.k.a Unibody) MacBook Pro was discontinued.
Before this review, I would like to point out that there are four generation of MacBook Pro:
The first generation is called “Non-Unibody MacBook Pro”
The second generation is called “Unibody MacBook Pro”
The third generation is called “Retina MacBook Pro”
The fourth generation is called “The Touch Bar MacBook Pro”.
People called the last remnant Unibody MacBook Pro as “Non-Retina MacBook Pro” but to me, that is confusing, so I decided to stick with its original name, which is “Unibody MacBook Pro”.
At first, I purchased this MacBook Pro when Apple introduced “The Retina MacBook Pro” due to the fact that the Retina MacBook Pro can hardly be upgraded. When Apple decided to keep the Unibody Body MacBook Pro until October 2016, I felt like I want to restart the Apple care for this MacBook Pro, so I sold the 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro and CTO 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro before the October 2016’s keynote. It runs El Capitan and the Apple Care is also being restarted to year 1. Even better it also possess all features that are considered “outdated” by Apple Standard. Going forward, all MacBook Pro doesn’t have any ports except the USB C and a headphone but with the rising of “Airpods”, which is Apple wireless earphone, the headphone port will likely to be going out as well.
Here is the spec for this Mid 2012 MacBook Pro (which I brought before the October 2016 keynote)
Processor: Dual-Core Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge 2.9 GHz (with Turbo Boost 3.6 GHz) 4MB L3 Cache
Memory: 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD 4000 Graphics with 1GB VRAM
Storage: 500GB 5400rpm ATA Hard Disk Drive.
WiFi: Supported 802.11a, b, g, n
Apple Price: $1,249
Operating System: OS X El Capitan.
This Mac uses a processor that is four years older than the current 2017 MacBook Pro 13-Inch with Touch Bar. The thing that made people want to consider buying this 2012 MacBook Pro is the fact that it still retains the traditional FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, Battery life indicator, Kensington Lock, Optical Drive, and the most loved function: Upgradeable hardware. As outdated as it is, there are still some goods left in this MacBook Pro. Since there aren’t a lot of things I dislike about this MacBook Pro, I’m going to start with that. After that, I’ll discuss about what people dislike but it doesn’t affect me at all, and I’ll finish off with what I like about it.
What I dislike about this MacBook Pro
– Display: This is one of my biggest issues for this version of the MacBook Pro. The display is not IPS, so the viewing angle is probably the worst. Comparing to the Non-Unibody MacBook Pro, this MacBook Pro also has some serious issue with reflection. Unlike the Retina MacBook Pro and the Touch Bar MacBook Pro, the display is protected by a single glass, which provide a great protect when someone used their nail to point at something on the display but it also provides a serious issue with reflection.
The other thing to take into consideration is the resolution. If you are used to the super sharp high resolution Retina Display from Apple, this Mac can be a pain to work with. The resolution is only 1280 X 800 which is obviously low for today standard of notebook.
Here are some disadvantages that I don’t really mind.
– Weight: let’s talk about how heavy this MacBook Pro is. Seriously if your a used to the current Touch Bar MacBook Pro, the Retina MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, or the Retina MacBook or if you think 2.06 kg (4.5 pounds) is considerably heavy, you might have a hard time with this MacBook Pro. I’m used to carrying a big 17-inch MacBook Pro that weight at least 2.99 kg (6.6 pounds), so personally, 2.06 kg is not a big deal.
– No Quad Core and weak graphic: It would be too much to ask for a quad-core now but I believe it will come (someday). However you have to admit that this computer is currently running an over four years old Dual core Processor and an outdated Intel HD 4000 Graphic. The current MacBook Pro 13-Inch with Touch Bar and without Touch Bar are running Dual Core Kaby Lake processor with Intel Iris Plus Graphic. You can tell the big different in performance between these MacBook Pros. .
However, for day-to-day tasks like surfing website or working on Apple’s iWork apps, I don’t see any hiccup issues. It does come for 3rd party apps but it’s pretty rare for Apple designed Apps like Xcode or Final Cut Pro. Since this can handle day-to-day tasks and not graphic intensive apps (Adobe After Effect, Autodesk Maya, etc), for me, this is good enough.
– Battery Life: It should come as a no surprise that this MacBook Pro is very weak when it comes to Battery life comparing to the Retina MacBook Pro or the Touch Bar MacBook Pro. If you are used to 10 hours of Battery power or All-day battery life from both Retina MacBook and MacBook Air, this might not serve you well.
However, I tend to bring along the Magsafe so when I use this MacBook Pro for presentation or web surfing, the battery won’t present much of a problem. Whenever I want to use some more intensive apps such as Final Cut Pro or Xcode, I would continue to use the MacBook Pro’s battery until it reaches 10 percent before I charge it.
What I like about this MacBook Pro
– Repairing and Upgrading: This is probably the biggest advantage of this MacBook Pro. No soldered RAM or Flash storage, no glued battery, etc. I highly doubt you can truly do all of these stuff on any of the current MacBook line. Even better, you can make a fusion drive out of this MacBook Pro. Even the current Mac desktop except the Mac Pro, are pretty difficult to do a self-upgrading. This MacBook Pro does have an issue with booting up due to the fact that it’s running on a 500GB 5400rpm ATA Hard Disk Drive, but like I said you can upgrade the hard disk to a solid state, or you can swap out the Optical drive and run a secondary hard-disk for storage.
– MagSafe: This might not concern a lot of people but it really is a big deal to me. When I used my Retina MacBook, there were tons of times when I had the Retina MacBook went flying across the room because I accidentally caught the power cord adaptor in my foot. With the MagSafe (as the name said it), it just yanks off. With the USB C charger, it’s not just the computer you have to worry about, but also your cable could be ripped apart because when someone especially the big or super strong people caught the power cord adapter in their foot, the USB C, even if its Apple’s cable, it won’t be able to withstand such impact. However the MagSafe is magnetic, so it just pulls right out and nothing gets damage. Unlike MagSafe 2, this version of MagSafe isn’t easily pulled right out. The MagSafe 2 sometime gets pulled right out when I was working on a sofa or something bumpy. Finally the best part of the MagSafe is the charging indicator that indicated whether your battery is full or not.
– Ports: I must say this is where this MacBook Pro really shined. The new Touch Bar MacBook Pro however, has only four ports of USB-C and one Headphone port. This 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro has a MagSafe, Gigabyte Ethernet, FireWire 800, Thunderbolt 1, Two USB 3.0, SDXC card reader, Optical Disk Drive, Kensington Lock and a headphone jack. Despite the fact that we are in a wireless world, this 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro can adjust in the world without any issue because you can use Airdrop and send data from one Mac to another or from iOS device to the 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro. Basically this 13-inch Unibody MacBook Pro isn’t only equipped with full IO, but it’s also equipped with everything wireless activity you can do with the current Touch Bar MacBook Pro.
– Keyboard: One thing I’m really having a hard time with the new Touch Bar MacBook Pro is the keyboard itself. Coming from a MacBook Pro 2006 to MacBook Pro 2016, it’s going to take a while until I got used to the Butterfly Mechanism keyboard, but that is where my Retina MacBook come into play. It was there mainly for me get comfortable with the Butterfly Mechanism. Since I’m used to the Scissor Mechanism keyboard, I really enjoy using this Unibody MacBook Pro keyboard.
– Trackpad: I still don’t get it as to why Apple would want to make a gigantic trackpad for the Touch Bar MacBook Pro. I think it’s good because you can do a lot of things with it, but I don’t feel comfortable using it. Typing won’t be a problem because it has a good palm rejection, but I don’t feel comfortable using that gigantic trackpad. The trackpad on this MacBook Pro is great. To me, this is the perfect size for the 13-inch MacBook Pro. My 12-inch Retina MacBook also has a gigantic trackpad, but that trackpad, to me, is a perfect size. However, if it were to get any bigger, the usage is going to be a problem.
Overall
This Unibody MacBook Pro received a spec upgrade and a new USB 3.0 in 2012 and since then it hasn’t received any upgrade except price cut in 2014 and it was discontinued in 2016. I brought this MacBook Pro on the day before the Touch Bar MacBook Pro keynote, so basically this Mac isn’t completely outdated. The processor itself might be outdated but it’s not obsolete to the point it cannot be used. Even if I went a little crazy and have it render some 4k video, this 13-inch MacBook Pro still has an Apple Care that would expire in 2019.
In fact, to have a Mac with Apple Care and that Mac you can upgrade the RAM, change the battery, change the current 500GB 5400rpm ATA Hard Disk Drive to a Solid state Drive, etc is very rare. This unibody MacBook Pro will be a decent machine until 2019 where its Apple Care will expire and at that time, its hardware will be too weak to deal with intensive apps like Maya or After Effect.
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