Yeah, my 7 year old middle-of-the-line MacBook pro is still kicking, so I haven't had to seriously think about upgrades. One of the annoying things is that I won't be able to make my next MacBook last that long because I won't be able to replace broken stock parts or upgrade ram/storage. I appreciate the tradeoffs inherent in modularity/replaceability vs. portability, but a huge part of the appeal of old macs was their ridiculous lifetimes, which I don't expect will be as long going forward.
I mean, my 2010 MBP has 16GB of ram and a 512GB SSD. The benchmark stats are awful for CPU/GPU/memory/storage speeds, but it's pretty pathetic that 7 years later I can't even choose to get a new mac with more memory.
I have the same setup with my 15" MBP, that was probably the last upgradeable Apple laptop ever.
I'd love a retina display, but I'll be holding on to that outdated MBP for as long as I can. I don't really care for the reduction in thickness and weight these mono-block designs have purportedly made possible. It's not even about them overcharging me for parts I can easily upgrade myself for half the price, although they do.
For me the main problem is the fact that as these machines are mere appliances now, their capabilities are fixed from the moment of purchase. There is no way to upgrade RAM, or to replace a damaged part. Now, any kind of defect means the device is bricked. And I will never be able to extend it beyond its original functionality.
This is not OK for a device that costs € 3000+ and has an expected service life of 2-3 years. These devices are simply too expensive for a design that treats them as mere disposables. Because that's what they have become.
If those tightly-integrated hunks of plastic were getting cheaper, I'd say this is just the way things go: a rapid buy-and-replace cycle with a solid recycling process behind it. But that's not the direction Apple is going. They seem to be focusing on customers for whom a frequent multi-thousand dollar expense is no issue.
Increasingly, I just get the sense that Apple is screwing me and the profit margin on those devices is a good indicator for that.
I love all the responses about how folks are able to prolong the lifespan of their older Mac hardware (I'm running a 2010 MBP myself). I imagine that's part of the problem -- Apple sells more hardware if you can't upgrade.
I still use my 2012 MacBook Pro 15”. I upgraded it yesterday with a new 2 TB SSD drive to replace the 1 TB SSD I bought 4-5 years ago.
It’s still surprisingly fast and the only thing that feels really old is the screen. Modern retina screens are way better.
Unfortunately the battery life is degrading and the power cable have started to crack.
Pretty sure my next laptop won’t be from Apple unless the prices for upgrades come way down, or drives/memory can be replaced. Paying 3-4000 euro for a new laptop with limited lifetime is not an option.
Apple has gone cheap. That's what is wrong. The Late 2012 Mac Mini I bought recently died for no apparent reason. It had upgradeable hard disks and memory. The 2014 version I just replaced it with has 4GB of RAM soldered onto the board and the case is designed not to be opened at all. That is just one small example, but a) the one I had shouldn't have died, and b) the replacement isn't anywhere as good as the old one.
As a long time Mac user I agree. My 2011 MacBook Pro is nearing the end of its life, even after ssd and RAM upgrades. This month I’m buying a System76 Gazelle to replace it. Been waiting years for Apple to deliver a laptop that meets my needs but they’ve gone the opposite direction I wish they would.
I work full time for an IT company that supports Apple products and we are in the same position. Its hard for us to recommend upgrades unless there is an hardware failure that's beyond the replacement cost. I still rock a 2012 MBP that has RAM, HDD, ODD, and ports. It can be service by removing 8 screws. IMHO it is the peak Apple Laptop. After 2012 they started being anti-consumer, anti-repair in laptop design.
All I want from a new MBP is to easily replace the: battery, ram and SSD. My current one is several years old and has only lasted this long because those parts could be substituted.
I'm guessing it's a lost cause, their ideas aligned with mine for a short window and then they decided to turn it into a gadget rather than a user serviceable computer.
Unfortunately Apple, although creating technically excellent products[0] is a very bad player as far as the environment is concerned. In particular, they insistence on thinness and related design choices (gluing everything together) makes the shelf life of their products relatively short. This is wrong no matter how you look at it. I have no problem with paying premium, I have a problem with the fact that my MacBook Pro from 2019 upgrades my main tool (Xcode) for a few hours, just because it is a 128GB model - supposedly the most popular one. I mean, it has "Pro" in the name, why does it behave like a toy? Why can't I replace the tiny 128GB drive with a 2TB one I just bought from Samsung? Because Apple decided I can't.
It wasn't always this way. Before the thinness craze, I think around 2013, you could freely replace your memory and disks - and I still have several of these machines beefed up.
[0] Most of the time - let's ignore little fucups everybody makes from time to time
I never had a laptop that I used as long as my MBP (2011) and it's still going strong.
That being said the problem with the new Macbook Pro's is that in their quest of making things thinner a lot of possibilities regarding future upgrades disappeared. Through the years I have upgrade my RAM and replaced the HDD with a SSD. I spend in total (including the macbook pro itself) 1500 euro's max and that over a couple of years.
I do work but I'm also disabled making that my income is not at the range that I honestly can afford the new Macbook Pro's or can cough the amount to get a configuration that will last me 5 years... The base model costs more than my current system (including the upgrades) and the price they ask for a simple 16Gb RAM makes the cost even more out of my reach. And unfortunately in this we aren't able to buy refurbs from the store as it only includes iPods and iPads.
That being said there are more important things in life than a MBP and I'm also thinking about my post mac life that will happen when my current machine dies.
I have a 2012 rMBP, one of the first revisions. I genuinely don't know what I'm gonna do when this thing eventually dies on me. It's been a great piece of hardware and I use all the ports on a consistent basis, even hdmi.
It's amazing that people keep supporting Apple despite it being so obvious that they are not doing it in the best interest of the customers. Think why wouldn't Apple keep a pro lineup that offers upgradable parts for the cost of little more weight and size(that theory itself is bs but anyway)? My MacBook Pro would work perfectly fine for another 5 years if I can upgrade the ram and replace my battery(which I can but have to give to service centre or risk myself with a complex diy procedure). The retina MBP have reached a pinnacle of laptop if you ask me with very minimal upgrades happening over the years. The CPU performance have improved but for most of the tasks I do it's going good and probably will hold itself for another 4-5 years provided I can upgrade the ram so that it can accommodate apps built by developers with modern computers with lavish ram.
With things at apple going this direction it seems that they don't want to make technology as long lived as it could be. I know people don't buy new products with the long run in mind in many cases, leaving folks with little alternative to a full upgrade after the warranty has expired and something goes wrong.
I myself have always enjoyed getting every last drop of life out of my computers. There is some joy in getting usefulness out of technology ten years out of date.
My 2013 MBP is great, I can see it lasting a few more years even. It was that forward looking.
A 2016 MBP... I can't see it holding up. The cap on RAM I'm already butting up against it...
Photoshop, VMs, site crawls, loading large spreadsheets and trying to crunch the numbers... 16 GB taxes my current system.
I've sort of just given up, I have a gaming desktop I built myself a year or so back with 64 GB of RAM. I just use that when I want to do "work" now... everything loads faster. Freakin' hate that I can't just buy a new MBP for that stuff, but... it's not top of the line, isn't built to last like previous generations were.
I'll keep my 2013 MBP until it gives out on me I guess... running out of Apple Care on it and the battery cycles are high... also not wild about trusting work to a 3-year-old SSD... but cross my fingers I guess.
My sister still uses my old MBP from 2008 or so -- it holds up for most of her needs after a replacement battery and SSD, it's still a solid computer. I don't see these new MBPs holding up like that at all.
Not going to say the new MBPs are shit, but they aren't built to be light-years ahead like they once were. That's what I think everyone is upset about.
I love my rMBP, but I know it won't last as long as it could have if I could upgrade it.
I think most of this comes not from planned obsolescence, but from a ridiculous drive for thinness. Apple is obsessed with thin.
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