This channel is pretty unique. Normally channels will not review stuff if it's more than a few months old. And it's not a vintage channel either.

I recently bought a 15 inch mid 2012 Macbook Pro and upgraded the ssd, ram, and battery, and overall has been a beast and have been using it as my daily laptop.

0:13 start of the video😂

I'm still using the mid 2012 Macbook pro I bought in 2013 and it's still in pristine condition. The only issues I have had was the faulty drive cable that I've replaced twice in the space of 10 years. I've since maxed out the ram and replaced the HDD with an SSD and it's perfect for my day to day requirements.

I bought a mid 2012 13” i7 brand new when it came out… I’ve used it for 10 years djing, light room, canva, logic x plus all the usual daily stuff It’s been all over the world with me, I’ve repaired it myself a couple times and upgraded it with 2xSSDs and full ram… keep wanting a new shiny MacBook but this one just keeps going strong 💪 Only thing I use that it struggles with is OBS whilst using an external camera

It's about to be five years since I've started watching you in a few months and I am actually shocked. The real reason these Macs make me nostalgic is because I used to watch your videos on them years ago. Thanks so much for the content ❤

I picked up a 2012 15” for $50, figuring it would be a base model basket case. It was missing a few case screws and the hd bracket, but otherwise it was in great shape, with the maxed out core i7 and matte display. If you look around long enough, there are great deals out there!

I have a bunch of MacBook Pros I’ve been fixing and collecting. Starting at 2007 A1150s. But I have an a1278 unibody from mid 2010. Got it running and used a patcher to get Catalina on it. Works great. Was going to look at getting more, but Luke you’ve given me reason to look for 1012 and up. They really aren’t much more. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Thanks for the video Luke, Besides of your main uploads I’ve watched every old macbook or secondhand MacBook videos you have made and heck I bought a 2012 15” MacBook Pro (an entry level one) watching your videos. After upgrading I’ve been using it as my main gaming laptop since I live at my uni dorm room. Anyways thanks for the content its brilliant as always. Take care and much love !

I use a 2011 MacBook Pro alongside my main Mac Mini and my desktop gaming rig. I upgraded the ram to 12GB, andI have an SSD in here, and this laptop seriously outdid my expectations. Got it for free from my friends mom, and I do not regret taking the time to fix, and update this pc. It's great for everyday tasks, and can do some "light" gaming. It runs Garry's Mod, Minecraft, and Turbo Dismount pretty alright with low/medium graphics. I love using it at school and home, and I appreciate the knowlegde that you share in your videos always.

Bought my 2012 15" new over 10 years ago. Still using this workhorse, zero issues. Fantastic machine.

THAT'S the music!! RIGHT THERE. Whatever it was you played at the end is the one that best fits your channel, from my perspective at least ;)

Thank you for the content Luke! ❤️

Hahaha you forget to put the cut in the beginning😂 Awesome video!

Thx Luke!! Always appreciate your vids!!

Thank you for this informative and educational video!

Great video Luke 🙏

That awkward beginning lmao

Still using my MBP 2012 i5 daily, with great success. Absolutely bulletproof machines that you can upgrade to MacOS Monterey with a bit of OpenCore trickery. They're still great!

I got a 13-inch mid-2012 MBP just as they were going off the market and held onto it until 6 months ago when I got my 2021 model. I put an SSD in it and it ran great. Honestly I’d still be using it if not for the limited screen resolution.

I purchased a 15” retina based on the recommendations from several of your videos. I’m super happy! I can run Big Sur for the latest and “greatest” and I can run Mavericks (for older-and in my opinion-far better iLife apps). Keep up the great work. Best Mac coverage (old and new).

Been subscribed since late 2017 when you had 7k subscribers

Yup, that’s why I hung on to my mid2012 15” until the M1 Max 16” this year. Gotta have the upgrade screen on the 2012 though.

Up until recently I was using a 2010 polycorbante white Macbook as a tertiary device for some basic web browsing work. Only reason I stopped was because my old 2015 Macbook Air took its place when I get the new M2 Air finally. These old war horses can still put up a decent fight. Especially since web browsers like Chrome still support as far back as High Sierra with their latest versions.

I bought two of those 15” mid 2012s this year. Last one featuring Firewire. Last one that’s got easily upgradable guts. LOVE THEM.

Great content Luke. My friend gave me his 2014 i7 15" MacBook Pro. I think I use it more than my current 2019 13" MacBook Pro. It's a solid machine for everyday tasks.

luke, because of you i bought myself a mbp 2012 13', and upgraded it. i regret nothing. thank you!!

I still have the mid 2010 MBP, and all I’ve done to it is replaced the hard drive and upgraded ram. Still use it, and its really a treat to use. Sure theres little I cannot do with it, but for my needs its good enough. Still gets security updates.

My favorite MBP? My 2012. $200 last month... and it had a 1T SSD + 256 SSD inside. 2.6ghz cpu. Luke, you got me on this whole 2010-2012 era Mac kick I've been on for a while now. Thank you. They're great. Your punchline surprises me a bit. I have a 2016 MPB and end up using my 2012 more often. I don't do much video editing with it, though could. I've open core legacy patched it to run Monterey 12.6 (which it does like a charm). And down the road, as Apple becomes ever more proprietary, I'll probably branch off into Linux use if all else fails. You are an Apple guy... and down deep I sense I'm only here for the hardware. The Unibody era hardware.

Hi, Luke! I am watching your KZfaq video every time it’s updated. I really enjoy it. Talking about MacBook Pro, actually now I am watching your new video about old MacBook Pros on my MacBook Pro 15-inch Mid 2012 with 500gb SSD, 8 GB ran and running Mac OS Big Sur by using Opencore Legacy Patcher. I don’t have any problems with browsing web site, watching KZfaq videos, using Photoshop, emailing and even editing videos with iMovie. I have 2 of MacBook Pro Mid 2012. I installed Mac OS Monterey 12.6 on the other one and it is working very well. You are right that looking for old MacBook Pro is worth it but it should be after MacBook Pro 2011. My 2 of MacBook Pro Mid 2012 are not super snappy if you play 3D games or editing video on Final Cut Pro but it is very reliable and trusty. I still love it.

I had my mid 2012 13" Macbook as my main DJing laptop till last month when I upgraded to 14" M1 Pro. Didn't have any problems with ever and loved it! Only reason I upgraded was that I could streamline my production and didn't have to jump between PC as my Ableton production computer and the Mac. So yeah, you can also run DJing programs with that besides just web browsing!

The 17" early 2011 MacBook Pro had an ExpressCard/34 slot, not a compact flash slot. Could use it to add a USB 3.0 port, sata port, etc... Quite useful. Just wanted to point that out. I would say that makes it the most valuable despite the graphics card issue.

I just got a 2012 retina and installed Monterrey, works like a charm~!

I _love_ my 15” 2012. Rocking 2 hard drives in it (optical drive delete) and maxed out ram. Totally runnable for even Lightroom 💪🏼

I recently picked up the top spec i7 2.9ghz 13" 2012 with 16GB ram and have been running linux on it. It's still a wonderful machine for basic tasks and I'm incredibly happy with it.

Love the old unibody MacBook Pros, my daily driver is a 2011 17". Have upgraded the RAM to 16GB, fitted a 240GB SSD and replaced the CD drive with a 1TB HDD, also permanently switched off the AMD GPU and running Linux Mint which it runs flawlessly 👍

We had the 2011 15” which was scrapped when it developed the well known graphics controller issue. And its battery swelled. But it was great as long as it lasted.

good video!

I use a 2012 13 inch MacBook Pro I did all the upgrades to. I use it as a full time college student along with my main PC set up. Great for writing papers and browsing on the go.

My mid 2012 MBP 13 just started having boot problems. Normally would try to fix it somehow, but it’s day has come. New 14 MBP purchased.

I have my 2011 in pieces for restoration. It's a beauty and a beast.

Still using my macbook pro mid2012 but has a lot of issues i.e the LCD being broken, I plug it on tv or portable screen and battery life is short. It may be "vintage" but can still do the job. I just hope the newer models can also last just like this. I'm really a fan of this channel since it's still "review" the older models!

I have a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro that I'm using right now, and I also have a 2012 MacBook Pro, which I am also using right now! It's perfect as a DVD player, backup Windows machine, and to use with older devices such as iPods. It's still really speedy and I love it!

I’ve been daily driving a 13” 2009 for the past two years and I’ve actually been enjoying every minute of it, I’ve currently got it running Monterey and although it’s not the fastest i don’t really expect it to be. it still works for everything I could want it to and it’s still an incredibly lovely machine to use day to day.

I'm running a 2012 Macbook pro with upgraded SSD and 16 gigs of RAM. I can say first hand it still holds up, I'm able to run Logic Pro, Final Cut, and even Blender with some (but not too many) occasional slowdowns. It's a power house, all of these can be updated to the newest OS pretty easily as well which makes them run even better. As you said, I kind of think it's nearing the end of its life as better machines come out/become more affordable on the second hand market, but yeah crazy that an over 10 year old machine still runs this well.

You can use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to run macOS Monterey on your unibody MacBook Pro. For 2012 and later macs you can even run the upcoming macOS Ventura on them as OpenCore has completed development for macs with Metal GPUs. They are still working getting Ventura working on Non-Metal GPUs.

These machines may be vintage but even vintage machines have a place. A lot of creatives rely on older machines for budget-minded singular-purpose workhorses. I have a collection of what, ~30 Apple portables from Pre-G3 through M1... and most of them have a place in my life! I have a 2015 Retina running Windows dedicated to a CNC machine, I have a stack of G4 Aluminums that I use to write and play maxed-settings on vintage (OS 8/9) games. The unibody is a wonderful balance of price, forward compatibility, hackability and reliability. I'm currently putting together a 2009 17" 3.06ghz anti-glare (Luke, remember the video you did on those in your bedroom in 2018?) for a writing mule to keep in my vintage travel trailer. My partner was SO disappointer when we upgraded her from her 2012 unibody, which she still insists on using for budgeting and similar tasks and barely touches her 2014 loaded retina 15". The usefulness of a machine rarely diminishes with time. The march of progress is really us expanding our intentions and needs over and beyond what said machine can do. There's life in old things, we just need to respect their purpose and give them a place to exist. Unibodies deserve love too!

Your videos encourage me to buy MacBook Pro from 2015 for 300 Pounds. It's still awesome machine with superb screen, a lot of upgradability and I am sure it will serve me for next years.

Got a stack of these at my tech shop... Gonna start making content covering. I also just brought a 2012 iMac back to life, trying to install Mojave now

I have a 2011 13“ Macbook Pro and althought it hasn‘t mutch Performance it I‘m always impressed what this thing can still do

I have a 15’ MacBook Pro unibody mid 2012 that my sister gave to me. It is running macOS Monterey which I installed using opencore legacy patcher. I upgraded it to 12GB of ram from the default 4GB and changed out the thermal paste and installed a 250gb ssd and it runs quiet and really fast. It even handles 4K video now after the thermal paste and upgraded ram and ssd.

I am still using a 13" 2011 Macbook Pro as my writing machine, the keyboard is unbelievably good, typing on that is a treat.

Interesting intro there, Luke. ;)

I still use my 2012 15 inch to this day. Upgraded ram, swapped to ssd, removed dvd drive for second hdd. Only issue I’ve ever had is sometimes Bluetooth stops working but thing looks and performs as good as it always has. Trying to hold out a bit longer before I pick up the laptop for the next 10 years 😬

I have a Late 2011 MacBook Pro upgraded with 16 gb ram and 240 gb SSD with Monterey OS 12.6. The only use for it is as a multimedia server. This unibody has a strong thing: repairly, today I fix a loose hinge without any trouble, I love that machine.

Love your videos, you also have a cool personality.

I have 2014 and 2015 15s and they still work fine. Replaced the batteries two years ago. My son uses the 2014 for work and the 2015 is my backup. I always expect 10 years of useful life from Macs. I often get more than that.

Still rocking my 2015 base 15” Pro, still enough to edit 1080p video with multiple streams in FCPX and medium to big Logic Pro projects. I may upgrade to a 2019 16”

Just few hours ago swamped my HDD in the OptiBay for the new ssd, so now I have 750gb of storage in my mbp 15” 2012. Thank you, Luke, you made this happen for me!

This is a great, informative video as always! I do have a question--I got a good deal on a 2015 15 inch MBP with a brand new battery in good condition with no staingate issues. However, it has the integrated graphics. Is it possible to swap a dual graphics logic board into it, and would you say its worth it? Thanks

4:22 A detail I’d like to point out, those Mid-2012 13” Macs had the “802.11n” (Wi-Fi 4), not the 11ac (Wi-Fi 5) spec. I have the base model and its Wi-Fi is usually my bottleneck when connecting to public Wi-Fi or any network that’s serving a lot of other clients

MacBook Pro mid 2014 13” was my first Apple machine. I was not sure if I would like the OS as so far I always used Widows OS. But I got an IPad for the study and an IPhone. MacBook was totally worth it! Now I gave it to my mom as she doesn’t need a high-performance machine and got myself M1 air. The retina displays even from 2014 are simply amazing. As well as the keyboard!❤

picked up a Mid 2012 15" Retina MacBook Pro with 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM and a 2.6GHz core i7 for $100 a few days ago seller replaced the battery before listing it. Works perfectly and i have installed Big Sur on it.

I loved 17" laptops both Windows and Mac owned a few of them over the years. All that screen real estate is so handy working on audio or video and watching movies or video is way cool. Big screen rule!

If it wasn't for Luke, I wouldn't be able to own a 17-inch 2010 MacBook Pro, this thing is huge

Have you tried an egpu with these? Wonding if you could get a little more out of these with thunderbolt adapter and egpu?

Here in the UK I have a 17inch i7 matte screen Macbook Pro 2011 and it is my workhorse machine for music and photography , it cost £300 in 2018 and all I have done is put in 16gb RAM and lately a 1TB SSD. Not worried now about cost as I have a working spare which I picked up for less than £200 last year. Both running on Catalina and hopefully no graphics issues.

Question: Is it worth channing the screen on 2013 Macbook air? The screen was smashed when it was new, so it has hardy been used. The whole assembly need be changed as the smash happened from the back/top.

I still use my 2012 -15 in MBP daily. It is running Big Sur 11.7 without a hiccup and the software is totally up to date with latest security patches from Apple. Good to know that a patch tool exists for these..

My work was e-wasting a bunch of broken 2015, 13in macbooks like 2 years back. Mainly because they were out of warranty and it just wasn't worth the time to buy parts and repair them when the M1's were right around the corner. Ended up taking a couple of broken ones home one day and kitted together a top end one for myself for $0. 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, good battery, no de-lamination etc. Still goes strong and worked great for school.

I'm watching this on my mid-2012 15-inch Macbook Pro. I bought it new in 2012 and I had no idea it would last this long. Sure, the original battery is waaay past its best (but it still holds some charge). And I had a few problems with this machine when it was still in its youth. But thankfully Apple fixed those problems (for this machine Apple's after-sales service was spectacularly good, even without Apple Care). This was the machine that got me into using Macs. I wonder if it will still be working in 2032!

Great content. Thank you. Bucking the trend of always having to buy everything new and shiny; when most people are surfing the web, streaming vids, Word, Excel + emails. I'm still using my 2012 13inch daily doing those tasks. In fact, it's my main work machine, hooked up to a 27 Thunderbolt display, even if I have a much newer PC supplied by my employer.

liking the channel, wanted to know if you can upgrade the screen of a mid 2011 macbookpro 15 to a retina screen or is it even worth it

Luke, would you really pick the non-upgradable 2014 15" Retina over a 2012 15" Unibody that is upgradable?

I need to build an old MacBook to watch movies while on the road. The 15” seem to be a good size. What year did the butterfly keyboard start? I enjoy your channel! I do music production, if I could do some audio editing too that would be great.

My 2012 15" unibody (i7 2.6gHz, 16gb RAM, 2tb SSD) is now a backup to my 2021 M1 Max, as well as my wife's 2015 MBA. I still turn it on and backup to time machine once a week, so that all my google drive and dropbox files get sync'd. This enables me to hit the ground running if anything happens to our current machines. It came in handy last month, when my wife's MBA SSD adaptor died, and it took a week for a new one to arrive. The only problem was the blown out speakers.

One of your earlier videos inspired me and I picked up an i5 mid 2012 13" this year and did the full upgrade: 8GB/500GB HDD ---> 16GB/500GB SSD, and refreshed the CPU thermal paste. I also pulled the multidrive and installed an SSD adapter for an additional 240GB of storage (I use it for Time Machine), and I installed a new battery. In other words, I way overspent and will never get all of my money back if I sell it. The thing is, as tempting as the new MBPs are (some of them, anyway) I really enjoy using this laptop as my travel computer, and I can run BootCamp on it, so I'm keeping it.

Dear Luke, Thanks - My son has a 13" and I have several. I do a lot of work in audio - one of the things you forgot is the firewire. If you have legacy hardware, and software for that matter, this id the way to go. I have my machines set up with Catalina and an earlier OS to run legacy software. Easy to upgrade, and inexpensive too. peace

Do you still recommend a 13inch unibody over an used air?

I’m still using my MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012 for music production and it’s working pretty good

As a user of hand-me-down MacBooks I concur that there’s more life left in these things than people realize. I recently retired 2009 MacBook Pro and replaced it with an 11 inch MacBook Air, functional, and a 2015 MacBook Pro that needs some updates.

Good job.

Do you think a MacBook pro 2012 all upgraded, can they run garageband or mainstage without any issues? 😅

Also, will the standard graphics card be sufficient to fully optimize Premier Pro? Or can it ve updated with an AMD Radeon R9?

i still rock my 2015 15” MBP from time to time.

Still watching Luke on my souped up mid 2009 MBP. The track pad is cracked because of the swollen battery, but other than that this machine is still usable for watching youtube and other basic stuff. That's amazing reliability in a (unibody) nutshell. I just hope my next MBP, the 16" M1 max, will be as reliable. Time will tell.

Funny this video pops up on my youtube main page, I just upgraded a 13" Mid 2012 9,2 MBP to AC wireless with a Mac Book Air WiFi card with an 12+6 to 30pin molex adapter from intriguing industries, seeing my WiFi speeds well above 480mbps is nice to see and pages seem to load snappier than before, Mid 2012 are still fantastic computers for the age, also upgrades are super cheap for them now.

Great video!! Would those 2014’s you did a search for on eBay be able to run Final Cut Pro or such software?

Thanks to you, I have a MBP 2011 (I maxed out and added a data doubler) that i use with a TB Display as my personal computer and media hub. 😎🥃

I used to use a 13" 2011 MBP even up until last year. It did most things I wanted (including mixing music on Logic Pro X).

I still have my 2008 and 2014. They are solid.

My 2012 MBP is stuck on Catalina. Is it possible to jailbreak it to take the newer OSs?

I bought a 2011 13" in 2011, and it's still my only computer. Upgraded to SSD and 16GB of RAM as well as a battery change and renewed thermal paste. It's also now on Catalina. I'm in Canada so there's not the selection of cheap old Macs to choose from, they exist, but not in the amount you can find them in populated parts of the States.

What's with the prompter visible in the 15 inch laptop screen and what's with the elbow of person on the couch?!

I recently bought a 15” 2012 Unibody. Gave it the 16GB RAM + 1tb SSD treatment, plus a dusting and thermal paste replacement. Tribooted OS X Mountain Lion (was on the SSD I put in, it came from a 13”), macOS Ventura (because a MacBook can kinda be a Hackintosh, just minus a ton of the hassle), and Windows 10 on it. Also made sure to install Macs Fan Control so it didn’t thermal throttle, and upped the GPU memory clock in Windows to 2600MHz (no overheating thanks to fan control + thermal paste) It works great, does some ridiculous shit in Windows 10 (runs Genshin Impact, playably, and I have the 512mb VRAM model!) and has no issues in Ventura! Only issue with it are the fact that it’s missing the rubber feet. With a little bit of care, these things can still be amazing machines. Hell, the 15” still puts up a fight against Windows laptops at a similar pricepoint. BTW, in total, this costed me $160 USD, because that’s all I paid for the computer and all the other parts I either raided from a (broken) 13” 2012 Unibody, or already had on hand.

@1:55 look at the third hand that pops up in the right side of the frame.

thanks Luke

The 2012 models run Monterey like a charm! It's definitely best to have an anti glare display for the 15" and 17" versions.

love them unibody

Still using my 2011 17-inch Pro 🤘🏽