[metabrew]

Mid-2012 MBP with SSD, retina, and 16gb here.

I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard.

I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.

[dbattaglia]

I've used 2 new touchbar Mac for work since early 2017. When it came time to replace my ancient personal 2011 MBP I ended up just spending the $2000 for the "new" 2015-era MBPs that Apple still sells. While it's a bummer to spend that kind of money for a 3 year old spec machine, I still prefer it over my work machine with that dreadful low profile keyboard and useless touch strip. If things don't improve come next upgrade cycle I think I'm going to just find something that runs Ubuntu reasonably well.

[JoshMnem]

The Thinkpad T-series is much cheaper than Mac with better specs and support. Put a Linux distro on it and it's a great computer for programming. I paid $1,900 for my current laptop (T-460) with 24 GB of RAM, 11+ hours of battery life, matte screen (low glare), and a 4-year, next-day, at-home repair plan where they will drive to my home to fix any problems the next day, including accidents. That price included tax and shipping. I had considered buying a Mac, but in hindsight I'm very relieved that I didn't.

[jsilence]

exactly. switched to a Lenovo Carbon X1 when my 2009 MBP died on me.

[fredley]

Same camp. One of my thunderbolt ports just died, and the screen itself is glitching more and more frequently. I'm praying that it hangs in there long enough for Apple to produce a machine I actually want to upgrade to, and that feels like an upgrade without compromise. If it dies before that happens I'll be reluctantly shopping for non-Mac hardware.

[radicalbyte]

I switched from Windows to Mac in autumn-2013. I really hope that either Apple get their act together or that Microsoft ecosystem finally get the simple things such as hibernate and trackpads working properly before this machine gives up the ghost.

[mschuster91]

> hibernate and trackpads working properly

I haven't had any problem with hibernation on Windows laptops - quite the contrary: MacBooks don't have a visible "I am powered on" indicator once closed, which means that if e.g. some Chrome tab or whatever random crap keeps the system awake I only notice it when arriving at work, pulling the MacBook out of the bag and having a superheated mess with empty battery in my hand.

The trackpads on the other hand... haven't seen any Windows trackpad manufacturer that combines:

- decent size (=2015-era MBP)

- decent materials (=the metal/glass combo that Apple uses, instead of black plastic that grows INCREDIBLY nasty looking after 2 years)

- decent functionality (reliable gesture recognition without having to worry at buy time if the included touchpad is Synaptics, Elantech or Alps, or a knock-off)

- decent placement (=at surface level like a MBP, not 2+mm recessed which invites dirt to accumulate)

- can tolerate wet/oily fingers (yes, I admit, I am one of those typical nerds eating pizza while working)

[radicalbyte]

In the last few years I've had top of the line Dell and Lenovo laptops, neither got hibernate right. Both had a 15-20% chance of being empty in the morning.

Touchpads are a joke. They're either tiny or they constantly register phantom movements (random cursor jumps). I wouldn't be surprised if that's something which Apple solve in software to be honest; if it was in hardware you'd expect other brands to have caught up already.

[mschuster91]

> if it was in hardware you'd expect other brands to have caught up already

I think it's possible that Apple leverages knowledge from the iDevices lineup there. After all Apple has had a massive headstart in capacitive multi-touch sensoring... and a boatload of patents to match.

[pegasus]

I used to have the hibernate issue with my previous retina Macbook Pro. Haven't had any such issues since I upgraded to the touchbar one. Never had any trackpad issues.

[pegasus]

Having upgraded from the non-touch bar MacBook Pro (unwillingly, I might add, the old one died and it's a work machine so the replacement wasn't chosen by me), I'm surprised how disgruntled people are with it. While I'm not a fan of the touchbar either, everything else is for me either a micro-annoyance - for example, the need for a couple of adapters which most of the time I don't need anyway, or a total non-issue: keyboard works totally fine, I actually prefer the larger keys, and the USB-C charger is so much better for me - I had gone through countless of the magsafe ones due to the cable breaking where it connects with the charger, the design of this ones resolves that issue, plus I can replace the cable itself if necessary (say if my cat chews it up, which also happened in the past). Also, there are third-party power adapters that are cheaper, car adapters that actually work for it now, I can charge it from a battery pack etc. Really, for me USB-C charging easily makes up for all the other downsides. That, and auto-sleep/hibernate finally working flawlessly.

[itsfirat]

rMBP mid 2012 here, i am totally agree with you. Unless they have made a Macbook Pro with OLED or Micro LED display, 10nm+ CPU (preferably 7nm) and 32GB+ RAM options, THERE IS NO NEED TO UPDATE THIS 6 YEAR OLD LAPTOP! Apple...

[unknown_apostle]

Yep. And no 32GB because they just had to make it 1mm thinner.

[white-flame]

Technically, that was because of battery life, not thickness. The limits on that particular Intel chipset are 16GB LPDDR3 or 32GB non-low power DDR4, and Apple chose to use the LPDDR3.

I have a basic 32GB DDR4 laptop* which was contemporary to the touchbar MBP, and while I'm very happy with the running battery life, the suspended battery life isn't as long as I would prefer (usually doesn't last 24 hours). I suspect that's because of the RAM. However, the MBP has a larger battery than mine, so I don't think it would have been that big of a problem.

[* = Clevo N240BU, same as the newest System76 Lemur. i7-7500U, iGPU, opted for m.2 only, 4-cell removable battery, slim 14" 1080p, real HDMI/ethernet/USB-A&C/headphone/SD ports.]

[megaman22]

I'll be honest, I haven't bothered with suspend/hibernate in years, because it is so broken on every Windows machine I've ever tried. In these days of SSDs and OS's that boot up in five seconds, I just turn off my machine whenever I put it away not on AC power.

[eitland]

No big Windows fan but IIRC suspend/resume has mostly worked just as well on all my recent Windows laptops as on my old Macbook Pro and they both easily beats ny current Ubuntu setup.

Still prefer my Ubuntu on Dell setup though.

[unknown_apostle]

True, but I was taking a short cut :-) With the old "thick" MBP chassis (which was plenty thin for me), they could put in DDR4 and still have enough battery life.

Btw never managed to get 24 hours out of any MacBookPro?

[lagadu]

Similar camp here. My 2012 MBA has been a lovely ultrabook but now that it's showing its age and I'm looking to replace it this year, I've decided to move away from the OSX ecosystem and am currently waiting for the next Surface pro to launch.

The current lineup is just so unappealing.

[iClaudiusX]

Don't forget they cut battery capacity from 99/75 Wh (15/13") down to 76/50 Wh to save less than 3 mm thickness

[dschuetz]

It got me thinking that the 2012 line of Apple products is the last one which was actually good. Since then it was constant decline in engineering quality and increase in price. I'm sure that Steve Jobs issued a memo before his departure telling everybody what to do in the next 5 years. After a couple of years, Apple is gradually losing their mojo, again.

[bootsz]

Amen