7 ms·

A used 2015 Retina MacBook Pro might be the best MacBook you can buy today

47 points by miles 7y ago

Apocryphon 7y ago
The 2015 rMBP can do some light modern gaming. I was able to run Prey (2017) just fine, as well as the new Disco Elysium.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Can the battery, RAM, and hard drive be serviced by the end user easily?
  - mahesh_rm 7y ago
    Mid 2014 mbp 13 here, you can easily service ssd and battery. Stuck with soldered ram.
  - SpikeDad 7y ago
    RAM is soldered. SSD uses a proprietary connector - fortunately a low cost adapter is now available. Battery is glued to the chassis but there are removal kits available from iFixit which includes adhesive remover and new adhesive. I've replaced my SSD with a new one using the adapter and it's working perfectly. It's about 2x as fast as the original drive. It's not the best MacBook Pro by any stretch of the imaginative. I've also used a 2016 MBP and 2018 MBP both with Touch Bar and both are far superior. Those were work devices and the 2015 is my personal device which I purchased due to cost. I've been very happy - it's running Catalina Beta perfectly and I've also run Window 10 using Bootcamp and recently have removed that and switched to Parallels running both W7 and W10.
  - bwoj 7y ago
    I've replaced the battery and SSD on my 2015 15" MBP. SSD was very easy to replace. Battery replacement was very involved and took about two hours. It is doable if you're methodical.
retrac98 7y ago
This article is utterly fucked on my phone. Content disappearing right off the edge of the viewport that you can’t scroll to.
FullyFunctional 7y ago
Surprised - I thought it was going to be about MBPs that can run Mojava, the last good macOS. It's my understanding that new hardware isn't (generally) compatible with older OSes. Apple killing my legacy (32-bit) apps officially ended my love-affair with macOS - typing this on a Ubuntu laptop.
- SpikeDad 7y ago
  Your understand is incorrect. Catalina runs perfectly on my 2015 rMBP and can run on machines as old as MBA 2012. Apple has been notifying developers for 3 macOS versions that 64bit applications would be deprecated. Do you really want to use software that a developer can't take the time to update it having several years notice? In any event progress marches on. Apple isn't shy advancing their hardware and software deprecating old code. That's how the state of the art advances. Funny that Apple is almost alway correct when they make these sorts of decisions.
  - lostgame 7y ago
    >> Apple has been notifying developers for 3 macOS versions that 64bit applications would be deprecated. And for 3 MacOS versions I’ve said when they enact this is when I jump ship. >> Do you really want to use software that a developer can't take the time to update it having several years notice? Yes, because I would like to use software I paid for. Certain music plug-ins, utilities and games I have purchased won’t work. The update removes value from the OS - greatly. Your question effectively asks if you’d like to continue using something you paid for just because it’s several years old. Let’s say the company just went defunct so an update is out of the question, yes, if I paid for that software I’d still like to use it. I will be hackintoshing, buying a Lenovo and gradually start my move to Ubuntu.
kiddico 7y ago
I went out of my way two years ago to get a 15" 2015 MBP after coming to the same conclusion. Last 'good' keyboard, replaceable storage, built like a tank , etc. And you don't need to calibrate the trackpad every time you open the damn thing. It also happens to be the model/year I fixed the most at my uni's (super duper apple certified) repair shop, so I'm confident I can keep it alive for a while.
- ph2082 7y ago
  IN 2017, after going through my filters > 16GB RAM, 15 inch, and ease of use, *nix (have worked on Suse/Ubuntu for like 10 years), I settled on same. At that time new 12 inch MacBook was already out, but didn't like that touch thing at the top and seemed overpriced.
daniel-cussen 7y ago
I believed this and that's exactly what I did, I bought a 2015 15" rMBP used. It went for $700, but you can get them for even less. The most obvious part of the decision was the lack of magsafe connector. How could Apple have made such an obviously anti-Steve Jobs decision? Nobody gives a shit if all the connectors on the sides are uniform. You don't get points in real life for making them that way. It's a point against, not a point in favor, they should be heterogenous.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
inspector14 7y ago
Found a brand new/sealed 2015 MBP on eBay about 3 months ago.. top of the line i7, 32gb ram, 512gb SSD, still the best laptop that exists IMO.
- logicallee 7y ago
  Interesting. Any guesses why anyone would have a sealed one, given that anyone could assume it would depreciate relatively quickly? (It's not really a "hold" commodity.) Also if it's not too personal, roughly how much did you pay?
  - inspector14 7y ago
    The going rate for them when I picked it up was around 1,800 - 2500. Check past/completed listings for sealed 2015 macbook pros. The higher end ones are rare, but they show up occasionally.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    I would assume some business bought more than they needed.
- raincom 7y ago
  Are you sure about 32gb ram? Max configs on Mid 2015 laptop: i7-4980 2.8Ghz, 1TB, 16gb ram.
  - someonehere 7y ago
    That’s not possible. The chip used in that model was limited to 16GB. I worked in IT at that time and DB admins begging me to get them a 15” at that time with 32GB of RAM. I told them the chip from Intel was the limiting factor. When Apple updated a year or two ago, they moved to the next version of the chip which allowed 32GB. So yeah, 32GB in 2015 was not possible.
  - inspector14 7y ago
    Oops, yeah, 16gb.
caseyf7 7y ago
If you haven’t done a fresh install since 2015, I highly recommend it. It will free up a lot of space and generally run better on a drive reformatted with APFS and fresh Mojave.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  Yeah I haven’t. Does this mean not to restore with Time Machine? Instead move things over temporarily somewhere else, reformat and reinstall Catalina (I don’t have any issue with the 64 bit limit), then move data back?
  - caseyf7 7y ago
    That's what I ended up doing. I don't know Time Machine well enough to know if it would free up as much space on your drive.
srge 7y ago
That’s what I have. Great laptop. Only recently it started to freeze for a few seconds a couple of times per week though.
- PetahE 7y ago
  I too have been having this issue as of late on my mid 2015.
  - fbi-director 7y ago
    Me too, mbpro 2013 or 2015 I'm not sure. Music or video keeps playing, input freezes. Very rare, but not rare enough to not notice.
    - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
      I've seen it on my Mac mini a couple of times. I thought it might have been a bluetooth issue as both the keyboard and mouse were unresponsive but perhaps there is something else going on.
- polished85 7y ago
  The freezing could be a heating issue. My 2015 MBP was doing the same, and the fans seemed to always be in high gear. I took the back plate off, cleaned the fans, and it performs like new again.
villgax 7y ago
A windows version of that is a Razer Blade 15.
- sjcoles 7y ago
  If you don't need the GPU another good option is the Dell Latitude 5400 (2019). I am loving the hell out of my higher tier model (8565u, 32gb ram, 1tb nvme). Yeah it's a business laptop and not very pretty but that just means you can literally repair any part on it with only one or two sized Phillips head screwdriver. No having to remove fragile ribbon cables to upgrade RAM like on the razer blade :|.
FabianBeiner 7y ago
Unless you want to use it on any flight, I've been flying a lot lately, with different airlines - every single one of them completely bans every 15" MacBook from 2015.
- acqq 7y ago
  Indeed: https://www.businessinsider.com/macbook-pro-banned-airlines-list-2019-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/macbook-pro-banned-airlines-...
- clay_the_ripper 7y ago
  Do you actually own a 2015 and had it taken away? I own a 2015 mbp and fly with it all the time - no issues. (flown probably 12 times since the ban, primarily United)
  - WildGreenLeave 7y ago
    I can second this, I've brought my laptop on multiple flights after the ban and nobody cared. Amsterdam - Krakow with KLM and Dusseldorf - Moscow with Aeroflot and they all just accepted the laptop. Took it out of my bag at all airports except Amsterdam. (You don't have to take out your stuff from your bag anymore, you can also bring filled bottles of fluid)
  - FabianBeiner 7y ago
    I don't own a MacBook anymore, but I have seen people being asked to shut down their MacBooks during the flight a lot lately. Everything inside Europe, though.
ivanmaeder 7y ago
Old MBPs are mentioned a lot on HN; I want to give a shout out to the MacBook Air. At home I'm still using an 8GB, mid-2012 MBA, and it feels just as responsive as my brand new 16GB MBA at work. I'm obviously not doing much to push it, but I'm getting away with web dev (Docker, multiple containers), browsing, watching movies, playing music, multiple desktops, etc without a problem. If this breaks before they fix the keyboard issue I'd seriously consider the last MBA with the classic keyboard, even if it's missing the retina display or Touch ID.
- amoeba 7y ago
  My 2012 Air feels, in many ways, a lot more performant than my 2016 Pro. The Air is the best computer Apple has made in over a decade.
AlEinstein 7y ago
“no Touch Bar” is listed as a con. I consider physical keys to be a pro.
TurkishPoptart 7y ago
My friend and I swear by these MBPs, but we disagree on updates I reliably update the firmware because I'm terrified of viruses. He, OTOH, _never_ updates, because he's afraid of planned obsolescence gradually bricking his machine. P.O. is no longer a tin foil hat thing, it's proven. But is he going about it the right way?

47 points by miles 7y ago

The 2015 rMBP can do some light modern gaming. I was able to run Prey (2017) just fine, as well as the new Disco Elysium.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Can the battery, RAM, and hard drive be serviced by the end user easily?
- mahesh_rm 7y ago
  Mid 2014 mbp 13 here, you can easily service ssd and battery. Stuck with soldered ram.
- SpikeDad 7y ago
  RAM is soldered. SSD uses a proprietary connector - fortunately a low cost adapter is now available. Battery is glued to the chassis but there are removal kits available from iFixit which includes adhesive remover and new adhesive. I've replaced my SSD with a new one using the adapter and it's working perfectly. It's about 2x as fast as the original drive. It's not the best MacBook Pro by any stretch of the imaginative. I've also used a 2016 MBP and 2018 MBP both with Touch Bar and both are far superior. Those were work devices and the 2015 is my personal device which I purchased due to cost. I've been very happy - it's running Catalina Beta perfectly and I've also run Window 10 using Bootcamp and recently have removed that and switched to Parallels running both W7 and W10.
- bwoj 7y ago
  I've replaced the battery and SSD on my 2015 15" MBP. SSD was very easy to replace. Battery replacement was very involved and took about two hours. It is doable if you're methodical.

retrac98 7y ago

This article is utterly fucked on my phone. Content disappearing right off the edge of the viewport that you can’t scroll to.

FullyFunctional 7y ago

Surprised - I thought it was going to be about MBPs that can run Mojava, the last good macOS. It's my understanding that new hardware isn't (generally) compatible with older OSes. Apple killing my legacy (32-bit) apps officially ended my love-affair with macOS - typing this on a Ubuntu laptop.

SpikeDad 7y ago
Your understand is incorrect. Catalina runs perfectly on my 2015 rMBP and can run on machines as old as MBA 2012. Apple has been notifying developers for 3 macOS versions that 64bit applications would be deprecated. Do you really want to use software that a developer can't take the time to update it having several years notice? In any event progress marches on. Apple isn't shy advancing their hardware and software deprecating old code. That's how the state of the art advances. Funny that Apple is almost alway correct when they make these sorts of decisions.
- lostgame 7y ago
  >> Apple has been notifying developers for 3 macOS versions that 64bit applications would be deprecated. And for 3 MacOS versions I’ve said when they enact this is when I jump ship. >> Do you really want to use software that a developer can't take the time to update it having several years notice? Yes, because I would like to use software I paid for. Certain music plug-ins, utilities and games I have purchased won’t work. The update removes value from the OS - greatly. Your question effectively asks if you’d like to continue using something you paid for just because it’s several years old. Let’s say the company just went defunct so an update is out of the question, yes, if I paid for that software I’d still like to use it. I will be hackintoshing, buying a Lenovo and gradually start my move to Ubuntu.

kiddico 7y ago

I went out of my way two years ago to get a 15" 2015 MBP after coming to the same conclusion. Last 'good' keyboard, replaceable storage, built like a tank , etc. And you don't need to calibrate the trackpad every time you open the damn thing. It also happens to be the model/year I fixed the most at my uni's (super duper apple certified) repair shop, so I'm confident I can keep it alive for a while.

ph2082 7y ago
IN 2017, after going through my filters > 16GB RAM, 15 inch, and ease of use, *nix (have worked on Suse/Ubuntu for like 10 years), I settled on same. At that time new 12 inch MacBook was already out, but didn't like that touch thing at the top and seemed overpriced.

daniel-cussen 7y ago

I believed this and that's exactly what I did, I bought a 2015 15" rMBP used. It went for $700, but you can get them for even less. The most obvious part of the decision was the lack of magsafe connector. How could Apple have made such an obviously anti-Steve Jobs decision? Nobody gives a shit if all the connectors on the sides are uniform. You don't get points in real life for making them that way. It's a point against, not a point in favor, they should be heterogenous.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

inspector14 7y ago

Found a brand new/sealed 2015 MBP on eBay about 3 months ago.. top of the line i7, 32gb ram, 512gb SSD, still the best laptop that exists IMO.

logicallee 7y ago
Interesting. Any guesses why anyone would have a sealed one, given that anyone could assume it would depreciate relatively quickly? (It's not really a "hold" commodity.) Also if it's not too personal, roughly how much did you pay?
- inspector14 7y ago
  The going rate for them when I picked it up was around 1,800 - 2500. Check past/completed listings for sealed 2015 macbook pros. The higher end ones are rare, but they show up occasionally.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  I would assume some business bought more than they needed.
raincom 7y ago
Are you sure about 32gb ram? Max configs on Mid 2015 laptop: i7-4980 2.8Ghz, 1TB, 16gb ram.
- someonehere 7y ago
  That’s not possible. The chip used in that model was limited to 16GB. I worked in IT at that time and DB admins begging me to get them a 15” at that time with 32GB of RAM. I told them the chip from Intel was the limiting factor. When Apple updated a year or two ago, they moved to the next version of the chip which allowed 32GB. So yeah, 32GB in 2015 was not possible.
- inspector14 7y ago
  Oops, yeah, 16gb.

caseyf7 7y ago

If you haven’t done a fresh install since 2015, I highly recommend it. It will free up a lot of space and generally run better on a drive reformatted with APFS and fresh Mojave.

skinnymuch 7y ago
Yeah I haven’t. Does this mean not to restore with Time Machine? Instead move things over temporarily somewhere else, reformat and reinstall Catalina (I don’t have any issue with the 64 bit limit), then move data back?
- caseyf7 7y ago
  That's what I ended up doing. I don't know Time Machine well enough to know if it would free up as much space on your drive.

srge 7y ago

That’s what I have. Great laptop. Only recently it started to freeze for a few seconds a couple of times per week though.

PetahE 7y ago
I too have been having this issue as of late on my mid 2015.
- fbi-director 7y ago
  Me too, mbpro 2013 or 2015 I'm not sure. Music or video keeps playing, input freezes. Very rare, but not rare enough to not notice.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    I've seen it on my Mac mini a couple of times. I thought it might have been a bluetooth issue as both the keyboard and mouse were unresponsive but perhaps there is something else going on.
polished85 7y ago
The freezing could be a heating issue. My 2015 MBP was doing the same, and the fans seemed to always be in high gear. I took the back plate off, cleaned the fans, and it performs like new again.

villgax 7y ago

A windows version of that is a Razer Blade 15.

sjcoles 7y ago
If you don't need the GPU another good option is the Dell Latitude 5400 (2019). I am loving the hell out of my higher tier model (8565u, 32gb ram, 1tb nvme). Yeah it's a business laptop and not very pretty but that just means you can literally repair any part on it with only one or two sized Phillips head screwdriver. No having to remove fragile ribbon cables to upgrade RAM like on the razer blade :|.

FabianBeiner 7y ago

Unless you want to use it on any flight, I've been flying a lot lately, with different airlines - every single one of them completely bans every 15" MacBook from 2015.

acqq 7y ago
Indeed: https://www.businessinsider.com/macbook-pro-banned-airlines-list-2019-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/macbook-pro-banned-airlines-...
clay_the_ripper 7y ago
Do you actually own a 2015 and had it taken away? I own a 2015 mbp and fly with it all the time - no issues. (flown probably 12 times since the ban, primarily United)
- WildGreenLeave 7y ago
  I can second this, I've brought my laptop on multiple flights after the ban and nobody cared. Amsterdam - Krakow with KLM and Dusseldorf - Moscow with Aeroflot and they all just accepted the laptop. Took it out of my bag at all airports except Amsterdam. (You don't have to take out your stuff from your bag anymore, you can also bring filled bottles of fluid)
- FabianBeiner 7y ago
  I don't own a MacBook anymore, but I have seen people being asked to shut down their MacBooks during the flight a lot lately. Everything inside Europe, though.

ivanmaeder 7y ago

Old MBPs are mentioned a lot on HN; I want to give a shout out to the MacBook Air. At home I'm still using an 8GB, mid-2012 MBA, and it feels just as responsive as my brand new 16GB MBA at work. I'm obviously not doing much to push it, but I'm getting away with web dev (Docker, multiple containers), browsing, watching movies, playing music, multiple desktops, etc without a problem. If this breaks before they fix the keyboard issue I'd seriously consider the last MBA with the classic keyboard, even if it's missing the retina display or Touch ID.

amoeba 7y ago
My 2012 Air feels, in many ways, a lot more performant than my 2016 Pro. The Air is the best computer Apple has made in over a decade.

AlEinstein 7y ago

“no Touch Bar” is listed as a con. I consider physical keys to be a pro.

TurkishPoptart 7y ago

My friend and I swear by these MBPs, but we disagree on updates I reliably update the firmware because I'm terrified of viruses. He, OTOH, _never_ updates, because he's afraid of planned obsolescence gradually bricking his machine. P.O. is no longer a tin foil hat thing, it's proven. But is he going about it the right way?