Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2017 MacBook Pro Models With Touch Bar Added to Apple's Vintage Products List

I still use a 2019 16" with Touch Bar and an M1 13" Pro with Touch Bar and an M2 13" with Touch Bar. I love them, they look so much smarter than the current Mac lineup. I wish they had 3rd Gen butterfly, I loved typing on that keyboard, not so much 1st or 2nd gen.

If the 3rd Gen butterfly keyboard had been the original version in 2016 and with a physical ESC key I think it would have been better accepted, but by that point with 1st and 2nd Gen it was tainted.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: xpxp2002 and nvmls
nymphe said:
Anemic? What was wrong with 7th gen? I have the 15” version with quadcore so I was quite happy with the performance.
Click to expand...
It’s more the thermal design + the hot Intel chip that hit performance. I couldn’t hardly do anything video related without my MBP throttling immediately. I remember having to prop the thing above a fan just to do simple things like create a slideshow in Final Cut. Despite its older chip, the 2015 model could often outperform it simply because it gave its processor room to breathe.

The 2017 was fine for photo applications like Lightroom, but struggled with editing HD video, nevermind 4k+. I’d have to convert video files to an uncompressed format and pre-render any transitions or effects just to preview them.

It didn’t help that the AMD GPUs they used were trash.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Tim Apple’s Glasses and nymphe
Max OS just doesn’t thrill me much anymore. And if you don’t do high end app work, really consider the iPad Pro and keeping your MacBook for a while is what i would recommend to the 2017 group. You can buy fully loaded iPad pros M1 for less than half of retail. I paid a bit over $3k new for mine with all boxes checked with accessories.

I received the vintage label last year on both my 2016 13 & 15 MacBook Pro with Touchbar. Guess I paid close to $7k for the two new with loaded features on the 13.

I haven’t had a single issue with the 15”. My 13” is used more heavily but even with that the only issue is the backlight of the keyboard no longer works and one of the speakers distorts at high volumes which is “fixed” by moving the sound to the left.

For those that aren’t ready to upgrade, consider an iPad Pro. I am surprised how much I now use my iPad over my MacBooks. I could live without the touchbar and now that I have an iPad for portable use. I may never buy another MacBook. Likely won’t get a Pro, not crazy about the thickness of the new ones. May get a MacBook Air M2 once when the M3 comes out. Find someone that is selling theirs fully loaded with RAM and SSD on eBay for a fraction of the price.

Probably the only product I’d pay full price for is Vision goggles. Though the 14” ipad will be tempting. Really like having a touchscreen and 5G.

Mac OS is dead in my world, but maybe that’ll change if there’s a must have feature. Right now there doesn’t seem to be a feature where I’m missing out.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: nvmls
Crowbot said:
I always wondered why the Touch Bar failed. It seemed like a neat feature and I'm sure I would have found a use for it. What were the issues?
Click to expand...
There was nothing ever wrong with the Touch Bar apart from the fact that it was introduced as a replacement to hard function keys when it should have supplemented the traditional function keys.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: Crowbot, xpxp2002 and nvmls
spcopsmac21 said:
this is the argument I've made and people have given me grief for it.
The newest apple silicon will have a very short shelf life with those integrated memory and ssd systems made directly into the processor.

Disagree with me. I don't care. My Mac studio has already been sent back for a replacement SSD for failure. And it can be replaced without a whole board replacement. With the usage were seeing of read and write on apple silicon machines. We will not get long lived machines. Apples expecting you to replace your machines as soon as your apple are runs out.
Click to expand...

Hard disagree. I have an M1 air and it's just as fast as the day I bought it and the wear ratio on the SSD is fairly low.. There are already 3rd party services that will solder in replacement SSD chips, if need be. Storage expansion goes on an external SSD

I will get a solid 5+ years out of this, if not much much more.
 
hagar said:
Absolutely disagree. After 3 years of M1, there’s zero reason for the vast majority of users to upgrade to the M2 or M3.

SSD can be easily expanded with the cloud and external drives.

That leaves the RAM, and it’s obvious Apple Silicon requires far less than Intel Macs. Unless your needs drastically change, an upgrade is not necessary.
Click to expand...
the cloud isn't full proof. And having to carry around external drives for you $3000 laptop seem insane.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nvmls
Amazing Iceman said:
Yeah, unlike PCs, Macs can perform very well for many more years. In some cases, adding some RAM and using a SSD is all it takes to make older Macs fly.
Click to expand...
"Some cases". Yeah, "cases" before 2012-2013. Since then, RAM has been soldered in, making sure you have to buy a new one if you need more power down the line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nvmls
spcopsmac21 said:
the cloud isn't full proof. And having to carry around external drives for you $3000 laptop seem insane.
Click to expand...

My m1 air was like $1500, and choosing to carry an SSD when I need as opposed to buying another laptop??....No contest.... They aren't any bigger than a bluetooth mouse, which I also keep in my laptop bag.

I don't use the cloud.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nvmls
Butterfly keyboard, RIP (rest in pieces).

During this time I ended up buying a 2015 MBP which my wife is still using . Other than replacing the battery, it has been solid. The best MBP I had was my 2012. I removed the optical drive and put in a second hard drive. Loved that laptop but wifi and web cam stopped working. I ended up giving it to my cousin's husband who has MS and needed a laptop and they couldn't afford to buy one.
 
Last edited:
I liked the idea of a touchbar. I hated the idea of removing the physical keys to add that.
If both were available it would be nice.

Not for me, I'm poor.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: waquzy
newmacxc said:
Touchbar MacBook Pros were the best looking MacBook Pros ever made.
Click to expand...
I'm really thinking of getting an new M2 Max one (which are better and more usable in nearly every possible way) but I agree - they are really chunky looking compared to my 2019 MBP, which still looks pretty slick.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ener Ji
Used one with 16 GB RAM. Worst Apple computer I have ever owned. And that is not due to any hate for the touch bar. The keyboard, my god. The overheating, my god. And the battery at the end, it could not hold a charge. And in the end also it's absolute crawling performance. Sold it for $100–200 (can't remember exactly) with a warning of how crap it was.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tim Apple’s Glasses and nvmls
jlc1978 said:
Internet law 23: If you don’t see the use of something disparage it just becasue.



Apple pretty much as had a cycle of Vintage -> Obsolete based on age and repair part availability. I suspect those are the ages most Macs have been taken out of service.



I just donated a vintage MBP to a shelter, with OpenOffice and Chrome it was a solid machine for their needs. Kept it out of the recycle bin for a few more years.
Click to expand...
Indeed. One does not need the latest MacOS version for non-demanding tasks as long as the browser (where most users spend the majority of their time anyways) is up-to-date. Most open source software is quite generous in supporting older OS versions.
 
nymphe said:
Anemic? What was wrong with 7th gen? I have the 15” version with quadcore so I was quite happy with the performance.
Click to expand...
It wasn't really a big upgrade for most MBP users back then. Remember, this was the Skylake era, when Intel did not manage to bring large performance increases between CPU generations without increasing core count and higher core frequencies. I don't think the 7th gen is being remembered as being particularly bad, the 8th gen (the i9's in particular) had more issues due to running hotter in a thermal design that could not handle these chips running at full power.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nymphe
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back