Help, should I buy this used 2015 MBP?

[Jester7677]

Hi,

I'm currently using a 2015 MBP, 15", Retina, 2.5 Quad i7, 16Gb Ram, 500GB SSD, AMD Radeon R9 w/2gb VRAM. It was issued by my company and they are offering me to buy it for $380. It has a bad HDMI port, and the battery has a service count of 245, with the condition being "Service Recommended".


I need a laptop for personal use and like the laptop, and for personal use it'd be fine. But is it worth it for $380? Any ideas what the battery service would run, or to maaaaybe fix the HDMI?

What would you do?

 

[Faris T]

Well, it is not supported by the latest software anymore but if you don't care about that you can get it. The battery will need to be serviced for $199 at the time of this writing. I am not sure about the HDMI port. I don't think you would need the HDMI port but if you do I don't know what to say. Depending on that HDMI port, you would need to spend a total of probably $580.

 

[ilikewhey]

thats kinda the street value price for that unit, so up to you if you feel like you need more performance than what you currently have.

 

[Faris T]

thats kinda the street value price for that unit, so up to you if you feel like you need more performance than what you currently have.

Makes sense. I agree. They did say it is for personal use. Depends on what kind of usage you are going to put it through.

 

[Jester7677]

Surfing the net, MS Word, music... That's about it.

 

[ilikewhey]

Surfing the net, MS Word, music... That's about it.

yeah you should be fine then, the 15inch has a quad core, so it should hold you for couple of more years.

 

[glenthompson]

Battery is hard to replace. HDMI is expensive to fix but if you need an external monitor you should be able to get a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter to use with it. Or a docking station that has the needed ports.

While the battery may be aging how long will it power the MBP? If it's good for an hour or two, will that be enough for your unfettered use?

 

[Arctic Moose]

I would say no. You should be able to get a 2017 or 2018 for only slightly more, which will support the latest OS for at least another year.

 

[chrfr]

Hi,

I'm currently using a 2015 MBP, 15", Retina, 2.5 Quad i7, 16Gb Ram, 500GB SSD, AMD Radeon R9 w/2gb VRAM. It was issued by my company and they are offering me to buy it for $380. It has a bad HDMI port, and the battery has a service count of 245, with the condition being "Service Recommended".


I need a laptop for personal use and like the laptop, and for personal use it'd be fine. But is it worth it for $380? Any ideas what the battery service would run, or to maaaaybe fix the HDMI?

What would you do?

$380 is far too much for a broken computer. The battery would cost $199 from Apple and the HDMI port would probably be $300 or more to fix, but they might also cover the battery in the same repair, depending on how Apple's flat rate repairs work now.

 

[chrfr]

I would say no. You should be able to get a 2017 or 2018 for only slightly more, which will support the latest OS for at least another year.

Of course all the 2016-2019 computers, excluding the 2019 16" MacBook Pro have the faulty butterfly keyboards, so they're also not great alternatives.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

What would you do?

For me, $380 is too much for that - especially with the disclosed condition issues. Yeah, you can get away without servicing the battery but if it’s “Service Recommended” at only 245 cycles, chances are decent it’s gonna start swelling and then you HAVE to replace it. So really it’s a $580 laptop, way too much for a 2015.

 

[planteater]

For me, $380 is too much for that - especially with the disclosed condition issues. Yeah, you can get away without servicing the battery but if it’s “Service Recommended” at only 245 cycles, chances are decent it’s gonna start swelling and then you HAVE to replace it. So really it’s a $580 laptop, way too much for a 2015.

I was going to say the same. Too much given it needs a battery.

Far better off looking at some of the new laptops Apple is offering. They will last years, and likely cost less than the 2015 if one averages the cost of ownership over their usable life.

I had and love the 2015 MBP, but it's too old now to consider buying. If one has one definitely worth considering keeping, but not worth buying.

 

[Jester7677]

Yeah, it hard. I’ve had it since the beginning and for office work is been rock solid. It’s what converted me to a Mac user. I’m thinking that’s too much for something that needs repair too.

The new ones… I want to wait to get a personal M2… but I don’t want a base one. I’ll look to add photo and video editing to my list of needs, that I currently do on a Windows machine that I have to borrow time on in the house. My son uses it as his gaming setup.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you buy the 2015, MAKE SURE that the company removes any pre-installed "company software" (may be called "MDM") from it before you accept it.

Otherwise, you'll never have full control of it.

 

[Arctic Moose]

Of course all the 2016-2019 computers, excluding the 2019 16" MacBook Pro have the faulty butterfly keyboards, so they're also not great alternatives.

True, not great, but I would still prefer them over a 2015. (Excluding the 2016 which has both been dropped from macOS Ventura, and also has the worst revision of the keyboard.)

However, the M1 MacBook Air is soooo much better, and can be purchased refurbished with warranty from Apple for $849, and used for as little as $500. If at all possible, this seems like a much more palatable option.