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I just bought a unibody mid 2012 15 inch 2.6 GHz i7 in 2020. Is the laptop still worth it?

Everyone is still talkin bout the mid-2012 MBP 13” non-retina like it’s the best diamond in the rough machine for price & performance. I do agree but I’ve a burnin question that doesn’t seem to be raised often.

Since they ended production in October 2016 they will be Vintage this fall & Obsolete in 2023. I know that’s 2 years away but mine just pooped out on me & i need to replace it ASAP. I use it mainly for recording music with Logic Pro X & GarageBand. I already have the 500 gb SSD & 16 gb RAM upgrades ready to go.
So, I want to get another one of these b/c they’re bulletproof tanks that perform like stealth missles.

My fear is when it’s tagged obsolete and there’s no more service from Apple will it cause problems with updates required for the OS X & the software apps, etc?

I still have an iPad 1st Gen & b/c it’s obsolete there are a lot of apps that just can’t work anymore. I’m afraid of this with the mid-2012 13”. If anyone has experience with an Apple Obsolete MacBook Pro or Mac, etc what can I expect in its functionality after service is stopped?

thanks!😎
 
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Obsolete means that apple won’t carry repair parts for it any more. As far as software support, you probably have about one more year of updates, since they stopped selling it in 2016. 2021, that’s 5 years, and it looks like it’s already not compatible with Big Sur, if I’m not mistaken.
 
A great buy at that price. I have a MBP 13 late 2012 and trust me I love it!

This is one of my daily users with 2.5 i5 Dual Core 8GB-128SSD and Intel 4000 with Retina screen.

Very happy with it.
 
profcutter said:
Obsolete means that apple won’t carry repair parts for it any more. As far as software support, you probably have about one more year of updates, since they stopped selling it in 2016. 2021, that’s 5 years, and it looks like it’s already not compatible with Big Sur, if I’m not mistaken.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Sorta knew all of that. My main concern is after the software support ends what affect will using an obsolete mid-2012 mbp 13” have on my ability to use Logic Pro X? Also, what affect will it have on everyday apps like:
• Youtube, Netflix
• Apple Music
• Twitter, Facebook
• Microsoft 365, Pages, Numbers

Thanks again. I sure appreciate y’all’s help.😎
 
For all of those examples, little to none. The biggest concern is security updates, which is an OS-level problem. If you just ensure compatibility with your OS before you update to the newest versions of your software, you should be fine. Normally it’s the opposite problem, as in Big Sur comes out, and EndNote finally makes their software compatible with Catalina. The security update issue is real, but there should be a bit more time for security updates with Catalina, perhaps another year or so. Apple usually updates the previous one or two OS versions when there’s a major security problem. Keep in mind, there are still folks running computers with High Sierra.
 
profcutter said:
For all of those examples, little to none. The biggest concern is security updates, which is an OS-level problem. If you just ensure compatibility with your OS before you update to the newest versions of your software, you should be fine. Normally it’s the opposite problem, as in Big Sur comes out, and EndNote finally makes their software compatible with Catalina. The security update issue is real, but there should be a bit more time for security updates with Catalina, perhaps another year or so. Apple usually updates the previous one or two OS versions when there’s a major security problem. Keep in mind, there are still folks running computers with High Sierra.
Click to expand...
That’s great. Thank you. So I’ll have no problem runnin Logic Pro X into 2022, 23 or even 24 on my mid-2012 mbp as long as right now LPX is compatible with Mojave & Cartalina?
 
Newest version claims it needs:

  • macOS 10.15.7 or later (Catalina)
  • 6GB of available storage space for minimum installation or 72GB of storage space for full Sound Library installation
You’ll just want to avoid updating past that version if they drop support for catalina. Looks like 10.5 is the latest version to run on Mojave. As long as you’re happy with 10.5, it will run indefinitely.
 
profcutter said:
Newest version claims it needs:

  • macOS 10.15.7 or later (Catalina)
  • 6GB of available storage space for minimum installation or 72GB of storage space for full Sound Library installation
You’ll just want to avoid updating past that version if they drop support for catalina. Looks like 10.5 is the latest version to run on Mojave. As long as you’re happy with 10.5, it will run indefinitely.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
 
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