I’m keeping my 2019 Intel MacBook Pro… FOREVER!!

[snak-atak]

Yep, that’s right. I’ve purchased my fair share of Macs for myself and my family over the last 10 years And have been very happy with every purchase. Every machine has lasted for at least 5 years, most longer than that before trading them in for newer models. And in the last 2 years I started transitioning my Intel Macs to Apple Silicon models. I have one more to go… my 2019 16” 2TB, 32GB MacBook Pro. I didn’t jump at the M1 Pro/Max as I decided to patiently wait for the next generation. I’m glad I did because Ive learned that I cannot live without it, and I will never let it go. No, I’m not one of those M1 haters. My primary workstation is the Mac Studio And my wife and kids now have M1 Airs. All awesome machines that don’t ever seem to break a sweat. But there are couple of applications that it cannot run.

Elgato Video Capture - The company has not yet updated their software to support Silicon and I doubt they ever will. It’s old tech and there’s probably no incentive for them to do so. It has not worked at all on M1 Macs and I have a lot of video footage that I have to transfer from old tapes and devices. It’ll take me years to transfer my content and even after I complete the work, I’ll want to hang onto all my old cameras, tapes, and my Intel Mac in case I ever need to go back to the original source material.

Parallels - I have virtual machines with old x86 Windows based programs and documents that I occasionally have to reference. I could transfer some of those old records to a native Windows machine but what’s the difference? Why not just keep the trusty 2019 Mac that has served me well? Besides Windows works faster and more smoothly on my Mac than it does on any PC I ever owned. Yes, I’ve owned a few over the years and I still have a Lenovo lying around when I need a Windows machine in a pinch, but I’d rather go to my VM if needed.

There’s probably more apps and hardware that hasn’t yet made the transition to Silicon that I am not presently aware of but probably will as time goes on. I’ve watched the trade in price slip dramatically especially this past year. I bought my MacBook Pro for more than $4,000 and it’s trade-in value is now $525, but that’s okay because now I know that I’ll never give it up.

 

[maflynn]

Many consumers, do that very thing. Us hobbyists are probably more of the outlier where we buy our computers fairly often.

If you're still getting use of the laptop, and your apps work, then yes, its sound advise to keep using it and not spend money on a new machine

 

[DJ Rob]

I'm in the same boat. Once I saw that x86/64 VMs were not going to be supported, I grabbed a fully loaded 2020 MBP 13" i7 from the Apple Refurb Store. I hold out hope that the raw power of the Apple Silicon platform will one day have an emulator for X86/64 that's as performant and capable as virtualization on my Intel Mac. I do monitor developments with Linux on AS and Windows for ARM, but so far, not ready to make the jump.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

Yep, that’s right. I’ve purchased my fair share of Macs for myself and my family over the last 10 years And have been very happy with every purchase. Every machine has lasted for at least 5 years, most longer than that before trading them in for newer models. And in the last 2 years I started transitioning my Intel Macs to Apple Silicon models. I have one more to go… my 2019 16” 2TB, 32GB MacBook Pro. I didn’t jump at the M1 Pro/Max as I decided to patiently wait for the next generation. I’m glad I did because Ive learned that I cannot live without it, and I will never let it go. No, I’m not one of those M1 haters. My primary workstation is the Mac Studio And my wife and kids now have M1 Airs. All awesome machines that don’t ever seem to break a sweat. But there are couple of applications that it cannot run.

Elgato Video Capture - The company has not yet updated their software to support Silicon and I doubt they ever will. It’s old tech and there’s probably no incentive for them to do so. It has not worked at all on M1 Macs and I have a lot of video footage that I have to transfer from old tapes and devices. It’ll take me years to transfer my content and even after I complete the work, I’ll want to hang onto all my old cameras, tapes, and my Intel Mac in case I ever need to go back to the original source material.

Parallels - I have virtual machines with old x86 Windows based programs and documents that I occasionally have to reference. I could transfer some of those old records to a native Windows machine but what’s the difference? Why not just keep the trusty 2019 Mac that has served me well? Besides Windows works faster and more smoothly on my Mac than it does on any PC I ever owned. Yes, I’ve owned a few over the years and I still have a Lenovo lying around when I need a Windows machine in a pinch, but I’d rather go to my VM if needed.

There’s probably more apps and hardware that hasn’t yet made the transition to Silicon that I am not presently aware of but probably will as time goes on. I’ve watched the trade in price slip dramatically especially this past year. I bought my MacBook Pro for more than $4,000 and it’s trade-in value is now $525, but that’s okay because now I know that I’ll never give it up.

Doesn’t Parallels have an AS version?

 

[maflynn]

Doesn’t Parallels have an AS version?

Parallels does have a version that runs on the M1, and MSFT has a pre-release version of ARM windows, BUT that doesn't mean all of the apps will work. I found that many apps i rely on simply are not compatible. Some of which won't even install.

For me, Parallels on my 14" MBP has been a disappointment.

 

[snak-atak]

I'm in the same boat. Once I saw that x86/64 VMs were not going to be supported, I grabbed a fully loaded 2020 MBP 13" i7 from the Apple Refurb Store. I hold out hope that the raw power of the Apple Silicon platform will one day have an emulator for X86/64 that's as performant and capable as virtualization on my Intel Mac. I do monitor developments with Linux on AS and Windows for ARM, but so far, not ready to make the jump.

I’m in the same boat. I too doubt that Parallels will invest in building a 100% x86 emulator.

 

[snak-atak]

Parallels does have a version that runs on the M1, and MSFT has a pre-release version of ARM windows, BUT that doesn't mean all of the apps will work. I found that many apps i rely on simply are not compatible. Some of which won't even install.

For me, Parallels on my 14" MBP has been a disappointment.

Same here. In past years I’ve used proprietary business tax software. There’s not much reason for those companies to convert their past tax years software since their primary client base was and still is for Windows business users.

 

[snak-atak]

Doesn’t Parallels have an AS version?

It does, but you cannot port your old x86 VM to it. You need to initialize from scratch and then install your apps and move files over as if it’s a brand new machine and hope it takes.

 

[prospervic]

I'm keeping my spinning disc hard drive MacBook Pro....FOREVER!!

 

[Zest28]

To be fair, Intel CPU's are overkill for most people anyway.

 

[maflynn]

To be fair, Intel CPU's are overkill for most people anyway.

Yep, we're at a point where for most consumers even a 2015 era computer is more then enough.

 

[CalMin]

That trade-in value stings a bit. Yes - if you view it from that perspective, keeping it is a no brainer. It's still a very capable machine and Intel Macs will have their uses for many years to come.

 

[snak-atak]

That trade-in value stings a bit. Yes - if you view it from that perspective, keeping it is a no brainer. It's still a very capable machine and Intel Macs will have their uses for many years to come.

I did get a little depressed watching the trade-in go from $2k - $1k - even less as my original plan was to trade it in for the M2 Max when it came out. But now that I have no plans to trade in, not so much. Although that means that I’ll have to pay full price when I am ready to get a new MacBook for myself. It’ll just mean waiting for another year or so for the M3 Max for the cost-benefit to balance out.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Yes well for my work I need to keep some 32 bit apps working so I'm still on Mojave with one of my Macs

 

[subjonas]

I still have my original rMBP. 10 years old and still works great (on Mojave, battery replaced once). The thing never ages. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it either.

 

[dinobear]

My 16" mbp 5600m, 64gb ram, is over two years old now but I'm not even tempted to upgrade yet. Which is surprising usually I get the itch after 2 years and cave at 3 years. This machine still runs amazing for my needs (using it 8+ hours a day for code, motion graphics, photo editing). Love it. Hope it runs forever.

I hope this one can last until a second design revision of the Apple silicon mbps.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I'm curious about this machine at the moment. The 16" with 5600m.

I have an aging 2017 MBP 4gb VRam which I dual boot to Windows, however I now need some more power than that GPU can give me. I'm wondering if the 5600m is up to the task. I'm thinking i7, too, to hopefully avoid the overheating issues I see about the place.

Is a 5600m 16" a good buy in 2023? I guess it depends on price, but there's quite a few on the refurb store.

I have an M2 Air which is great for almost everything else, but the MacBook Pro is (or was) one of the best Windows laptops around. You can get your Windows stuff done but count on Apple support when you need it - something that can be lacking in the PC laptop space.

Anyway, keen to hear folks experience who use the laptop for Bootcamp.

 

[bobcomer]

Even though I have a Mac Studio, I just went and bought a 2020 i7 iMac from Mac refurbished so I'd have an intel mac for a long time. But since the monitor is so much better, I actually use it as my main machine. I need x86 VM's too...

 

[ericgedi77]

I'm curious about this machine at the moment. The 16" with 5600m.

I have an aging 2017 MBP 4gb VRam which I dual boot to Windows, however I now need some more power than that GPU can give me. I'm wondering if the 5600m is up to the task. I'm thinking i7, too, to hopefully avoid the overheating issues I see about the place.

Is a 5600m 16" a good buy in 2023? I guess it depends on price, but there's quite a few on the refurb store.

I have an M2 Air which is great for almost everything else, but the MacBook Pro is (or was) one of the best Windows laptops around. You can get your Windows stuff done but count on Apple support when you need it - something that can be lacking in the PC laptop space.

Anyway, keen to hear folks experience who use the laptop for Bootcamp.

I did this for about a year. It ran games really well, but driver support was lacking.

 

[capamac]

I support this line of thinking -- in general. But instead of "forever" I prefer "for a long time."
I have an Intel 2015 MacBook Pro 13" and I used it for 6 years when the trackpad failed. So I bought an M1 Air. And then I fixed the trackpad on the Intel. So now I use both, but I use the M1 more. But here's the thing: If I had realized how easy it was to repair the trackpad, I would have never bought the M1. I was just sure I couldn't fix it. XD

So if you're really intent on using that Intel mac fora long time, at some point you'll probably have to start buying replacement parts, or an second donor Macbook for parts.