So long and thanks, MBP mid-2015 15in

[exoticSpice]

I just bought a 2015 a couple months ago, and oh boy is it nice. It’s a toss-up between the underpowered & overfeatured 2009 17” mbp I leave at work and the more powerful but svelte 15” at home for my favorite Mac ever. Every time I crack one of them open I’m reminded of why everyone loved Apple and they became massively popular. Runs Mac from High Sierra & Mojave if you need 32bit, to Monterey if you need CSAM spyware, runs Windows 7 & 10 on Bootycamp. But a 2015 mbp with Mojave really is the bees knees as far as Mac laptops go. 32bit & QT7 for non-destructive video edits, works with Parallels 12 (the last really fully stable release) which Wacoms drivers don’t conflict with, so you can use a Wacom intros 3 (the last Wacom to have a reliable mouse) for the best user control interface ever made, has usb-a ports on both sides(!), Thunderbolt ports, hdmi, a hi-res display and a trackpad with enough space around it you can actually reach across without your wrist or side of your thumb interfering. It takes less than a minute to pop the bottom cover off and access the easily removable nvme ssd, which I replaced with a 4tb WD Black. So now it’s also useful as a media library and since it has enough graphics power to drive the LG Ultrrawide 38” curved displays, it now does double duty as a deluxe, full featured AppleTV. All for what did I pay, about $400? lol

My 2019 8-core i9’s each have about 4x the graphics & horsepower on paper, but due to most apps still being written for single core, the 2015’s zippy 2.8GHz performance isn’t really much if a step down over the i9s 2.4Ghz. And considering what a hassle the 2016’s+ are, with their long list of limitations and incompatibilities & lack of features, & the Mx stuff isn’t any more useful to me than an iPad, so the 2015 is the pinnacle of what the mbp has been thus far.

For me the pinnacle is the 2021 MBPs. The 2016-2019 MBP were horrible. If the 2021 MBP were not released I would have aggreed with you but the 2021 MBP are *chefs kiss* to me.

I love the 2021 MBPs, I could run all my apps and also be blazing fast at compiling code, running my media library from my NAS and video editing is a breeze on the 2021 MBP . All my apps moved over to 64bit. I CAN tell the difference between my 2019 and the 2021 MBP.

If you need 32bit I can see how the 2021 MBP are useless to you but thankfully like I said I use no 32bit apps so I have a different opinion and man it's nice to able to use these for my workflow.
The M1 single core is very noticeable in the OS and in the apps. Thankfully, the ports are back in the 2021 MBP.

The 2021 MBP can drive 4 external monitors and that been the one the thing the 2020 M1 were missing but that's been available with the 2021 now.
The 2015 MBP was my go to for people to get but after the 2021 MBP release it's my new recommendation. The battery life is amazing and the quietness under load is nice to have.

As for the OS I have Vuntura and beta 6 has been good to me. Just to note. Spyware is also in Mojave in the form GateKeeper. Windows 10 has Spyware to and it also phones home to Microsoft. But I don't give a fudge. Life is too short to worry.

Well here's to the 2015 MBP and my soon to workhorse the 2021 MBP.

 

[woolypants]

For me the pinnacle is the 2021 MBPs.

If you're talking about Apple Silicon MacBooks then I don't think any of us are claiming seven year old MacBook Pro models are better

We're just suggesting that they were the pinnacle of the Intel era of MacBooks, which started way back in Jan 2006. Over a decade later and Apple had reached what many of us consider to be perfection.

 

[philosopherdog]

these machines are so painfully slow today, and although the butterfly keyboard macs sucked they blow these old 15 inch machines out of the water when compiling code. but m1 is another universe if you need to do intensive work.

 

[Nbd1790]

Made a similar jump as you did. Top spec 2015 15 inch - 2021 14 inch M1 Max 32gb & 2tb SSD. Had the same issues as you did with the external monitors & fans etc. It was a great machine which I still keep around the house but it's no longer my main computer.

I hope you're enjoying your new machine. I'm certainly enjoying mine. Just FYI, no matter what I've done in nearly a year, I've still yet to hear a fan kick on.

 

[farkleboy]

Like others, I too have that same model. I bought mine used on amazon when I unceremoniously quit my position at a video production company and needed something to get me started out on my own. That little lappy was flogged for years. Editing highlight reels on site at events, chewing through thousands of pictures onsite, exporting and compressing for distribution to screens. I've done video editing, after effects animations, photo editing, all the creative stuff, and never once did I lose anything or did it falter.

I've had 2 perfect laptops in my life, this 2015, which I am still using, but less and less, and my last Gen 17" MPB. Those two lasted longer than they should have, did more than I could have expected, and gave me more opportunities for income over their lifetimes than any windows machine could have dreamed. End of an era, and like all yall, I wonder what the next one will be. I have a steady gig now that is windows based, but I really miss OSX and all its little idiosyncrasies. While I can't justify $2500+ for a laptop for pleasure (i want the 16" mbp) I am keeping my 2015 around for nostalgia, and it will sit on my shelf next to my original iphone, and the best iphone they ever made, my 5s.

 

[orionquest]

Install Mojave on your MBP 15 and it will work great, anything beyond that well... just sucks....

I've 2 2015 era books a MBA 11" and MBP 13", both great and bought with future proof in mind, and for a great deal when the newer bad models came out with butterfly keyboards these were keepers. Upgraded the MBP 13" with a 1TB SSD, will do the same with the MBA eventually, because I can .

 

[exoticSpice]

If you're talking about Apple Silicon MacBooks then I don't think any of us are claiming seven year old MacBook Pro models are better

We're just suggesting that they were the pinnacle of the Intel era of MacBooks, which started way back in Jan 2006. Over a decade later and Apple had reached what many of us consider to be perfection.

Oh that’s not always true. When the 2016 MBP was released and even in 2017 the 2015 MBP was the pinnacle and they were the pinnacle for a long time.

Mainly because the 2016 Touch Bar era macs were bad.

 

[1BadManVan]

Hopefully you love your new 2021 as much as you did your 2015!

 

[woolypants]

Hopefully you love your new 2021 as much as you did your 2015!

It's proving a worthy replacement and that's perhaps the most praise you can give. No problems so far.

Battery is showing only 99% of design capacity out of the box, but it seems that's the way it is.

I'm a bit surprised 4K movies don't look better—it really does seem the leap from 1080p to 2160p isn't that big a deal in reality. Saying that, HDR 4K at 60FPS looks ungodly realistic. Freakishly so. There's a few clips from Gemini Man on YouTube that show this perfectly.

Of course, I bought right at the wrong moment, with reports at that the M2 Pro/Max 14 and 16in models are due in as little as one or two months from now (although I'm personally skeptical—I think it'll be more like Q1 next year). If you're attempting future proofing with Apple's fastest laptop, it's always nice to have at least a few months when you can GeekBench or Cinebench and feel smug.

 

[SeenJeen]

I really wished the 13" had quad cores in 2015. I'd probably still be using mine today. I had 16GB/1TB, it was a beast but started to get long in the tooth around 2019.

 

[pshufd]

I really wished the 13" had quad cores in 2015. I'd probably still be using mine today. I had 16GB/1TB, it was a beast but started to get long in the tooth around 2019.

It would have generated too much heat. My big complaint on the 13 is loud fans when doing Zoom conferences.

 

[elmarjazz]

Not just the 13". My MBP 2015 15” 2.8GHz fans kicked up ANY time there was a load. Just was doing OS updates with it and the MBP 2021 14” side by side, and the fans were very loud, 2021 was completely silent.

 

[Rimmsi]

Yes, fan noise and device heating is a problem with the MBP 2015 (and all Intel MacBook's), so I'm running an undervolted CPU and reduced TDP to 25W in both MacOS and Windows.

 

[pshufd]

I used to use my 2015 15 for work, then trading and then just content consumption and office stuff. It gets warm but the fans don't spin up for the simple stuff. Mine could probably benefit from a thermal paste replacement. I do like the idea of running undervolted. Do you have a macOS tool for that?

 

[Rimmsi]

For undervolting in MacOS use Voltageshift and in Windows Throttlestop.