Will I be happy with a New (used) 2017 MacBook Pro - No Touch Bar?

[Grubster]

So, I've been an iMac user for about 15 years. Started with 24" intel iMac's and now I work from home on a 2015 27" iMac with 2 additional monitors and don't plan on switching for a while.

A month back, I got a free 2010 "Non-Functioning" MacBook Pro 13". I put a new battery in it, new SSD and trackpad and I really like it as far as build quality and such, High Sierra is still very usable. The non-retina screen is bothering me, and of course it's a bit slow, but all in I spent maybe $80-90 for it. I was poking around for a retina MacBookPro 13 and was set on a 2015 model, but made an e-bay offer on a 2017 model with Low battery cycle count (22) and no SSD drive and got it for $200 even. All in after buying a replacement OEM 128gb SSD and charger, I'll be in it so cheap I figured it was worth a shot.

I hear constantly about the problems with butterfly keyboard etc.. In reality, I just need a backup machine for work in case I have an issue with my iMac, something use during lunch to keep working from the kitchen, and for my wife to work for occasional meetings outside of the house. As far as ports, I really don't care about them at all, this will be a typical machine I work from the cloud on, browser stuff etc.. I probably won't install much software other than like MS Teams. Of course will take it with for any travel if needed, but that is limited to 3-4 work trips a year now. I will say this, the keyboard on the 2010, which I'm typing on now is really good.

Anyhow, was just looking for some thoughts, thanks!

 

[fwmireault]

Given it's a secondary device, I think you'll be more than fine. I've had a MBP with butterfly keyboard previously, and even if I am happy they are moving from it, I never had issues in the three years I used my MBP. 200$ for it is a very good deal.

 

[Chancha]

So you have only made an offer on the 2017 but haven't sealed the deal, where buying the SSD and a charger is only happening after that is done?

With how little cost this takes and you are used to how Intel Macs behave, it will be hard for anyone to convince you the plan doesn't work otherwise. Before I came into this thread and read your whole text, just looking at the thread title the only thing came to my mind was "just buy a refurb base M1 MBA and be done" since it would have been a much better value.

But now knowing you only intend it as a secondary machine with nothing mission critical, I'd say go for it. However I suspect whenever the M2 MBAs drop, the current crop of M1 MBAs will flood to the 2nd market at dirt cheap prices close to Intel Macs like your broken 2017, at which point the value proposition will be even harder to justify to get anything Intel. The thing with Apple Silicon is how power efficient they are and by extension how suitable this is for a general purpose laptop, in battery life and longevity especially. And there is no butterfly KB waiting to fail.

 

[Grubster]

Hi, I won the auction, just waiting for it to be delivered tomorrow. i offered way less than asking and did not expect to win it. I found a place on eBay that had factory OEM pulled SSD drives, I think I paid 32 bucks for it. I looked for refurbed M1 machines but all are close to 1000. Also ordered a charger for 25 bucks.
thing for me to for work is we use virtual desktops and I just remote in with Citrix workspace app for work, so most any machine does what I need.

 

[Diablo360]

Did they make a 2017 MacBook Pro with no Touch Bar? It was my understanding that all 13 and 15 inch models after 2016 had a Touch Bar and also had a non removable ssd

 

[Chancha]

Did they make a 2017 MacBook Pro with no Touch Bar? It was my understanding that all 13 and 15 inch models after 2016 had a Touch Bar and also had a non removable ssd

2016 & 2017 had a "no touch bar" low end model. It was replaced by the "2 TB ports" versions which added touchbars to it. They use slightly slower i5 CPUs compared to the full 4 ports versions.

Also the SSDs in those 2016 & 17 nTB models were socketed, while the interface is of course proprietary people have managed to do pinout adaptors like for iMacs. But the OP has sourced OEM originals anyway.

People widely considered these Macs not qualifying the Pro moniker, but it was during the era of screwed Mac lineup where the MBA was a non-retina bottom barrel old design, the most portable Mac was the underpowered fanless 12 rMB. The 13" MBP nTB had a fan and 15W CPU and a form factor 99% the same as the higher end 13", Apple felt it justifiable to call it MBP also.

 

[joesegh]

I use the 2017 regularly. The keyboard on mine only crapped out once (replaced under warranty). The biggest issue I have with the device is that even running Outlook and Safari can make the fans spin up, and the battery life is pretty poor for my use cases, ranging from 4-6 hours at most. It'll be fine as a backup but it's tough as a primary device.

 

[Fishrrman]

For $200, just use it as long as it works.

BE AWARE that the butterfly keyboard on these is a VERY EXPENSIVE fix if something goes wrong. By "expensive", we're talking a $750 repair even for JUST ONE KEY. That's because the ENTIRE TOP CASE of the computer must be changed out -- even for just one key.

To put it another way, it won't be worth fixing if the keyboard breaks...

 

[Grubster]

Good point. Well the seller offered free returns, so if it works perfect when I get it, I'll keep it. Any keyboard problems, unless I'm lucky and it's still covered, i'll return it. They made this machine from 2017-2019, so I'll check the original sale date on it.

 

[clevins]

For $200, just use it as long as it works.

BE AWARE that the butterfly keyboard on these is a VERY EXPENSIVE fix if something goes wrong. By "expensive", we're talking a $750 repair even for JUST ONE KEY. That's because the ENTIRE TOP CASE of the computer must be changed out -- even for just one key.

To put it another way, it won't be worth fixing if the keyboard breaks...

Apple replaced it twice for me on my 2016, for free. Not sure if the program that they did that under is still active, though.

OP - it will be fine as a secondary, backup machine.

 

[Grubster]

From what i ready, you get 4 years from date of sale.

 

[Sterkenburg]

Yeah it's 4 years from date of original sale. It's indeed a model very prone to keyboard issues, normally I would not recommend it but for that kind of price and as a backup machine it's perfectly fine. Just use it as long as it lasts.

 

[Jeven Stobs]

I’m confused. The 2017 has soldered on SSD’s, doesn’t it?Mine definitely does.
So how can one have no SSD installed?

 

[Grubster]

I’m confused. The 2017 has soldered on SSD’s, doesn’t it?Mine definitely does.
So how can one have no SSD installed?

Hi, so in 2016 and 2017 there were 2 model 13" MacBook Pro. With Touch Bar +$500 and without Touch Bar. The NON TouchBar Models have removable SSD. The Touch Bar models also had a faster processor And Soldered SSD. Since I don't care about disk space, I found an SSD 128gb for 32 bucks. But maybe should have sprung for a 256GB as they were only like 20-30 bucks more. I guess I just wanted to get it working for as cheap as possible now! I can always upgrade the SSD later. For me it's more of a "Web Machine" so space won't be a concern.

 

[Grubster]

Just got it in mail, looks really good, pictures from auction were crazy bad, turns out what I thought where "chips" and "Dents" Was just Sticker residue! It just has light scratches, very minimal! It turned on right when I opened the lid as well looking for a disk. Hopefully all works well when I pop in the SSD in the next day or so. I did click around a bit more on the keyboard and now understand. It's a bit odd that the keyboard buttons don't really go down very much and sounds odd! I'm sure takes some getting used to. That being said, i'm not writing any novels on here so I'll keep it protected and hope for the best!

 

[Diablo360]

Just got it in mail, looks really good, pictures from auction were crazy bad, turns out what I thought where "chips" and "Dents" Was just Sticker residue! It just has light scratches, very minimal! It turned on right when I opened the lid as well looking for a disk. Hopefully all works well when I pop in the SSD in the next day or so. I did click around a bit more on the keyboard and now understand. It's a bit odd that the keyboard buttons don't really go down very much and sounds odd! I'm sure takes some getting used to. That being said, i'm not writing any novels on here so I'll keep it protected and hope for the best!

Looks like you got a great deal then, whether it’s the old model or not, that’s a very good price

 

[Jeven Stobs]

Hi, so in 2016 and 2017 there were 2 model 13" MacBook Pro. With Touch Bar +$500 and without Touch Bar. The NON TouchBar Models have removable SSD. The Touch Bar models also had a faster processor And Soldered SSD. Since I don't care about disk space, I found an SSD 128gb for 32 bucks. But maybe should have sprung for a 256GB as they were only like 20-30 bucks more. I guess I just wanted to get it working for as cheap as possible now! I can always upgrade the SSD later. For me it's more of a "Web Machine" so space won't be a concern.

You’re right, just looked up a tear down and the SSD is in fact removable.
In that case go for it. That a bargain.

 

[Jeven Stobs]

Just got it in mail, looks really good, pictures from auction were crazy bad, turns out what I thought where "chips" and "Dents" Was just Sticker residue! It just has light scratches, very minimal! It turned on right when I opened the lid as well looking for a disk. Hopefully all works well when I pop in the SSD in the next day or so. I did click around a bit more on the keyboard and now understand. It's a bit odd that the keyboard buttons don't really go down very much and sounds odd! I'm sure takes some getting used to. That being said, i'm not writing any novels on here so I'll keep it protected and hope for the best!

If you wanna be extra careful you can get a silicone keyboard cover. I have one for mine and it works good. Had no keyboard issues since then.

 

[Grubster]

Update. So I got the SSD today in the mail. Took me all of 10 minutes to put it in. I was extra careful and disconnected the battery, even though I think that was overkill. Got Monterey installed from internet recovery and it's working great. Typing this message on it now. The retina screen really blows away the old MacBook Pro Non-Retina. I can type really fast on this keyboard, but can see why some don't like it. I'm a fan of loud clunky mechanical keyboards, but that's ok, I'm actually typing really fast on this thing. I guess the biggest complaint is the keyboards break. I tested every key and they all work. Only issue is it came with 3 missing base screws, I assume they lost when removing the SSD. I ordered a set already, but the bottom stays on fairly well with a few missing as it has a hinge to lock in and some clips that snap in.

I've yet to fully charge it, as I'm waiting on a more powerful charger in the mail, but coconut battery shows 22 battery cycles, but only 79% capacity. Maybe that will change after some usage, but the battery manufacture date is showing as 11/20/2017. So I assume the machine was sold new in early 2018 or so, making it 4 years old or so. I'm guessing the battery isn't too hard to change, than the fact that it's "glued in" for some moronic reason. I guess a way for apple to get more money out of people for service, or have them just trade them in for new machines. Right now, the initial feel of this machine is snappier and faster than my 2015 27" iMac. That machine has the crappy fusion, and I haven't felt it was slow enough to justify opening up and "un-glueing" the display to put in a single large SSD.

Anyhow, thanks everyone for the chat. I'll look into the silicone keyboard cover, but I don't think I will like that.

 

[Pecka]

I'm pretty happy with my 2017 MBP 13", but the butterfly keyboard does act up at times. I tried to use a more complicated password but gave up on that because it almost always missed keystrokes. Got tired of having to type several times before it succeeded. Occasionally I have to hammer on a certain key to make it work again.

 

[Grubster]

So got machine all fixed up now and ran into first issue. Cycle count was very low, 22, but battery capacity saying at about 70% capacity And quickly dropping lower into 60s. I had it happen 2-3 times where it shut down, and came back on, it then shut down while booting. Seems to happen when battery was at 50% or less. I ran the shut down logs and it did say shut down reason code =0, which is power disconnect. I charge it backup and it’s fine. Is this a clear case of needing a new battery? If so, anyone recommend an aftermarket brand? Im certainly not paying Apple 200. Amazon has a bunch of options, not sure which is a good one. I do have one key that is ever so slightly spongy. I will ask if it qualifies for the butterfly keyboard replacement, and that would net me a battery, but I’m not confident in that happening.

 

[Pecka]

So got machine all fixed up now and ran into first issue. Cycle count was very low, 22, but battery capacity saying at about 70% capacity And quickly dropping lower into 60s. I had it happen 2-3 times where it shut down, and came back on, it then shut down while booting. Seems to happen when battery was at 50% or less. I ran the shut down logs and it did say shut down reason code =0, which is power disconnect. I charge it backup and it’s fine. Is this a clear case of needing a new battery? If so, anyone recommend an aftermarket brand? Im certainly not paying Apple 200. Amazon has a bunch of options, not sure which is a good one. I do have one key that is ever so slightly spongy. I will ask if it qualifies for the butterfly keyboard replacement, and that would net me a battery, but I’m not confident in that happening.

How old is the battery?

You can use utilities like Coconut Battery and Battery Health to see that.

 

[Grubster]

How old is the battery?

You can use utilities like Coconut Battery and Battery Health to see that.

Battery is original, from 11/2017

 

[Pecka]

Battery is original, from 11/2017

Which tool do you use to see the capacity percentage?

 

[Grubster]

Which tool do you use to see the capacity percentage?

Coconut battery. It jumps around when I check it each time.