After more than 8 years the first 13" MacBook Pro with a Retina display has been classified as 'obsolete' by Apple

[ProjectBox153]

Putting this at the top because some people are missing the point of this post:

If this was any other Retina MacBook I wouldn't have even cared. This happens to be the first 13" Retina model though, so that's why I felt like writing something about it. This MacBook changed the field for the 13" MacBook Pro, and we still have the Retina display today. It's now in all of the 13" laptops that Apple offers.

 

Summary

Released in October of 2012, the 13" Retina MacBook Pro brought some great improvements to the 13" MacBook Pro. It also brought some controversial changes to the smaller MacBook Pro that many people still dislike today. However, after more than 8 years since being introduced, the Late 2012 13" Retina MacBook Pro has been classified as 'obsolete' meaning Apple will no longer offer any hardware service for the device. 

 

Quotes

Quote

The original 15-inch MacBook Pro became obsolete in July of 2020, and the 13-inch model has now followed suit. Apple classifies products that have been discontinued for at least seven years as "obsolete," meaning that they are unable to receive any hardware service from Apple or its service providers.

 

My thoughts

Personally I'm not surprised at all given how Apple handles their older devices. This move serves as a reminder for how long the Retina MacBook Pros have been out, and just how much they've progressed. They were definitely controversial when first released. The Retina models didn't have batteries that were officially user replaceable, and more importantly (for lots of people) is the lack of RAM slots. The RAM for the computer is soldered to the logic board, something that continues to this day. The computer also moved to flash storage (mechanical drives were not an option), and the drives were fast but also proprietary. Thankfully third party options became available to allow owners to upgrade their SSDs down the line. The Mid 2017 13" MacBook Pro base model (non-Touch Bar) was the last to include removable storage.

 

Sources

MacRumors Article

[dilpickle]

I mean this is standard practice on old products. I don't really see the newsworthiness here.

[jaslion]

Their service was mostly well it's gonna cost more than the device is worth anyways so nothing really lost here :p. (part from the screen issues thing).

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

it was already unsupported, those models do not run Big Sur. 

 

and to be honest i don't even mind. Catalina is a nightmare on my 2012 13" Unibody (identical in cpu and gpu to the Retina), and i'm debating rolling that back to High Sierra which is what the 2011's got dropped on, since that at least appears more stable on this kind of older hardware. 

 

like, you can't support a product forever, at some point it's better to stop updates because if you keep going the system will end up running like complete crap resulting in a bad experience for the user which you don't want if you're Apple. 

[DrMacintosh]

8 years is a long time to hold onto any machine, expecting to be able to take it back to the manufacturer and get it serviced is also a bit of a stretch. That being said, Apple not supporting their Macs for as long as Microsoft supports Windows is not cool. But, Windows is built on the ideal of legacy support, Macs are not. 

[ProjectBox153]

23 minutes ago, dilpickle said:

I mean this is standard practice on old products. I don't really see the newsworthiness here.

Normally I wouldn't have cared, but this was the first 13" Retina model ever made. It was the first in the current era of Retina MacBooks. Kind of important in the history of the MacBook Pro. 

 

10 minutes ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

it was already unsupported, those models do not run Big Sur. 

I never said it wasn't unsupported by macOS. I said it's now not supported by Apple at all, even for hardware repairs. That's a different thing. 

[Guest]

I thought these were garbage when they came out tbh. 

[suicidalfranco]

MS: windows10 can run on any computer going as far back as the early 2000

> nobody bats an eye

Apple: stop supporting a laptop after 8 years

> stunning and brave 

 

[ProjectBox153]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

Apple: stop supporting a laptop after 8 years

> stunning and brave 

Who says that?

[suicidalfranco]

1 minute ago, ProjectBox153 said:

Who says that?

look the thread:

>it's been long enough

>can't support something for ever

 

all excuse for what is clearly a bad practice

[DrMacintosh]

27 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

look the thread:

>it's been long enough

>can't support something for ever

 

all excuse for what is clearly a bad practice

I admit that the software support of Macs is not up to the same caliber as Windows, but for hardware support....Apple leads the pack there. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

2 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

MS: windows10 can run on any computer going as far back as the early 2000

> nobody bats an eye

Apple: stop supporting a laptop after 8 years

> stunning and brave 

how well does Windows 10 run on those though....

[ProjectBox153]

1 minute ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

how well does Windows 10 run on those though....

As someone who has run Windows 10 on a Pentium M laptop from 2005 I can say it actually runs alright. 

[suicidalfranco]

3 minutes ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

how well does Windows 10 run on those though....

it's usable

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

33 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

it's usable

 

 

34 minutes ago, ProjectBox153 said:

As someone who has run Windows 10 on a Pentium M laptop from 2005 I can say it actually runs alright. 

 

but be honest, those computers would be better off with an older lighter OS. like, yeah, my 2012 13" unibody MBP running Catalina is usable, but it lags and stutters on basically all desktop animations, booting takes ages, the cpu is constantly under relatively high load... 

 

and mind you it's not stock. it has an ssd and double the ram it had when it was new. i can't imagine running Catalina with only 4gb of ram and a spinning disk... 

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

but be honest, those computers would be better off with an older lighter OS. like, yeah, my 2012 13" unibody MBP running Catalina is usable, but it lags and stutters on basically all desktop animations, booting takes ages, the cpu is constantly under relatively high load... 

 

and mind you it's not stock. it has an ssd and double the ram it had when it was new. i can't imagine running Catalina with only 4gb of ram and a spinning disk... 

I don't recall saying that Windows 10 ran better on my Pentium M laptop than Windows XP (the stock OS) or Vista did. Sure, it's not fast, but it did work well. As for your issues with Catalina: I have no clue why you'd have so many problems. Apple officially supported Catalina on your machine, and many people are running Catalina on those MacBook Pros without SSDs. Have you done a fresh installation? There shouldn't be things in the background keeping the CPU pinned. 

[PocketNerd]

3 hours ago, dilpickle said:

I mean this is standard practice on old products. I don't really see the newsworthiness here.

PC Repair guy here!

8 years is a SUPER LONG time for something to be marked EoL (or "Obsolete" in this case). Hate Apple all you want, but the time they provide parts/support for is light-years above anyone else.

[ProjectBox153]

1 minute ago, PocketNerd said:

PC Repair guy here!

8 years is a SUPER LONG time for something to be marked EoL (or "Obsolete" in this case). Hate Apple all you want, but the time they provide parts/support for is light-years above anyone else.

Exactly. My point wasn't "hey look, another old MacBook is now obsolete", my point was that it's the first Retina 13" model to be obsolete. Apple does do a good job supporting their older products. 

[StDragon]

23 minutes ago, PocketNerd said:

PC Repair guy here!

8 years is a SUPER LONG time for something to be marked EoL (or "Obsolete" in this case). Hate Apple all you want, but the time they provide parts/support for is light-years above anyone else.

That's OS support; which is still admirable. But hardware warranty is only good for up to 3 years with AppleCare+.

 

A Dell Latitude can be extended up to 5 years.

[ProjectBox153]

4 minutes ago, StDragon said:

That's OS support; which is still admirable. But hardware warranty is only good for up to 3 years with AppleCare+.

 

A Dell Latitude can be extended up to 5 years.

The whole point of this post was that Apple has only just now stopped offering hardware service for the 2012 13" Retina MBP. Software support ended with macOS Catalina. That means Apple offered 8 years of hardware service, and while a good chunk of that was out of pocket service at least they still offered it on their older machines. 

[Grabhanem]

If you bring your 2012 Macbook to the Apple store, they will no longer make excuses about how you have to buy a new one, they'll just say it straight-up.

[lboolaka_33]

3 hours ago, Ashley MLP Fangirl said:

but be honest, those computers would be better off with an older lighter OS. like, yeah, my 2012 13" unibody MBP running Catalina is usable, but it lags and stutters on basically all desktop animations, booting takes ages, the cpu is constantly under relatively high load... 

 

and mind you it's not stock. it has an ssd and double the ram it had when it was new. i can't imagine running Catalina with only 4gb of ram and a spinning disk... 

That's odd, I've run an X230 on the latest version Windows 10 and a spinning rust drive without issue. My E6440 (4300M, 16GB of RAM, SSD) is as snappy as my main PC for everyday use. 

I've gotta agree with @ProjectBox153, especially since Apple is supposed to be about optimization and stuff.

[ProjectBox153]

34 minutes ago, lboolaka_33 said:

That's odd, I've run an X230 on the latest version Windows 10 and a spinning rust drive without issue. My E6440 (4300M, 16GB of RAM, SSD) is as snappy as my main PC for everyday use. 

I've gotta agree with @ProjectBox153, especially since Apple is supposed to be about optimization and stuff.

Yeah, I don't know what's up with their 2012 MBP. Those shipped with 4GB of RAM and 500GB mechanical hard drives, and they sold extremely well. I still see loads of them in use, and I've even serviced some myself. They're usually alright with Catalina on the stock drives. With an SSD they're even better. 

[Amias]

sits here sweating on his late 2013 13" MacBook Pro Retina ...

 

Apple are a nasty company, but goddamn they knocked quite a few generations of MacBook Pros out the f***ing park. This one is still going strong, 7.5 full years later.

 

Kind of hoping the next generation of MacBooks do something great, will likely need to replace this next year and my wifes M1 macbook air feels lovely, but I what's the point of the M1 MacBook Pro ...

 

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

9 hours ago, ProjectBox153 said:

I don't recall saying that Windows 10 ran better on my Pentium M laptop than Windows XP (the stock OS) or Vista did. Sure, it's not fast, but it did work well. As for your issues with Catalina: I have no clue why you'd have so many problems. Apple officially supported Catalina on your machine, and many people are running Catalina on those MacBook Pros without SSDs. Have you done a fresh installation? There shouldn't be things in the background keeping the CPU pinned. 

i did a fresh install numerous times. it's ok on other OS's so i'm guessing my hardware is fine...