Mike Peterson
Apple has added the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display released in late 2012 to its list of obsolete products.
The specific model was first released in October 2012, and was Apple's first 13-inch MacBook Pro model to include a Retina Display. The obsolescence comes about nine years after the product's first release.
In June 2020, Apple also added the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display to its list of obsolete devices. That model was the first 15-inch portable Mac with Apple's Retina display technology.
Apple defines "vintage" devices as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but fewer than seven years. "Obsolete" products, on the other hand, are those that have been discontinued for more than seven years.
Obsolete products are not able to receive hardware service from Apple technicians or Authorized Service Providers, with "no exceptions."
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18 Comments
I know a lot of people that still use the 2012 MBP. They're solid machines and a testament to Apple's quality.
I don't expect Apple to support obsolete products the same way they do current models, but I wish they'd authorize third parties to manufacture key replacement parts. It seems wrong that I can get key parts to a 1948 Buick (although not necessarily from GM) but not a 2012 MacBook.
I am among those still using a mid 2012 non-retina 15" MBP. My daughter gave me this machine as a christmas present in late 2012. Without question, a fine example of solid engineering. This machine was the last of the totally user repairable notebooks Apple made. This machine has a full compliment of ports with NO dongles needed! I upgraded the ram over time to its max 16GB. I upgraded the HDD several times (started life as a 256MB HDD). I swapped out the super drive (CD/DVD burner) for an SSD (initially a relatively small one to just hold the OS). I upgraded the SSD to a larger one and rolled the SSD and HDD into a FUSION drive using the tools apple made available to anyone comfortable with the command line, which I ran with zero issues for several years. I upgraded to 1TB SSD and a 1TB HDD and moved to APFS once Catalina came along using the HDD as an in-machine daily clone backup drive (used SuperDuper until Big Sur negated the ability to easily create a bootable clone). The 1TB HDD is still used as an in-machine Time Machine drive for Big Sur. I have replaced the keyboard only ONCE in that entire time. I have replaced the battery twice. Both fans have been replaced and most recently I replaced the right side speakers as the woofer section had started to rattle. I upgraded the machine to Big Sur using a popular patching program along with an upgrade to the latest Broadcom WiFi/BT card (thanks to an enterprising young man) and am running 11.2 currently with no issues outside the ones that are plaguing even the newest MBPs. The logic board nor the display on this machine have ever faltered. This machine is fast, reliable and delight to use. While the new MBPs are lighter and have longer battery life, they hold little performance edge over this machine in my day to day use of the machine as INTEL has done little to really advance processors in a meaningful way over the years since this machine was designed.
I am aware that eventually, I will have to break down and buy a new MBP. The new M series processors are a harbinger that the time for such a change is approaching sooner than later. However, I will never again own a computing device that will work as hard, as reliably, for such a long time as my trusty mid 2012 15" MBP.
My 2012 MBP still has a problem where it would freeze with screen being all scrambled and restart on its own. This started happening couple of years into my ownership, so I wasn't able to get it fixed. I waited for any recalls(because i still think it had to do something with the graphic card in it), but never came about. I'm still using it and i'm typing this on it right now. Other than that and the fact that Catalina is the latest MacOS that i can install on it, I love it. I'm waiting for M1x version of MBP or MBAir.