Found: Apple MacBook Pro and a little advice

[positive]

Hi All,

Maybe someone has one for sale, or can point me in the right direction.

I know nothing about Apple products, but I am looking for one for my wife. I not looking for the "latest and greatest", but I would like a model that used to be at the top and can still hold its own today. I guess the best analogy is that I am looking for the MacBook Pro model which is the equivalent of a top configured W530 in today's market.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

[jdk]

What you are looking for is the 2015 15" MacBook Pro. Last traditional model before they went to the butterfly keyboard (although I'll admit I am a huge fan of the butterfly keyboard). Last traditional model to be fully supported by Linux/OpenBSD/etc. Last model with full sized USB ports, HDMI out, and magsafe.

It can have 16gb of RAM (soldered, non-upgradeable) and came with up to 1TB SSD from the factory. You can upgrade that to 2TB these days.

There was a battery recall last summer, where Apple replaced both the battery and topcase with brand new ones for free. So you should be able to easily find one in like new condition.

It represents the pinnacle of Apple's laptops and is still a very capable machine today.

[positive]

Perfect, thank you for your reply!

[positive]

Which Apple OS is the most desirable on that model? Catalina, or a different one?

[jdk]

Catalina runs just fine. This laptop will be supported for a long time yet.

Even if you get the one with Intel only graphics, it's Haswell Iris Pro, so plenty of power for the retina display.

EDIT: Here's a pretty strong opinion of that era of laptops:
https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever

[positive]

Thanks JDK, found a nice one on ebay.

[positive]

Well, it arrived from ebay. Dirty condition, with aftermarket power supply.

So, back in the market for 2015 MacBook Pro. Prefer 15", but will consider 13" as well.