Which MacBook Pro model year is best?

A mid 2012 macbook pro non-retina is excellent. You need to upgrade both the glacially slow 5400 rpm hard drive and add some RAM and it’ll be a fast workhorse. I did that. remember though that it is now 10 years old, an eternity for electronics. But it is the last model that was easily user upgradable.

I would say the 2014 retina. Works like a charm.

TallGuy91 Said:

"Which MacBook Pro model year is best?: I am a student looking to upgrade from 10 year old HP laptop. Need best bang for the buck. On a budget and want best used MacBook Pro model year. Which year MacBook Pro would you reccomend?"

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IMO: A Mac with an Intel processor (2019 or earlier). That would avoid incompatible issues.

TallGuy91 wrote:

I am a student looking to upgrade from 10 year old HP laptop. Need best bang for the buck. On a budget and want best used MacBook Pro model year. Which year MacBook Pro would you reccomend?

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TallGuy91 Said:

"Which MacBook Pro model year is best?: I’ve read the some of the older models are easier to make upgrades on, is there any truth to that?”

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For me, 2017 is the oldest in that I use. Updating is just fine. But with an obsolete device, it would become across as be tough to find updates, being they become trustworthy as time goes on.

As for updating, extreme obsolete items give you the option to update hardware in it. In newer Macs, all hardware is soldered into the LogicBoard. So, upgrading hardware is not an option.

A budget of $500US gets a certain answer; $1,500US will likely have and entirely different answer. Impossible to say without knowing what you have to spend.