An almost brand new mid (4 battery cycles) 2012 Retina MBP - is this obsolete? I am not a power user, and it's a really good deal.

Depending on details not stated in your post, that may or may not be a fair deal.

Does the computer have any warranty or recourse should it fail within 90+ days?

What display size does the computer model have? A 15-inch model or 13-inch?

Are all of the originally included items from Apple, including retail box, accessories

& documents all still with it? Does it have a SSD or a HDD kind of storage drive?

Did the owner upgrade the OS X and leave it with a tie-in to their AppleID? Or was

it re-set to the original OS, and set to start up as a new computer, without any

personal information inside?

And depending on your location (global) there may or may not be other options.

If that is a 15-inch MacBook Pro, some of them shipped with quad-core processors.

Others with a dual-graphics channel or auto-switching GPUs, had some issues, so

if that is among those units, I'd do research to be sure it's not a problem. Not sure

how far you'd have to go, or where to look, for that kind of information.

To learn more about it, via serial number, may help; if you used a lookup service

to see what it was when it left factory, etc. The exact specs, etc.

The Apple Store online still listed a 13-inch MacBook Pro without Retina display, new

that was a build series from 2012 in current production. It has a SuperDrive, and it

could be upgraded to more RAM than its shipped configuration by the user. Those

are a fair item if you need that configuration. They occasionally have a few in their

online refurbished store, but mostly retina-display models that can't be upgraded.

Not sure if this helps, but I'd look into what one can get for $1600. elsewhere, too.🙂

Look on ebay for comparable models to determine where the market price is.

4 cycles on the battery is not necessarily a good sign. A lithium battery needs some 'exercise' to achieve it maximum useful life. The 15" model was discontinued in October of 2013, therefore if it is the original battery, by not using it frequently enough, it life span will be shortened.

Ciao.

K Shaffer wrote:

If that is a 15-inch MacBook Pro, some of them shipped with quad-core processors.

Others with a dual-graphics channel or auto-switching GPUs, had some issues, so

if that is among those units, I'd do research to be sure it's not a problem.

All 15" 2012 MBPs had quadcore CPU's and all had dual GPU's installed.

Ciao.

In the history of MacBook Pro 15-inch models, however, that was not always so.

Some i7 processors were dual-core at one point. Historically, in general, some

did have dual-core and only one graphic processor, not long ago in geologic time.

K Shaffer wrote:

In the history of MacBook Pro 15-inch models, however, that was not always so.

Some i7 processors were dual-core at one point. Historically, in general, some

did have dual-core and only one graphic processor, not long ago in geologic time.

Is not the issue here a 2012 15" MBP, not older ones?

Ciao.

In general terms, since the author of this thread appears to have seen the

specs on the product in question, and I had not ahead of the posting of this

thread here, I was only using what I already knew of the history of MB/Pro.

My four portable Apple computer products aren't anywhere near that new...

But considered a quad-core MacBook Pro, instead bought a quad-core Mini i7.

Not that I really need to use a newer OS X, since future-proofing is a myth.😝