Old Macs

[MadSquirrel]

I don't mean this to be a Mac Vs Pc topic, however I did want to bring to light an important factor, age.

I grew up only knowing Windows. I never had an opportunity to use a Mac. They were too expensive and just not as easily obtained. I purchased my first Mac this year (or last year?), and I am very impressed. I was very skeptical purchasing a almost 10 year old laptop. As my Toshiba from 2014 has already started acting up. Purchased a 07 Macbook Pro on eBay. Came promptly. I purchased this for the sole purpose for iOS development, so if it was slow, I only had to import a project and produce the iOS files. Long story short, I use this as an everyday computer. I am running the newest OS X and am very impressed. There just is no lag. While I did get some luck with a 4 GB model, I can imagine similar MBPs have the same level of abilities. While the battery life is a measly 2 hours, you must remember it is 2007, and the first iPhone was barely even out. This MBP boots up almost a minute faster than my Toshiba. I have used this for processor intensive purposes and it has held its own.

Again I do not mean this to be a war type of topic. I also do not consider myself an Apple fanboy. I respect the company and I am intrigued by their history, however I have only owned Android smartphones nor do I agree with their current products losing ports. (This laptop comes with 2 USB ports, 2 Firewire ports, a Computer Chip input, ethernet, VGA, and headphone/mic jack, as well as a CD drive. New MacBooks have a headphone jack) - I do think it is fair to say that Macs age better than PC, mostly because of their architecture. However, if you have a older PC that is a workhorse, be sure to let me know! I enjoy using all computer and it would be interesting to hear others experiences.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Replace the HDD with a SSD and you'll be running everything much faster.

The loss of ports is not a huge deal. My CD drive in my MBP died 2 or 3 years ago, and with the decline of physical media I have not needed to use my external drive much since then. Firewire has been dead for a while now, USB 3.0 is the way to go.

 

[Cosmic]

I'm a big fan of MacBooks. I love how long they last, as you pointed out. I recently gave away a Macbook Air that I got about four years ago now, and it still works just about as well as it did when I bought it. I upgraded to a MBP with Retina Display because the Macbook Air couldn't handle Photoshop + Illustrator + a few development environments open, but the MBA also wasn't designed to handle all that.

My guess is that MacBooks endure because of the superior quality of the overall product. They're really built to last, and it shows. I'm not surprised that the battery is a bit low on yours. In particular, Apple can't change the laws of physics, so a battery is going to go downhill over nine years, no matter what you do. They can build an incredibly resilient machine though. Particularly the SSD MacBooks last a very long time!

For losing ports: it's a trend in the industry, not just for Apple, although they're probably the leader on this. Those ports do increase weight, though. And one thing I love about MBPs and MBAs is that they're pretty much the lightest laptops you'll ever use, and they pack an incredible punch.