£700 for a laptop with 4GB of RAM? Is this a joke?

You know, I gotta say. people like you keep chaitng the mantra "something that will last me years". Just what exactly do you mean by this? How will a windows laptop that has arguably the same or better specs from 2012 not last longer? What do you think happens to non apple machines? Do they spontaneously combust? Do they develop cracks on them over time? Do they radiate so over the years they run out of atoms and what's leftover is just half a laptop? This logic just baffles me.

Any laptop, unless misused, from a specific time will last just as long as the other. This seems truer for macs as well, all you can do on them in most cases is watch youtube, browse the internet and send emails. Also when I say watch youtube, obviously I mean tread carefully on 1440P and 4K videos as macs don't seem to have a taste for flash.

Don't get me wrong, I have about 9 macs but really (and I am not criticising the merit of the bloody machine) but this reasoning apple-defenders have completely eludes me. It's like we all know you're trying to say "look, I would rather pay more for a prettier machine which will be shinier longer" but why you put on this facade of utter BS is anyone's guess.

This can take 16GB which may cost £60-70 from third parties but the issue is that this is still a 2012 laptop. I love OSX but even lean OSX will start to feel a little tired on this hardware soon.
You can plug in a 2.5 inch SSD also but you will bottleneck at about 500MB/s. The latest, less upgradable laptops are now coming with the M.2 SSD's running at 1200MB/s.
This was still a great laptop for it's time but it's time has passed. (I'm typing this on one :-) )

- tonymac

Not a joke, it's Apple.

This can take 16GB which may cost £60-70 from third parties but the issue is that this is still a 2012 laptop. I love OSX but even lean OSX will start to feel a little tired on this hardware soon.
You can plug in a 2.5 inch SSD also but you will bottleneck at about 500MB/s. The latest, less upgradable laptops are now coming with the M.2 SSD's running at 1200MB/s.
This was still a great laptop for it's time but it's time has passed. (I'm typing this on one :-) )

- tonymac

Will upgrade to 10.11 fine and not a bad price considering its apple... Still... It's apple

being offloaded due to 'staingate'?
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/16/retina-macbook-pro-stained-coating/

​I think Goliath was simply making a point that it's still running fine after such a long period of time rather than bragging about it. The shutdown thing was just explaining why the 8 year system uptime came to an end, not showing off Apple 'magic'.

The G4's do take leopard depending on processor speed (I think greater than 867Mhz) but there is a way like you say of getting around it. You can't upgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion because of the move to Intel processors.

The YouTube issue I believe was due to flash. Not sure how they are now that it's all html5 (think) but I always used mactubes - not perfect but it did work to a certain degree.

I have a G5 that I still use occasionally and it still works fine, TenFourFox for browsing works great.

As for the deal itself, I think it's a lot of money to pay for the machine but it doesn't mean the machine isn't any good.

Thanks OP. However, an alternative might be "Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display, MF839B/A, Core i5, 128GB, 8GB RAM, 13.3" for £817.45. This is a 2015 model also on Zavvi EBay outlet. Not a brilliant price, but more laptop for your money...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301763019910?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Already posted as a good deal on here...

Back in the day Macs were genuinely more efficient machines as they used the Motorola 68000 series CPU however nowadays they just use normal intel CPU's and are basically just a PC with a different OS, there is no longer a technological advantage over a normal laptop.

Yeah but you HAVE to spend big. This skimping on an old model is not gonna do anyone any good. The difference in quality is only really with price, too. My first laptop was a mac and my laptop now is a PC. The Macbook was excellent quality but did break after about 4 years of well cared for use. Hoping this PC will last longer.

Yeah we have two of those. One 15 inch and the other 17 inch. The only thing good about those disasters is the screen on the 17 inch was good for its time. Which is the thing with SOME macs, the screens are lovely. However I don't know if it is me doing something wrong but these old macs do not take either leopard or lion and you have to bypass some stuff to install the OS. Once you do, you cannot even run youtube videos on it. If your's is on an OS that's almost 10 years old and you're able to do stuff with it that's fantastic. However do remember what you said, this machine is being regulated as a music player. Well, I'm sorry but a cheap 20 quid chinese player can play music files. Also the thing about your friend unplugging the computer to shut it down is just one of those "old generation things". It has nothing to do with the facility apple has given you. My first computer in 1994 needed switching off when windows 95 said it is safe to shut down. All the computers after that actually had an option where they powered down (and up) on the press of a key.

I upgraded from the 2011 version of this to 2015 retina Macbook Pro and I have to say this is a good deal on the price but buying this at all is a poor deal. This is a three year old machine and only thing going for it as it that is dramatically more upgradeable and has an optical drive over the current retina machines. The retina display makes a big difference, as does the SSD and much better battery life now. Either pay more for a retina machine or get a Windows laptop, it doesn't make sense buying this in 2015.

Coming from an owner of a 15" retina macbook pro, I think this is expensive for very dated technology. You're paying for a shiny logo.

I agree wholeheartedly. I also have the 2008 unibody macbook pro. Its running El Capitan nicely and is smooth and fast. It's a heavy machine and runs hot but i use it as a desktop unit so it doesnt get moved around. I cant grumble about performance at all...if i want to play games etc i use my console. Id say the 2012 model is a good price for an older entry level Macbook

Yuck, this thing is OLD, heavy, only has 4GB RAM, no SSD, and has more moving parts and less heat management than newer models, along with a rubbish screen.

I feel sorry for people who buy this, expecting something fantastic. New models are a joy to use, but this old clunky thing is horrible. Amazing how quickly it went out of date.

I bought an iMac G4 ( the white half-domed one with floating screen) in 2002 and it is still in daily use 13 years later- it has never given me a problem. Nowadays it is relegated to just being my music jukebox. It looked great back in the day and it still looks great in my front room.
It did at one point have 8years+ as the recorded system uptime- until one of my friends used it whilst I was out and shut it down completely and pulled the plug out- because he'd always done that with his Dell. Whereas
my flat mate and I only ever put it to sleep- still wakes up and is useable within a second or so from sleep

That's not entirely true, yes I love my Macs, but I have a HTC phone and a Lenovo tablet.

And I've only ever posted one Apple deal...

I've moved over to Android on my phone and tablet, but will never own any computer other than a Mac.

​your quite obviously an Apple fan boy. I've just looked at your recently submitted deals. I'm sorry to have so personally offended you!

Couldn't agree more...the specs on paper for the current 13" Retina MBP might not look out of this world but in the real world they are very very quick. The new PCI-E Storage is more than twice the speed of a normal SATA SSD. I get an average of around 11 hours battery life from mine.

I'm no Apple fanboy btw...I have an Android phone and tablet and a house full of Windows PC's, Laptops and servers. My day job is in fact working for one of the world's largest PC manufacturers (I support Datacenters full of Windows/VMWare servers). I even have a pretty high end Windows Ultrabook as a work laptop.

But for my own machine I choose to use a Macbook :smiley:

You're quite wrong there unfortunately pal.

It's not just the screen, which is of course infinitely better, the Retina models are slimmer, lighter, battery lasts longer, quieter, faster. A big leap forward.

My phone has 3 gig of ram!

​Straight away you'll need to upgrade to an SSD and at least another 4gb of memory then update the OS to get this to 2015 standards...cold from me.

4GB of RAM won't last you very long, standard issue is 8GB these days and future OSX builds are almost certain to use more RAM.

Very well said. There are some used thinkpad /latitude deals popping up here every now and again for around £100. Spec wise they are at least matching this Macbook if not better. Is it worth paying 500% more for the fruit logo? apparently some people think so.

Gotta agree with MadonnaP here. I'm happily typing this on an 2007 iMac running latest version of OSx but on the desk next to me is a pair of Dell E5400 laptops from 2009 happily running Windows 10 that the family use and abuse around the house. Just because computers reach a certain age, doesn't mean they stop being useful. Admittedly I've had to max out the RAM and put SSD's in everything, but it's all good here. Yes, the Dell's are black plastic and not shiny metal, but they still work really well and Windows 10 is great. But I do still love the iMac, which just keeps on going and is why I haven't felt the need to replace it yet.

Many, many moons ago, I'd be upgrading my PC every two-three years just to keep up and I still remember being heartbroken when I went out and bought my first CD-ROM drive and found out I *still* couldn't run "7th Guest" because my gfx card couldn't cope. But time passes and I think we've kinda plateau'd over the last 5 years and there's more focus now on power-reduction and O/S optimisation as we all become mobile and ditch desktops. Also, not having to replace the families main kit as often, I managed to justify an Alienware laptop as a treat :wink:

PS. I'm conveniently ignoring the utter mistake that was our foray into netbooks which are all gathering dust in a cupboard.

Apple just arent worth it. Yeah great quality but soon out of date and for the price you'd expect a good few yrs work out of them. I have a laptop bought in 2010 (non apple) still works like a dream for a fraction of the price. This all said it doesnt seem a bad price so heat added

The hardware in this laptop is disgustingly low end.

Old, heavy, poor battery life, spinning HDD and low-res screen, not worth it these days. These sell used for 400 or so

You can only find refurbs usually like this one >

http://ink2print.co.uk/collections/laptops-in-spalding/products/apple-macbook-13-a1278-core-i5-s-1

Anyway the Macbook in this deal is upgradable to OSX 10.11 El Capitan. OSX Lion is quite old at version 10.7.5.

I am not exactly the world's biggest Apple fan but it's hard not to like Macbook Pros. When you compare like for like they are great laptops and you can have Windows and OSX. I have been looking to downsize to 13"-14" recently and all the Windows equivalents are about the same price, or more expensive after Apple Education, and often something is inferior such as Intel HD graphics rather than Macbook's Iris or only a 1080p screen. The only alternatives for me are the Dell XPS13 or Lenovo Carbon but Apples warranty cannot be beaten, especially the 3 year extension price for a student.

This one is way too overpriced for me however. 700 is too much for such an outdated machine.

Cold as ice

I think its probably just that Windows machines require more maintenance. Nothing that using CCleaner etc won't do but I imagine most people just don't bother and as soon as its 'running slow' its just immediately 'too old'.

You know, I gotta say. people like you keep chaitng the mantra "something that will last me years". Just what exactly do you mean by this? How will a windows laptop that has arguably the same or better specs from 2012 not last longer? What do you think happens to non apple machines? Do they spontaneously combust? Do they develop cracks on them over time? Do they radiate so over the years they run out of atoms and what's leftover is just half a laptop? This logic just baffles me.

Any laptop, unless misused, from a specific time will last just as long as the other. This seems truer for macs as well, all you can do on them in most cases is watch youtube, browse the internet and send emails. Also when I say watch youtube, obviously I mean tread carefully on 1440P and 4K videos as macs don't seem to have a taste for flash.

Don't get me wrong, I have about 9 macs but really (and I am not criticising the merit of the bloody machine) but this reasoning apple-defenders have completely eludes me. It's like we all know you're trying to say "look, I would rather pay more for a prettier machine which will be shinier longer" but why you put on this facade of utter BS is anyone's guess.

It's been fully community driven since 2012. They are awesome! I keep the blog going though :-)[/quote]
Your site was a big help when I did my first Snow Leopard Hackintosh, many thanks!

My missus still uses an Aluminium Macbook late 2008 2.4ghz core 2 duo, upgraded memory to 8gb, fitted 120gb ssd into the dvd rom slot drive spot (OS X El Capitan running from this) and the original 320gb hdd is now used for storage. Still a very useable machine.

It is a good price actually. And very easy to upgrade RAM,HDD or battery when needed,not like in new Retinas.Also can remove DVD Drive and add another HDD....

Cheers :smiley:

Not much difference of Retina on 13-inch tbh

£200 more and access to Higher education store from a friendly student will buy you a current model with mentally fast PCI-E SSD, Retina screen etc...
This is old stock Zavvi are taking the pee at this price.

Haha I saw this earlier and declined to post it as I thought it would get torn to shreds

Some new members on the way tony!

yup, google tonymac :man:

Site ?

The info from the members is great, made a few builds so far, never any big issuses (well I have one with a clover install, but I don't think this would be the place to ask lol). I visit regular to keep upto date :sunglasses:

Correct first time, this is a joke.

It's been fully community driven since 2012. They are awesome! I keep the blog going though :-)

2012 machine?

Edit:
Owch!

£700 for a laptop with 4GB of RAM? Is this a joke?

MOT.

I've not seen this cheaper. Heat added.

Sounds like Zavvi has some really old stock, OS X Lion?

Probably hard to find new anywhere else.