Price Researched from March 2018 to October 2018.

Google Sheets for Specs/Price
Excel File
Open Document Spreadsheet

During the time of  this research, the Mid 2018 MacBook Pro has been announced. Due to it being a new laptop, it is pointless for me to price research it. There will be some mentions for it.

Warning; MacBooks are one of the hottest stolen laptop for sale. Besure you don’t buy these with a forgotten password, EFI password, “needs reset”, or iCloud lock! Those are red flags for possible paperweights or at worse, getting the Police to take them from you. Also Apple Care is their warranty, besure to get a receipt to confirm if they have it, because it can mean nothing when you take it for service.

Hey everyone, people ask me “Whats a good price on a Mac for video editing?” I typically dislike this question because my answer is always too high for them if they are buying, but surprising if they are selling. Then when I inform them that a decent 27″ iMac is for $600, they come around to ask “Oh I meant a MacBook” to which I want to shake them violently. I hate this question because the moment they buy a used MacBook for under $200, they’ll hate that its ‘too slow for rendering’ when it comes their 4K iPhone X camera footage…  

Banter aside, the MacBook Pro is arguably the industry standard for Audio, Image & Video Production. Spec’ing and pricing the 13″ and 15″ would be too much of a chore, so I will go with ‘the best’ Apple offers and we will reflect on the 15″ model only today. The 13″ modes other than the previous Retina 2012 will be at a later date.

BEST FOR _______ _________?

• Budget Laptop – In most cases no, unless you get someone hard up for money or a stolen laptop.
• 1080p Video Editing – Yes.
• 4K Video 120FPS – 2016 & newer recommended.
• Photo Editing – Yes, industry standard.
• Music Making – 16GB RAM minimum
• Occasional Gaming – Not recommended
• Video Streaming – Gets the job done.
• College Students – Sorta. Great battery life, & great reputation for getting stolen.
  

The Late 2013 MBP has about the same hardware as the Mid 2014 & Mid 2015 models. However because they are newer, people pay more money, when in reality about the same laptop, with the exception of a certain 2.8GHz processor not available at 2013.

Ok the Mid 2015 had small improvements, like a better TouchPad “force touch” features, an hour longer battery. However most critical performance boost is that it has PCIe 2.0 x4 SSDs, which have 2000 MB/s read and 1200 MB/s write. But (steals info from Everymac), OWC was able to get these speeds with a Mac Pro SSD… so quite possibly Apple all along didn’t want to jeopardize their failure of a desktop and limited the speeds on the MacBook.

The 15″ Macbook offers more pixels, 2880 x 1800 vs the 13″ 2560 x 1600. Color gamut is about the same, so other than just the size of the screen, its not that big of a difference really. Consider the 13″ MBP if you will be mostly doing photo editing with the occasional video edit. “But its not quadcore!”, yet they both still throttle, so save up for an iMac or Mac Pro when you go big time.

If you are buying a Mac to make music, the more RAM the better, you can get away with using the Integrated graphics model as well, and perhaps more storage if you’re keeping a lot of music in it during an event. TouchBar MacBooks are USB-C only, I’d recommend the older models with USB ports unless you want to risk with USB B to USB-C converters.

Longevity?

By the time of this writing, MacOS Mojave will be coming out in the future. So far mid 2012 MacBook Pros are able to run it, so these are in the clear. In Apple’s world, 7 years is insisted as vintage (3 years with their iOS devices lol), so some of these early models are coming close. Even if software support dies for the 2012 model in 2019, I wouldn’t consider that a bad thing if you wanted to still use it til 2022.

          Visual Differences

All Pre-Retina MacBooks are thicker and have DVD drives.

Retina 2012 – Mid 2016 | Are thinner than previous macbooks, they have 2 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 ThunderBolt 2 Ports, 1 HDMI and an SD Card slot. 

Late 2016 – Mid 2017 | These come with ‘innovative’ TouchBar LCDs as standard, replacing the function/media keys on top of the number row. Apple went minimal, made the laptop thinner and the only ports you have are 4 ThunderBolt 3 (USB-C) ports and one aux jack for headphone/mic headset. This means you’ll need a USB dongle, and for Apple being the pinnacle of photography and arts students, you’ll need adapters for your USB devices… More money for Apple, & hardware manufacturers. Oh yeah they use the superior & mass recalled butterfly keyboards.

          Display Differences

2600 x 1800 – For now all 15″ MacBook Pros have the same screen resolution, the panels are high quality and offer very nice color range, Although these still have a glossy glass like previous MacBooks, Apple upgraded these finally with IPS displays.

• Retina 2012 – Mid 2015 – Similar color gamut, different panel Part Numbers.
• Touch/Late 2016 – Brighter 500 nits display
• Touch/Mid 2017 – New high quality P3 color gamut display, the best so far (not considering the 2018 model).

If you’re looking to get the best display, Apple stepped it up with the Late 2017 model. At the time of this writing, it is ranked 8th at Notebookcheck.com, which ironically the latest iPad Pro has it beaten. Anyways, that display scores 99.9% of sRGB and 77.4 on Adobe RGB. Additionally it has a 500 nit display, and the prior models are 317 nits.

Swapping Screens?

I don’t know if there are differences in the EDP cable, it looks to be the same connector. But looking at iFixit reviews, there are complaints about the laptop screen’s brightness not working properly when purchasing panels from different year/models. I am assuming it is because they bought the wrong part. Both iFixit and OWC use stock photos for the screen, but OWC does have a zoomed photo of the WiFi antennas and a proprietary connector. I believe that might be for the bluetooth module, but… well mix and matching Apple parts sometimes doesn’t work, I’ve experienced that :). I advise against buying a LCD panel by itself or considering to swap a panel from a beat up lid. The glass glue is very strong, please educate yourself with confidence on tutorials before trying.

Screen display part numbers 

Retina 2012 – Early 2013 P/N 661-7171
Late 2013 – Mid 2014 P/N 661-8310
Mid 2015 only – P/N 661-02532
Late 2016 – Mid 2017 – P/N ???-?????

Macbooks by Year, Processor & GPU

These benchmark results are taken from Passmark on both CPU and GPU. I kinda sorted these by CPU generation, additionally the MacBook is known for throttling their CPU at times, so I can’t say for certain what these real world results would be.

For the 2012 & Early 2013 model, Apple has a dGPU as standard on these models. The Late 2013 models introduced the IG (Integrated Graphics) as a base model & DG (Dedicated Graphics) as an upgrade, with only one video card option. For the Late 2016 models, Apple removed the IG model and have given a base dGPU model. The 2016 model has two video card options, while the 2017 has only one dGPU option.

The Late 2013 models introduced the IG (Integrated Graphics) as a base model & DG (Dedicated Graphics) as an upgrade, with only one video card option. For the Late 2016 models, Apple removed the IG model and have given a base dGPU model. The 2016 model has two video card options, while the 2017 has only one dGPU option.

Retina 2012             Early 2013
2.3 i7-3615qm  7470     2.4 i7-3635qm   6648
2.6 i7-3720qm  8123     2.7 i7-3740qm   8338
2.7 i7-3820qm  8456     2.8 i7-3840qm   8794

8/16GB 1600MHz DDR3L    8/16GB 1600MHz  DDR3L   
Intel HD 4000  455      Intel HD 4000   455
GT 650 1GB     1217     GT 650 1GB      1217
95W Battery  7 Hour     95W Battery   7 Hour

Late 2013               Mid 2014               Mid 2015
2.0 i7-4750hq  8283     2.2 i7-4770hq   8964   2.2 i7-4770hq  8964
2.3 i7-4850hq  9019     2.5 i7-4870hq   9345   2.5 i7-4870hq  9345 
2.6 i7-4950hq  9778     2.8 i7-4960hq   10187  2.8 i7-4960hq  10187

8/16GB 1600MHz DDR3L*   16GB 1600MHz    DDR3L  16GB 1600MHz    DDR3L
Iris Pro 5200  1176     Iris Pro 5200   1176   Iris Pro 5200   1176
GT 750m 2GB    1290     GT 750m 2GB     1290   R9 M370X 2GB    1929
95W Battery  8 Hour     95w Battery   8 Hour   99.5W Battery 9 Hour

Touch/Late 2016         Touch/Mid 2017 
2.6 i7-6700hq   8139    2.8 i7-7700hq   8862
2.7 i7-6820hq   8791    2.9 i7-7820hq   9402     
2.9 i7-6920hq   9617    3.1 i7-7920hq   10182

16GB 2133MHz    LPDDR3  16GB 2133MHz    LPDDR3
Intel Iris 540  1347    Intel Iris 650  1795
RadPro 450 2GB  2723    RadPro 555 2GB  3141
RadPro 455 2GB  3230    RadPro 560 4GB  3553
RadPro 460 2GB  3453
76W Battery  11 Hour    76W Battery  11 Hour

CPU Comparisons

• Good – Retina 2012 models are actually equal to its competitors, with the exception of XM CPUs which Apple never offers.
• Avoid – 2.4Ghz i7-3635qm Early 2013, less performance than prior 2.3GHz base model.
• Lame – 2.0Ghz i7-4750hq Late 2013, poor performance considering this is the ‘tcok’ which should bring power, it doesn’t. Get the 2.3 or 2.6GHz MacBook instead. 
• Bruiser – 2.8GHz i7-4960hq Mid 2014, THAT BENCHMARK, get this one if CPU performance is needed and graphics is an afterthought.
• Boring – Mid 2015 Macbook doesn’t bring anything special, same CPUs.
• Meh – 2016 & 2017 CPUs offer huge gains in battery life (well no 5th gen i7), but their benchmarks suffer. However, later gen CPUs are a good idea for futureproofing due to having more instruction sets that might be needed on newer software or ISV requirements.
• hex? – I don’t have the six core covered here, because it suffers throttling issues, partially due to not enough power delivery. Although there is a software hack and Apple supposedly is updating the EFI or software, out of the box you will be disappointing.

GPU Comparisons

• Fubar – Graphics cards on 2011 to Early 2012 models have issues and has been recalled by Apple before. Apple had (has?) a free repair extension program but I believe you need the original receipt.
• Intel Iris Pro 5200 – Spanks the fuck out of the nVidia GT 650, it is a huge improvement over Intel HD 4400 graphics on competitors. I’m not so sure about it for 4K 120FPS video editing, but if its 1080p 60FPS or Photoshop it shouldn’t be bad if you’re on a budget, but I don’t think it would be good for high bitrate video streaming with a 2nd display. 
• ATI R9 M390X – Good that it brings 2GB RAM, but in comparison to other 2015 laptops, it is outclassed in addition to having an outdated CPU by two generations. But given the failure rates of even the nVidia GPUs, this might be a safe buy.
• ATI Radeon Pro 455 2GB – Overall best GPU of the 2016 models considering price/performance when new.
• ATI Radeon Pro 560 4GB – If I was seriously considering a 2017 laptop, I’d go for this card for the MacBook. Unless you just want a thin workstation, I’d consider the alternatives that have Quadros.

Memory (Soldiered)

When Apple built the thin Retina laptops, they had soldiered the RAM in this process. So you had a choice of 8GB or 16GB on the Retina 2012 & Early 2013 models. The RAM speed is locked at 1600MHz (PC3L-12800s) from now til the Mid 2015 model. 

Due to the format of the spec/benchmark list, I excluded IG/DG differences from 2013, 2014, & 2015 models.
The Late 2013 IG MacBook was the last time 8GB was offered on the 15″ Macbook Pro and 16GB as an upgrade. However the Late 2013 DG laptop had 16GB RAM as standard.

2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM is introduced on the Touch/Late 2015 MacBook & also offered in the Mid 2017 model.
The Mid 2018 Macbook brings DDR4 RAM & finally has a 32GB RAM option.

General Battery Life Comparison

Model – Apple| NotebookCheck Test Wifi | Max Load (GHz GPU)
Retina 2012 – 7H | 6H 4m WiFi OT  | 1H 28m Load OT (2.3 650m)
Late 2013    – 8H | 9H 11m WiFi OT | 3H 3m   Load OT (2.3 750m)
Mid 2014    – 8H | N/A (Similar to Late 2013)
Mid 2015   – 9H  | 7H 12m WiFi 1.3 | 1H 45m Load NT (2.5 M390X)
Late 2016 – 10H |10H 2m WiFi 1.3  | 0H 55m Load NT (2.6 450)
Mid 2017 – 10H | 10H 44m WiFi 1.3 | 1H 0m Load NT (2.8 555)

• Ok first off there isn’t really a battery benchmark site or standard… so I got tests from Notebook Check 🙂
• OT – Old Test | NT – New Test | 1.3 – Test version number
• Secondly, for NBC results, I believe the tests are done under Windows with boot camp, I think the WiFi test would be better under OS X.
• Third, NBC brought a new battery life test sometime in 2014. This is why the Late 2013 beats the Mid 2015 model in max power consumption.
• Finally, NBC didn’t test every different CPU/GPU configuration & RAM/SSD options, so this is a GENERAL battery life assessment just like Apple’s. If you believe this is wrong, feel free providing your NBC test results 🙂

Price Recommendations

In order to save from making this a jumbled mess, please download the spreadsheet file to see low/high prices for As Is, Refurbished, New, etc.
All listings from Legitmacstore, iSelliMac, iSellTechnology & Macexpressoutlet are ignored. Overpriced trash, not recommended.

Prices reflected here are low/mid/high averages of all used, refurb & new. I vetted all laptops that didn’t have a boot screen, so the ‘low price’ should get you a working laptop, it might be beat up or it might of been a great deal. Additionally I have fair & high prices for units that have the maxed SSD available.

Reminder that Apple charges about $130 to $200 for a new battery service; this includes a new topcase (keyboard, mouse, & palmrest).

• A few Early 2013 models are mixed in with search results due to spec/year being very similar.
• 2.7GHz i7-3820qm – None specified with this CPU or S/N on eBay.
• I’d say get a 2.6GHz 8GB & upgrade the SSD to 1TB for a total of $780.

• There are no ME664LL/A results due to a mistype when researching… 
• 768GB SSD fair price for these is $230 to $300
• $800 is my limit for these, I’d be looking at other laptops at this price, even if its Mint & Maxed out.
• Some of these have aftermarket 1TB drives installed.

• I didnt look up ME293LL/A due to the time/resources this ended up taking. Meh model.
• I could not zero in on IG and DG MacBooks, don’t trust the sidebar option bc half the sales had the wrong GPU selected (even 17″ was selected)
• I couldn’t find any ME249LL/A models & when searching 2.3GHz, I could not quickly pinpoint IG/DG from the search results. Not like people read this site :'(
• Also a lot of AS IS listings all had black displays, which meant fucked mobo or GPU, & no SSDs.

• I started to see a few of these sold as new & new in box that look quite legitimate.
• quite a bit of ‘manufacturer refurbish’ but it really is not.
• MGXG2LL/A – Even if the 2015 DG variant has 80% more power, the price variance is massive. For that price point, you could have an eGPU setup with this 2.8Ghz MBP.

• I’m at a tossup on this model, faster stock SSD but meh dGPU performance boost for double the price of a Late 2013 model.
• If you get an IG model, its seriously a waste of money. The 13″ MBP is a way better buy, even if its dualcore.

• This has the infamous Butterfly switch keyboard, which fails when it gets dusty…
• Storage is soldiered on these… :O
• These have great battery life, CPU peformance & good GPUs in ultrabook form factor.
• Some of these are at Apple Refurbish & clearance prices.

My Recommendations

Sub $200 cheapies – A client of mine needed password resets on MacBooks he bought. He paid $180 for a 2015 model that was beat up, I valued it at $900. I was not able to boot to verbose mode, but I was able to select a boot disk… so the OS X USB drive let me do a clean install 🙂 Even if I couldnt unlock it, you could still sell the LCD for that and then sell the lid, mobo to break even or profit.

GPU Workaround – A plethora of these can get these issues. There are apple repair shops and if you remove the mobo you can always bake it. However there is an alternative if you’re cheap & be alright with disabling the dGPU. Here’s a guide Dhavalal Dalal written.  

Basic Bit – The Retina 2012 MacBook is the oldest and would be the cheapest to get. You can get one of these to do light rendering and it would arguably fare better than a Late 2013 MBP 13″ model. 

Graphics Intensive – Touch/Late 2016 due to the sheer jump Radeon Pro 450 graphics takes from the previous models and 2x the performance  (passmark score) from the older Geforce 650 models. It’s a gamble on the keyboard, but Apple is doing a service for that…

Fuck that Keyboard tho – I agree! Get the GOAT mid 2014 2.8GHz model, & an eGPU set up. You might spend a bit more than a Mid 2015 model, but you will have a desktop GPU that will spank the shit out of Mac Pro fanboys.

All Around – Late 2013 IG model is sadly, the baseline for MacBooks until the touchbar crap came. Other than getting a 13″ model, this macbook offers fairly decent specs, as the previous iterations have Ivy Bridge CPUs and don’t benefit from Iris Pro graphics, which actually kick a lot of ass. For something thats a better budget, consider the 13″ model and 2012 Unibody.

SSD Upgrading – OWC and EveryMac cover this much more in detail. You can buy used drives on eBay and upgrade that way. I didn’t price research in the guide because time it would of take.