Chosen Solution
I’ve got a 13" Mid 2012 MBP with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 of memory that’s just not getting the job done anymore. It’s slow. It spent 3.5 years in a humid, tropical climate as my daily laptop, and has basically been sitting in a desk drawer for the last two years (in a temperate four-season climate) since then as it’s been demoted as my backup laptop. I’ve reformatted the HD and installed a fresh version of macOS at least 5-10 times in the past to improve its performance. I wiped my HD and tried installing Catalina today and it has taken 8+ hours to install and it’s still not finished installing. The country I’m living in now doesn’t have an official Apple Store, so I’m not sure what trade-in options are available. I’m leaning toward just making it my dev machine and keeping it as lean as possible, but I’m not even sure if it’s got the horsepower for that these days. I’m open to other suggestions if anyone’s got any. Thanks.
This is my favorite MBP of all time. It’s repairable and upgradable. It can run as fast as a 2020 MBA after a being upgraded. Drop in an SSD, upgrade the RAM to 8 or 16 GB. REPLACE the hard drive/IR cable! This machine should last you another 6 years and give you excellent performance. BYW, this 2012 machine was produced though 2016 because there was so much demand for it. MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Replacement MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Cable Replacement MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 RAM Replacement Don’t take just my word for it, here’s an excellent evaluation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jM1brvJ…
