As heartbreaking as it may be, the first MacBook Pro notebooks with a Retina display are now considered vintage.
The notebook was also praised in many reviews, which awarded it top marks for its mix of functionality and portability. Marco Arment, a well-known developer, even called it “the best laptop ever made,” with a “crowd-pleasing design.”
“Introduced in 2012, less than a year after Steve Jobs died, I see it as the peak of Jobs’ vision for the Mac,” said Arment, in a blog post last year.
The 2012 notebook, which featured a much slimmer design when compared with previous MacBook Pro models, also removed the built-in Ethernet port and optical disc drive for CDs/DVDs. The external design of the notebook remained largely unchanged through 2015.
The 2012 to 2015 era MacBook Pro notebooks also features a pair of Thunderbolt and USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a SD card slot, and a MagSafe power adapter that breaks away safely if tugged.
The 2016 and later MacBook Pro notebook models features two or four Thunderbolt 3 ports, which can deliver power, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA over a single cable. Apple in turn removed dedicated USB-A and HDMI ports, an SD card reader, and MagSafe from the notebook.
With the classification of the Mid-2012 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display as a “vintage” or “obsolete” machine depending on the region, Apple has passed the five year point in which the unit was manufactured, meaning that Apple and Apple Authorized Service Providers are no longer obligated to provide hardware service or replacement parts, except in the state of California and Turkey, where required by law.
Apple routinely updates its vintage and obsolete products list with additional devices as they age, so this was to be expected eventually, but it’s still somewhat of a sad reminder that the first MacBook Pro with Retina display has nearly reached the end of its life. Anyone still using one is now on their own in terms of hardware.
In other words, repairs are now up to you to a certain degree, although there are always local contractors who are happy to help provide repair services if needed.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via MacRumors