A Review of My 2012 Macbook Pro
Old faithful. Nate’s 2012 Macbook Pro.
My childhood ran on Windows. I played Jumpstart, Putt-Putt, and Freddi Fish on our family’s old beige Windows PC desktop. I played flash games on sites that started with “www.” and watched my sister play neopets. My dad even had MAME32, an arcade game emulator, on a floppy disk which resulted in my cousins and I playing games for hours on end without the need of money for tokens to keep playing. When I think of Windows in its glory days, at least for me, that old beige desktop is what I tend to think of.
But when it came time to go college I had a choice to make: I could either go with what was familiar or take a chance on the limited experiences I had with Macs. I don’t think there was one defining moment where my opinions on Macs shifted but more like a collection of little moments. It was sleepovers at David’s from up the street and watching him run Bootcamp on his family’s mac to run both mac and windows so we could play the new Shrek game together (and by play, I mean we took turns watching each other play a single-player game). It was seeing my older cousins use their Macbooks to do their college homework during family get-togethers. It was being surprised when my fingers touched the smoothness of the trackpad on their Macbooks and realizing that trackpads could be more than rough, hard-to-use mess that attracted the unseen oil and grime from one’s fingers.
Long story short, I bought a Macbook Pro. Specifically a 13-inch, Mid 2012 Macbook Pro a fully spec’d out 2.9 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 processor, an integrated graphics card, 8 gigs of RAM, and a CD/DVD player. It had all the bells and whistles you could ask for in a laptop and then some. At the time, it was the top of its class. And I knew, if I was going to really get serious about pursuing filmmaking and edit more videos, that this was the perfect tool for me. So what was the first thing I did after I got the macbook? Naturally, as an 18-year-old boy who is deathly serious about being the greatest filmmaker of all time, I download Left 4 Dead on Steam and play video games with my cousin all night long. I mean– I eventually downloaded Adobe Premiere Pro and Lightroom, but for the time being, I was going to enjoy playing video games at their lowest settings, laughing with my cousin and online friends while straining the integrated graphics card of that poor mac.
Whether I was aware of it or not, it took me eleven years to write this review. When I first bought this macbook, technology wasn’t as fast-paced as it is today. I feel like nowadays, technology just isn’t as special. You buy the newest iPhone or next best thing and then it just doesn’t hold that same weight as that first big thing you bought. I’d get off my soapbox, but it’s currently balancing my old-man rocking chair on my porch overlooking my lawn that I always have to tell those damn neighborhood kids to get off of. I digress. This macbook was my first big thing.
Getting back to it, I’d known what it was like to see a device that was such a big part of your life become… obsolete. I saw it with that first beige Windows 95 desktop; I gradually stopped using it as frequently, and then not at all. It just couldn’t keep up with my life as I grew older. And now, I’m doing it again with my old macbook.
Truth is, I didn’t want to write this review because I’d have to write the following sentences: Goodbye 13-inch, mid 2012 Macbook Pro. You have seen me through so many different parts of my life. You’ve seen me go through college, twice! You’ve survived and outlasted multiple relationships. You’ve been a workhorse on various gigs and jobs. You’ve helped me write letters and burn mixtapes. You’ve kept me entertained when I was alone and helped me procrastinate. You’ve powered through countless hours of rendering videos and editing photos and seen me spend so much time writing so. many. bad. scripts. But now, it’s 2023, and when I need to run, you can only walk. Your trackpad doesn’t register all of my clicks and your screen isn’t as bright anymore. To be frank, you would probably explode if I needed to work on any of my current projects filled with 4K footage and RAW photos. But that doesn’t invalidate all of the memories we’ve had together.
I wanted a place where I could keep you and remember you. For all of your flaws and shortcomings as well as all of your bells and whistles. So today, I’m saying goodbye and though I’m in a better place now, if it hadn’t been for you, I’m not sure if I would’ve ended up where I am today. So I’m letting you go in my workflow but keeping you near to my heart. 9.5/10.
Anyways– have you guys heard about those new M2 Macbook Pros?! They’re insane!! Can’t wait to finally get one and then I’ll really be able to be productive!!
by Nate Velasco
OCT 2023
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