Hello everyone, this will be my second material after returning, and I will talk about my personal experience of using an almost 9-year-old laptop from Apple in my daily work.
When searching for materials on this topic before buying, I stumbled upon articles and videos on YouTube many times, but did not find anything useful for myself. It all comes down to how quickly the computer starts up and works great âlike a typewriterâ. Iâll try to cover more aspects of use so that the person who reads this can make a normal, full-fledged conclusion. In short, something other than the fact that after the purchase it will start in 27 whole and 22 hundredths of a second.
After writing her article, I realized that the story of choice draws on a separate story, and since you probably didnât come for that, I hide it under spoilers.
Why is this material written at all and to whom can it be useful?
Buying a laptop is a very ordinary thing for a huge number of people. Itâs very convenient - you took it with you, you work anywhere, you always have your full-fledged working tool with you, and you can get to work as quickly as possible in case of any emergency. In general, I did not find thoughtful adequate statistics on the market for mobile and stationary PCs (I didnât look very carefully, probably), so I draw a conclusion on personal observations:
Of my friends, which include about a dozen programmers, the same number of PR / marketers, three photographers, several designers and a couple of SMM-boxes - almost everyone plays a laptop as a working machine, moreover, Apple laptops occupy the first place in popularity.
For programmers, this is an entrance ticket to Xcode, for designers it is convenience and high performance, for PR specialists it is convenience and status, SMMs generally sit on phones, and a laptop is a look at a coffee shop (just kidding). Only a former designer who is now engaged in creating complex projects in Adobe Maya has a stationary computer, and he needs multiple gigabytes with kilograms of gigahertz for inexpensively so that the rendering lasts less than a day.
If anyone has access to materials / statistics - throw in the comments, please - it became interesting. Do the numbers agree with my opinion.
Of my friends, which include about a dozen programmers, the same number of PR / marketers, three photographers, several designers and a couple of SMM-boxes - almost everyone plays a laptop as a working machine, moreover, Apple laptops occupy the first place in popularity.
For programmers, this is an entrance ticket to Xcode, for designers it is convenience and high performance, for PR specialists it is convenience and status, SMMs generally sit on phones, and a laptop is a look at a coffee shop (just kidding). Only a former designer who is now engaged in creating complex projects in Adobe Maya has a stationary computer, and he needs multiple gigabytes with kilograms of gigahertz for inexpensively so that the rendering lasts less than a day.
If anyone has access to materials / statistics - throw in the comments, please - it became interesting. Do the numbers agree with my opinion.
Why do I need a laptop and why used?
Recently, I have the opportunity to work in a fairly free schedule and this means that I donât need to get attached to the desktop with a pencil stand and a mug, but often enough, however, I am at work to attend meetings and working meetings. Accordingly, in order not to go home every time when a task was born following the meeting, it was decided to purchase a computer that would not be expensive (Iâm undergoing repairs, I donât cry with free money from the Gulkin cat), so I donât have to buy it later time (I remind you about the repair), it will take out all the tasks necessary for me and, if possible, attractive (a matter of taste, of course, but there is such a sin for me).
Taking a budget of 20-25 thousand rubles, I began to look in every possible direction, but I was very inclined towards the old MacBooks, because almost all the points important to me converge in them.
It is difficult to buy a new laptop in such a budget, if you are not an adventurer, of course. Models from the Market are completely untrustworthy for me: all this plastic, 4 gigabytes of RAM, soldered on the board ... probably it all works somewhere and for someone else. I will not argue that all these computers are bad - I did not use it myself. But looking for the sake of interest, reviews on the Internet, I was convinced that these options do not suit me.
Taking a budget of 20-25 thousand rubles, I began to look in every possible direction, but I was very inclined towards the old MacBooks, because almost all the points important to me converge in them.
It is difficult to buy a new laptop in such a budget, if you are not an adventurer, of course. Models from the Market are completely untrustworthy for me: all this plastic, 4 gigabytes of RAM, soldered on the board ... probably it all works somewhere and for someone else. I will not argue that all these computers are bad - I did not use it myself. But looking for the sake of interest, reviews on the Internet, I was convinced that these options do not suit me.
Bulletin boards
Well, where else? I have little trust in them, but not catastrophically little, I bought equipment, both bad and good. They deceived and were honest, in general, everything was like all the regulars on these sites. But, the low budget, and the point about âreliabilityâ added a bit of distrust and, after ringing a couple of ads, the desire to buy a computer there was significantly reduced. Either the seller openly lied about the computer (for example, that it is ânew in generalâ, yeah, the model is 13-14, thank you) or unreasonably expensive, for sane copies, or something completely unknown - there are few reviews about the model, and what kind of review seedy, in the afternoon with fire not to be found.
And you know what? In this price segment, there are simply amazingly many poppies, from the oldest âwhitesâ to the completely killed 15-shek on i7 (those on Radeon, which burn through one).
And you know what? In this price segment, there are simply amazingly many poppies, from the oldest âwhitesâ to the completely killed 15-shek on i7 (those on Radeon, which burn through one).
Why exactly this model and diagonal?
A few simple facts:
At the end of this introduction Iâll say that in the end I turned up the MacBook Pro 13 âwith 4 gigabytes of RAM, a Core i5 processor and a 320GB hard drive for sane 20 thousand rubles.
- Starting with this 13-shek model, a Core i5 processor was installed, which in synthetics surpasses the Core 2 Duo installed in earlier versions.
- This model lends itself to upgrading RAM and HDD, and if you scrape around the gimmicks or message boards (or if you are fabulously rich, go shopping), you can easily increase productivity.
- In the MacBook Pro with a diagonal of 13 inches, it was extremely rare (including more modern ones) to set discrete graphics, which are subject to âemotionalâ burnout.
At the end of this introduction Iâll say that in the end I turned up the MacBook Pro 13 âwith 4 gigabytes of RAM, a Core i5 processor and a 320GB hard drive for sane 20 thousand rubles.
So, I finished my very long introduction, for you it is not even in sight :)
What we have?
13-inch MacBook Pro 2011 release. On board:
HDD: 320 Gb, 5400 rpm.
Video card: integrated, Intel HD 3000
Processor: Dual Core, Core i5
RAM: 4Gb, at a frequency of 1333 MHz
Battery: Original, 534 cycles, 89% health.
OC: High Sierra (10.13.6)
What needs to be done right away:
We change thermal paste, we clean radiators.
We increase the amount of RAM
Change HDD to SSD
So, we got a standard configuration like Xeon in the 775th socket with 8Gb RAM and 240 Gb SSD.
What will we do with it to show how it feels to use the old Mac in 2019.
Testing our grandfather on steroids will be tedious, and most importantly in a bunch of different scenarios. So that those who are faced with a choice or trying to understand the adequacy of the purchase have an exhaustive opinion about this laptop.
Office suite from Google.
What do we do:
Open large documents / presentations / tables, flip, read, edit and record observations.
Work with non-native file types, open Microsoft documents, large PDFs and so on.
So, everything is very standard, I did not observe any special slowdowns, everything works very well and very conveniently. However, I note that while scrolling a long article I noticed a few friezes. In defense - later checked on his iMac, friezes did not disappear. Previously, write off to the platform. (I have had many slowdowns in Google Docs).
How proofs I apply screen recordings when working with presentations and videos, with the mentioned friezes when scrolling through an article.
Scrolling frieze video
The video where I draw the picture, âdrawingâ specially selected so that there are more objects.
YouTube
Everything is quite simple - half an hour of rest, turn on 720p60 and see what's new.
No wonder, glitches, lags - are absent. I ran 720p solely because of the battery test, simulating watching videos where the Internet is not always high-speed: bars, cafes, parks, subways. At least I always watch videos in 720p to avoid overloads and stops. 1080p laptop pulls quietly, nothing is buggy, but I think this is understandable.
Adobe Photoshop
We will test the launch and
We will try to make a landing page layout, and twist the elements on it.
Photoshop behaves pretty well, it starts up promptly (in 4 seconds and 2 hundredths, if it is important), it allows you to work fully and, for me, to perform the full range of the work that I perform on a desktop computer.
Like proof - a screen recording on which I indulge in a fresh layout (designers donât beat, I have it for half an hour, and I only played for 5 minutes)
what is visible on it:
Scaling of the document occurs with permissible, in my opinion, braking for field conditions.
When working with layers (transformation, etc.), the braking is minimal and the object is almost adequate if you do not mess it randomly (achieved only if the computer operator is adequate).
Scrolling a document without friezes / lags / glitches.
Working with the interface is acceptable. For 15-20 minutes of working with the âlayoutâ, my eye did not catch on any problems or freezes.
In my opinion, a complicated event with a chaotic brush did not cause any âpanicâ at the computer. I admit, I expected that it would be harder for him, but no, I ate and did not choke.
Games
What for? Honestly, just for fun, so to speak, to also complement the opinion, which of us sometimes doesnât want to poke something âoldâ in something?
Play Civilization V
Well, no one would be surprised, it hurt me and grandfather. Minimum settings, native resolution and 12-14 frames per second. Noises, heats up, everything is as it should. It is possible to play, but only until the moment when the card begins to open. In general, if you are a big fan of the series, you can certainly play, but I would choose the earlier parts. Ideally, you can even discover RimWorld for yourself - this miracle works even on a calculator and no less sticky.
As a postscript to the game section.
I decided to check whether it is possible to play civilization at least somehow. You can, the scenario is this:
Single player game
All settings on minimum / shutdown
The resolution in the game is 1024 by 768
Connected charger
As a result - almost stable, almost 20 frames, which for a turn-based strategy can be considered not fatal.
Autonomy
Yes, itâs very logical, of course, to include in the so-called review of the laptop a story about autonomy at the very end, but this will be a summing up.
So, letâs make it clear right away - you wonât see the autonomy of the new MacBook Air with its twelve hours on this laptop. I think hardly anyone was counting, but I need to say. We have a maximum of 4 hours, taking into account the use of the âplug-and-leaveâ scenario.
During testing, I used the laptop only on battery power, in order to take into account all possible trotting, performance degradation and energy-saving technologies.
All tests had a script, and the time for their execution was clearly defined, 30 minutes for each block. This is done in order to simulate haste, since it is precisely when we are in a hurry that all the brakes and glitches of our complectors come out into the light.
After the end of the âCivilization Vâ phase, the poppy said that 10% of the charge remained, and it was time to get ready for bed. This happened at a time mark of 2 hours and this can be considered the time allotted to you from the moment you left the harbor in the open world. Now I will note in stages:
After passing the test with documents, we still have 81%, which means that if you purchase a laptop mainly for working with Google Docs, you can count on 30 * (100 / (100-81)) minutes of battery life, namely: 2, 6 hours
After passing the test by watching YouTube, we have 67% left, which means that you can watch the video on it for almost 3.6 hours.
The Photoshop test left us 47% of the battery and ate 20%, totaling 2.5 hours to work with the graphics.
Testing the game was the most greedy and left us with only 10% of milking almost all of our âbowlâ. You can play for 1.2 hours.
Conclusion and my opinion
Of course, this computer will not be able to claim ultra-performance and super-autonomy. This decision can be seen as a door to the world of Apple technology. If you want to discover a stylish, fashionable, youth computer and loudly print your essays and / or course papers in a coffee shop - please, he will be happy to provide you with such an opportunity. If you need to take something photoshop âon the kneeâ - always. TV shows to look at a completely high-quality monitor with excellent viewing angles? - Now, salt. Or, by the way, if you want to buy a computer for your child to study, but you are not ready to spend much money - you are always welcome. Appleâs laptops are very, very reliable: itâs practically impossible to destroy the OS (by negligence), viruses can hardly be caught (speaking of everyday use) and in general, these computers are beautiful and even 9 years old are efficient. I am almost 100% sure that they will work faster than all new laptops in the same budget.
Some tips, probably template, but nonetheless:
Be careful, but not too critical of appearance. All computers in this price segment, to put it mildly, are shabby and have seen kinds. What can I say, some of them remember Photoshop CS3 as a new product :) But, of course, you need to look for not killed and good, as much as possible.
Make sure the integrity and originality of the device so that the same âboltsâ on the bottom cover are original, not black screws. If, for example, there is no marking on the bottom cover, then it means Chinese, then it has changed. If a seller with a capsule writes about âNEW BATTERY 1 CYCLEâ in a huge number of cases, it will be a Chinese craft (namely with one D) and if the seller does not have a receipt from a sane service center - an occasion to think very carefully. This huangguang inside can arrange natural Vietnam with napalm and explosions there.
Screen. If you have a modern device with Full HD resolution and higher, starting to look at the screen of the old poppy is worth it gradually. Quietly, getting used to the fact that pixels are already visible from afar. Of course, I exaggerate, the displays on Macs have always been wonderful and pleasant, but nevertheless, get used to the idea that you will look at a wonderful display at the age of 9 years.
Very carefully check the technical part of the computer, run the official Apple diagnostics, check all ports, strangle the laptop with all possible benchmarks, carefully monitor its behavior, loss of charge, heating, sounds, smells. Be paranoid, because if you later repair something: a) you will look for parts for a long time, b) you will pay significant amounts of money for them based on the ratio of the price of the computer itself.
Friends, colleagues, I would very much like to expand my experience with this laptop and, so to speak, personalize it as much as possible. In this regard, the suggestion: if you have ideas or suggestions for tests - write in the comments which script I still need to try or which software to run. As a result - I will supplement the article with a mention of you and the results of the run. (just donât ask for crash tests, I wonât do xD).
If something went wrong - correct me. If something is not clear somewhere - write, I will be happy to answer questions, if I have my interesting experience - let's discuss)
The previous article and the request in it caused a completely unexpected resonance, so I will repeat it.
If you are interested in reading something about marketing in the format of short posts - subscribe to me on Instagram , I decided to be the antipode of info-gypsy screaming about a free and fast business without investments. I want to talk about marketing and personal experience the way it really is: difficult / painful / sad and without motivational training.
Thank you all, I will wait for questions and suggestions on tests;)
Update:
Results of measurements of the project build on React from djtahoma By the way, in comparison with a rather productive stationary PC.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Build time: 34395ms
PC
3.2 GHz i7-8700
16 GB
Build time: 26521ms
Thank you all urgently djtahoma :)