Recently, I went on a 16 day trip, and acquired a MacBook Pro from a friend as part of an unending quest to find a cheap laptop, small laptop that'll meet my travel needs.

  / dmug  

If I were rich, I'd probably cart around an M2 MacBook Air and call it a day but as you may have guessed I am not. Instead I'm after the ultimate "Knock around" laptop. This a secondary computer, one if damaged, lost or stolen wouldn't be sorely missed. Thus, the ideal knock around laptop should be above all else, inexpensive, under $300 and probably closer to $200. It also should be small for portability, no larger than 13", and for me, it should run macOS.

I assume pretty much all of my viewers are familiar with these laptops but I decided to give context to the Retina MacBook Pros as the 2014-2015s are among the best of Apple's laptops they've ever made, in a short list of "best Apple laptops" from the last 25~ years, along with the 16" M1 Pro, 12 inch PowerBook G4, the MacBook Pro 2012, MacBook Air 2008.

The most pivotal Intel Mac? | Ultralight MacBook 12"
   • The most pivotal Intel Mac? | Ultrali...  

0:00 Intro
0:58 The Rundown of Retina Macs
3:17 The 13" MacBook Pro 2015
3:56 MacBook Pro 2015 vs MacBook 2017 and Benchmarks
5:25 Upgradeable SSDs
6:16 The cursed Touchbar Macs
6:56 MacBook Pro 2015 Pros and Cons
10:07 But is it beautiful?
12:23 Still usable today!
13:06 ...and it's not expensive
13:36 Thanks!

Credits:
Luke Miani - The Pro Display XDR from 18 years ago!
   • The Pro Display XDR from 18 years ago!  


Locations:
Innsbruck, Austria
Val Gardena, Italy
Gimmelwald, Switerzland

Music by Me.