I worked for Apple during the time the Butterfly keyboard and the Macbook 12" launched. We had SO MANY PEOPLE coming in with keyboard issues. Troubleshooting the keyboard issues meant we first had to remove the keycap and clean the mechanism underneath to see if it resolved the issue (Which worked about 1 in 50 times). Removing the keycaps was a terrible experience, as we had to take this weird, angled plastic stick, and put a sticky pad on it. Then we had to stick it to the keycap, and lift at an angle to remove the key. Then we had to do the reverse to install a new key. We broke so many keycaps and key mechanisms that we usually had to replace the whole keyboard. And the problem was, keyboard replacements necessitated a new topcase, which was what everything mounted to. Which means if we had to do a repair, we had to take EVERYTHING (motherboard, display, speakers, etc.) out of the old topcase and transplant it into the new topcase. And these things were so small, and so fiddly, they were terrible to work on. The bottom panel was so delicate to remove, and the retaining clips were very easy to break. What's worse, it had a freaking cable connected that only offered about 1.5" worth of travel before it broke, so you had to be veeeeeeeeery careful removing it, or risk breaking the cable! In short, these 12" Macbooks were some of the worst laptops Apple ever made, and we literally cheered in the service department when we heard they were discontinuing them.
Nobody liked the butterfly keyboards. So you can imagine the euphoria when they announced that they were replacing them with a more conventional design.
This MacBook introduced me to Louis Rossman. 5 years ago mine suffered the Question Mark of Death after overheating caused the SSD to not be read, found a TH-cam repair guy talking about how it’s a common fate for this MacBook and how difficult it is to repair, that he had to create bespoke equipment to facilitate those repairs, and gave a shoutout to Rossman who had some experience with repairing these macs. Discovering his channel was a real drive into the rabbit hole of the right-to-repair world. I’ve never bought another Mac since.
I'm using one right now and it's not a big deal anymore. My current dongle is a far cry better and far more versatile than what Apple introduced it with.
I'm just glad that my laptop has every port I'd ever need on it (except, annoyingly, and SD card slot). It's got a barrel charging port, 3 USB-As, 1 USB-C (which is Thunderbolt 4 and can charge the computer), gigabit Ethernet, full-size HDMI, and a headphone jack.
@@ej_techLegitimately impressed you can use that in 2024 with that anemic CPU in there. More power to you I guess but goddamn I couldn't see myself doing that
@@charlix3Oh yea it chuggs along and chokes when multitasking but macOS is surprisingly usable on the underpowered Core m3. Considering that I bought it for $225 used it still beats brand new Celeron craptops of the same size and weight.
As bad as it was, I wish Apple revived the 12 inch with an M series chip and updated keyboard. The portability of this form factor is amazing for working on the go.
@@clebbingtonAt the time the passive cooling running into the bottom of the MacBook, keyboards, and Intel mobile is what held these back. I'm happy AMD has stepped up and brought some competition in recently. I feel like that as well as some other things is what pushed Apple to have their own chips made. I don't like apple much but they have done some good here and there.
@@KamenRiderGumohonestly old Macs are a very good deal, you can get them dirt cheap and with them you get top of the line build quality. macOS is actually better than Windows in that the bloatware and what not can be disabled without having to hack the OS. I'm not the biggest fan of either, but I also respect the fact that macOS is built for today, unlike Windows which is a huge mess of backwards compatibility and inconsistencies that come with that.
@@masterkamen371 my girlfriend recently bought a 2019 16" mackbook pro with an i9 and 6gb of video ram and since she uses editing software alot it's perfect for her. It just needed a cleaning from all the dust and some new thermal paste wich i took care of that.
My biggest issue was that they were USBc, not Thunderbolt 3. The number of adaptors and docks that people expect to work with them, and you just get a pop up saying ‘this accessory is not compatible with this device’
To be fair, they launched the 2015 macbook 12" before support for Thunderbolt 3 was even added into Intel processors. And I don't think that Intel supported Thunderbolt in their M-series processors. They totally should've figured out how to add in later generations of the 12" though.
Thunderbolt using the same port as basically non-compatible tech over numerous generations has been probably the biggest fail in the last 20 years, mainly because unless you paid attention, whatever you plug in may or may not work with no real reason. A real case where the techies had a bigger voice than the users in the design process!
with a 4.5w CPU. your phone is completely fanless with more power and far less thermal mass, the part where apple fucked up is the design of the passive cooling system
hell even single-core Atoms chug along if you don't ask it to play any video over 480p, I have a Digiland tablet with a 2013 Intel Atom it was a struggle to use with Windows but with Ubuntu touch but it is useable for kitchen recipes once you get past the ads that block the page for 2 min.
@@David_Quinn1995 agreed, im using a 2011 intel atom netbook with a single gig of ram or two, and it holds up fine for web with a liiight linux distro and a cheapo cheap ssd
@@wyattroncin941 You said it, not me 🙃 But even further than that, they could have increased the area which was used to cool the machine, in order to dissipate more heat and increase the maximum TDP of the chip
3:00 - I love how between the m5 and m7 of that laptop there is a single tiny point of difference. The upgrade to m7 was extremely expensive Apple style, but all you were paying for was a single point in geekbench.
its insane how the butterfly keyboard was so prone to failure but apple so stubborn to change that they had to do free keyboard assembly replacements after being hit with a class action lawsuit. they took a massive lost on each repair it wasn't just the keys that got replaced the assembly included the trackpad, top frame and battery that's hundreds of dollars of just parts per repair
They were a victim of their own greed, that's what happens when they tried to make something so unrepairable that they were forced to repair it and basically ended up having to give everyone new bottom cases that included a majority new hardware, if they were done right they could have easily killed the air line up, the pricing should have also been budget friendly based on how low it's processor is, i think $500-600 would be been enough for one of these
It was probably just cheaper to swallow the cost of repairs than commit to a new keyboard design after they spent so much time and money developing the butterfly keyboards. Not to mention the MacBooks would need to be reengineered, the factories would need to be retooled, etc. Greed is probably somewhere in that too lmfao
they should just release a 12 inch MacBook that's the same design language as the 14 inch Air. Two USB4 ports, headphone jack, scissor keyboard, thinner bezels, and a M3 - thing would rip
I just want them to revisit this size with the Ipad guts. Touch screen and tablet usability and all. I would snap one up in a heartbeat if it could be both my tablet and laptop. Right now I carry an older Ipad and a Thinkpad for their respective jobs, but I could get by without windows on the go.
they can probably make it uniformed in thickness and add an extra port and give it the new keyboard. my 2017 model is only about 2 pounds and i hope the refresh or redesign won’t make it heavier than 2.5 pounds as it begins to go into mba weight.
@@Mike-zx1yeI agree with everything you said except for your last point, the butterfly keyboard was a real problem, not only was it so prompt to fail but it was also very uncomfortable compared to the scissors keyboard and you can’t blame costumers for not being too careful. Also, 3D touch was removed because it took too much space on the device, just see how much the battery increased after it was removed on the iPhone 11, if I have to choose between a gimmick and a real useful feature like extended battery life, the second wins.
When i worked for an Apple Service Provider, these were by far the absolute worst Apple computers to work on. They had a special tool that made sure you didnt pull the enclosure and display clamshell too far apart or else the ribbon cables would rip.
I disagree. They went with "Light and thin" over function, and included a beatiful screen in it. I can see people actually wanting such a compromise... ... but don't ever compromise with reliability.
On a side note, I also wanna mention how macOS does some things amazingly well but also unnecessarily limits its own features: You all know this thing where you press and hold a letter key on your phone and a bar with different accented letters pops up. This is also a feature in macOS, enabled by default. You can also disable it. You *used to* be able to even edit the plist files and customize the letters you can select. I had it customized to support accented characters for most European languages and the IPA, as I conversed a lot in English, German, Dutch, Polish and Latvian and now didn't need to change keyboard settings ever. And then they inadvertently made all this customization step by step frustrating to impossibly difficult by putting those plists in the System files: - Starting with OS X 10.11 or so, System Integrity Protection would make all System files read-only to limit access for all programs including potential malware. You could disable it in Recovery mode, edit your plist, and re-enable it. - Then with macOS 10.15 Catalina they made it so that you cannot change the System folder from read-only to anything else. You could still circumvent this with some terminal commands. - With macOS Big Sur, the System folder is now its own, read-only volume, *and it cannot be anything but read-only* without some advanced terminal shenanigans that, if executed wrongly, may screw up your entire system and/or leave you vulnerable to malware. - Some time later in Big Sur, every single System file gets its own SHA256 hash for a signature check. So, while insanely secure, even if you passed all the shit in place to prevent you from customizing your PressAndHold layout, *if you edit anything, the signature check will fail and your macOS volume will not boot up unless re-installed.* Your data won't be deleted as it's on a separate volume. There are still workarounds but the effort needed is IMO simply not worth it anymore. And, to add insult to injury, *any* system update installed will reset the modified plist. This is very likely unintentional, and not with the goal of preventing customization in mind. There simply are very few people who are even aware that you could edit the plist files in order to customize the press and hold layout, and the settings files have been in System for over a decade, so nobody at Apple checked for this or judged it not worth it to change PressAndHold code. Hopefully they change that in the future.
This sounds like they made macOS pretty similar to immutable/atomic Linux distros. With that said, can't you have an overlay filesystem over the System volume, something like what a user of those Linux distros would use?
Sounds like something that could maybe be circunvented with an app, cheatsheat basically does something like that but with the command key, so making like that should be possible. And I really did not know that, I've been using macOS for 10 years, like whæt.
Fun fact: Probably what killed those keyboards wasn't dust but heat. That, combined with Apple completely trusting Intel's TDP low balling plus their fan curves with phobia to fan noise (or lack of fans, like in this case) did the the death trick in all that line of keyboards.
I can confirm this from experience. Problems always get worse after the machine has been running hot for a while. Bashing the keys repeatedly afterwards tends to alleviate the problems again, and is also great therapy. Now, every time the machine will be running hot like when rendering a video, I keep the keyboard cool using a case fan mounted on a 3D printed contraption, and this seems to have averted disaster so far. I still get the occasional double triggers, but it remains amazingly stable for a 5 year old instance of the worst keyboard design ever conceived.
The M series actually didn't lowball the TDP that much compared to the i series. Under sustained load they would sit right around the TDP mark, but that was still 2 full fat skylake-era 14nm+++++ cores fighting over single-digits watts, so the choices for burst performance were to either not have it at all, or very briefly roast everything alive. This was a huge problem for the later Lakefield as well, which I worked on. That single big core on those little things would fight 4 atom cores for power and lose to them.
bought it for studies, was perfect - light and compact. it was 8 years ago, still goes well today. I''m selling it tomorrow because i bought a 2024 M3 Mac book air but i'll be missing
i had one of these. it got me through my last two years of high school, all of undergrad, and half way through my honours year. i abused that thing so hard - had sims 3 with multiple expansion packs, a pirated copies of photoshop and illustrator, might even have jailbroken it to play maplestory. it finally died when i dropped my backpack with it inside, and i was devastated (mainly because i had a thesis to write and didn't have any alternatives). i still have its lifeless body, sitting on one of my shelves somewhere.
@@fix0the0spade There is a lot wrong with that design. Literally everybody I know who had a MacBook from the butterfly era had problems with sticking keys. It's truly a horrible design.
If it wasn't for that blasted keyboard I'd love one of those just as a portable typing device. It's HARD to find a small laptop that isn't plastic-y chrome powered e-waste anymore.
You could use a wireless keyboard with phone or, if you really want a laptop, maybe a 12" Lenovo X series, Dell Latitude, or Fujitsu Lifebook (U728, 729 etc.) could work. A Surface Laptop Go is also suitable if you want something newer.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 on paper nothing, and in fact I do have a little Lenovo Chromebook for doing just that but it's not ideal unless you only ever wanna use Google docs. And besides, the real problem with the little cheap chrome devices isn't the OS, but the build quality. Not gonna get much typing done if the deck flex ends up giving me a repeated stress injury.
I would buy an Apple Silicon version of this. Great for trips and hotels. I usually bring a small guitar. With this I can take my Logic setup with me. I'm not buying an iPad because tablet OS is just plain stupid and redundant.
Maybe a controversial opinion, but I really wish they brought back this computer with a revised keyboard and Apple Silicon and maybe an extra USB-C port
“Living with one hole” I got one for work, was pretty fine. For email and browsing and doing any other tasks from a Remote Desktop connection to a Windows machine :)
Switching between multiple RDP sessions with a three finger swipe is so satisfying and snappy on these turds. I wish Windows was as good a terminal as it is a terminal server.
I had one of these from 2016 until it got stolen last December, got me through university, and used it for basic word and excel at my job, ran stardew valley without a problem and for media consumption it was great. The look and feel was incredible and the track pad is the best I ever used, force touch is great and I actually really liked the keyboard, despite the under powered hardware, the build quality and portability and my low power use case made it worth it. I miss it.
It was my favourite Macbook ever (top spec). I had the 11” Air previously and it had a terrible aspect ratio. I was so happy with this one. I treated it well and it lasted until 2020 when the butterfly kb eventually showed the fault. Too late for free kb replacement though. Now got a 2020 M1 Air and happy with that.
Same, used this for uni. This was my first MacBook and I wanted something so small and light without being terrible. When I had a larger PC laptop I’d just leave it at home instead of carrying it around because I couldn’t be bothered.
Can I just say I have been binge watching ALL of your videos in the past 2 weeks….non stop! I've even play your playlists to help me to go to sleep at night. I have been going through severe mental illness in the past few months which has been affecting me to work. Your videos with your talents and humour have been helping me so much for clearing my head! Thank you so much for your help! 😊 Please don’t stop making your videos!
watching this on an m3 macbook pro, I ALWAYS wanted a 12" macbook growing up. I thought it was the lightest, smallest PC that you can literally throw into your bag and leave for work/school/travel at an airport.
I think ipads are more suited since the keyboard is better and touch is more generally suited than a device that sacrifices the user expierence (typing) for size, you could also use a keyboard on ipad like macs but the usefullness of this only extends to office like applications and it’s pricey so i’d stick to the air
I had it, it was like an iPad but better. It’s as light as an iPad and I would use it as an iPad. I hold it, walk everywhere, watch videos with it in bed, used it in the car, it was great.
I got one for school in mid-2016, it was the base model with the M3 and 256GB of storage. It completely shat itself during the pandemic because it could barely handle google meets and the camera died which would have required a full monitor replacement which was going to cost more than the used value of the laptop itself. I replaced it with an ROG Zephyrus...
My 2015 MacBook Pro has a broken keyboard. I took it to a repair shop and they wanted $300 for the repair because they would have to replace the whole topcase. I didn't buy another MacBook after that.
When this first released, my thought was “this is the Mac that someone takes to a coffee shop to be seen using a Mac in a coffee shop.” You’re the first person I’ve known to have a genuine usage case scenario for this thing!
this is the apple answer to chromebooks taking market share and showing that a shittily made, $100 barebones laptop is a viable product despite it having the computational power of a duel core from 2006 but it's apple so it cost $1300 in it's base config and is a hell of alot harder to warranty anyway...
using one of these basically as an ssh machine, an emacs machine, and a web browser/PDF reader was pretty nice... if I was using it for *anything* sturdier, though, I would have been miserable. butterfly switches were nice to type on as long as they worked though imo
I frikin loved mine, and I would buy another one today if it came with a modern processor. I had zero issues with it or the keyboard. Typing wasn't great but also not terrible and it never failed. Replaced it with a M1 MBA and JFC it weighs like 3x as much. That thing was sooooo light, and the battery lasted 8-10 hours easily.
@@elcocineroamericano If they announced a new version with an M1/2/3, I would buy one instantly. I'd even be fine with the same screen, single port, etc. Stick an M1/2/3 in there and update the keyboard and I'd buy one today.
I have the 2017 model, top spec and I really like the compact form factor. I can fit it into the pocket of my jacket and carry it around. Performance is not the greatest, but it's still usable today. Except for the dead battery, but I actually ordered a replacement battery for mine a few days ago. And the passive cooling is cool because it's absolutely quiet. It doesn't annoy you with typical high pitch laptop fan noise. The keyboard on mine hasn't failed yet, all keys are still working. Idk, maybe they fixed something for the 2017 model. The typing feel is indeed very weird when you first type on it, but I got used to it very quickly. I used it in school and then in university and did a lot of typing on it
Ugh, I just installed the new battery and damn they made that complicated. It consists of 6 seperate parts dangling together that are each GLUED onto the bottom of the case. It was a lot of work to get the old battery out. But seeing the tiny circuit board in there is still very impressive. It fits a Core i7 (i7-7Y75 1.4 GHz Dual Core 😆), 16GB of RAM, 500 GB of SSD and basically everything else onto an area smaller than the trackpad. - Sent from my 12" MacBook P.S.: My next laptop must have a non-glued battery.
They really need to reintroduce a 13" MacBook in this 12" form factor (by reducing the bezel size, like how the 14" macbook is the same frame size as the old 13") and using M series chips without butterfly keys. I always wanted one of these 12" models, I would happily buy a new one.
Than buy an ipad since they do the same thing. Better hardware for sophisticated software would suit the macbook pros better but for people that don’t do computer science or any tech job for a living just get an ipad
@@staringcorgi6475counterpoint, built in keyboard means nice tough shell for the screen. Also the IPad system is a royal pain in the ass if you’re used to a regular laptop running a keyboard-only system.
@@Foxfloop ipad has pretty durable cases and 12 inch laptops wouldn’t be much durable since they break easily due to their size, a macbook pro from right now is durable since it’s thicker but a thin macbook isn’t durable no matter if it has the keyboard since the keyboard is thicker, plus ipad has a better keyboard as it won’t break like the butterfly
Still have my 2015 one, replaced the battery last summer. Runs slow and steady, mostly as backup/travel laptop as it fits in the large side pocket of my jacket. I'm thinking of putting linux mint to make it more usuable. But Apple, please revive this with the M series processor. 🙏
I remember a student of mine asking for help on how do stuff in Photoshop, and it was the most miserable expiernece with how long things took to load. Also so glad butterfly keyboard is dead, but I was never confident in my key presses with it.
I've had my MBP M1 since 2020 and I still daily drive it. It is honestly such a fantastic device! I have had macs (imac, macbook air) before but none were performant enough coming from a full-time custom-built desktop guy. When the M1 came out, it was the first device that allowed me to take the work I would normally do on a desktop with me wherever I went - I could now work and do my hobby stuff (photography/videos) on a battery for the first time with good performance. As long as I don't break it, I see myself using it for a few more years.
LOL never noticed how bad that thing really was until 2:39 I saw my garage computer, a late 2012 mac mini (which is a decent garage computer when maxed out to 16 gigs and a SSD is installed)
Had this one provided by the office back in 2018. That was my first experience with Macbook. It's nice to use, and so light in my bag I feel like I'm not bringing anything inside. I also have to agree that the butterfly switches are horrible. It feels like pushing a piece of wood on top another piece of wood that wriggles a tiny wee bit. Was lucky it didn't fail on me two years working on that office but I was scolded since my palm sweat corroded the body edges.
4:00 just because we're used it now doesn't mean its okay. a usb a port is not thick. its not hard to include one in a laptop. i dont want to have to carry 3 dongles and daisy chain them together bc my machine inexplicably only has 1 usb c.
I had one of these. It was a fantastic travel noteboook and was super light and thin. It also had a beautiful Retina screen. But as others have mentioned, the keyboard was awful with very short key travel and keys that stuck, and the thing got really slow and hot under load. It was a nice concept with a great form factor, but not a great machine for anything other than the most basic tasks like internet surfing and email. I think it would have been brilliant with a much better processor, like one from the Apple M series.
I had one of these for the exact same reasons that you did. It wasn’t the actual mechanics and the hardware, it was the motherboard, and the particular year of 2016 and the 500 gig hard drives that were the problems.
He is referring to the fact that the design choice for the 12 inch MacBook influenced the design for the 2016 to 2019 MacBook Pros and that is what the Reddit user is complaining about the butterfly keyboard
That's one of the best Macs Apple made during the butterfly keyboard era. It actually knows what it is. It doesn't have the Pro moniker but can't do pro tasks because of overheating issues. It didn't cost an arm and a leg. It's a small, thin and incredibly light computer made for web based tasks. And that's it. That's what it is and it doesn't claim to be able to to do much more. As a piece of engineering it is very impressive and still thinner and lighter than most computers made today. I use my 2017 model daily.
I actually loved this, it was so small and thin and battery lasted all day. I could take it everywhere in any bag really. Probably helped I bought it cheap second hand and had no issues with keyboard. I used it up to last year where I broke the screen.
Reminder that ppl (including children) in the Democratic Republic of Congo are enslaved and forced to work the dangerous cobalt mines to make these tech products. Buy secondhand if possible and use your device for as long as you can before throwing it out (responsibly), refurbing or retiring it.
An iPhone 15 has around 8.55 grams of cobalt (iPhones roughly contain about 5% of their mass in cobalt). Many electric cars have around an 80kwh battery pack, this contains around 16kg of cobalt. In 2022, there were 25.9 million electric cars on the road, that’s 414,400,000kg of cobalt. Over 10 years, 2012-2022, 2.17 billion iPhones have been sold, let’s say each one has 8.55g of cobalt. That equates to 18,553,500kg of cobalt. So in the last 5 years that electric cars have really taken off, we’ve needed to mine 22 times more cobalt for EVs than we have for iPhones over 10 years… Whilst I agree with your statement, I’d direct it more towards electric vehicles and their massive use of cobalt
My 8GB 2017 MacBook Pro is pretty awful. The first issue I had was with the butterfly keyboard sticking due to minute bits of detritus getting underneath. Then the USB ports started to fail. Now only one works and not that well. After 2 years the screen failed and I had to fork out over £400 for a replacement screen. All this from a piece of equipment costing around £1500.
I had one in my last year of university, I bought it over a good spec IPad, I loved this little machine. For docuent typing and internet browsing it was amazing. Had probably the best battery life of its time, I could charge it overnight and leave for uni on that one charge and use it for 6-7 hours easy.
They also stopped making things as thin as possible to the point they bend in your pocket. I've gone fully back to apple now they have chonky rectangle designs on everything.
i just flash backed to me buying loose key caps and pealing mine off to clean under it. i spent hours cleaning by hand and replacing the keycaps because there was just no way to keep them whole if you took them off. apple refused to replace my keyboard (this was before the lawsuit) and i couldn't afford to pay for it myself. really really happy they got their act together, completely obsessed with my macbook air m3
i remember in my old school's computer lab they bought these in 2016. after like 3 months, at least 4 or something broke because kids just didn't understand how fragile they were, literally snapping them or somehow killing the keyboards.
I still have and use a 2018 MBP 15" with the last generation Butterfly keyboard. I loved the feel of the Butterfly keyboard. Kept it clean, and it's (almost) perfect after 6 years; only issue is that the space bar is starting to double-space every now and then... Oh, and it's been kept clean, but it has also survived getting absolutely thrown around, going swimming in a non-waterproof backpack on a motorbike on a rainy day, and a low-speed motorbike crash. Still haven't upgraded to an M-series yet.
It was a cute MacBook now that m series laptops are out id love to see a 12” version with improvements. Like 3 ports MagSafe, usbc, and a headphone jack seems
While the issues mentioned do annoy me, the biggest thing which has me using this laptop to this day is the size factor. I use this laptop for travel, and a Mac Mini for more serious computing
I still have this one and use it frequently. Only issue that it doesn't "snap" in like it used to but mercifully decides that it will grant me power to charge the battery.
I had one of these back in 19' absolutely loved the thin form factor but boy was it hard living with a single USB c port. One big thing with these machines are the SSDs die so much quicker due to the poor thermal management which is what killed mine after 2 hard years of use.
as someone who has a 2015 macbook air with the light up logo, i need an upgrade but at the same time, i love the logo gimmick so much and i don’t want that to go away
I worked at an apple repair centre around the time of the butterfly keyboards, they were awful to repair and I still get stressed out whenever I see them.
Currently watching this on my 2015 MacBook which I still use as my daily driver, it survived my entire undergrad and now most of grad school and I still do reasonably intense work on it. Genuinely will be devastated when/if it ever dies on me. It’s the perfect coding/youtube/netflix machine.
i had one of these, early 2015 model. i bought it for school and it worked pretty well for me. the ONLY issue i ever had was the keyboard. it would get stuck, and wouldnt even type the letters i was pressing half the time. after about 6 years, it somehow deleted its own startup files, and turned into a very expensive paper weight. took it to apple and they couldnt fix it. 6 years of memories and projects? gone. ended up selling it for parts.
I still have my 12 inch Macbook and I used to travel with it ALOT because of how incredibly portable it was. What’s even funnier is that 9 times out of 10 I would pick this up over the OG iPad Pro at home because it actually has a smaller footprint than the iPad Pro which is pretty insane. Loved this little thing.
i still remember buying it at 2018 for relatively cheap price. Thought it will be good for bringing it to lectures and studying. Man, I was so wrong lol. It was a good use for 2 months and glad I sold it before it lost the value. 2018 was the time where Macbook Air got refreshed and iPad Pros got redesigned. Macbook 12 inch was great design, good colour though
I'm so glad I went with the older 2015 pro model in 2016. It was the last upgradeable/self serviceable model and believe it or not I still use it along side a 2020 model. So glad I skipped the butterfly keyboard phase.
I had one of these and it broke twice in under 12 months. Switched back to PC after my experience. The wifi piece broke twice from the slightest bit of pressure applied to it.
I bought a cheap one as a transition laptop for excel and word. I chose it for the portability, usb c charging and the lightness in the backpack. 6 months after sold it for more than I paid for. Had a good experience but I was slow
I worked for Apple during the time the Butterfly keyboard and the Macbook 12" launched. We had SO MANY PEOPLE coming in with keyboard issues. Troubleshooting the keyboard issues meant we first had to remove the keycap and clean the mechanism underneath to see if it resolved the issue (Which worked about 1 in 50 times). Removing the keycaps was a terrible experience, as we had to take this weird, angled plastic stick, and put a sticky pad on it. Then we had to stick it to the keycap, and lift at an angle to remove the key. Then we had to do the reverse to install a new key. We broke so many keycaps and key mechanisms that we usually had to replace the whole keyboard. And the problem was, keyboard replacements necessitated a new topcase, which was what everything mounted to. Which means if we had to do a repair, we had to take EVERYTHING (motherboard, display, speakers, etc.) out of the old topcase and transplant it into the new topcase. And these things were so small, and so fiddly, they were terrible to work on. The bottom panel was so delicate to remove, and the retaining clips were very easy to break. What's worse, it had a freaking cable connected that only offered about 1.5" worth of travel before it broke, so you had to be veeeeeeeeery careful removing it, or risk breaking the cable! In short, these 12" Macbooks were some of the worst laptops Apple ever made, and we literally cheered in the service department when we heard they were discontinuing them.
Agreed
I have a 2017 13inch pro, I honestly have never had any major keyboard issues 😅
🎶Steve Jobs, smart smart smart, Tim Cook dumb dumb dumb! 🎶
Nobody liked the butterfly keyboards. So you can imagine the euphoria when they announced that they were replacing them with a more conventional design.
lets agree to disagree, fuck apple, nobody genuinely enjoys their bullshit
Frank climbing the laptop was cute
Not gonna love
Franklin just licking the screen. Love it.
fronk
We're all becoming snake fans
Frank is cute
Wade yelling at a MacBook is peak Dankpods
Real
Real
Real
Real
For real
This MacBook introduced me to Louis Rossman.
5 years ago mine suffered the Question Mark of Death after overheating caused the SSD to not be read, found a TH-cam repair guy talking about how it’s a common fate for this MacBook and how difficult it is to repair, that he had to create bespoke equipment to facilitate those repairs, and gave a shoutout to Rossman who had some experience with repairing these macs. Discovering his channel was a real drive into the rabbit hole of the right-to-repair world.
I’ve never bought another Mac since.
Good job, crApple!
Well, you can’t just call MacBook poopy
Oh God I wiped my memory of these from all the keyboard issues that came into my shop. At least you made me laugh while I cried.
THE GREATEST TECHNICIAN THATS EVER LIVED.
The greatest technician that's ever lived
tHe GrEaTeSt TeChNiCiAn ThAt’S eVeR lIvEd
understandable, my aunt's 2018 is starting to get the butterfly effect 💀
THE GREATEST TECHNICIAN THATS EVER LIVED
THESE ONE USB-C PORT DISASTERS
I'm using one right now and it's not a big deal anymore. My current dongle is a far cry better and far more versatile than what Apple introduced it with.
@@ej_techYou’re.. using a computer that was considered unusable in 2015.. in 2024……. I applaud you, I guess.
I'm just glad that my laptop has every port I'd ever need on it (except, annoyingly, and SD card slot). It's got a barrel charging port, 3 USB-As, 1 USB-C (which is Thunderbolt 4 and can charge the computer), gigabit Ethernet, full-size HDMI, and a headphone jack.
@@ej_techLegitimately impressed you can use that in 2024 with that anemic CPU in there. More power to you I guess but goddamn I couldn't see myself doing that
@@charlix3Oh yea it chuggs along and chokes when multitasking but macOS is surprisingly usable on the underpowered Core m3. Considering that I bought it for $225 used it still beats brand new Celeron craptops of the same size and weight.
As bad as it was, I wish Apple revived the 12 inch with an M series chip and updated keyboard. The portability of this form factor is amazing for working on the go.
Yes!! The passive cooling would work great with Apple Silicon - Intel and the butterfly keyboard are the only things holding this laptop back imo
that would actually be a great idea. the only reason i see why the wouldn't have done that is because it would've been too similar to the M1 air
forreal at this point i don't see why they wouldn't bring it back, unless they think it won't sell well even with the current m chip
It will be the best selling laptop of the year.
@@clebbingtonAt the time the passive cooling running into the bottom of the MacBook, keyboards, and Intel mobile is what held these back. I'm happy AMD has stepped up and brought some competition in recently. I feel like that as well as some other things is what pushed Apple to have their own chips made. I don't like apple much but they have done some good here and there.
Wade typing on the pc complaining about the keyboard is the equivalent of him complaining of a nugget's microphone while using it to tell us about it
Lmao ikr😂
Also complaining about intrusive software that tries to dictate every aspect of your life while typing on an Apple product.
@@konayasai That's why I don't buy Apple. Worst-case scenario I can root an Android device and load up a custom OS.
@@KamenRiderGumohonestly old Macs are a very good deal, you can get them dirt cheap and with them you get top of the line build quality.
macOS is actually better than Windows in that the bloatware and what not can be disabled without having to hack the OS. I'm not the biggest fan of either, but I also respect the fact that macOS is built for today, unlike Windows which is a huge mess of backwards compatibility and inconsistencies that come with that.
@@masterkamen371 my girlfriend recently bought a 2019 16" mackbook pro with an i9 and 6gb of video ram and since she uses editing software alot it's perfect for her.
It just needed a cleaning from all the dust and some new thermal paste wich i took care of that.
My biggest issue was that they were USBc, not Thunderbolt 3. The number of adaptors and docks that people expect to work with them, and you just get a pop up saying ‘this accessory is not compatible with this device’
To be fair, they launched the 2015 macbook 12" before support for Thunderbolt 3 was even added into Intel processors. And I don't think that Intel supported Thunderbolt in their M-series processors.
They totally should've figured out how to add in later generations of the 12" though.
Thunderbolt using the same port as basically non-compatible tech over numerous generations has been probably the biggest fail in the last 20 years, mainly because unless you paid attention, whatever you plug in may or may not work with no real reason. A real case where the techies had a bigger voice than the users in the design process!
Just remember the day how Apple try to max up their profit from compatible accessories.
USBc = garbage. Why was everyone so excited about it? Baffles me to this day.
Losing MagSafe was a tech tragedy. I still loathe USBc
@@AnHebrewChild better than microUSB
I love how Frank is both a sweetheart and a menace at the same time
A sweet menace, even.
@@BoxOfToastersa swenace?
@@spingleboyglemenswace?
@@CASA-dy4vs a menasweet?
@@Twiddle_things mweetace?
"And its completely fanless"
I think I can begin to see the issue.
It was really ahead of its time - way ahead of the silicon that was available from Intel. You throw a M3 chip in there and it would rip
Yes, it had no fans, neither inside nor among the buyers. Only one of them makes any reason.
@@clebbingtonexcept that the m3 gets way hotter and this already has problems with heat cause of the no fans
with a 4.5w CPU. your phone is completely fanless with more power and far less thermal mass, the part where apple fucked up is the design of the passive cooling system
@@clebbingtonThis had silicon in it from Intel .
I thought that was the same Macbook Air my girlfriend stubbornly refuses to let me replace, it astounds me how dual cores can trudge along like that.
hell even single-core Atoms chug along if you don't ask it to play any video over 480p, I have a Digiland tablet with a 2013 Intel Atom it was a struggle to use with Windows but with Ubuntu touch but it is useable for kitchen recipes once you get past the ads that block the page for 2 min.
@@David_Quinn1995brother get firefox and an adblock. dont subject yourself to ads
@@David_Quinn1995adblock
@@David_Quinn1995 Did you try with a good ad blocker, like uBlock Origin ?
@@David_Quinn1995 agreed, im using a 2011 intel atom netbook with a single gig of ram or two, and it holds up fine for web with a liiight linux distro and a cheapo cheap ssd
"Sir we cant keep the CPU cool with such a small frame and heatsink"
SHADDUP, I DIDNT ASK
In reality it could be a little bit better, but Apple is all on compromise and not really on performance, at least at this time.
It’s average 😢
@@Zeveulesaussurecompromise, such as on the lifespan of their hardware.
100°C die temps are not okay.
@@wyattroncin941 You said it, not me 🙃
But even further than that, they could have increased the area which was used to cool the machine, in order to dissipate more heat and increase the maximum TDP of the chip
I assumed macbooks used the whole aluminium chassis as the heatsink
Frank was trying to close the laptop. She saw those numbers. She understood.
3:00 - I love how between the m5 and m7 of that laptop there is a single tiny point of difference. The upgrade to m7 was extremely expensive Apple style, but all you were paying for was a single point in geekbench.
its insane how the butterfly keyboard was so prone to failure but apple so stubborn to change that they had to do free keyboard assembly replacements after being hit with a class action lawsuit. they took a massive lost on each repair it wasn't just the keys that got replaced the assembly included the trackpad, top frame and battery that's hundreds of dollars of just parts per repair
They were a victim of their own greed, that's what happens when they tried to make something so unrepairable that they were forced to repair it and basically ended up having to give everyone new bottom cases that included a majority new hardware, if they were done right they could have easily killed the air line up, the pricing should have also been budget friendly based on how low it's processor is, i think $500-600 would be been enough for one of these
It was probably just cheaper to swallow the cost of repairs than commit to a new keyboard design after they spent so much time and money developing the butterfly keyboards. Not to mention the MacBooks would need to be reengineered, the factories would need to be retooled, etc. Greed is probably somewhere in that too lmfao
Weird. I had it for full 4 years and had zero problems with the keyboard.
Yet another reason why I will never purchase a product from this garbage company
@@realSethMeyersok Seth, I’m glad you’ve shared your experience with us
She may like phones as she may be able to see whatever wavelength of light is being emitted for autofocus. Spiders will react very obviously to it.
Frank is one weird looking Spider hey.
@@WinnieBlue She's got a couple less legs than normal but that's normal for the ausie ones I heard.
@@DigitalJediAbsolutely, I can confirm I see those legless spiders quite often in the summer but I didn't know that's what they were called. 🫡
Her heat pits might be registering the IR as a source of extra warms.
highly doubt phones use IR for AF anymore i think it's done with software?
I've heard a few people say it now, but a new 12 inch macbook with an arm chip and 2 ports instead of one would go super hard.
they should just release a 12 inch MacBook that's the same design language as the 14 inch Air. Two USB4 ports, headphone jack, scissor keyboard, thinner bezels, and a M3 - thing would rip
I just want them to revisit this size with the Ipad guts. Touch screen and tablet usability and all. I would snap one up in a heartbeat if it could be both my tablet and laptop. Right now I carry an older Ipad and a Thinkpad for their respective jobs, but I could get by without windows on the go.
they can probably make it uniformed in thickness and add an extra port and give it the new keyboard. my 2017 model is only about 2 pounds and i hope the refresh or redesign won’t make it heavier than 2.5 pounds as it begins to go into mba weight.
At that point you might as well just get a MacBook air. It's just as thin and has a marginally larger screen.
ASUS at the time had a competitor called the Zenbook U360, which was thinner, managed to have USB A ports and a 360° rotatable display.
yo apple this convertible might be 4 mms thick
but with this performance youll suck its d.ck :D
asus probably :D
@@Mike-zx1ye Bro the dickriding is crazy
@@Mike-zx1ye definitely an unbiased review of the thing
@@Mike-zx1yeI agree with everything you said except for your last point, the butterfly keyboard was a real problem, not only was it so prompt to fail but it was also very uncomfortable compared to the scissors keyboard and you can’t blame costumers for not being too careful. Also, 3D touch was removed because it took too much space on the device, just see how much the battery increased after it was removed on the iPhone 11, if I have to choose between a gimmick and a real useful feature like extended battery life, the second wins.
@@Mike-zx1ye"YoU'rE uSiNg It WrOnG!"
When i worked for an Apple Service Provider, these were by far the absolute worst Apple computers to work on. They had a special tool that made sure you didnt pull the enclosure and display clamshell too far apart or else the ribbon cables would rip.
These MacBooks represent the phrase “Look over function” at its finest
Apple's "Bulimia Arc" 😂
I disagree. They went with "Light and thin" over function, and included a beatiful screen in it. I can see people actually wanting such a compromise...
... but don't ever compromise with reliability.
@@kolkokiports
On a side note, I also wanna mention how macOS does some things amazingly well but also unnecessarily limits its own features: You all know this thing where you press and hold a letter key on your phone and a bar with different accented letters pops up. This is also a feature in macOS, enabled by default. You can also disable it. You *used to* be able to even edit the plist files and customize the letters you can select. I had it customized to support accented characters for most European languages and the IPA, as I conversed a lot in English, German, Dutch, Polish and Latvian and now didn't need to change keyboard settings ever.
And then they inadvertently made all this customization step by step frustrating to impossibly difficult by putting those plists in the System files:
- Starting with OS X 10.11 or so, System Integrity Protection would make all System files read-only to limit access for all programs including potential malware. You could disable it in Recovery mode, edit your plist, and re-enable it.
- Then with macOS 10.15 Catalina they made it so that you cannot change the System folder from read-only to anything else. You could still circumvent this with some terminal commands.
- With macOS Big Sur, the System folder is now its own, read-only volume, *and it cannot be anything but read-only* without some advanced terminal shenanigans that, if executed wrongly, may screw up your entire system and/or leave you vulnerable to malware.
- Some time later in Big Sur, every single System file gets its own SHA256 hash for a signature check. So, while insanely secure, even if you passed all the shit in place to prevent you from customizing your PressAndHold layout, *if you edit anything, the signature check will fail and your macOS volume will not boot up unless re-installed.* Your data won't be deleted as it's on a separate volume. There are still workarounds but the effort needed is IMO simply not worth it anymore.
And, to add insult to injury, *any* system update installed will reset the modified plist. This is very likely unintentional, and not with the goal of preventing customization in mind. There simply are very few people who are even aware that you could edit the plist files in order to customize the press and hold layout, and the settings files have been in System for over a decade, so nobody at Apple checked for this or judged it not worth it to change PressAndHold code. Hopefully they change that in the future.
This sounds like they made macOS pretty similar to immutable/atomic Linux distros. With that said, can't you have an overlay filesystem over the System volume, something like what a user of those Linux distros would use?
Sounds like something that could maybe be circunvented with an app, cheatsheat basically does something like that but with the command key, so making like that should be possible. And I really did not know that, I've been using macOS for 10 years, like whæt.
Fun fact: Probably what killed those keyboards wasn't dust but heat. That, combined with Apple completely trusting Intel's TDP low balling plus their fan curves with phobia to fan noise (or lack of fans, like in this case) did the the death trick in all that line of keyboards.
that's actually super interesting, I knew the thin Intel guys had overheating problems but had no idea it affected the keyboard failures
I can confirm this from experience. Problems always get worse after the machine has been running hot for a while. Bashing the keys repeatedly afterwards tends to alleviate the problems again, and is also great therapy. Now, every time the machine will be running hot like when rendering a video, I keep the keyboard cool using a case fan mounted on a 3D printed contraption, and this seems to have averted disaster so far. I still get the occasional double triggers, but it remains amazingly stable for a 5 year old instance of the worst keyboard design ever conceived.
@@alexanderthomas2660From what year is your machine?
The M series actually didn't lowball the TDP that much compared to the i series. Under sustained load they would sit right around the TDP mark, but that was still 2 full fat skylake-era 14nm+++++ cores fighting over single-digits watts, so the choices for burst performance were to either not have it at all, or very briefly roast everything alive. This was a huge problem for the later Lakefield as well, which I worked on. That single big core on those little things would fight 4 atom cores for power and lose to them.
@@DigitalJedi it's amazing how often Intel comes back to this design-philosophy well, even after it worked so badly in the mid-00s
bought it for studies, was perfect - light and compact. it was 8 years ago, still goes well today. I''m selling it tomorrow because i bought a 2024 M3 Mac book air but i'll be missing
i had one of these. it got me through my last two years of high school, all of undergrad, and half way through my honours year. i abused that thing so hard - had sims 3 with multiple expansion packs, a pirated copies of photoshop and illustrator, might even have jailbroken it to play maplestory. it finally died when i dropped my backpack with it inside, and i was devastated (mainly because i had a thesis to write and didn't have any alternatives). i still have its lifeless body, sitting on one of my shelves somewhere.
How Apple handled the the butterfly keyboard debacle renewed my determination to never give that company my money, no matter how tempting it may be.
DISOBEDIENCE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@andrew_radios_speakersandmore stop yapping
There's nothing wrong with the design, just buy the apple care...
Good, you are not a lost cause.. unlike Wade and other apple sheep who still buy the iCrap, even when it's transparent garbage xD
@@fix0the0spade There is a lot wrong with that design. Literally everybody I know who had a MacBook from the butterfly era had problems with sticking keys. It's truly a horrible design.
why do all your macbooks have the same dent
@catermelony They got that gamer head dent
They must face off against One Grit. We've just been seeing the survivors.
gritting
ikr
sponsored by 1 grit™
If it wasn't for that blasted keyboard I'd love one of those just as a portable typing device. It's HARD to find a small laptop that isn't plastic-y chrome powered e-waste anymore.
What's wrong with chrome if you just need to type stuff out? I've never used chrome OS but would have thought it'd be fine for just word processing
You could use a wireless keyboard with phone or, if you really want a laptop, maybe a 12" Lenovo X series, Dell Latitude, or Fujitsu Lifebook (U728, 729 etc.) could work. A Surface Laptop Go is also suitable if you want something newer.
@@mrcaboosevg6089 on paper nothing, and in fact I do have a little Lenovo Chromebook for doing just that but it's not ideal unless you only ever wanna use Google docs. And besides, the real problem with the little cheap chrome devices isn't the OS, but the build quality. Not gonna get much typing done if the deck flex ends up giving me a repeated stress injury.
@@eh86055 yeah I've been looking into stuff like that. Older stuff has crap battery life but I still try and the go is just crap to type with.
I would buy an Apple Silicon version of this. Great for trips and hotels. I usually bring a small guitar. With this I can take my Logic setup with me. I'm not buying an iPad because tablet OS is just plain stupid and redundant.
Maybe a controversial opinion, but I really wish they brought back this computer with a revised keyboard and Apple Silicon and maybe an extra USB-C port
4:52 "Chungus McDungus did the bimmy scringus on the tomorry waves."
“Living with one hole”
I got one for work, was pretty fine. For email and browsing and doing any other tasks from a Remote Desktop connection to a Windows machine :)
Switching between multiple RDP sessions with a three finger swipe is so satisfying and snappy on these turds.
I wish Windows was as good a terminal as it is a terminal server.
I had one of these from 2016 until it got stolen last December, got me through university, and used it for basic word and excel at my job, ran stardew valley without a problem and for media consumption it was great. The look and feel was incredible and the track pad is the best I ever used, force touch is great and I actually really liked the keyboard, despite the under powered hardware, the build quality and portability and my low power use case made it worth it. I miss it.
It was my favourite Macbook ever (top spec). I had the 11” Air previously and it had a terrible aspect ratio. I was so happy with this one. I treated it well and it lasted until 2020 when the butterfly kb eventually showed the fault. Too late for free kb replacement though.
Now got a 2020 M1 Air and happy with that.
Same, used this for uni. This was my first MacBook and I wanted something so small and light without being terrible. When I had a larger PC laptop I’d just leave it at home instead of carrying it around because I couldn’t be bothered.
Can I just say I have been binge watching ALL of your videos in the past 2 weeks….non stop! I've even play your playlists to help me to go to sleep at night. I have been going through severe mental illness in the past few months which has been affecting me to work. Your videos with your talents and humour have been helping me so much for clearing my head! Thank you so much for your help! 😊 Please don’t stop making your videos!
I really wish they would bring this back with Apple silicon.
exactly, this product feels like it came a bit too early, now it would have been a perfect little laptop
watching this on an m3 macbook pro, I ALWAYS wanted a 12" macbook growing up. I thought it was the lightest, smallest PC that you can literally throw into your bag and leave for work/school/travel at an airport.
It is! I am still using one to this day. No issues yet, eventhough it has been my daily driver for office and uni work ever since.
I think ipads are more suited since the keyboard is better and touch is more generally suited than a device that sacrifices the user expierence (typing) for size, you could also use a keyboard on ipad like macs but the usefullness of this only extends to office like applications and it’s pricey so i’d stick to the air
I had it, it was like an iPad but better. It’s as light as an iPad and I would use it as an iPad. I hold it, walk everywhere, watch videos with it in bed, used it in the car, it was great.
I got one for school in mid-2016, it was the base model with the M3 and 256GB of storage. It completely shat itself during the pandemic because it could barely handle google meets and the camera died which would have required a full monitor replacement which was going to cost more than the used value of the laptop itself. I replaced it with an ROG Zephyrus...
My 2015 MacBook Pro has a broken keyboard. I took it to a repair shop and they wanted $300 for the repair because they would have to replace the whole topcase. I didn't buy another MacBook after that.
There was no M3 in 2016 😂 you probably mean an i3
@@Jmg831There is such a thing as an Intel Core m3. It's basically an i3 with a really low (5-7W?) TDP.
Predictably, it didn't perform well
@@ihavenoideas5844 ooh 😮 thanks for the info, I had no idea 😅
@@breakfastattwilight that was just them trying to scam you lol. you can absolutely just replace that keyboard without the whole topcase
When this first released, my thought was “this is the Mac that someone takes to a coffee shop to be seen using a Mac in a coffee shop.” You’re the first person I’ve known to have a genuine usage case scenario for this thing!
this is the apple answer to chromebooks taking market share and showing that a shittily made, $100 barebones laptop is a viable product despite it having the computational power of a duel core from 2006
but it's apple so it cost $1300 in it's base config and is a hell of alot harder to warranty anyway...
using one of these basically as an ssh machine, an emacs machine, and a web browser/PDF reader was pretty nice... if I was using it for *anything* sturdier, though, I would have been miserable. butterfly switches were nice to type on as long as they worked though imo
I have a pink one. Look up all the common issues this model had and mine has
✨ all of them ✨
This is one of my favorite Macbooks ever. It had several issues, but the size and portability was unbeatable.
I frikin loved mine, and I would buy another one today if it came with a modern processor. I had zero issues with it or the keyboard. Typing wasn't great but also not terrible and it never failed. Replaced it with a M1 MBA and JFC it weighs like 3x as much. That thing was sooooo light, and the battery lasted 8-10 hours easily.
@@elcocineroamericano If they announced a new version with an M1/2/3, I would buy one instantly. I'd even be fine with the same screen, single port, etc. Stick an M1/2/3 in there and update the keyboard and I'd buy one today.
Is Apple holding a gun to your head? /j
imagine a concept car but instead of a car it’s a computer and it’s sold at full price to customers love this nugget
I have the 2017 model, top spec and I really like the compact form factor. I can fit it into the pocket of my jacket and carry it around.
Performance is not the greatest, but it's still usable today. Except for the dead battery, but I actually ordered a replacement battery for mine a few days ago.
And the passive cooling is cool because it's absolutely quiet. It doesn't annoy you with typical high pitch laptop fan noise.
The keyboard on mine hasn't failed yet, all keys are still working. Idk, maybe they fixed something for the 2017 model. The typing feel is indeed very weird when you first type on it, but I got used to it very quickly. I used it in school and then in university and did a lot of typing on it
Ugh, I just installed the new battery and damn they made that complicated. It consists of 6 seperate parts dangling together that are each GLUED onto the bottom of the case. It was a lot of work to get the old battery out.
But seeing the tiny circuit board in there is still very impressive. It fits a Core i7 (i7-7Y75 1.4 GHz Dual Core 😆), 16GB of RAM, 500 GB of SSD and basically everything else onto an area smaller than the trackpad.
- Sent from my 12" MacBook
P.S.: My next laptop must have a non-glued battery.
1:35 apple mustve heard this and took personal offence because boy is the new ipad thin
They really need to reintroduce a 13" MacBook in this 12" form factor (by reducing the bezel size, like how the 14" macbook is the same frame size as the old 13") and using M series chips without butterfly keys. I always wanted one of these 12" models, I would happily buy a new one.
Than buy an ipad since they do the same thing. Better hardware for sophisticated software would suit the macbook pros better but for people that don’t do computer science or any tech job for a living just get an ipad
@@staringcorgi6475 Eh, there are hobbyists who would like to have an actual keyboard, so I am with the original comment on that.
@@Notfallkaramell ipads support keyboards like the magic keyboard for macs and other bluebooth keyboards,
@@staringcorgi6475counterpoint, built in keyboard means nice tough shell for the screen.
Also the IPad system is a royal pain in the ass if you’re used to a regular laptop running a keyboard-only system.
@@Foxfloop ipad has pretty durable cases and 12 inch laptops wouldn’t be much durable since they break easily due to their size, a macbook pro from right now is durable since it’s thicker but a thin macbook isn’t durable no matter if it has the keyboard since the keyboard is thicker, plus ipad has a better keyboard as it won’t break like the butterfly
Still have my 2015 one, replaced the battery last summer. Runs slow and steady, mostly as backup/travel laptop as it fits in the large side pocket of my jacket. I'm thinking of putting linux mint to make it more usuable. But Apple, please revive this with the M series processor. 🙏
3:00 Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Dimensity 9300 and A17 Pro mobile CPUs go brrr at 7,000 + Geekbench 6 multicore score.
How far we've came it's impressive.
man im so glad i remembered you again, when you took a break from uploading you fell out of my algorithm entirely, Glad to be back
I remember a student of mine asking for help on how do stuff in Photoshop, and it was the most miserable expiernece with how long things took to load. Also so glad butterfly keyboard is dead, but I was never confident in my key presses with it.
I've had my MBP M1 since 2020 and I still daily drive it. It is honestly such a fantastic device! I have had macs (imac, macbook air) before but none were performant enough coming from a full-time custom-built desktop guy. When the M1 came out, it was the first device that allowed me to take the work I would normally do on a desktop with me wherever I went - I could now work and do my hobby stuff (photography/videos) on a battery for the first time with good performance.
As long as I don't break it, I see myself using it for a few more years.
watching this video from this laptop is so painful
LOL never noticed how bad that thing really was until 2:39 I saw my garage computer, a late 2012 mac mini (which is a decent garage computer when maxed out to 16 gigs and a SSD is installed)
you my friend are a storyteller and we’re all here for it
Had this one provided by the office back in 2018. That was my first experience with Macbook. It's nice to use, and so light in my bag I feel like I'm not bringing anything inside. I also have to agree that the butterfly switches are horrible. It feels like pushing a piece of wood on top another piece of wood that wriggles a tiny wee bit. Was lucky it didn't fail on me two years working on that office but I was scolded since my palm sweat corroded the body edges.
The worst part is they have the chipset to make this one of the most incredible machines on the market today... but they wont do it :(
I'm still using a MacBook Pro mid-2015 in 2024, and it's an amazing machine, not gonna lie to you. I really love it.
Am I the only one who thinks it's funny the snake trying to convince him to "use" the apple? 2:00
4:00 just because we're used it now doesn't mean its okay. a usb a port is not thick. its not hard to include one in a laptop. i dont want to have to carry 3 dongles and daisy chain them together bc my machine inexplicably only has 1 usb c.
I had one of these. It was a fantastic travel noteboook and was super light and thin. It also had a beautiful Retina screen. But as others have mentioned, the keyboard was awful with very short key travel and keys that stuck, and the thing got really slow and hot under load. It was a nice concept with a great form factor, but not a great machine for anything other than the most basic tasks like internet surfing and email. I think it would have been brilliant with a much better processor, like one from the Apple M series.
That’s what I’m watching this video on
I named my AirPods Pro Nugget Pro because of you. Yeah be proud of yourself buddy.
This really was the most MacBook of all time
I had one of these for the exact same reasons that you did. It wasn’t the actual mechanics and the hardware, it was the motherboard, and the particular year of 2016 and the 500 gig hard drives that were the problems.
Still using mine! Bought it fully spec’d out in 2017, totally functional no issues
0:12 I'm confused, that reddit post is talking about the 2019 MacBook Pro, not the 12 inch Macbook that is in the video?
Welcome to the world of Apple, essentially it is all the same.
He’s referring to the unreliability in general I believe
He is referring to the fact that the design choice for the 12 inch MacBook influenced the design for the 2016 to 2019 MacBook Pros and that is what the Reddit user is complaining about the butterfly keyboard
2:19 don't know why Frank staring at the screen is so cute but it is ❤
Idk he distracted me from watching this amazing video
That's one of the best Macs Apple made during the butterfly keyboard era. It actually knows what it is. It doesn't have the Pro moniker but can't do pro tasks because of overheating issues. It didn't cost an arm and a leg. It's a small, thin and incredibly light computer made for web based tasks. And that's it. That's what it is and it doesn't claim to be able to to do much more. As a piece of engineering it is very impressive and still thinner and lighter than most computers made today. I use my 2017 model daily.
This video coincidentally was made at the same time that i got a 2014 MacBook Air.
I actually loved this, it was so small and thin and battery lasted all day. I could take it everywhere in any bag really. Probably helped I bought it cheap second hand and had no issues with keyboard. I used it up to last year where I broke the screen.
Reminder that ppl (including children) in the Democratic Republic of Congo are enslaved and forced to work the dangerous cobalt mines to make these tech products. Buy secondhand if possible and use your device for as long as you can before throwing it out (responsibly), refurbing or retiring it.
An iPhone 15 has around 8.55 grams of cobalt (iPhones roughly contain about 5% of their mass in cobalt).
Many electric cars have around an 80kwh battery pack, this contains around 16kg of cobalt.
In 2022, there were 25.9 million electric cars on the road, that’s 414,400,000kg of cobalt.
Over 10 years, 2012-2022, 2.17 billion iPhones have been sold, let’s say each one has 8.55g of cobalt. That equates to 18,553,500kg of cobalt.
So in the last 5 years that electric cars have really taken off, we’ve needed to mine 22 times more cobalt for EVs than we have for iPhones over 10 years… Whilst I agree with your statement, I’d direct it more towards electric vehicles and their massive use of cobalt
agree with both of you guys. thankyou for being responsible and conscious ❤️❤️
no as long as they keep supporting the tech products it might jus end well for them (respond if you like idfc and I won’t respond)
No I’m gonna buy a MacBook… it’s not my fault this is happening
Nuh uh
Danka danka danka pods
And fronk the snoke
5:30 laughs in thinkpad
My 8GB 2017 MacBook Pro is pretty awful. The first issue I had was with the butterfly keyboard sticking due to minute bits of detritus getting underneath. Then the USB ports started to fail. Now only one works and not that well. After 2 years the screen failed and I had to fork out over £400 for a replacement screen. All this from a piece of equipment costing around £1500.
I had one in my last year of university, I bought it over a good spec IPad, I loved this little machine. For docuent typing and internet browsing it was amazing. Had probably the best battery life of its time, I could charge it overnight and leave for uni on that one charge and use it for 6-7 hours easy.
9:19 "HDMEE" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
the way he said HDMI and USB at 3:48 cracked me up!
The smartest decision they have ever made was firing John Ive. They brought back the proper keyboard and brought IO back.
Jony Ive made last year's Red Noses and they too, were total garbage!
Johny Ive was not fired, he resigned to work on his own company, which is still hired by Apple, for instance, the M1/M3 iMac design was made by Ive.
They also stopped making things as thin as possible to the point they bend in your pocket. I've gone fully back to apple now they have chonky rectangle designs on everything.
Jony ive has great software design though better than the last guy
@@ValiantInstanceand now they released the ipad pro which is thin as paper haha
i just flash backed to me buying loose key caps and pealing mine off to clean under it. i spent hours cleaning by hand and replacing the keycaps because there was just no way to keep them whole if you took them off. apple refused to replace my keyboard (this was before the lawsuit) and i couldn't afford to pay for it myself. really really happy they got their act together, completely obsessed with my macbook air m3
i remember in my old school's computer lab they bought these in 2016. after like 3 months, at least 4 or something broke because kids just didn't understand how fragile they were, literally snapping them or somehow killing the keyboards.
3:50 "HDMEE" "OOSB" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
7:52 that's called a laptop mate
Nit easy to do with a macbook pro or gaming laptop
Not all laptops are that easy to do that with
Yoooooo
I still have and use a 2018 MBP 15" with the last generation Butterfly keyboard.
I loved the feel of the Butterfly keyboard. Kept it clean, and it's (almost) perfect after 6 years; only issue is that the space bar is starting to double-space every now and then...
Oh, and it's been kept clean, but it has also survived getting absolutely thrown around, going swimming in a non-waterproof backpack on a motorbike on a rainy day, and a low-speed motorbike crash.
Still haven't upgraded to an M-series yet.
It was a cute MacBook now that m series laptops are out id love to see a 12” version with improvements. Like 3 ports MagSafe, usbc, and a headphone jack seems
While the issues mentioned do annoy me, the biggest thing which has me using this laptop to this day is the size factor. I use this laptop for travel, and a Mac Mini for more serious computing
For some reason the Mac notes app has its own settings for autocorrect and those awful "smart captions".
I still have this one and use it frequently. Only issue that it doesn't "snap" in like it used to but mercifully decides that it will grant me power to charge the battery.
I had one of these back in 19' absolutely loved the thin form factor but boy was it hard living with a single USB c port. One big thing with these machines are the SSDs die so much quicker due to the poor thermal management which is what killed mine after 2 hard years of use.
as someone who has a 2015 macbook air with the light up logo, i need an upgrade but at the same time, i love the logo gimmick so much and i don’t want that to go away
3:50 “you get… you know, charging, hedmei, and usebe.” best line ever
I worked at an apple repair centre around the time of the butterfly keyboards, they were awful to repair and I still get stressed out whenever I see them.
Currently watching this on my 2015 MacBook which I still use as my daily driver, it survived my entire undergrad and now most of grad school and I still do reasonably intense work on it. Genuinely will be devastated when/if it ever dies on me.
It’s the perfect coding/youtube/netflix machine.
i had one of these, early 2015 model. i bought it for school and it worked pretty well for me. the ONLY issue i ever had was the keyboard. it would get stuck, and wouldnt even type the letters i was pressing half the time. after about 6 years, it somehow deleted its own startup files, and turned into a very expensive paper weight. took it to apple and they couldnt fix it. 6 years of memories and projects? gone. ended up selling it for parts.
my mother still has an old macbook with the butterfly keyboard, the times ive used it, typing is so difficult and is not consistent.
I still have my 12 inch Macbook and I used to travel with it ALOT because of how incredibly portable it was. What’s even funnier is that 9 times out of 10 I would pick this up over the OG iPad Pro at home because it actually has a smaller footprint than the iPad Pro which is pretty insane. Loved this little thing.
i still remember buying it at 2018 for relatively cheap price. Thought it will be good for bringing it to lectures and studying. Man, I was so wrong lol. It was a good use for 2 months and glad I sold it before it lost the value. 2018 was the time where Macbook Air got refreshed and iPad Pros got redesigned. Macbook 12 inch was great design, good colour though
I'm so glad I went with the older 2015 pro model in 2016. It was the last upgradeable/self serviceable model and believe it or not I still use it along side a 2020 model. So glad I skipped the butterfly keyboard phase.
I love Dank Pods because he always drops some lore, had no idea he had a Harley, he’s always driving nugget cars, never get bored of this guy.
I had one of these and it broke twice in under 12 months. Switched back to PC after my experience. The wifi piece broke twice from the slightest bit of pressure applied to it.
I bought a cheap one as a transition laptop for excel and word. I chose it for the portability, usb c charging and the lightness in the backpack. 6 months after sold it for more than I paid for. Had a good experience but I was slow