The Early 2015 MacBook Pro is the strongest all-round OCLP machine: Metal graphics, natively supported Wi-Fi, a Retina display, and the pre-butterfly keyboard.
It stayed officially supported for years longer than the other Macs on this site, so it needs OCLP only for the most recent macOS versions — and it needs comparatively little from it.
What you're working with
| Model identifier | MacBookPro12,1 (13-inch, Early 2015) |
| Processor | Broadwell Core i5-5257U or i7 |
| Graphics | Intel Iris 6100 — Metal-capable |
| Wireless | Broadcom BCM94360 — natively supported |
| Memory | 8 GB or 16 GB, soldered |
| Storage | Proprietary PCIe blade — replaceable, NVMe with an adapter |
| Display | 13.3-inch Retina, 2560×1600 |
| Maximum via OCLP | macOS 15 Sequoia |
Why this generation is so well regarded
It sits at a genuinely fortunate point in Apple's history, and the reputation isn't nostalgia:
- The keyboard. The last scissor-switch design before the butterfly mechanism and its years of reliability problems. This alone is why many people specifically hunt down a 2015.
- The ports. Two Thunderbolt 2, two USB-A, HDMI, SD card reader and MagSafe 2. No dongles.
- MagSafe. The magnetic connector that gives way instead of pulling the machine off a desk.
- The Force Touch trackpad. Introduced here and still excellent.
Combined with Metal graphics and native Wi-Fi, that makes it the machine with the fewest compromises on this list.
Buying one: what to check
Confirm 16 GB of RAM if you can.
Soldered, so this is permanent. 8 GB is workable on this machine in a way 4 GB never is elsewhere, but 16 GB is worth paying for if you keep many things open.
Check battery cycle count and condition.
Hold Option, click the Apple menu → System Information → Power. Read the cycle count and condition. Batteries in these are glued in — replacement is a real job, so factor it into the price.
Look for display coating damage.
This generation had a known anti-reflective coating issue producing patchy marks on the screen. Inspect the display under bright light, on a white background, before buying. It's cosmetic but permanent and very distracting.
Confirm it's the 12,1 and not a 15-inch dual-GPU model.
The 15-inch versions of this era are also good machines, but some have a discrete AMD GPU that adds graphics-switching complexity. The 13-inch 12,1 has integrated graphics only, which is one less thing to go wrong.
What to expect from it
This is the machine on the list most likely to feel like a current computer. A Retina display, a fast PCIe SSD, and a Broadwell processor that handles everyday work without protest.
Comfortably good at: browsing with plenty of tabs, office work, photo editing, streaming, light development, and 1080p video without complaint. It'll compile modest projects and edit 1080p video, slowly but genuinely.
Where it shows its age: heavy 4K video work, modern gaming, and machine learning workloads are beyond it. It also can't match Apple Silicon on battery life even with a new battery — that's a generational gap, not a fault.
Common questions
How does it compare to the 2012 MacBook Pro?
Better in nearly every way that matters day to day — Retina display, faster storage, native Wi-Fi, a lighter body. The 2012 wins only on upgradeability: it takes user-replaceable RAM and a standard SATA drive, where the 2015 has soldered memory. See OCLP on the 2012 MacBook Pro.
Do I even need OCLP on this Mac?
Only for the newest macOS versions. It stayed officially supported for years after the other machines here, so if you're happy on the last macOS Apple shipped for it, you need nothing at all. OCLP is what takes you past that point.
Is the SSD upgradeable?
Yes — a proprietary blade, but replaceable, and NVMe drives work with the right adapter. It's one of the few upgrades this machine still accepts, and a worthwhile one if you're short on space.