what's up guys my name is Brandon and before I got my 2019 MacBook Pro 16 inch,
I was using my 2011 MacBook Pro for pretty much everything: web browsing,
video editing, photo editing, even some light gaming. Basically any time I was on
the go, I was using this 2011 MacBook Pro all the way up until the beginning of
2020 and surprisingly it was still performing just fine a whopping nine
years later so in this video I wanted to talk to you guys about how a 2011
MacBook Pro runs in 2020 and if you should consider buying one since they
are insanely cheap these days and also if you should hold on to yours if you
still have one right now so this is the base model early 2011 MacBook Pro which
has a 2.3 gigahertz I 5 processor and 8 gigabytes of ddr3 RAM now every 2011
MacBook Pro actually came with 4 gigabytes of RAM but of course I did
double that - aka good bytes later on down the road with some third-party RAM
of course because it's so much cheaper than Apple's Ram but it also has a 5400
rpm 320 gigabyte hard drive and an Intel HD graphics 3000 graphics card with 512
megabytes of dedicated memory so clearly these specs are weak obviously but back
in 2011 this thing performed like a beast it was much faster than the
previous generation MacBook Pro but even in 2020 you'd be surprised at just how
well this thing performs especially if you upgrade that hard drive to an SSD
and I'm gonna talk about that later on in this video now we are stuck on Mac OS
Sierra since that is the last software update that was compatible with the 2011
MacBook Pro and there are workarounds to get later versions of Mac OS on this guy
but you do run the risk of breaking your machine and plus the performance and the
GPU aren't going to be quite as good now Mac OS Sierra does run fine and it's
stable and everything but of course I do hate being stuck on that old software
version because that means that applications that I've paid a lot of
money for also are not able to be updated like Final Cut Pro and motion
for example so you're not gonna be able to transfer you know newer Final Cut
libraries over to this 2011 MacBook Pro and pick up where you left off if you
have say like a newer iMac and I tried to transfer you know final
cut library from a 20-17 iMac to my 2011 MacBook Pro and obviously you know the
Final Cut version on my iMac was a lot newer than the one on the MacBook so I
was not able to you know continue working on that project which was
unfortunate but the reality is if you're looking to buy a 2011 MacBook Pro in
2020 you're not going to be editing 4k videos and Final Cut Pro or using
Photoshop to edit 8k images you're most likely going to be using it or at least
wanting it because it's cheap and it's gonna get basic tasks done like web
browsing schoolwork or even some like photo or video editing now before we
dive too deep into the internals and everything that this machine does well
let's take a look at the design and the display on this guy so 2011 was a
beautiful time when Apple actually included a lot of ports on the MacBook
so if we flip it over on the left-hand side here we have the first-generation
MagSafe connector which I still to this day love and wish the Mac books kept we
have the Ethernet port a firewire 800 port a Thunderbolt 1 port we have two
USB 2.0 ports and SD card slot which is big for a lot of people that do creative
work and of course the headphone jack and we do also have the battery status
indicator down here as well on the flip side we have a Kensington lock slot and
a slot loading SuperDrive so if you have like CDs or anything like that you could
also put them in there and watch the content or maybe play an old game if you
want to and on the front we do of course have a sleep wake indicator and an IR
receiver and when we open the MacBook up you do get the glowing Apple logo right
there what - absolutely love that is a classic I wish it was still in today's
machines even on the iMac I wish it was on the iMac I wish every Apple product
had the glowing Apple logo so cool it's such an iconic look I really miss it and
going back to this 2011 MacBook it really makes me realize how much I like
that really small detail but taking a look at the keyboard and the keys here
you will see a big difference compared to today's Mac books in terms of you
know how everything's laid out so we do have a dedicated power button up in the
top right and we do have that butterfly keyboard which I've had absolutely no
issues with in nearly a decade so I did spill water on it a few years back and
knocked out some of the lighting so it's basically a partially backlit keyboard
now and not a backlit keyboard we do also have a
microphone up in the top left and a tiny trackpad compared to today's trackpads
down near the bottom right here and I will say that this trackpad is held up
extremely well over time it still clicks as if it were brand new it's no clicks
perfectly fine it doesn't stick or anything like that and that's even after
very heavy use you know when I used to use this as my main device as for the
display we have a 13.3 inch LED backlit screen with a resolution of 1280 by 800
and that of course is surrounded by these big black ugly bezels and of
course we do have the FaceTime camera there as well which is nothing special
and going back to that display watching videos and Netflix shows on this 2011
MacBook Pro is fine I mean it's not gonna be anything that's gonna blow you
away with the quality or anything like that that's not a Retina display again
it only has a 1280 by 800 display but once again all of this should be
expected from such an old machine and most of you aren't even gonna be trying
to watch like 8k films or you know even 4k films on this macbook as far as the
sound goes it's also okay it's nothing that's gonna blow you away but the
stereo speakers sound perfectly fine although most of the time when watching
a video or a movie I personally just use a pair of wired headphones with that
headphone jack now one of the big reasons that you may consider the 2011
MacBook Pro in 2020 is to get schoolwork done so maybe you're in high school
you're in college and you need a cheap but reliable laptop that has enough
power to run things like the Microsoft Office suite and Photoshop and that's
where I say that it makes a lot of sense to go with this machine because it can
still run all of the Microsoft Office suite perfectly fine with no issues
Photoshop also runs just fine although you will be limited as to the version
you can run you can see here I'm running it looks like Photoshop CC 2015 which I
believe is the last supported version so just keep that in mind and even Final
Cut Pro and premier Pro run just fine on this MacBook although you should only
edit 1080p clips and not 4k when I did try to edit 4k video it was a nightmare
I'd get the beach ball like every three seconds and it took forever to attempt
to edit a five-minute video so keep that in mind but 1080p clips will be just
fine I used this machine to edit hundreds of video
over the years and it did just fine it wasn't the fastest you know to render
and export out videos but it did get the job done and I didn't have to go out and
spend thousands of dollars on another machine to edit and export now one thing
that I will suggest doing to this MacBook is swapping out that hard drive
for an SSD and also adding additional RAM if you get one with less than 8
gigabytes upgrading the hard drive is something that I personally never did
and everything still ran perfectly fine for me but if you do upgrade to an SSD
not only will everything run much faster and smoother but the laptop also won't
be as loud and get as hot as it does it does get pretty hot just I guess the
thermal inside that's why it's kind of loud too if you're doing things like
Photoshop and you know doing a lot of multitasking but most of the time you
shouldn't really attempt that with this because it is going to bog down and slow
down so and you know I have a hard drive as well so it's a little bit different
again if you have the SSD that's going to improve pretty much everything about
the computer and you can get an SSD and some RAM sticks combined for like 120
bucks and they're both super easy to install yourself there are videos all
over YouTube showing you how to install those they make it really really easy
Apple made it really easy back in the day
unlike they do now now as far as the boot up goes that is pretty slow
especially compared to you know how fast were used to everything booting up
nowadays but of course if you do get the SSD that will improve your boot up
speeds of course eliminate any kind of login items as well that will improve
your boot up speeds but honestly for the price you're not gonna be complaining
about something like that especially since most people don't
usually shut down their laptops every day so it's not gonna be like an
everyday occurrence of you having to boot up your device but even without an
SSD or additional RAM web browsing is flawless on this laptop still in 2020 I
use Google Chrome and everything runs perfectly fine just like it does on my
2019 macbook pro now of course I can't open near as many tabs without lag as I
can on my 2019 but when I have just a couple of tabs open maybe like two or
three tabs things are nice and smooth on this 2011 now as for the overall body of
the macbook pro I did use a black shell on it from day one so it's still in
pretty much mint condition except for some things like in the front side right
here which is nice and the screen doesn't really have any noticeable
scratch maybe some minor scratches despite a lot
of touching and cleaning throughout the years now I did notice that it's pretty
hard to clean off the fingerprints and the few I guess spit or liquid spots
like little spots on there that may have been on the screen for a long time so be
prepared to use some kind of screen you know cleaning liquid when it comes to
cleaning the screen if you do get a secondhand unit that does have lots of
smudging on the screen now as far as battery life goes battery life just
really isn't good at all I mean at least not on my machine mine is still
completely stocked aside from the RAM so it does have the original battery inside
and I can still use it without being plugged in but it only lasts about an
hour before I'm running to find a cord to plug it in I also noticed that it
sometimes dies around 20% of battery remaining which does usually indicate
that the battery is bad and needs replacing but of course this is another
thing that you can replace yourself pretty easily for under a hundred bucks
but if you're gonna always be near an outlet this is not going to be a big
deal to you like me I was personally pretty much always plugged in you're an
outlet even if I was on the plane I was plugged in so I didn't really have to
deal with that too much so now let's discuss the price and if you should buy
one of these 2011 MacBook Pros almost a decade later so on ebay or any used
market you can find the 2011 MacBook Pros for around 150 dollars or you could
do what I would suggest and get one where the owner has already installed an
SSD and additional RAM so those are going for closer to 200 to 225 dollars
and for that price I say that it is absolutely worth it if you fit the
criteria that I've mentioned throughout this video so it's a great laptop for
school work like the Microsoft Office suite and Photoshop and it's even good
for some light video editing with Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro and all for 200
bucks which once again is a great price given the laptops you know the price of
the laptops on the market right now for $200 and of course the price of the
newer Mac books which are well well more than that and let's not forget that the
amount of ports on this guy are also just another reason that this
laptop still holds value for some people so you're not going to need a dongle
you're not gonna need a hub or anything like that when you're using it because
it has basically every port you could want so it's just a solid $200
laptop that's gonna knock out daily tasks and web browsing with ease so yeah
that's pretty much it for my review here on the 2011 macbook pro in 2020 let me
know what you guys think of the 2011 macbook pro do you have one are you
looking to buy one or maybe replace an ipad or you know an older macbook let me
know all your thoughts down in the comment section below and if you guys
enjoyed this video I would appreciate it if you give it a thumbs up of course
make sure to subscribe so you see more videos like this but anyways guys thanks
again for watching and I'll see you soon