So, I've been an iMac user for about 15 years. Started with 24" intel iMac's and now I work from home on a 2015 27" iMac with 2 additional monitors and don't plan on switching for a while.

A month back, I got a free 2010 "Non-Functioning" MacBook Pro 13". I put a new battery in it, new SSD and trackpad and I really like it as far as build quality and such, High Sierra is still very usable. The non-retina screen is bothering me, and of course it's a bit slow, but all in I spent maybe $80-90 for it. I was poking around for a retina MacBookPro 13 and was set on a 2015 model, but made an e-bay offer on a 2017 model with Low battery cycle count (22) and no SSD drive and got it for $200 even. All in after buying a replacement OEM 128gb SSD and charger, I'll be in it so cheap I figured it was worth a shot.

I hear constantly about the problems with butterfly keyboard etc.. In reality, I just need a backup machine for work in case I have an issue with my iMac, something use during lunch to keep working from the kitchen, and for my wife to work for occasional meetings outside of the house. As far as ports, I really don't care about them at all, this will be a typical machine I work from the cloud on, browser stuff etc.. I probably won't install much software other than like MS Teams. Of course will take it with for any travel if needed, but that is limited to 3-4 work trips a year now. I will say this, the keyboard on the 2010, which I'm typing on now is really good.

Anyhow, was just looking for some thoughts, thanks!

Given it's a secondary device, I think you'll be more than fine. I've had a MBP with butterfly keyboard previously, and even if I am happy they are moving from it, I never had issues in the three years I used my MBP. 200$ for it is a very good deal.

So you have only made an offer on the 2017 but haven't sealed the deal, where buying the SSD and a charger is only happening after that is done?

With how little cost this takes and you are used to how Intel Macs behave, it will be hard for anyone to convince you the plan doesn't work otherwise. Before I came into this thread and read your whole text, just looking at the thread title the only thing came to my mind was "just buy a refurb base M1 MBA and be done" since it would have been a much better value.

But now knowing you only intend it as a secondary machine with nothing mission critical, I'd say go for it. However I suspect whenever the M2 MBAs drop, the current crop of M1 MBAs will flood to the 2nd market at dirt cheap prices close to Intel Macs like your broken 2017, at which point the value proposition will be even harder to justify to get anything Intel. The thing with Apple Silicon is how power efficient they are and by extension how suitable this is for a general purpose laptop, in battery life and longevity especially. And there is no butterfly KB waiting to fail.

Hi, I won the auction, just waiting for it to be delivered tomorrow. i offered way less than asking and did not expect to win it. I found a place on eBay that had factory OEM pulled SSD drives, I think I paid 32 bucks for it. I looked for refurbed M1 machines but all are close to 1000. Also ordered a charger for 25 bucks.
thing for me to for work is we use virtual desktops and I just remote in with Citrix workspace app for work, so most any machine does what I need.

Did they make a 2017 MacBook Pro with no Touch Bar? It was my understanding that all 13 and 15 inch models after 2016 had a Touch Bar and also had a non removable ssd

Diablo360 said:

Did they make a 2017 MacBook Pro with no Touch Bar? It was my understanding that all 13 and 15 inch models after 2016 had a Touch Bar and also had a non removable ssd

2016 & 2017 had a "no touch bar" low end model. It was replaced by the "2 TB ports" versions which added touchbars to it. They use slightly slower i5 CPUs compared to the full 4 ports versions.

Also the SSDs in those 2016 & 17 nTB models were socketed, while the interface is of course proprietary people have managed to do pinout adaptors like for iMacs. But the OP has sourced OEM originals anyway.

People widely considered these Macs not qualifying the Pro moniker, but it was during the era of screwed Mac lineup where the MBA was a non-retina bottom barrel old design, the most portable Mac was the underpowered fanless 12 rMB. The 13" MBP nTB had a fan and 15W CPU and a form factor 99% the same as the higher end 13", Apple felt it justifiable to call it MBP also.