Apple MacBook Pro 2009

8owners with an opinion

50%of verdicts positive

3/1positive/negative since 2024

9 yrslongest happy owner

1happy after 3+ years

Praised for durability and reliability; criticized for design and ergonomics.

What owners wrote

NeutralOwned 9 yearsStill going

I own a 2009 MBP and still use it for the few apps that aren't available on my other systems. My workhorse system is a desktop lotsa RAM, SSD + TBs of HD, triple monitors - and running Ubuntu on it is far better experience than the MBP ever was. When on the road, I use a ChromeBook or a Lenovo tablet (depending on whether I expect to type much). Gave up on iPad and iPhone years ago. I used to be an Apple fan, but since Steve Job's passing, the company has become yet another mega-corp chasing profits. The magic is no more.

Doesn’t like itOwned 3 years

I owned a Macbook Pro from 2009 till 2012. Though I initially liked it, I found much of it annoying, and by the end spent nearly 100% of my time on it in Windows. I just prefer non-Apple.

Likes it

My family continues to use my old 2009 MacBook Pro. YMMV

Likes it

I developed Node.js applications 10 years ago on a 2009 MacBook Pro with 5GB of RAM, and it was only a little tight on memory. 8GB _should_ be enough for moderate complexity development, but everything has become more and more memory-hungry with time.

Doesn’t like it

Not Maybe, I owned a 2009 MBP. Everyone with a macbook from that period that I knew had the same issue, they were absurdly bright, you could not keep it anywhere near a bedroom without putting very thick tape over the light. It was a poorly thought out design of aesthetics over ergonomics.

Likes it

I was running Debian Bookworm on a 2009 MBP until earlier this year. It finally gave up the ghost, but what a great innings. Replaced batteries twice and installed a SSD in place of the original HD.

Likes it

I've used Debian with Mate desktop on a 2009 MBP for a several years. Ran fine with 4GB RAM and retro-fitted SSD. Just installed Debian from a USB flash stick. The same one that I have used on non Apple x86-64 systems.

Neutral

Some years ago when I still had my 2009 Macbook Pro I noticed that if: - The laptop was charging - I was touching the laptop with one hand, and either (my memory is fuzzy on the details by now but it was one of these two circumstances): - A friend was touching me on the side of the forehead with one hand and touching a crack on the wall with the other hand OR - I was the one touching the crack on the wall with my other hand. Again, I don’t remember which of these last two. BUT I remember the result: I would see banding with my eyes (very similar to what you see with cameras when their shutter doesn’t sync with AC power). Now, our eyes don’t have shutters so I have no idea what was going on but I saw it.

Doesn’t like it

I agree, though I consider the dedicated GPU in the 15" Macbook Pro to be at the bottom end of "mid-range". :) Nvidia's GPU model numbers go from, at low end, X10, to, at the high end X90. X50 is right in the middle. Sorry, I just had to leave a comment here, because I found my Nvidia integrated GPU in my 2009 13" Macbook Pro woefully inadequate for CUDA computation.