Apple Sunset

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)

Discontinued 13 Feb 2013

Released

11 Jun 2012

Announced

11 Jun 2012

Launch price from

$2,199

Discontinued

13 Feb 2013

Lifespan

8 months

Category
MacBook Pro
Status
Discontinued
Apple support status
Obsolete (Apple no longer services it)
Release type
Refresh of an existing model
Replaced by
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)
Official Apple page
No longer available on Apple’s website
Tech specs
Apple specs ↗
Press release
Apple Newsroom ↗
More information
MacBook Pro (Intel-based) on Wikipedia ↗

Notes

Apple sold the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) from $2,199, with 8GB of memory, 256GB of storage and four processor cores, or $2,799 for a faster processor and 512GB. Memory could be taken to 16GB and storage to 768GB.

The screen held 2880 by 1800 pixels at 220 to the inch, over five million in total, which Apple called the highest resolution notebook display in the world. Every 15-inch MacBook Pro that followed used exactly the same count, right through to the last one in 2019.

The DVD drive, the Ethernet socket and the FireWire port all went. Adapters were sold separately for the last two, and the FireWire one was not ready in June, going on sale the following month. What remained was two Thunderbolt sockets, two USB 3 ports, an HDMI socket, an SD card slot, a headphone jack and a MagSafe 2 charger.

An HDMI socket was introduced on the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012), which Apple presented as a quick way of plugging into a television. The charger was redesigned as a thinner MagSafe 2 to suit the slimmer body.

Apple put out a second 15-inch MacBook Pro on the same day. That one kept its DVD drive, its Ethernet socket and its FireWire port, ran a 5400rpm hard drive rather than flash, showed 1440 by 900 and weighed 5.6 pounds against 4.46, so for a while a buyer could choose between the two.

The body measured 0.71 of an inch thick, which Apple called the lightest MacBook Pro it had made and nearly as thin as a MacBook Air. The battery held 95 watt-hours, rated at up to 7 hours of web browsing.

Apple replaced it on 13 February 2013 with a version that ran faster and fitted 16GB of memory as standard to the dearer model, so this one was on sale for eight months.

It was announced on 11 June 2012 at WWDC. It went on sale the same day, priced from $2,199.

Check out the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) that replaced it.

MacBook Pro release history

  1. 2026

  2. 11 Mar 2026

    MacBook Pro M5 Pro and M5 Max ReleasedCurrent

  3. 3 Mar 2026

    MacBook Pro (M4) Discontinued

  4. ↑ 4 months later
  5. 2025

  6. 22 Oct 2025

    Macbook Pro M5 ReleasedCurrent

  7. ↑ about 1 year later
  8. 2024

  9. 8 Nov 2024

    MacBook Pro (M4) Released

  10. 30 Oct 2024

    MacBook Pro (M3) Discontinued

  11. ↑ about 1 year later
  12. 2023

  13. 7 Nov 2023

    MacBook Pro (M3) Released

  14. 30 Oct 2023

    MacBook Pro (M2 Pro / M2 Max) Discontinued

  15. ↑ 9 months later

  16. 24 Jan 2023

    MacBook Pro (M2 Pro / M2 Max) Released

  17. 17 Jan 2023

    MacBook Pro (M1 Pro / M1 Max) Discontinued

  18. ↑ 1 year, 3 months later
  19. 2021

  20. 26 Oct 2021

    MacBook Pro (M1 Pro / M1 Max) Released

  21. 18 Oct 2021

    MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) Discontinued

  22. ↑ about 2 years later
  23. 2019

  24. 13 Nov 2019

    MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) Released

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019) Discontinued

  25. ↑ 6 months later

  26. 21 May 2019

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019) Released

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2018) Discontinued

  27. ↑ 10 months later
  28. 2018

  29. 12 Jul 2018

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2018) Released

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) Discontinued

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2017) Discontinued

  30. ↑ about 1 year later
  31. 2017

  32. 5 Jun 2017

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2017) Released

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2016) Discontinued

  33. ↑ 7 months later
  34. 2016

  35. 14 Nov 2016

    MacBook Pro 15-inch (2016) Released

  36. ↑ 1 year, 6 months later
  37. 2015

  38. 19 May 2015

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) Released

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) Discontinued

  39. ↑ 10 months later
  40. 2014

  41. 29 Jul 2014

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) Released

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) Discontinued

  42. ↑ 9 months later
  43. 2013

  44. 22 Oct 2013

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) Released

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) Discontinued

  45. ↑ 8 months later

  46. 13 Feb 2013

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) Released

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) Discontinued

  47. ↑ 8 months later
  48. 2012

  49. 11 Jun 2012

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) Released

More in MacBook Pro

All MacBook Pro →

Something not right on this page? Tell us