The price point, makes this MacBook, the best bang for your buck.

This laptop, is great. From a build quality perspective, this computer is solid and well built (even more so than the newer generation of MacBook pros, in my opinion). I bought the 15 inch macbook pro mid 2014 previous to realizing that I over paid for a device that I would barely use, not to mention the constant flimsy feel of the chassis, and the creaks it would emit when I would apply light pressure to it. To me, although the CD drive generation model is bulky, it just feels like a solid,well crafted device, that still offers the performance people are looking for. Display - The display is pretty nice, even though it isn't full HD, with the 13 inch panel, it still looks crisp and clean at 1280x800. Speed/Performance - With the i7 clocked in at 2.9 ghz, and 8 gigs of 1600mhz RAM, everything is buttery smooth, and there are no hiccups at all. The hard-drive, will hang up sometimes being that it is a traditional platter, but it isn't something an SSD can't resolve. Which speaking of SSD, the upgradeability that this generation provides is great, since you can go in and fix issues yourself and swap out parts, where as the new generation doesn't allow for it, or is very limited in what you can do. Overall, for the money, this MacBook is the best bang for the buck, and should not be overlooked even though it is "outdated"(by 1 generation, which really isn't all that big of a deal, if you look from a performance perspective) yeah you miss out on the retina display, and the thin chassis of the newer ones. But this model, makes up for it with the expandability, and lower cost.Read full review