The Metal Unibody Macbooks have been first in class since the first introduction in 2008. It's truly a remarkably designed machine.

I agree. I have a mid-2009 15" MBP to which I long ago maxed-out the RAM and replaced the HDD with an SSD, and it's still my daily driver.

About the only time I notice its age is when I do something involving very heavy disk i/o. While it is an SSD, it's still only SATA II. The vast majority of the time I don't even notice. It's been a great machine.

Until you need to replace literally anything in them. When their design suddenly looks massively hopeless compared to a thinkpad.

I feel like ThinkPads are severely underrated even for their time. Their user-serviceability may not help sell units, but for anyone who's actually owned, used, and needed to repair one, the design was genius.

They aren't designed to need that kind of servicing. They're designed to last long enough to justify a replacement, and the 2008 and 2009 MacBooks we have under our bookcase continue to prove this.

Until, like they said, any one part needs fixing, then you're SOL with a bill that runs 33-50% of the price of a brand new one.

My old Snow Leopard MBP was pretty much perfect in its day. It's long in tooth now but with a new battery and an SSD upgrade would still be well and truly usable as a general web-and-email machine.

I upgraded everything in my Snow Leopard-era 13" MBP and it was still running fine until I stupidly spilled water on it last month.

Now replaced by a 2015 13" MBP, which feels almost identical (although that Retina screen is goooood... as is the HDMI port).

And I can still sell most of the 2011 MBP parts on eBay to get some of my investment back!

I still have my white 13" MacBook with Snow Leopard. Using it is a bit nostalgic: remember when Apple made a super stable OS that optimized for getting actual work done? I don't remember it ever crashing, not even once!

I still own&use one; I upgraded SSD and ram an it is still pretty ok for small web dev and internet browsing.

Yeah, I have a mid-2011 Macbook Air that I've been using heavily since day one, and it still performs like a champ. I've never owned a non-Mac laptop that I didn't want or need to replace within two years.

The only major problem is the keyboard layout which IMO is close to inexcusable. Swapping fn and ctrl with no way of fixing it is thoughtless at a level that a company like Apple shouldn't tolerate.

Yep, they're built to last too. I have an old white plastic MacBook I handed down to my nephew that's still chugging away after seven years. It runs like it's practically brand new and it's built like a tank.

The Macs are legendary for their design, but I have to say the winner is the MacBook Air. We have one at home, specifically the 2011 model MacBook Air. Such a fine piece of equipment and it still works pretty today as well as it did 6 years ago.

Got the some model here. Even though I now also own a 13" rMBPro which is barely heaver, there's something about the MBAir's design that makes it FEEL so much lighter to carry around. It's much easier to hold, and it looks much thinner on a table as well thanks to the curved shape. A truly amazing design.

+1 for Macbook Air 13" 2010 (dedicated GPU).

Best laptop I ever owned, hands down.

Have been using Air since its 1st gen.

If the screen on the Air wasn't so shitty, I would still be rocking that thing. It had legendary battery life and an amazing keyboard, all while being super light.

I think that the MBA the best MacBook they've ever designed. No compromises, light enough to forget about and lasts long enough to almost never need charging.

I seriously wished they re-released that with a Retina screen.

Shitty? The Air screen is pretty good. Yes, it is not retina but I'm happy with the other bits such as color depth, view angle, brightness, and just general quality.