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The big improvement in the 2012-2015 body is that getting rid of upgradability and the optical drive allowed putting in a huge battery (basically the max allowed on airplanes). It also cut the weight by more than a pound.

Most of that is the optical drive, right?

There's a lot to love in the 2013-2015 line, but the 2008-2012 series will always have my heart. I've never had a laptop so easy to work on, and being able to put two drives in a portable is icing on the cake.

They keyboard on the '08-'12's noticeably better than in the '13-'15. Either is way better than the current version.

Yup, I'm on an old top-of-the-line 2011 that I swapped out the DVD for an extra SSD. It's spoiled me — such that to replace it I want 16-32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD.

I'd shelve another k for 17"...

I preferred the 2007 body (the one before the chicklet keys.)