What would be the best Mac laptop for my dad

Personally I draw the line at the rMBP on what NOT to buy. The soldered RAM bothered me when they did it in 2012 and it still bothers me. I don’t recommend those things to anyone.

Your best bet is to find a Mid 2012 13” since he probably doesn’t need the dGPU and performance the 15” has. The farthest I’d go is either the 2012 13” or 15” non-Retina because of the soldered RAM. It makes for a very expensive repair (unless you’re good at board level work!) or a slow machine if his budget limits him to 8GB variants since it’s going to be like that for the rest of it’s life. The non-Retina screen isn’t as good, but if he can’t afford 16GB now it can be added later on along the line.

And just in case you’re looking at a 17” for him… Please don’t unless he needs it. The 17” died in 2012 with the rMBP release and it’s a unwieldy machine you only get if you have a genuine need and the 2010 is the last “safe” one - I seriously doubt he needs it. Trust me; I used the 17” for 5 years and it’s NOT something you get “just because”. I mainly got it because it was the only laptop Apple sold with a good resolution screen (1920x1200 option was only on the 17” for many years). It’s an amazing machine IF you can live with the weight and portability compromises you WILL notice, but that’s also why the only ones who own them are people who have a need for it.

For your dad's use case, I think I'll cast my vote with Blake and Nick! I'd go with either a 2012 unibody or a 2014/2015 rMBP. @nick has done a good job outlining the benefits/drawbacks between the two.

I think the decision ultimately comes down to your dad's priorities. You'd be surprised at how well the 2012 unibodies still run (especially the ones with the i7 processors and SSD upgrades). If you ran Windows on its own partition and found all the drivers you needed, the 2012 would probably run Windows just fine.

That said, as much as soldered RAM is a huge bummer, I think he might get more mileage out of a newer machine. As long as he goes with 16gb on the rMBP, he'll have the same amount of possible RAM as the upgradable unibody, and he’ll get better driver support on Windows, better battery life, and a noticeably more efficient CPU.

The listing you posted doesn’t look too shady, but the “thick line going through the bottom portion of the screen” does throw a flag for me. There’s a tiny possibility that line is software-related, but it’s most likely the beginning of a failing screen. Unless your dad is okay spending another 300+ dollars down the road for a replacement part (lucky for him his son is a skilled fixer) I might keep looking.

I've worked with both machines, and honestly they each have their advantages. Enjoy the search, and let us know what you end up getting!