[Closed] Laptop life expectancy?

I've had 3 in the last 10 years. Current one should do a couple more years so 4 years each. I'm not careful with them.

Pretty rubbish here, first one did three years, had two batteries in that time, and then the mouse started going a bit haywire once it warmed up. A new touchpad didn't fix it.

Second one is two years old, battery pretty much done in after the first 12 months, and now the keyboard is on the blink, some of the keys are sticking, and despite a full format and reinstall, its now freezing intermittently on shut down and has also had a couple of blue screens about a power issue.

🙁

3 or 4 years here .

laptop shopping i find is definantly best done in person.

high spec cheap laptops often have a cheap case that wont last.

id rather lose a bit on the spec and have one that will last.

i made the mistake once of buying a high spec advent - best spec i could get for the cash - fell apart within 6 months of buying.

have had HP , acer and now on lenovo. none more than 300 quid and all used for 3/4 hours daily for lesson planning by the mrs.

certainly wouldnt dream of changing it after a year.

my works dell E series lasted 3 years before it developed a mobo fault. it was beaten to death from being thrown in and out of helicopters and hilux pick ups , the case was smashed on every corner 😀

they replaced it with the new magnesium cased E series - bit heavier but much more solid.

our communal toshiba laptop is 3 years old and a sgood as new.. its used 12 hours a day by the whole family and i even take it to fix boilers... cost 299 from john lewis.. bargain

Mines a handme down from my father in law, for some reason he was using a top spec wide screen lappy built for multimedia and editing for abit of word and excel.... About 10 years old and no worries, been on trains, planes, boats and automobiles. Its a bit heavy tho and the battery is shot.

Dell Precision M4300 here.

It's coming up to 6 years old, and is still going strong. It's been hammered. The fan filter got blocked & it overheated in a big way. 8 mins in the oven for the mainboard has fixed it and it's survived to see another day. Regularly gets used, and the battery is still good for an hour.

It's all as solid as the day I got it, save for a slight wobble on one of the screen hinges.

Have a Macbook that is now six years old and chugging away. I even dropped it on a escalator in its first month.

6 years here. Macbook Pro running windows and OSX. Used as a main machine for 2 and a bit years but now used for more normal portable laptop style duties as well as running trainerroad in the shed.

No problems with software or hardware and no intention of replacing it for the foreseeable future.

We have Dell XPS which I bought as present for my wife. Upgraded it with HiRes HD (1800-1200) screen at the time and now after 6+ years battery is shot. It was battered by our eldest son so few keys don't work on it anymore have to copy paste few letters but otherwise its still going strong. This time I would go for Mac but screen resolution on dell is so lovely can't justify spending monies on Mac to match it.

Mechanically mine have all lasted well (Sony magnesium case, a black Macbook, and an eeePC).

Hardware wise, the Sony battery started going downhill after about 6 years. The eeePC has been going well since eeePC's came out (4-5 years?), but the Macbook battery lasted less than a standard EU warranty period, and the replacement last a massive 6 months max. And even counting both batteries together didn't even get it to the 2 year mark. Quality is no better than Dell/HP/Tosh, just made to look better quality on the outside imho.

The eeePC is the one I use all the time, and I'll be annoyed if/when it packs in.

So Macs cost a lot more but they last a lot longer?

I really hate the cheap plastic feel of my Toshiba, works nice apart from that though.

OHs Toshiba Satellite feels horrible and cheap and while it wasnt too bad while she was using it as soon as I started to borrow it for work, but being very gentle on it and just using at home on the table, it started to show wear and tear very quick.

My current dell XPS15 feels like it's built like a tank in comparison. 1 year old and did have a new screen due to dust and a new main aluminium chassis as it was countersunk wrong from the factory so the screws would not bite but other than that (touch wood) it is a very solid laptop and doing well. I've had 'issues' with Dell customer service though unfortunately so will probably go Mac next as nothing else seems to feel close to the dells build and only macs seem to better it.

My old work Sony was really well built, showed minimal wear.
My home Lenovo is heavy, but feels very 'robust'. Some wear on plastic, but hinges etc are great.
Works new Acer ultrabook also feels pretty good, helped by the fact that it weights not a lot and is smooth opening etc - like many a mac...

It depends, but mainly on the user/owner.

While I've never broken a laptop, more worn them out and/or changed due to O/S upgrade with most lasting +4 years - I've known other users destroy one a year.

Had my sony for 7 years the battery only lasts 15 min these days and the silver colour has worn through by the track pad but its still going although now semi retired by a tablet gadget.

Had a 2009 13" MacBook Pro until recently. Was indestructible!

Even managed to sell it a couple of months ago for £400...

Rachel

OHs Toshiba Satellite feels horrible and cheap

Yep, mines a Satellite...

I would never buy a non Apple laptop. They're the definition of planned obsolescence.

Apple obsoleted my laptop, well before it became obsolete from a CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD point of view. SHould have another few years in it imho, if only the batteries lasted more than 18months.

Personally I reckon it was because it was no longer shiny enough for Starbucks.

SO yes mechanically they could last years, in reality they last no longer than a plastic Dell on a standard 2+1 year corporate replacement scheme.

running a 2009 macbook pro, original battery now only lasts a few hours. Other than that no issues, touch wood.

5 years, the acer was on it's last legs after 4 but kept it going much longer. Prior to that using various Dell Precisions that were well over 5 years. Now have 2 Dell Lattitudes in the house, one is my work machine so flys everywhere and is used everywhere and is holding up really well.

All of these together probably cost the same as a mac...

Tosh have a history of dodgy hinges, you should find something on Google, my last one went back for warranty fix for this issue.

Current thinkpad X201 is 4 years old
Previous Dell 9400 is 8 years old - doing light duties in my workshop
Previous Dell ?? 12 years old - still working but living in a cupboard at my parent's place since they got an iPad
First Dell ??? is 13 years old - Being used by my aunt/uncle for looking at their photos.

I've always bought pretty good spec'd machines and planned to keep them for a number of years, rather that getting something cheap and have it fail sooner than might otherwise be the case.i

I would never buy a non Apple laptop. They're the definition of planned obsolescence.

[url= http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228070/Retina_MacBook_Pro_least_repairable_notebook_ever_says_iFixit ]Retina MacBook Pro 'least-repairable' notebook ever, says iFixit[/url]

My 2007 MacBook is still going strong despite daily use. It's had three new batteries. No plans to replace it yet. Mrs Redford has had hers since 2009.

My mate is currently using my 9 year old toshiba P4. It warms the room nicely. I wonder how long this chromebook will last. Probably a while if I don't drop it in the bath 🙂

Our Compaq presario is 9 years old , battery last 20mins gets very hot and the cd draw is a bit tempremtale but it still keeps going .

[b]andytherocketeer[/b] - Member
Apple obsoleted my laptop, well before it became obsolete from a CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD point of view. SHould have another few years in it imho, if only the batteries lasted more than 18months.

FWIW our Windows laptops (Toshiba, Dell, Levono) used to last 2-3 years, even if hardware was ok the Windows software used to just creak and become unusable.

I am of the view that Apple kit costs more but is of far higher quality (screen etc) it will last longer (hardware and software) and after 2 or 3 years you can sell it for 30-50% of what you paid for it when a windows machine is going in the bin.

"The new MacBook Pro is virtually non-upgradeable -- making it the first MacBook Pro that will be unable to adapt to future advances in memory and storage technology," said Wiens.

[b]I don't really understand this. Apple laptops in our household vary from 6 to 3 years, all still in use. I recently put 8GB RAM (upgrade from 2GB)[/b]

As in the MacBook Air, the laptop's memory is soldered to the logic board, eliminating any later RAM upgrade. Customers must order the Pro with the exact amount of memory they desire, and pay Apple's high prices.

Although the MacBook Pro with Retina display comes equipped with 8GB of RAM standard, boosting that to 16GB at the time of purchase adds another $200 to the already=steep $2,199 sticker price of the base model.

[b]and a 750GB HDD (from 160GB)[/b]

Nor can the solid-state drive (SSD) be swapped out for something larger, at least not currently.

"The proprietary SSD isn't upgradeable either, yet, as it is similar but not identical to the one in the [MacBook] Air," said Wiens.

FWIW our Windows laptops (Toshiba, Dell, Levono) used to last 2-3 years, even if hardware was ok the Windows software used to just creak and become unusable.

I don't really understand this

When plugged in to the mains of course 😉

I am of the view that Apple kit costs more but is of far higher quality (screen etc)

it will last longer (hardware and software)

after 2 or 3 years you can sell it for 30-50% of what you paid for it when a windows machine is going in the bin

Yes, the big problem with Windows is what people do to it without realising. They click 'yes' to install everything and everything they buy comes with crappy software that they install because they bought the thing, so it gets bogged down. It's not necessarily the users' fault, but a bit of awareness helps massively.

An advantage of Apple is that they control what developers do more tightly I think, so this becomes less of an issue. Of course that's a disadvantage too. (Willing to be corrected here though).

A tip for laptop users though - be careful how you handle it. Picking it up by the corner puts strain on the casing and this flexing over time causes components to crack and joints to come undone. I think this explains why some people trash them in a year and some people keep them for 6. Without realising it, some people are putting much more strain on than others.

^^ that, and some people are actually using laptops in the field as laptops, flying weekly, picked up, opened and shut 20 times a day. Others just have them as a desktop replacement or stuck on a docking station most of the time. Or opened once a day on holiday to sort photos. The latter will of course last 6 years.

Late 2008 MacBook here. Still going strong.

Anyone want a Black Macbook, 2 knackered batteries, no HDD (I'm keeping that), got install discs for Tiger, upgradeable to Snow Leapoard+1?

Friend had Lion on his, but didn't get all of the features.

I am of the view that Apple kit costs more but is of far higher quality (screen etc)

This is how I look at their kit as well. Never had an issue with any apple kit.

jambalaya - Member
I don't really understand this. Apple laptops in our household vary from 6 to 3 years, all still in use. I recently put 8GB RAM (upgrade from 2GB) and a 750GB HDD (from 160GB) into my 2009 Mac Mini myself and machine is running very sweetly now. I'll be upgrading to the latest OS when it's released (which will likley cost £20 instead of the £100's Microsoft used to charge) The 6 year old MacBook is creaking a bit for certain but that is due to the abuse it's had from it's student life. We've had to buy 2 new batteries for 4 machines over 4 years - they cost about £100 each which is less than we were paying for Windows machine batteries before.

FWIW our Windows laptops (Toshiba, Dell, Levono) used to last 2-3 years, even if hardware was ok the Windows software used to just creak and become unusable.

I am of the view that Apple kit costs more but is of far higher quality (screen etc) it will last longer (hardware and software) and after 2 or 3 years you can sell it for 30-50% of what you paid for it when a windows machine is going in the bin.

Can you run the latest Apple OS on your 6 year old Macbook? No you can't because despite the fact that the hardware is capable, Apple have artificially prevented it from booting in full 64bit mode. Likewise the IO controller can operate in 3GBPs mode and does when booted into Windows, but only 1.5 is enabled on OSX, hence adding an SSD doesn't boost performance nearly as much as it should. Also TRIM is not enabled unless you use a third party hack, despite the underlying OS supporting it. It is disabled for non-Apple SSDs.

As for hardware quality being far higher quality, that is not really true either. The cases crack, the hinges fail, the wires have insufficient strain relief so they fray, the chargers get so hot that the plastic casing cracks, the touchpad button loses its 'click' over time. In other words they have the same problems as virtually all other laptops, and some extra little Apple treats thrown in.

Oh and on the new ones you can't upgrade/replace the battery, memory or disk! What in the name of Woz is that about!?

They're not bad computers, hence why I use them but they are not some magical beacon of quality far surpassing other brands.

A bit like Audi I suppose. Yes, they look lovely, but when it comes to changing the timing chain, you'll be in for a bit of a surprise.

I am of the view that Apple kit costs more but is of far higher quality

Apple kit is better quality than cheap Windows stuff (obviously) but no better than top quality Windows stuff. And surprise, it's similarly priced. There's nothing magic about what Apple do, they work in the same economy that Dell, Sony and everyone else do.

Apple laptops do seem to last well and I believe there are stats to back this up. The other key thing that most people seem to ignore when they slate Apple for being expensive is they hold their value incredibly well - so the total cost of ownership isn't high if you buy one and sell it on after a few years use.

Never used a MacBook beyond 2 years as I sell them to the guillable for nearly what I paid for them ex-vat and buy another. Just got a 15retina that will still be a usable fast computer for somebody in a couple of years time.
The last 3 I sold are all still running though the HD went in the 13in MBP I sold 2 years ago (a hitachi drive that could have failed in any laptop)

Can you run the latest Apple OS on your 6 year old Macbook?

Actually, as long as it's a Core2Duo model (like mine) or newer, yes, you can.

Likewise the IO controller can operate in 3GBPs mode and does when booted into Windows, but only 1.5 is enabled on OSX, hence adding an SSD doesn't boost performance nearly as much as it should

SSD in this machine (aftermarket Crucial M4) benchmarks the same on OSX as in Windows… do you really think they would limit things for OS X, but not when people are booting into another OS?

Also TRIM is not enabled unless you use a third party hack, despite the underlying OS supporting it.

It's just a kernal option, although enabling it could be easier. It not really a hack as it's built in, just activating it requires what everyone calls a 'hack' which actually just runs a command on the CLI in the background. Also, this depends on the make/model. It is enabled by default for some.

As for hardware quality being far higher quality, that is not really true either. The cases crack, the hinges fail, the wires have insufficient strain relief so they fray, the chargers get so hot that the plastic casing cracks, the touchpad button loses its 'click' over time. In other words they have the same problems as virtually all other laptops, and some extra little Apple treats thrown in.

Please point of any of these issues on mine. It's all down to how the end-user treats it (admittedly the same for any brand)

I'm not trying to **** on your parade mate, but in my experience this is wrong, although I'm sure in other peoples experience this may be the case.

Actually, as long as it's a Core2Duo model (like mine) or newer, yes, you can.

Some yes, but not all.

As in the MacBook Air, the laptop's memory is soldered to the logic board, eliminating any later RAM upgrade. Customers must order the Pro with the exact amount of memory they desire, and pay Apple's high prices.
Although the MacBook Pro with Retina display comes equipped with 8GB of RAM standard, boosting that to 16GB at the time of purchase adds another $200 to the already=steep $2,199 sticker price of the base model.

For once I agree with some part of mikewsmith's relentless Apple-hating. This is a completely dick-ish move from them.

Not on mine you can't!
Some yes, but not all.

You sure it's the Core2Duo, not the CoreDuo?

If you think they are not expandable enough or too expensive at £1800-£2200 buy something cheaper. There must be 100's of laptops out there to choose from.

You sure it's the Core2Duo, not the CoreDuo?

Off the top of my head, only MacBooks of model 4.1 or 4.2 and later can be updated with Mountain Lion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook#Model_specifications

edit: so my 5.5yr old laptop was already totally obsoleted by Apple a year ago, and the OS before that had features missing (although most of those were probably due to conventional touchpad, and not multitouch, etc.)
But it'll happily run a full-on 64-bit bleeding edge Linux

andytherocketeer - Member

100% positive.

As am I, c2d with Santa Rosa mobo chipset.

Eer, Andy, if you're giving that machine away I'd love it, thanks. Where are you based?

@andy, @mike, @molgrips - thanks for the debate, interesting.

I've been using computers for 35 years since I built my first one with a soldering iron. I am so glad Microsoft has basically died and that buying Apple makes sense now. I do agree that it's the downloading of too many programmes that causes Windows machines to hang but Microsoft were always happy with that as it encouraged people to buy another machine which meant they got another fee.

No the 6 year old white MacBook cannot upgrade to latest iOS which is a pity but I can live with that - it still works. My 2009 Mac Mini will be able to take Maverick when it comes out.

The soldered in memory for MacBook and Air is a bit of a concern but as I've posted here before I am sure you can still replace it's just a bit more tricky, I mean Apple aren't going to bin the whole machine for a warranty claim due to faulty memory / HDD are they. Soldering can be undone, well it could be back in the 70's 😳

I am so glad Microsoft has basically died

Wot?

Still by far and away the biggest OS maker and the most used, and since Windows 7 generally considered to be just as good as Apple.

Buying Apple only makes sense if you are both loaded and useless with tech 🙂

Soldering can be undone, well it could be back in the 70's

Yeah not any more.

[i]Molgrips - Yes, the big problem with Windows is what people do to it without realising. They click 'yes' to install everything and everything they buy comes with crappy software that they install because they bought the thing, so it gets bogged down. It's not necessarily the users' fault, but a bit of awareness helps massively.

Jambalaya - I do agree that it's the downloading of too many programmes that causes Windows machines to hang but Microsoft were always happy with that as it encouraged people to buy another machine which meant they got another fee.[/i]

Is there a general rule of thumb to avoiding this (other than never downloading anything obviously)? I've an old Acer and whilst mechanically its okay, operationally its creaky as you like and takes about 45 mins to start up and struggles to open Word, Excel etc or browse the net.

We've got a nice HP atm so I want to try and avoid a similar fate befalling it!

Wouldn't worry about soldered RAM tbh. Just spec it well initially.

Non-replaceable battery would be a deal breaker for me, or limit the max justifiable spend to something like €350.

User replaceable SSD is nice to have, so long as it's a readily available industry standard. But that's only applicable if the lappy and battery and OS support lets it run for 5+ years. All or nothing really.

Not on mine you can't!
Some yes, but not all.

The reason isn't that "apple have prevented you", it's that it's got a 32bit UEFI "bios" (not really a bios but we'll let that slide...) you need a 64bit version for the newer OS. There was one (short) generation of 64bit core2s with 32bit firmware before they moved on.

So there is a technical reason for it, not an arbitrary decision.

Yes, they probably could have sorted a 32bit bootloader for their newer kernel etc... but at somepoint maintaining backwards compatability just isn't worth it when you want to make things more modern, and move on.

I mean taken to its extreme you might end up with windows! 😮 😉

As for laptop life expectancy - I generally have them 3 years (macs) then sell them on and they do many more. High end work machines last a long time too. Various family have cheapy dells etc - they don't last as long. But then they cost a lot less! There's about a factor of 10 between a cheap and expensive laptop, there's a fair quality/performance spectrum! Not a direct tradeoff (there's a flattening curve of diminishing returns for sure) but you do get what you pay for in general.

Buying Apple only makes sense if you are both loaded and useless with tech

Or not loaded, but excellent with tech? As it's always made sense for me, since student days...

Not aggressively pro-apple BTW, these days I use windows more, and linux too, I just like arguing on the internet, especially when I know I'm right 😉

Andy - hellooooooo! That Black Macbook - did I hear you say you'd give it away with no HDD? Or not - maybe I misunderstood?

I could really do with an Apple laptop - I could run a couple of copies of my older Apple software on it [Adobe stuff] in lectures, and I don't hold up much hope for doing it with Chrome Remote Desktop from the Chromebook to the PC, which was plan b !

Tend to keep my personal ones for 3-4 years and usually just replace them if something cheap and reasonable comes along, work laptops every 12-16 months though.
As a rule I try to rebuild mine every 12 months i.e. full re-installation of the OS, then slowly and surely start to re-install software as I need it over the next 12 months, then repeat until I get a new one.

Not giving it away. Still gets used but permanently plugged in, therefore no longer a laptop, and mostly not running OSX (64 bit Fedora on that one at the moment IIRC, despite it not being fully 64 bit in Apples eyes).

More of a not so subtle way of saying that a 4yr old Macbook that was about to become obsolete is just as worthless and non-functional as a 4 year old Tosh or 4 year old Dell or HP or...

A 1-2 yr old Mac might be worth more 2nd hand than a 1-2yr old plasticky Windows lappy though.

Is there a general rule of thumb to avoiding this (other than never downloading anything obviously)? I've an old Acer and whilst mechanically its okay, operationally its creaky as you like and takes about 45 mins to start up and struggles to open Word, Excel etc or browse the net.

We've got a nice HP atm so I want to try and avoid a similar fate befalling it!

Keep it clean and tidy, don't download more junk onto it than you need. Something like CCleaner can help with making sure that you don't have too many "Helpful" little add-ons to programs starting at boot and continually running in the background for no good reason.

Keep your data backed up.

Every-so-whenever-you-need-to re-image the laptop/pc with the recovery partition, un-install any programs from the original image that you don't use and put your data and programs back on the laptop.

It'll fly.

EDIT: for backing up the machine in its current state - Acronis TrueImage works well and is pretty simple to use. Taking a full image of the PC means that you can always return it to the current state if things go wrong. You will need an external drive for the backup.

At home I use a 6.5 year old Lenovo ThinkPad T60. The ThinkPad series are (or at least were) magnesium cased and pretty tough. On the second battery now and it's a bit slow, but I'm sure a re-build would sort it out as I have not done that for a few years. Physically it just keeps ticking on and the case/hinges etc are fine.

despite it not being fully 64 bit in Apples eyes

To be pedantic on the internet (another hobby), it's not fully 64bit in *anyone's* eyes.

The versions of OSX you *can* run have 64bit kernels. As does the version of linux you run.

There's a load of bootloader nonsense/detail I could go into now, but I won't. Some light googling will serve the interested reader 😉

BTW I think apple cocked up, they went to UEFI too early almost, by the time anyone else did it was all UEFI_64 so they ended up changing too, hence your problem.

More of a not so subtle way of saying that a 4yr old Macbook that was about to become obsolete is just as worthless and non-functional

Does it just suddenly stop working when a new version of the operating system comes out then? I bet there's plenty of people still happily using XP.

Buying Apple only makes sense if you are both loaded and useless with tech

Nice one trollgrips - tell that to all the IT consultants at the conference I photographed last year. MacBook Airs were mandatory.

@molgrips - MS is surviving on the still substantial Office revenues from business users but these will dry up as people switch to other free applications (if nothing else to openoffice). Gates himself recently said MS will survive and prosper as people "need Office", I think he's wrong. MS is spending the Office revenues on acquisitions to try and stay relevant (eg Skype, Nokia). MS has prospered on Gate's genius in getting IBM to sign an exclusive deal for DOS but it's never been a technology lead company and other more creative companies are just leaving it for dead. MS is irrelevant in my personal life now and increasingly so at work. I don't think I'm alone.

On cost of Apple if you price in the re-sale value of the product (be that phone, computer, tablet) 2-4 years on I'd say Apple products can actually be cheaper.

I'd have thought a laptop only becomes obsolete when it's os is no longer supported, hence become subject to vulnerabilities which will no longer be patched by the supplier.

My white MacBook is certain.y not obsolete at 5 years old, despite not being able to officially run mountain lion.
Most all other mac software will run, unless precluded by hardware, though I'll no longer be able to run the latest developer tools once Mavericks is released.

when i was on the road Id'd get through one every 2 years roughly but then i'm something of an extreme user. £800+ sony was my ball park. I once bought a cheaper one (toshiba i think), got it home, un-packed it, pressed one key, saw it bend then promptly took it back.

Latest sony was a bit too big and they have gone a bit plascticky but i bought it because it had a full HD screen which apples did not.

I now have a work supplied MBP but if i was buying again i would buy a business oriented Lenovo machine as they seem well built (we have 40 of them on our hire fleet). most laptops are now designed with the home user in mind and are never meant to leave the house.

my home macbook pro is now 4.5 years old, used all the time and despite a battering (stood on at a party, dropped several times) is still working just fine.

In the same period I've had 4 work laptops (one Lenovo at the end of its service life which worked fine but had required a new battery at least once a year for 3 years), two dells (one with a HDD failure, another with a motherboard failure) and one HP which in 18 months has now been rebuilt several times due to an O/S corruption, blue screening and the rest of the time windows being as reliable as an Alfa Romeo on a wet day.

Ironically the work laptops all cost more (with corporate discount) than my macbook pro, weighed more and weren't ergonomically designed... HP for example requires you to press FN and the cursor to page up or down... and I've never got to grips with the point stick mouse.

@Andy - OK dude - had to ask - stoodent days looming 🙂