What's the lifetime of a Mac?

I'm seriously considering the new MBP. Call me conservative, but if I'm dropping 2 G's on a notebook I hope to use it for a good 5 years. I just wanted to get people's thoughts o the chances that this will be the case? It seems that Mac owners are always getting new Macs and selling their < 1 year old notebooks in buy/sell forums. Is this normal for Macs? And will I feel the pressure after 1-2 years to upgrade (more so than other notebooks)?

 

I do not think any model of laptop will consistently last 5 years. Some laptops will last 5 years or more, but those are the exceptions. I think most laptops start to die after 3 years and are not worth keeping after 4 years. Then again there is a light bulb that still works after 106 years of use.

 

I do not know what typically causes Laptops to die but if it is the backlight as Homer alluded to, then I would think the 15" MBP would basically eliminate this problem. Since the 15" MBP uses LED backlighting the backlight could potentially last 100+ years.

 

Uh... Is it just me or was he not alluding to the backlight at all?

 

I just referenced the light bulb as an example of extreme events. Laptops batteries tend to die after a few years. Hard drives and Optical drives also tend to die off first.

 

I've had a little 12" PB for a little over three years. So far the only "problem" that has come up is that the battery is finally beginning to wear down. Not sure the machine will last for five years, but, so far, so good.

You might feel the "pressure" after a while to upgrade, but I don't think Mac owners feel a greater need than owners of any other brand.

 

it will last... i've had a laptop for seven years now... it's a small router now... 100% stable...

As for the macbook pro... it will last 5 years... don't worry... just be wary of the mat****a optical drives... they s*ck

 

I have a Powerbook G3 that's over 7 years old and it continues to chug along. It should last at least five...that's as long as you don't get envious of newer models and want to sell your old one. You shouldn't feel the pressure to upgrade unless 5 years down the line your computer can't run the latest operating system...which for my Powerbook I think that time has finally come with leopard coming out.

 

You should get 5 years. You may have to replace some things like the battery or hard drive, but the core parts should last that long.

 

I remember my toshiba laptop used to last for 4 years. I think most computers can last for a pretty good time. Heck, my Pentium II Vaios still work. It's just that your computer will be pretty outdated compared to the current ones.

 

So, my PB can't match the performance of the new MBP?? Damn!

/off to the Apple store to see if this situation is covered under warranty

 

I still have my Averatec 6130hs notebook and it'll be 3 years in September and it still works like the day I bought it. So hopefully my HP NC8430 will last 3 or more years. So I'm sure a MBP should last 5 or more years.

 

just for reference, LED backlight or not, the new macbook pro screens are NOT going to last 100 years. period.

 

Eh, who cares. I probably won't live to be 150 anyway.

 

Thanks all for the replies!

I should probably clarify my question. I'm not that worried that the hardware won't last the 5 years (heck, my cheap Compaq is 5 years and going strong) but I'm more worried about the pressure to upgrade. I get the impression that Mac users tend to upgrade a lot more frequently than non-Mac users (and new stuff always comes out with great fanfare around Macworld and WWDC). For example, consider all the Apple rumor sites (as far as I know, there isn't a single one for Dell or HP). The only Apple product I own is a first gen iPod nano that is barely a year old. It already seems like it's completely obsolete -- everyone I see is carrying around the 2nd gen ones I just don't want to spend all that money on a brand new MBP and a year from now already wanting to upgrade to the next great thing... Am I just paranoid...what do current Mac users think?

 

If you take care of your stuff it should last a long time. If you're going to keep your MBP on a desktop then that will obviously extend it's life. My crappy Dell is still going strong after 4 years of hell and no dead pixels. My other laptops have lasted 5-6 years and then I just moved on to something better so they'd still be in service if I had not moved on.

There are G3 Macs that run Panther and Tiger, albeit not as fast as the current models but they still function.

 

I bought my G3/400 Pismo in 1999, I think, and recently pimped it out with a Superdrive, 576mb and 80gb hd, and my girlfriend uses it for daily email etc. So that's eight years Admittedly, it did cost about $5000 back then, which is probably many thousands more in today's money?

 

well, certain aspects of the notebook design need to be addressed. for example, my thinkpad t40 has lasted for 4 years with daily use. The main issue with mbpro's are heat, during the powerpc days, mac notebooks never put out the level of heat that today's macbooks put out, so don't bet on the macbooks lasting as long as the old i/power books. the heat will put additional stress on the components. I believe a well cooled laptop is long lasting laptop.
oh and for ur clarification question, 5 years down road, i don't think this is futureproof for that long, I expect more shrinks of chipsets and vastly improved clock speeds with the introduction of 45 nm production, so i think the speeds that we've been stuck at for a while (2 ghz ish), will be broken within 5 years.

 

I've found that my Macbook Pro is very cool, unless I game on it. Its not like it heats up just from being on (I had an Asus G1 for about a week and that was the case). Also, because the case of the Macbook Pro is aluminum, it dissapates heat more so than plastic, thats why it heats up so much during times of stress. However, even though the aluminum is hot, it is pulling more heat away from the components inside than a plastic case would.

What I'm trying to say is, plastic cases act as insulaters and keep heat bottled up. Whereas the aluminum case of the Macbook Pro acts as one big ol' heatsink.

 

the pressure you feel to upgrade will depend entirely on how you use your computer.

there is no increased pressure to upgrade with a mac, on the contrary my perception is that apple does quite a good job of ensuring backwards compatibility with their OS updates and iLife suite.

the people you see cycling through laptops every year are the same people that buy a new car every two years - they want the latest and greatest and one way of doing that is selling the old before it gets too old and devalues too far. macs seem to hold their value fairly well for a couple years or so (compared to pc's at least).

but, i can tell you right now that if this is going to be your only computer you will want to upgrade in less than 5 years, unless ALL you do is browse the internet and play with digital photos. also, expect to replace the battery at least once, probably twice in that time.

don't buy a mbp because you want it to last 5 years. don't buy any laptop for that reason. buy something that meets your current needs (and any clear and definitely impending short term future ones), with the reasonable expectation of it working for 2-4 years.

 

Thanks for all the replies. A few people mentioned having to replace the battery. Is this normal for laptops or are Macs somehow more problematic in this area (like the iPod battery problems way back when...)?

Also, does anyone know when the Powerbook/Macbook Pro design first came out?

 

very normal for laptops, u will get about 700 good cycles (charge discharge) before needing a replacenment

 

Was wondering how many I could get out of my two batts. Both have about 300 and 92% cycles on em and I was thinking about replacing them soon.

Good info. Thanks man!