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How long do you plan to keep your current laptop?

  • ~1 year (or less)

    Votes: 43 16.2%
  • ~2 years

    Votes: 40 15.0%
  • ~3 years

    Votes: 86 32.3%
  • ~4 years

    Votes: 47 17.7%
  • ~5 years

    Votes: 12 4.5%
  • More than 5 years.

    Votes: 37 13.9%

  • Total voters
    266

heatmiser

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 6, 2007
2,431
0
I've never kept a laptop for more than a year or so; probably less than that. I'd like to see if I can keep my Macbook for 5 years (60 months). I've already got 1/60 in the bag. How about you? What do you have, and for how long will you have it?
 
I hoping to keep this one for the rest of my schooling, but I will most likely purchase another in two years.
 
My 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4 is currently about 3.5 years old. And will probably go another 2-3 years before replacement is necessary. I recently upgraded the HD to 160 GB, but I will probably have to wait for the savings of getting the kids out of day care to free up funds for a new Laptop. As much as I'd love to get me a new MBP this one does everything I need it to do and will probably do that for a few more years.
 
Mine still works fine after 4 plus years.

Probably will keep it another 2-3 years as long as it keeps working, or I need the features of an Intel based laptop.
 
I normally keep mine for a year or so, although, I've not been a mac user long (although been a mac fan forever :p).

When the MBP's are updated, I will be buying one (and that will be my only laptop), but then I will probably keep that for a year, and then buy a new one, but keep my year old one as a back up, then the following year, sell the back up and replace my main one.
 
This is my first Mac and I have had it for 1.5 years now. I will use it until it blows up. Hopefully a few more years, at least.
 
Had my MBP for almost a year and plan on having it for another 2 or 3. Then i will most likely sell it and buy an updated version.
 
I've had mine since May '06 and will keep it until May '08. Not because that's a magical 2-year mark, but because then I'll graduate law school, get a laptop from work, and buy an imac for my personal computer. :D
 
I had planned on keeping my powerbook G4 1 ghz for quite a bit longer as my main machine, but I just bought a used powerbook G4 1.67 ghz as a gift for my mom which is several generations newer than mine. Over the past few days I've been setting it up for her, I've gotten very spoiled. This machine is MUCH nicer than mine. It's noticeably significantly better, and the super bright high res 1440 x 900 screen puts my screen to shame with its old 1280 x 854 resolution and which has dimmed to a dark yellow over the years.

Before I had this newer computer to play with, I was slightly unsatisfied with my old laptop, but now that I see how good it can be, it's gonna be hard to move back to my old laptop this weekend.
 
I picked up my current Macbook Pro in June, and I plan on keeping it for 5 years+. The last computer I had I purchased in 2001, and I was still using it, with only adding in more ram and a new hard drive. The only reason why I purchased a Macbook Pro was because I wanted something portable, and I wanted to switch to Mac.

I'm not a big gamer, and I can't imagine the standard apps (Mail, iChat, iCal, iTunes, Safari, etc.), Office, or anything else becoming too bloated for my current computer anytime soon. My computational and programming apps (Matlab, Eclipse,) might take a little longer to compile/compute, but they should still be perfectly functional. When needed, I'll probably bump up the ram to 4GB but the internals should remain usable as long as nothing breaks.
 
i got a macbook last fall, and its serving me well. i'll probably use it until i graduate college or hit senior year, then let the family use it.

so i voted ~3 years
 
My current laptop is 3-1/2 years old and still going strong (although the HD and screen were replaced just before AppleCare expired). I would like to replace it, but the MacBooks didn't offer enough of an improvement (and weren't portable enough). I'm going to take a good hard look at the MB Air when it hits the stores. None of it's supposed drawbacks effect me in the least, and I would LOVE to have a Mac that doesn't weigh a freakin ton.
 
I'll sell my current MacBook Pro, 2.2ghz Santa Rosa bought this last August, when I can get one with quad core power! Hopefully around the end of this year. After that, I think I plan on selling my laptop about ever year and a half. That way I can stay on top and not lose a lot of money when I sell. Although, it may not work that way once I get quad core. It just seems like two more cores is a large jump and is worth selling my current machine to get a new one. Then, I might keep it until 8 cores are available in a laptop. I still have, though, a 1ghz iBook G4 which is about 4 or 5 years old I guess. And I also have a 1.33ghz PowerBook G4 which I guess is about 3.5 years old. The iBook just died a few days ago. Not sure why though. It's kind of disappointing.
 
I just got my MBP about a month ago and I plan to have it last me another 2 to 3 years. Then will most likely replace it with another laptop and continue replacing them every 2 to 3 years.
 
I've personally owned 4 Macs, all laptops, and my average upgrade cycle is 9 months. That is a bit ridiculous, so maybe 1-2 years since my laptop is pretty fast.
 
I've had my iBook for 4 years. I'd love to buy something new, but this one does it all. I added memory and replaced the battery. Voila.
 
I still use a 4 year old PB.
My MB is 4 months old. I figure on keeping both for a while, 5+years.

Hopefully the PB will last a while longer until the solid state drives come down in price.
 
I always think I'm going to keep mine for a long time, but the truth is I've upgraded my laptop at least once every year. It's not that I buy the newest one, but that I see something at a great price and think that I can live with it. Now I'm using an aluminum powerbook. I had a macbook not too long ago.
 
i just bought my MBP back on 2007, 27 of december

so prolly gonna use it for 4-5 years before changing to the "who knows what MBP to come"
 
This MacBook is my first Mac. Personally I don't know how well MacBooks hold up to my heavy usage. From my past experience, Dell laptops last on average 3 years. So my vote is for 3 years on this one too. If it's still alive, it'll go to a lucky (or unlucky) family member while I go get what new cool stuff Mr Jobs has to offer. :cool:
 
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