Average Life Span of a Macbook Pro

[jessydmd]

Very impressed by everyone's old hardware, but I'm worried the new Macbook Pros won't be able to provide a similar lifespan, with soldered components and with all the things I hear about the keyboards and loose USB-C ports (plus, no Magsafe = more potential dammage).

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

 

[EugW]

Very impressed by everyone's old hardware, but I'm worried the new Macbook Pros won't be able to provide a similar lifespan, with soldered components and with all the things I hear about the keyboards and loose USB-C ports (plus, no Magsafe = more potential dammage).

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

I do not think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over, but it requires more thought about proper configurations at the time of purchase. Do you think you might need more than 8 GB? If yes or maybe, then buy a 16 GB machine. Do you think you'll need more than 256 GB? If yes or maybe, then buy 512 GB. That is, if you plan on keeping the laptop for a long time. If you only keep your laptops 2-3 years, then it doesn't make as much sense to do that.

For my laptop (which is a MacBook, not MBP), I went with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. I like having lots of RAM, and think 8 GB is the functional minimum in 2017, so I went with 16 GB as I tend to keep my laptops for a very long time. For the SSD though, I tend to use less than than most people on my laptop, since the laptop is my secondary machine and I use a NAS at home. Right now I typically use less than 100 GB on my laptops, and that's only when I'm traveling. When I'm not traveling, I typically use less than 70 GB.

 

[MacInTO]

Very impressed by everyone's old hardware, but I'm worried the new Macbook Pros won't be able to provide a similar lifespan, with soldered components and with all the things I hear about the keyboards and loose USB-C ports (plus, no Magsafe = more potential dammage).

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

Perhaps a desire for increased profits is making Apple to ask it's suppliers to do more with less and that may cause substandard parts being used or rushed production.

In my 30 years of owning and using Apple products, I've I only ever had one issue and that was with a 2012 retina macbook pro. I'm back using 2012 cMBPs again. This will be the last Mac I own as ipads work better for me.

I just bought an iPad that costs as much as a Mac so maybe that's why I can't afford to buy a new Mac!

 

[JoeRito]

To put a number on this thread, i would guess at least 4-5 years. Upgrading things like ram and SSD will increase speed and will allow the computer to keep humming along for a bit longer

Exactly, a solid 4 years before software updates and OS upgrades slow you down too much.

 

[robbietop]

My 2012 MacBook Pro 13 is running strong on original RAM. It lasted me all of college and is now my work laptop. I replaced the SATA HDD with a SATA SSD and it was like I had just bought it!

Seriously, don't buy a new machine just because of that silly touch bar gimmick. I still have MagSafe and a keyboard that is haptic and isn't faulty.

 

[MacInTO]

My 2012 MacBook Pro 13 is running strong on original RAM. It lasted me all of college and is now my work laptop. I replaced the SATA HDD with a SATA SSD and it was like I had just bought it!

Seriously, don't buy a new machine just because of that silly touch bar gimmick. I still have MagSafe and a keyboard that is haptic and isn't faulty.

2012 is the best year! I've got a 13" and a 15" cMBP. I will have them until they die.

 

[wwooden]

2012 is the best year! I've got a 13" and a 15" cMBP. I will have them until they die.

I'm in the same boat. I replaced my 2012 13" cMBP with a 2012 15" to get more processing and a dedicated graphics card. My 15" stays mainly attached to my thunderbolt display, so the retina display and lighter weight wasn't a selling factor when deciding to upgrade. And I got a much better deal.

These "older" cMBP are just rock solid designs.

 

[silber]

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

Of course not. The laptops are selling well and the vast majority of users never experience any problems.

 

[jsnuff1]

I'm in the same boat. I replaced my 2012 13" cMBP with a 2012 15" to get more processing and a dedicated graphics card. My 15" stays mainly attached to my thunderbolt display, so the retina display and lighter weight wasn't a selling factor when deciding to upgrade. And I got a much better deal.

These "older" cMBP are just rock solid designs.

Yep...sadly in the past 6 years there has been zero reason to upgrade a 2012 MBP....same clock speeds, same number of cores, same RAM, less ports.

Only reason I'm currently on a 2017 is because i was "forced" to upgraded with the 2012 battery program. In my day to day task I have found no performance differences between a 2012 and 2017...the one exception is when I use the GPU since that is the only component that has had a substantial update since 2012.

I will get rid of this 2017 MBP even if its this year if a hexa core 32GB RAM MBP is released, since that is what I have been waiting for since 2012.

 

[BiggAW]

My Early 2011 is going strong, BUT it's on it's third logic board, second SSD, second battery, and I upgraded the RAM to 8GB. So the case, keyboard, and screen are the only original things left in it.

I'm afraid the new machines are throwaways, as everything is on one board. No longer can you replace a dead SSD, or upgrade RAM.

 

[kohlson]

I have just repaired a 2008 15-MBP. Runs 10.11. Has 4GB and a 120GB SSD. There have been some issues (separating display, due to the hinge being stiff - Suguru!) and it turns out that the SSD I had needed a special bit of Mac firmware, but it runs great. Would I even try FCPX? No. But as a DVD playing, web-browsing, word-processing, email system, it works pretty well. I'm typing this post on my late 2013 15-MBP, which was nearly completely replaced 6 months ago after it went dark. But I have great expectations for the next 5 years!

 

[smirking]

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

I’d say that era was over-exaggerated. Apple had a good run for around 6 years ending in 2016, but their machines were far from rock solid before that. They just seemed better because they were being compared to far cheaper and very unreliable PCs. Now they’re being compared to their predecessors and high end PCs. They're still pretty good, but the gap is a lot smaller.

I had a habit of trading-in my Macs and buying a new one from PowerMax every 4 years because mine tended to blow up if I kept them any longer so I wanted to get rid of them before they became worthless.

 

[wwooden]

Yep...sadly in the past 6 years there has been zero reason to upgrade a 2012 MBP....same clock speeds, same number of cores, same RAM, less ports.

Only reason I'm currently on a 2017 is because i was "forced" to upgraded with the 2012 battery program. In my day to day task I have found no performance differences between a 2012 and 2017...the one exception is when I use the GPU since that is the only component that has had a substantial update since 2012.

I will get rid of this 2017 MBP even if its this year if a hexa core 32GB RAM MBP is released, since that is what I have been waiting for since 2012.

Yes, I can see quad-core 13" MBP and six-core 15" being great improvements that will entice a lot of people still holding on to older laptops. It appears from the Intel roadmap, those aren't far off.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Very impressed by everyone's old hardware, but I'm worried the new Macbook Pros won't be able to provide a similar lifespan, with soldered components and with all the things I hear about the keyboards and loose USB-C ports (plus, no Magsafe = more potential dammage).

Do you think the long time reliability era of the Macbook Pro is over?

I personally know Apple laptops were not very reliable since 2007. I have lost 3 MacBook Pros to GPU failures before 2014. My current 2015 15" recently had an SSD failure. The rubber beading around the screen is wearing off (first time I have ever seen this happen to a laptop). And even before 2007, users on this forum who have been with Apple since long have mentioned that they were not reliable.

But I am not sure how this lack of reliability compares with the rest of the industry. Maybe Apple fared better in the past and that is how they earned the reputation of being a reliable manufacturer? I am not sure but I for one have always been at the smelly end of Apple's reliability promise.

The 2018 release is going to be a very important release ( for me ). I want to see if Apple listens to its customers and update their flaky keyboard OR will they pull yet another 'you-are-holding-it-wrong' and sell their own branded can of compressed air.

 

[BiggAW]

I personally know Apple laptops were not very reliable since 2007. I have lost 3 MacBook Pros to GPU failures before 2014.

I'm on my third logic board on my Early 2011. What really pissed me off is that they refused to pay for the replacement for the original one, even though this failure had been well documented. I called Tim Cook's office, went through the whole rigmarole, both the store employees and the people in Tim Cook's office were unhelpful and rude, they denied that there was a well documented issue with defective GPUs.

I finally had to cave and pay for it a few months later, which pissed me off to no end. However, I did end up getting the money back, as Apple finally started paying for them after they were threatened with a Class Action lawsuit that was a slam dunk case against Apple, and they knew it, so they were forced to pay me back, and then when the replacement failed, they replaced it again. A lot of Class Action lawsuits are stupid and pointless, but this one was on point, and I was so happy when the threat of it forced Apple to acknowledge reality and start a replacement program.

I'm all for environmental regulation, but I believe that RoHS negatively impacted the reliability of computers and electronics, as around the time it came in, everything started failing more, and we ended up with issues like the GPU solder problem that would have been unheard of 10 years before. I wonder if anyone has tried to study the net environmental impact from stuff failing prematurely that wouldn't have with leaded solder. I think, on balance, RoHS is probably still a hugely beneficial program, but it really should have been accompanied by mandatory 5-year warranties on everything or something. The EU forces 2-year warranties on things, where the US doesn't.

 

[montycat]

I still use my 2009 13" MBP almost everyday. I need to replace the hard drive soon though. My 2007 iMac is still working flawlessly, but is a little slow these days.

 

[Nightwing32]

Yes, Apple has had issues with the dGPU dating back to 2008, but I think they finally have thigns sorted out (hopefully). Btw, that program that you linked too ended in 12/31/2016 so I don't believe (at least in the US) Apple has any current replacement program going on for the GPU.

The replacement program wasn't really a repair program because they replaced your failed computer with a refurbished logic board that would eventually fail. Not the sort of thing I would want.

This is what happened to me. My 2011 just died last week. Now I"m looking into buying a new one but don't know which year to buy... any suggestions? It sounds like the newest ones have a keyboard issue, so I"m going to do a hard pass on those

 

[Macbookprodude]

This is what happened to me. My 2011 just died last week. Now I"m looking into buying a new one but don't know which year to buy... any suggestions? It sounds like the newest ones have a keyboard issue, so I"m going to do a hard pass on those

If you want freedom to upgrade what you want.. max memory is 16GB - go 2012.. if you buy a retina or 2013 + beyond - know that the only thing you will be able t o upgrade is the SSD module, as memory is soldered to the board.. if you go this route, be sure to get one with 16GB and not 8. I will continue to use my 2012 as its so upgradable.

 

[smirking]

Now I"m looking into buying a new one but don't know which year to buy... any suggestions? It sounds like the newest ones have a keyboard issue, so I"m going to do a hard pass on those

I went from a mid-2012 to a 2016 tbMBP.

I rather like it. My keyboard is fine and if you get one, chances are that it'll be fine too. At the same time, the chances that it won't be fine are higher than normal. I went into it fully knowing that the keyboard could be an issue and decided that I could live with it if I ran into a worst case scenario. So I went for it and I don't regret it. Of course that's easier for me to say because my keyboard works fine and I didn't have to activate my backup plan of using a Bluetooth keyboard.

Given the reputation of the MBP's keyboard, assume the worst and if you don't think it'd be the end of the world, go for it.

 

[0002378]

Mid-2009 MBP here. Runs great after upgrading hardware (SSD, max RAM). Running Sierra on it ... flawless.

Battery has 1120 cycles on it Apple says the max is 1000 cycles.

 

[EugW]

If you’re upgrading...

Retina is where it’s at. Retina and SSD are the two biggest upgrades to laptops in the last decade.

 

[pixelatedscraps]

I tend to average 4-5 years on a work MacBook Pro (or any Mac in general) before a combination of OS / app updates, I/O bandwidth restrictions due to the photography industry’s ever-increasing march for larger file sizes slow it down or restrict an effective workflow.

I do still have my 10 year old Blackbook, 7 year old 17” MacBook Pro and a 6 year old Mac Pro alive and kicking relatively well. However, they aren’t really well-suited for the work I do. Great to have as personal machines though

 

[KUKitch]

I had a 2011 13" until I traded for my dad's 2012 rMBP at the end of 2015 - it was still in great shape at that point (had upgraded to 16 GB ram though) and then had the 2012 until last September when I was able to take advantage of the replacement program - though it worked well at that point, and I'm sure would've lasted plenty longer, but that was too much to pass up. My 2012 was an 8GB/256, both of which were plenty for my uses and still would be

 

[BiggAW]

If you’re upgrading...

Retina is where it’s at. Retina and SSD are the two biggest upgrades to laptops in the last decade.

Retina screens are nice. SSD is essential. Spinning HDDs are so slow in comparison, but my 2011 has a 500GB SSD in it, I put an SSD (160GB) in it the second day I owned it. It's not the fastest SSD, since it's limited to 3gbps SATA anyway, but it's a completely transformative experience compared to an HDD in terms of seek times and IOPS.

 

[S.B.G]

I'm still using a 2012 cMBP. 16 GB RAM, Samsung SSD, I7 CPU and 15" screen.

It still runs as good as the day I bought it, if not better because of the SSD. I use it for all the usual purposes most people use a computer for, plus a lot VM playing in VMware Fusion. For instance, I'm inside of KDE Neon Linux VM writing this post.

As it is, I have no plans in the near future to replace it.

The last MBP I had was a 2006 MBP and I used that for 6 years until I sold it to a friend who I think is still using it today.