2010 MBP 13,will update RAM and to an SSD this summer and it should last for a 2/3 years more at a minimum.
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Average Life Span of a Macbook Pro
- Thread starter Terror-Inferno
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2010 MBP 13,will update RAM and to an SSD this summer and it should last for a 2/3 years more at a minimum.
Depends on the model.
The very first core duo ones I found to be obsolete real fast since they were limited to 32 bit hardware and had little ram upgrade potential.
The 2011 sandy bridge MBPs, especially the 15 and 17 inch ones seem to have a long lifespan, their CPUs are only marginally slower than the 2012 ivy bridge ones, they have thunderbolt, they have the latent capability to use 16GB RAM and potentially 32GB, they have SATA 6 controllers, they have decent graphics chips, they're quad core CPUs, only thing they really lack is USB 3.0, but there are workarounds for that. I could see my 2011 MBP 17 lasting me 6-7 years before I move onto something new.
The 2011 MBPs may be the most over-delivered notebook performance Apple has sold. Apple only shipped them with sata 3 hard drives, and 4GB of RAM, only promised 8GB RAM max, and it turns out they are actually able to handle much more ram and even faster sata 6 SSDs, plus with Thunderbolt, the expansion options are endless!
The very first core duo ones I found to be obsolete real fast since they were limited to 32 bit hardware and had little ram upgrade potential.
The 2011 sandy bridge MBPs, especially the 15 and 17 inch ones seem to have a long lifespan, their CPUs are only marginally slower than the 2012 ivy bridge ones, they have thunderbolt, they have the latent capability to use 16GB RAM and potentially 32GB, they have SATA 6 controllers, they have decent graphics chips, they're quad core CPUs, only thing they really lack is USB 3.0, but there are workarounds for that. I could see my 2011 MBP 17 lasting me 6-7 years before I move onto something new.
The 2011 MBPs may be the most over-delivered notebook performance Apple has sold. Apple only shipped them with sata 3 hard drives, and 4GB of RAM, only promised 8GB RAM max, and it turns out they are actually able to handle much more ram and even faster sata 6 SSDs, plus with Thunderbolt, the expansion options are endless!
When the 2011 models launched, they were a revelation. Aside from the low-end early-2011 with the underwhelming Radeon 6490M GPU, the machines finally had the CPU and GPU power to match the looks and operating system.
Though I'll almost certainly replace it, I could easily see my late-2011 MBP 15 lasting at least 4-5 years.
Mine's an early 2011 model (???) bought in the summer of 2011, and it still looks new. It will get hard drive and SSD upgrades eventually. I'm not a big traveler, and it sits in it's "dock" most of the time, but it has flown maybe 16k miles, and it has car traveled several thousand more.
Most everyone I know has a macbook (long time student here). Most of them keep it about 3-4 years then upgrade. I have only seen 2 die, and both of them were at 6-7 years old.
I would say they last as long as you want, especially the newer ones I imagine, since they have less moving parts and are all unibody. The only thing that can really be a big expensive fix is a logic board failure or a screen (700-1000)....everything else is less than than that I believe. I have no idea how much a retina display costs.
All of the above is purely anecdotal from memory, I am sure others have more experience than I. But they last a lot longer than any other piece of tech I own apart from TVs.
I would say they last as long as you want, especially the newer ones I imagine, since they have less moving parts and are all unibody. The only thing that can really be a big expensive fix is a logic board failure or a screen (700-1000)....everything else is less than than that I believe. I have no idea how much a retina display costs.
All of the above is purely anecdotal from memory, I am sure others have more experience than I. But they last a lot longer than any other piece of tech I own apart from TVs.
I kept my previous one for 6 years. At the end of 6 years it had some marks on the screen (behind the glass), a column of pixels that would switch red (happened under warranty but apple claimed not to be able to replicate it), a few broken keys (my fault for spilling liquids on it), and a whole heap of bumps and scratches. The tape that holds the white plastic over the luminescent apple logo to defuse the light also came loose and slipped down into the logo.
It still works fine but also was stretched to its very limits. My '04 powerbook still works too.
They both smell though. I didn't notice it on my mbp until I bought my rmbp. It is hard to describe what it is, I suppose a mix of human skin and other stuff that has fallen into the keyboard mixed with sweat and then heated when it is turned on. It isn't too strong but funky once I noticed it.
It still works fine but also was stretched to its very limits. My '04 powerbook still works too.
They both smell though. I didn't notice it on my mbp until I bought my rmbp. It is hard to describe what it is, I suppose a mix of human skin and other stuff that has fallen into the keyboard mixed with sweat and then heated when it is turned on. It isn't too strong but funky once I noticed it.
Functional lifespan I would put around 7 years.
I'm on year 5, runs like new but has the old OS - upgrading to lion next weekend and dropping in a SSD and 8gig of ram based on a apple store employee's suggestion.
But I do feed mine with a new battery and power adapter every 2-3 years. 16 hours a day of use and used in 9 different countries does wear those two things out.
I'll upgrade to the latest and greatest MBP in about 2 years and retire my current to couch side netflix and pandora duties.
I'm on year 5, runs like new but has the old OS - upgrading to lion next weekend and dropping in a SSD and 8gig of ram based on a apple store employee's suggestion.
But I do feed mine with a new battery and power adapter every 2-3 years. 16 hours a day of use and used in 9 different countries does wear those two things out.
I'll upgrade to the latest and greatest MBP in about 2 years and retire my current to couch side netflix and pandora duties.
My Late 2008 MBP is still going strong even after daily use. I'll probably upgrade to an SSD and move the old drive to an external enclosure to add to my three other externals.
I've got a mid 2010 13" MBP, the only reason I'm gonna be upgrading is to get quad over dual core, as well as i5/7 over C2D, as well as the larger screen on a 15"
I do a lot of Music editing, and the 13" works fine, but when on the move, its screen real estate is rubbish. Other than that, the 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM make it run like a wonder. Its still perfect. Other than battery.
I do a lot of Music editing, and the 13" works fine, but when on the move, its screen real estate is rubbish. Other than that, the 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM make it run like a wonder. Its still perfect. Other than battery.
My MacBook is 6 years old this month, and it's made from plastic; and it just survived moderate water damage. That being said, if a plastic computer can last that long, I'd ventrue to say an aluminum MacBook Pro will last probably 8 years. Maxing out RAM and installing an SSD at some point in its life will maximize the longevity of the computer. I purchased a MBP June 2012 and I intend to have it last as long as possible; I baby the hell out of it.
Its nice to know that there are people here still using their Macbook Pros from 2007 and even 2006. I'm hoping that mine will last that long. I imagine though somewhere around the 3 year mark I will need to replace my battery as I'm running it all the time on it.
I have a 2008 MacBook Pro (not unibody) that I still use every day. I use it as a desktop in clamshell mode and haven't had any problems. I Upgraded the RAM to 4GB and it's still running strong. I hope to get an iMac or Mac Pro by the end of the summer which would then retire this trusted beauty.
As far as I'm aware, my old 2007 MBP 15, the one with the notorious GeForce 8600M GT, is still in operation by the person I sold it to back in 2010. One of my co-workers has a 2006 MBP 15 that looks like it's been to Afghanistan and back but is 100% functional.
I have an early 2008 white MacBook (not the Pro), the one with a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor (T8300) with 3 MB L2 cache, an integrated Intel GMA X3100 video card with 144 MB shared memory, 2 GB RAM DDR2 667 MHz, 160 GB HD at 5400 RPM, and a CCFL 13-inch TN screen with a 1280x800 resolution.
I bought it 5 years ago, in May 2008. It needed some maintenance. I had to replace the screen once, as I dropped it on the floor (but then it was my fault). The original battery was gone after some three or four years, and I had to replace it with a new one. The A/C adapter doesn't always connect properly anymore, but it still works. The laptop per se has some cracking in the body after all these years, but it is made of polycarbonate, and that kind of issue shouldn't happen with an aluminum body.
The laptop came with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It was screaming fast. When I upgraded it to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, it was still fast, but not so much. When I finally installed Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, it became sluggish. But then I upgraded the RAM (put 4 GB on it) and switched the HD for a 120 GB SSD. Now, it is very fast under OS X 10.7 Lion, and runs seamlessly.
I cannot install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion because Apple won't allow me to. I won't be able to install OS X 10.9 as well, but it runs Lion fine.
I don't run heavy apps on it, but then it's not supposed to. It still works perfectly fine for everything I need from it. The main issues are with the video card: when I load several videos on the web browser, they become sluggish. In addition, if I connect an external monitor, the laptop suffers from lag.
So, it's still five years old and running well, with minor setbacks. Five years later, it runs much better than I would expect it to.
I bought it 5 years ago, in May 2008. It needed some maintenance. I had to replace the screen once, as I dropped it on the floor (but then it was my fault). The original battery was gone after some three or four years, and I had to replace it with a new one. The A/C adapter doesn't always connect properly anymore, but it still works. The laptop per se has some cracking in the body after all these years, but it is made of polycarbonate, and that kind of issue shouldn't happen with an aluminum body.
The laptop came with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It was screaming fast. When I upgraded it to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, it was still fast, but not so much. When I finally installed Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, it became sluggish. But then I upgraded the RAM (put 4 GB on it) and switched the HD for a 120 GB SSD. Now, it is very fast under OS X 10.7 Lion, and runs seamlessly.
I cannot install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion because Apple won't allow me to. I won't be able to install OS X 10.9 as well, but it runs Lion fine.
I don't run heavy apps on it, but then it's not supposed to. It still works perfectly fine for everything I need from it. The main issues are with the video card: when I load several videos on the web browser, they become sluggish. In addition, if I connect an external monitor, the laptop suffers from lag.
So, it's still five years old and running well, with minor setbacks. Five years later, it runs much better than I would expect it to.
Unless something crazy comes along, the great thing about buying computers right now is how hardware upgrade cycles have massively slowed down with the advent of the i7 series of CPUs.
That said, a lot of advances are being made in terms of lower TDP and the Intel integrated GPU.
So I guess what I'm actually saying is... Desktops will last a long time, but you should be seeing some interesting tech in terms of mobile powerhouses.
That said, a lot of advances are being made in terms of lower TDP and the Intel integrated GPU.
So I guess what I'm actually saying is... Desktops will last a long time, but you should be seeing some interesting tech in terms of mobile powerhouses.
Should we tell him the max for a 2012 MBP is 32GB?
When the chips come out we will know.
True. I'm just going off what the Apple guy said at the store. Theoretically, 32GB.
I've got a PowerBook from 98', an iBook from 2003ish, a BlackBook from 08', and a MBP from 12'. All run seamlessly and have never had a fatal failure of any sort.
thanks guys, unfortunately my mbp is a 6,1 so no banana for me. However it's still going strong, and so I won't be getting rid any time soon