Average Life Span of a Macbook Pro

[helpseeker]

Hello
I bought a MacBook Pro from an Apple shop in 2009 in Belgium (OS X version 10.6.8. Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3. Boot drive: Machintosh HD.

I used only once the CD drive to install the Mac Office CD, which I bought later from that Mac shop. Office was successfully installed. When I tried to put a CD in my laptop for the second time two years later, it didn't worked. The shop said: it's defect and cost you €250 to get it repaired, because your 2 years guaranty period is just expired last month. December 2015 I went to the shop again to ask why my laptop is running so slowly. They guy checked it his USP stick for a minute and told me, your H drive is defect. It cost you €250. Otherwise soon it will stop running.

 

[someoldguy]

2010 13" MBP , 2010 15" MBP , 2011 13" MBP . All still chugging along . All have been updated with SSD's , maxed memory (8 or 16 gig ),the 13" 2010 just got a new battery after 1200+ cycles , the 15" is up for one soon . No real problems with any save for the Nvidia issue with the 15" that was fixed under warranty . No reason for us to get new ones , especially considering the new stuff are pretty much glued together disposable machines.

 

[srshaw]

I've got an early 2011 15", still running great. I've upgraded the memory to 16gb and the HD to a 2tb disk, but I'm thinking a 1tb ssd might be better.

I really don't like how the new machines appear to be less upgradeable.

 

[jonnysods]

I think with the rMBP's, they last a lot longer. No moving parts, and flash is so quick. I have a 2013 maxed out 15", this thing is still a deadly beast. I don't even feel the need to replace it yet.

 

[dumpsterdave]

wtf?

Is 5 years supposed to be impressive? I've never had a PC for less, including laptops, including one Sager brand laptop I suffered with 8 years. . . poverty sucks.

My first comp's 100MB harddrive (1991) still ran fine last time I booted the 1996 pentium I have it installed in (last booted it 2005)... I was using it as a cheap router in the late 90's for my dial-up to be shared...

All of which were manufactured before the "Capacitor Plague": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

The result of which has been that earlier electronics were expected to last decades (indeed, our old Atari 1200XL STILL runs; as does our Mac IIsi); whereas, post-plague, customers presume a life of 2-3 years (which manufacturers LOVE).

 

[rboerdijk]

I originally got a 2008 MBP (my first mac), which I gave my dad when I got a mid 2010 MBP. Both still work fine.

The mid-2010 MBP now has a battery cycle count of 2135 ( full charge capacity of 4238 mAh ). I was considering getting a new battery but since 1-2 weeks I get regular gpu panicks. I guess it's close to end-of-life.

 

[xraydoc]

My older daughter does a lot of music and video editing. She had a late 2013 13" rMBP which was doing well but she was finding the 256GB SSD and the 8GB of RAM was limiting her. So around 5 months ago we bought her a fully spec'd late 2015 13" MBP with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Which she's very happy with, btw.

But, just a few days ago I decided to repurpose her old MBP for myself. I reformatted the SSD, installed a fresh copy of El Capitain and installed fresh copies of my usual software (MS Office, iWork, Citrix, Dropbox, OneDrive, Mail and a few others). Works beautifully and is a pretty nice improvement over my old 2011 11" MBA. Battery still seems reasonable enough (maybe 3.5-4 hrs of life on a full charge) and the screen is gorgeous. Love the 1440x900 HiDPI. Even for fun put it in to native 2560x1600 for a few minutes. Crazy! Same resolution as my 27" desktop iMac!

For my typical apps (basically just office stuff), the late 2013 model is every bit as good as a brand new one -- save perhaps the mileage on the battery -- and saved me the cost of a new rMB I was contemplating. And since I use my iPad Pro for almost all mobile computing, the extra weight compared to my old MacBook Air won't be too much of an issue.

 

[smcmillan]

I have an early 2008 CD2 2.4 that I purchased for work as a refurb November 2008. I put it in and out of my backpack daily and it is used for 9 to 12 hours a day. I do have an Incase hard cover on it which offers some protection against dings and scratches. About 3 months ago I did have the known Nvidia problem and they had to replace the logic board. I didn't have Applecare, but they fixed it for free. I have been so happy with it that I just purchased a new 15" MBP for personal use and expect to us it for at least 5 years.

[doublepost=1491107040][/doublepost]Now that 5 years has passed, did you have the graphics problem most 2011 owners had?

 

[ozreth]

Same as many others here. I have a mid 2010 13". I've never had a single issue with it aside from the normal draining of the battery. Last year the weight of the newer OS started to weigh down on the 4gb of RAM and things started getting sluggish. I upped the RAM from 4gb to 8gb, dropped a 500gb SSD in, and replaced the battery. Works even better than when I first bought it 7 years ago and I see no need for me to replace the computer for at least a few more years.

I love these older MBP's. You could really get a lot of life out of them with the few user replaceable parts. I'm probably looking at 10 years with this one, and I'll replace it because I want to, not because it stops working.

 

[Apple 26.2]

My early 2011 just died on me (graphics card went out; it was replaced in 2013 through Apple's repair program)... taking the risk of waiting for the (late?) 2017s before buying.

 

[Sanpete]

[doublepost=1491107040][/doublepost]Now that 5 years has passed, did you have the graphics problem most 2011 owners had?

I thought I was having this issue with my early 2011, but now it appears I wasn't. Apple tested it and found no issues, and a clean install of Sierra, which I hadn't been able to accomplish, is working fine with new SSD.

 

[smirking]

I just wanted to know how long a Macbook Pro would last through regular use

I have a mid-2012 that went through nearly five years of very heavy daily use for programming (as a dev server) and assorted multimedia (mostly RAW photo retouching). It was mostly used as a desktop so it didn't get banged around on a daily basis, but it did a fair amount of traveling too. I replaced the HDD with an SSD a few years back and it was performing well enough that when I upgraded to a 2016 Touchbar MBP, it really didn't feel like the kind of jump I expected out of a 4.5 year performance gap. In fact the only reason why I upgraded was because I wanted to have a 5K external monitor. If I could hook up a 5K LG Ultrafine to my 2012 MBP (non-Retina) MBP, I would have stuck with it.

 

[Sanpete]

I can add that I was using a 2004 MBP while my 2011 was down (or rather only running with recovery OS). It still works fine, but the OS is out of date, so it limits what I can do with it. Still has all the original parts. HDD still works fine, the optical drive not so much.

 

[James.K.Polk]

Is there any reason to think 8GB, for the most basic tasks (browsing, YouTube, editing photos only in Photos.app on a 4K ultrafine) won't last 5 years?

 

[Sanpete]

Is there any reason to think 8GB, for the most basic tasks (browsing, YouTube, editing photos only in Photos.app on a 4K ultrafine) won't last 5 years?

Nah, should be fine. But I've said that in response to your question before, so maybe others will chime in.

 

[smirking]

Is there any reason to think 8GB, for the most basic tasks (browsing, YouTube, editing photos only in Photos.app on a 4K ultrafine) won't last 5 years?

I'd be of the opinion that you could get by on 8GB for basic tasks for foreseeable future. That said, 8GB is really limiting if you start to expand out and do more than you expected to do, but since you mentioned "basic use" I'd expect that it's not a deal breaker if you're not able to run 10 programs at the same time should you develop the need to use something that's more resource intensive.

So if those are the ground rules, yeah 8GB should pass though I don't think it'd be ideal.

 

[James.K.Polk]

I'd be of the opinion that you could get by on 8GB for basic tasks for foreseeable future. That said, 8GB is really limiting if you start to expand out and do more than you expected to do, but since you mentioned "basic use" I'd expect that it's not a deal breaker if you're not able to run 10 programs at the same time should you develop the need to use something that's more resource intensive.

So if those are the ground rules, yeah 8GB should pass though I don't think it'd be ideal.

It's unlikely I'll take on anything more intensive. Work as a patent agent now and will be a patent attorney soon. Never had any problems with documents, PDFs, etc.

 

[ozreth]

I can add that I was using a 2004 MBP while my 2011 was down (or rather only running with recovery OS).

2004?

 

[Sanpete]

2004?

Yeah, I should try to get it more updated, i suppose. Still running 10.3.9.
[doublepost=1491180746][/doublepost]I still have an iBook that still works too, or did the last time I checked. It's a few years older.

 

[smirking]

It's unlikely I'll take on anything more intensive. Work as a patent agent now and will be a patent attorney soon. Never had any problems with documents, PDFs, etc.

Yeah, if you run into anything later on down the road that would make 8GB of RAM a serious liability, you're probably going to be limited by more than just the 8GB of RAM.

About the only scenario I can think of that might make 8GB a real problem is if you need to run Windows and MacOS at the same time to access a program for your work that you can't get on a Mac. Even then, 8GB should be just enough to give you basic performance. There are still plenty of people using PC latops that only have 4GB (or less).

 

[ozreth]

Yeah, I should try to get it more updated, i suppose.

But MBP's didn't exist then.

 

[xxFlagNorFail]

My Mac Pro is an early 2011, it was starting to slow down a bit so I installed a new 1 TB Hybrid Hard-drive w/ 8 GB cache. It runs super fast now like it's brand new and even updated to the latest OS. So as long as you take care of it and treat it when it is getting sick it will last forever.

 

[Sanpete]

But MBP's didn't exist then.

Ha, good point. It was called a PowerBook back then. It's this one:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.33_17.html

 

[SarcasticJoe]

I'm still on my soon 6-year-old 2011 machine and it's still chugging along completely fine albeit after a motherboard replacement for the GPU solder issue. Barring screw-ups like that most electronics still tends to last for years and years so I don't think you need to be worried about this unless you've gone for a really low quality brand like Acer.

 

[A_morl282]

I've got a mid 2012 MBP with an i7. 750gb HDD has been upgraded with a 256gb SSD, it is super fast but freezes and shuts off whenever you move it or type too hard on the keyboard. Purple/multicoloured squares also appear on the screen when this happens.. Not sure it's going to be lasting much longer...