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Do MacBook Pro's last longer than a standard PC laptop?

As others have said, it depends on how taxing you are to the laptop and how much you pay for them.

I have bought $500 laptops that only have lasted a little over a year before starting to act up (motherboard and/or graphic card issues). These have been used for basic web browsing, some Roblox and Minecraft gaming, and basic Word and PowerPoint creation. Obviously, these were used by my kids, but not "beat up" and mistreated.

I have also spent some pretty big bucks on laptops designed for gaming that have been also had some issues with the motherboard. Even so, the biggest issue with the more expensive laptops is that the hardware will no longer support the requirements for new games at optimal settings. The gaming laptop mentioned above no longer supports some games at full resolution or high settings. Like desktops, you cannot easily (if at all) upgrade the GPU.

BTW, these are all Dell laptops. I get an EPP at Dell and used it often in the past. (I have since migrated my wife and I over to Apple products. ;-) ) Maybe not the best comparison, but the only comparison that I can offer.

In the end, it really depends on what you want to do with them.
 
My hp i got in 2006 i used for 8 years then i replaced it this febuary with the 2012 13" cmbp so we'll see...
 
On average, PCs last longer. When I say PCs, I am talking real PCs, like Lenovo's series they got from IBM. Not Dell or HP or Acer or ASUS or Toshiba or Compaq, those are mostly crap & junk.

They may be more annoying, get viruses, look like ****, use windows 8, etc, but you don't get a lot of the junk for a similarly priced PC you do with a mac.

Let's start with 15.4" models.

2006-2008 A1150, A1211, A1226, and A1260 model Macbook pros have the hinges screwed into the screen frame, instead of the screen backplate. This makes them brittle at that bottom point. It snaps like a paperclip. There are also the GPU issues on these models.

The A1286 2008-2009 model does not have a Unibody back cover. It is two pieces glued together, and the exhaust fans blow the hot air(very hot air due to lack of bottom or side vents) onto the bottom which is glued together. It causes the machine to fall apart. If you search A1286 2008 back cover otr A1286 2009 back cover on eBay, you will notice they cost 5x as much as 2010 and 2011 ones, because there is a huge shortage of them. This shortage was caused by the incredible demand, as these years are glued together and fall apart.

The 2010 A1286 model, the MC371, uses an 820-2850 board. In addition to rampant PCB faults, the fans don't spin up no matter what you do for a good five or ten minutes. Firing up BF2 as soon as you boot is a surefire way to end up at my front door.

The 2011 A1286 model with the radeongate problem, and the 820-2915 board.. omg. :) This board throttles OUT OF THE BOX. Not when the thermal paste gets cruddy, not when the fans get filled with dust. I mean you can take it out of the box, be in a cool room, run prime95, and watch the processor throttle due to thermal conditions. This is just an oven. A lot of people blindly defended Apple here, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573281/ and you can see what happens here. https://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/17/2011-macbook-pro-gpu-glitches/

In conclusion; are they cool looking machines? Sleek design? Aesthetically pleasing? Easy to use? Secure against viruses? Made to sync perfectly with other similar Apple products AMAZING software? Yes yes yes, check check check, all stuff you often do not get with a PC. Apple provides an unparaleled experience here.

Hardware made for longevity? NO! Hell no. Not at all. Not remotely. Delicate, high maintenance. Think the girlfriend who ended the date because she broke her nail.

If I didn't have to get to work, I could sit here all day pointing out the numerous flaws in every single model, that you won't find in a $1000-$2000 Thinkpad, but I gotta get to work, and I think you get my point. :) I'm not complaining, because if this all weren't true, I wouldn't have work to go to. I'll happily use my Lenovo T520 that I've dropped off a ladder three times, had dropped off a counter twice, met with liquid, mined litecoin on using the dedicated GPU, that has nothing more than a minor plastic crack, while profiting off the failing Apple hardware. There's no need for me to win a debate on whether Apple hardware is good or not, the four full time staff getting paychecks every week fixing problems that don't exist in other laptops is proof enough for me. :)

The one thing I can compliment Apple on hardware wise; the only thing, is the superior batteries used in most of these machines. They're always far ahead of their PC counterparts at any price range on battery technology.
 
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l.a.rossmann said:
On average, PCs last longer. When I say PCs, I am talking real PCs, like Lenovo's series they got from IBM. Not Dell or HP or Acer or ASUS or Toshiba or Compaq, those are mostly crap & junk.

They may be more annoying, get viruses, look like ****, use windows 8, etc, but you don't get a lot of the junk for a similarly priced PC you do with a mac.

Let's start with 15.4" models.

2006-2008 A1150, A1211, A1226, and A1260 model Macbook pros have the hinges screwed into the screen frame, instead of the screen backplate. This makes them brittle at that bottom point. It snaps like a paperclip. There are also the GPU issues on these models.

The A1286 2008-2009 model does not have a Unibody back cover. It is two pieces glued together, and the exhaust fans blow the hot air(very hot air due to lack of bottom or side vents) onto the bottom which is glued together. It causes the machine to fall apart. If you search A1286 2008 back cover otr A1286 2009 back cover on eBay, you will notice they cost 5x as much as 2010 and 2011 ones, because there is a huge shortage of them. This shortage was caused by the incredible demand, as these years are glued together and fall apart.

The 2010 A1286 model, the MC371, uses an 820-2850 board. In addition to rampant PCB faults, the fans don't spin up no matter what you do for a good five or ten minutes. Firing up BF2 as soon as you boot is a surefire way to end up at my front door.

The 2011 A1286 model with the radeongate problem, and the 820-2915 board.. omg. :) This board throttles OUT OF THE BOX. Not when the thermal paste gets cruddy, not when the fans get filled with dust. I mean you can take it out of the box, be in a cool room, run prime95, and watch the processor throttle due to thermal conditions. This is just an oven. A lot of people blindly defended Apple here, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1573281/ and you can see what happens here. https://www.macrumors.com/2014/01/17/2011-macbook-pro-gpu-glitches/

In conclusion; are they cool looking machines? Sleek design? Aesthetically pleasing? Easy to use? Secure against viruses? Made to sync perfectly with other similar Apple products AMAZING software? Yes yes yes, check check check, all stuff you often do not get with a PC. Apple provides an unparaleled experience here.

Hardware made for longevity? NO! Hell no. Not at all. Not remotely. Delicate, high maintenance. Think the girlfriend who ended the date because she broke her nail.

If I didn't have to get to work, I could sit here all day pointing out the numerous flaws in every single model, that you won't find in a $1000-$2000 Thinkpad, but I gotta get to work, and I think you get my point. :) I'm not complaining, because if this all weren't true, I wouldn't have work to go to. I'll happily use my Lenovo T520 that I've dropped off a ladder three times, had dropped off a counter twice, met with liquid, mined litecoin on using the dedicated GPU, that has nothing more than a minor plastic crack, while profiting off the failing Apple hardware. There's no need for me to win a debate on whether Apple hardware is good or not, the four full time staff getting paychecks every week fixing problems that don't exist in other laptops is proof enough for me. :)

The one thing I can compliment Apple on hardware wise; the only thing, is the superior batteries used in most of these machines. They're always far ahead of their PC counterparts at any price range on battery technology.
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I disagree. Take your average PC laptop around my college campus, and it seems like I always see laptops with cracked screen, broken chassis. In my experience from people around me who own Macs, it takes ALLOT of physical damage to take down a MacBook. Long drops will at worse damage screen/glass and cause a good dent. You could play football and throw your MacBook across the room and it would still work. And if issues do arise, AppleCare is the best experience of any warranty around. They are nice looking, sleek, laptops, so people feel they need to treat it like a baby. However, macbooks are the toughest non-Toughbook laptops around.

Sony VAIOs and Thinkpads are the only PC laptops I recommend. Although, with other manufacturers, if you drop the same amount of dough as you would a mac, you get a nice PC comparable to mac. No computer is perfect, but I've had far less issues with macs. My house has a MBP, an iMac, and a mac mini, as well as 3 PC laptops(Only 1 still works, and that is a $2500 Sony VAIO from more than a half decade ago). You get what you pay for.

HPs and Toshibas, however, are crap. There is no redeeming factor. They are just crap.
 
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Yes.

My family has owned PC's my entire life and we found ourselves buying a new one every 3 years or so because they slow down beyond repair and just bite the dust. I bought my first Mac in 2007 and even though the poly-carbonate casing has chipped and cracked and the inverter cable needs to be replaced, the machine still works!

I bought a 15" non-retina MacBook Pro in 2012 to replace it and needless to say it still looks and runs like I just took it out of the box. I probably won't replace it until 2018-ish. For a computer to last 7+ years is simply amazing.

:)
 
JoelTheSuperior said:
I can confirm I have a 2006 iMac that still works perfectly. That said, at my place of work we still have a few RM machines from 2003-2004 that just about work (if by work you mean as heaters). That said, we also have a bunch of PCs from 2011 that have dodgy power supplies that like to kill motherboards. Somehow the creative arts department manage to justify having brand new shiny iMacs haha.


Remember the 2007 MacBook Pros? Those things died after around 10 minutes.

I'm definitely a fan of my MacBook though - honestly the amount of use it gets imho justifies the price quite comfortably. The quality is fantastic and honestly whilst you may find a cheaper machine that looks just as good or even better on paper, what you'll often find is that they're lacking in build quality, have screens with poor contrast / low resolutions and are generally lacking in other areas. That and the trackpads on MacBooks are absolutely fantastic.
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That's true. My PB G4 is still running fine to this day.
 
I am fairly tough on a computer. Before 2010, I bought a new laptop of various brands (usually HP or Dell) every 1.5 years. In May of 2010, I purchased a 13" MBPro and I sold it last week to a lady who thought it was a brick of silver when I handed it to her. She paid me $600 and I had upgraded the HDD to SSD and taken it from 4 GB to 8 GB. I may be rough on a computer, but the Speck case cover for the MBP kept made my computer looking new.

So, 1.5 years and the damn thing collapsing (Windows) or 4 years and it still running like a beast?

The only reason I sold my 13" was because I "wanted some new aluminum."

By the way, I listed my MBP on Craigslist at 11:45 am and I had four calls by 12 noon and I could have sold it to three of them without a problem. I sold it to the first caller. 15 minutes ain't bad!
 
Do Macbook pro last longer than a standard PC laptop?

Bankaimadness said:
Is it reasonable to expect 5-6 years off a new macbook pro?
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Macs are better built than the average PC and should therefore be expected to last longer. It's only a matter of how long you'll actually want to keep using it before trading up to something more modern, especially since software marches on and always tends to be optimized for the latest hardware.
 
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It absolutely does last much longer. People come into Apple Stores all the time that I hear are on Leopard with 7-8 year old Macs and they're still happy with them.
 
still using my 2008 Alu macbook. :-D granted, after a bit of surgery replacing its keyboard (i now have backlit keys :) and a new battery, sides that its trooping on :)
 
yinz said:
This question really depends on your usage. Not just how you handle your machine, but also what software you use.

Personally, I don't tax my machines a lot, so my Windows laptops usually last 5-6 years. Using a macbook doesn't really affect the longevity of my machines.

If you want to justify the premium price, I'd say your justification comes from the unique OS experience, the intuitive fluid UI, the warranty, the customer service, the feel of the build material and the aesthetics.

If you drop it, it'll still break. If you poor water on it, it'll still stop working. If you need intensive graphics, processor or RAM use, then you probably won't last 5-6 years with a macbook any more than you would a Windows laptop. If you want a physically durable machine, I'd try Lenovo. I hear you can throw your soup at the keyboard and it'll survive. I can't say a macbook would.
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Agree 100%.

I use to upgrade my Windows laptops every 2 years or so because I wanted newer, faster hardware. There was nothing wrong with them at all. I have one that is close to 6 years old and one that is around 4 years old and both of them work perfectly. I plan on keeping my MBA longer than my Windows laptops simply because my computer needs have changed over the years.
 
...if you're into pouring/spilling liquids onto a notebook, yes a Thinkpad T/W series is a great investment. Make sure to baptize the keyboard in a church for good luck :D

Once you get tied to the software upgrade treadmill, a higher-end MacBook Pro w/dGPU or settling on an iMac will provide extra headroom, often within 4yrs the average processor/IGP is outclassed to the point of being a dinosaur. My old 2007-era Thinkpad T61 w/Intel IGP barely handles Hulu/Netflix, I mainly keep it for Pro Tools as its the only remaining whitelist friendly PC I own.

Every past Apple notebook I've owned were problem free after retirement from daily work, keep in mind you'd need to buy a similar price point Dell Latitude or Lenovo T/W series for hardware quality instead of consumer notebooks at Best Buy/BJs/Costco/Staples/Target/Walmart. Many HP consumer notebooks have hinge problems within two years as they don't have a proper mount, hinges are screwed into plastic screw holes of the screen mounting frame or sometimes just a metal screw nut mounted in the plastic... a bad hinge will take out the other hinge and sometimes the screen will crack from hinge stress.


As far as past 3yrs, you may need a new HDD on cMBPs around the 3rd/4th year and who knows how stable SSDs are considering Apple had a recall on the 2012 MBA SSD modules. If you buy a rMBP/MBA, having a spare SSD module or daily backups is a must in my opinion. A month or so ago, Amanda Palmer who is working on a book suffered a SSD failure with a MBA so it brought new meaning of "backup your work/documents folder"
 
JoelTheSuperior said:
Remember the 2007 MacBook Pros? Those things died after around 10 minutes.
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Haha, interesting.. Although I did have my logic board replaced under my first year of ownership, my 2007 (Santa Rosa) MacBook Pro still runs like a champ, 7 years later.

My white 2009 MacBook was used daily in high-school for three years. Never had a problem with it. Now it's passed on to my mother. Still runs like a brand new computer, 5 years later. Sure, it's not the fastest computer out there but it just works.

My iMac from 2011 has also served me very well for the last three years. That said, I do tend to think that Macs last longer than equivalent PCs, from my experience. I used to have all sorts of issues with my old PCs.
 
happyfrappy said:
\ A month or so ago, Amanda Palmer who is working on a book suffered a SSD failure with a MBA so it brought new meaning of "backup your work/documents folder"
Click to expand...

SSD or not, why do they think they don't need a backup? I guess that people always need to learn the hard way!
:rolleyes:
 
l.a.rossmann said:
On average, PCs last longer. When I say PCs, I am talking real PCs, like Lenovo's series they got from IBM. Not Dell or HP or Acer or ASUS or Toshiba or Compaq, those are mostly crap & junk.

[snip]
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reality check. There is a long history of Macs with severe technical problems that limit their lifetime. So one can not generalise and say that Macs will last longer on average.

On the other hand the "standard PC laptop" is also not well defined, and there is an incredible amount of crap on the market. Even every other Lenovo Thinkpad I see has some plastic corners broken or a screen bezel held together by tape. And those are among the good PC laptops.

I think the mechanical build quality of Macs is very high, and it is difficult to find a PC laptop that comes close. Repairability is not a great strength of Macs. To some extent this is offset by good customer service and warranties, but once you are outside the 3 years that is over. In terms of components PCs and Macs share a lot, so the problems are probably the same.

My personal experience includes a Vaio (Z1RA) from 2003 that still works, a late 2007 MBP that suffered from a 8600M GT failure (but still works after the free repair), and a 2011 MBP with a not so perfect screen and the danger of Radeongate.
Including the family machines, there is a 2009 white MB that still runs flawlessly, a first gen MBA that still works (though is very slow), a probably 2006 MBP that is still alive, and a 2012 MBA that is still completely problem free. There might have been repairs on some of the machines, I don't follow all the details. Finally I think my uncle has a portable Mac from 199X that as far as I know still works.
I don't know much about windows laptops, just the one above. But all the desktop PCs that have run in the family since the early 1990s have lived way past the point where they became obsolete.


Maybe one point in favour of Macs is that you can be sure to get at least a decent machine. With other brands you have to know which are the higher quality series etc.
 
maflynn said:
My expectation is that its going to last beyond 4 years and I don't think that's an unrealistic expectation.
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My late 2008 MBP is used daily as my son's Minecraft machine. I've upgraded the stock RAM to 4GB RAM and bought a new Apple battery though. I sold my 2006 MacBook in 2013, also on its second battery.

If you treat them we'll, they will last. I have no experience with the retina models though.
 
Retina models, if upgraded to max specs, should last over 5-6 years. My current 2009 mbp has dual ssds, and upgraded ram and it's used daily for work, wow gaming, etc. I'm keeping it another two years before upgrading. With proper care and attention it'll last a long time.
 
I have had a Dell XPS M1530 2008 with roughly the same specs as my current 13" MBP 2008. My macbook is way better in build quality, ergonomics and OS. The Dell would overheat for no apparent reason and the display began showing pinks stripes and flickerings. It is catching dust now while my Macbook is still going strong ;)
 
JoelTheSuperior said:
Remember the 2007 MacBook Pros? Those things died after around 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

Funny enough, I had a friend's laying around that they abandoned for that reason (before the recall). When the recall was issued I took it in and had the board replaced for free. The friend didn't want it back so I kept it as a secondary machine. I run VM's, handbrake, BOINC clients (grid computing clients) and it hasn't skipped a beat in almost 3 1/2 years. Must've been a bad batch of solder on all units shipped and fixed for the warranty replacements.

The solder on the video chip (as well as on the 2011 w/ radeon issues) gets too hot and the chip separates, giving no video. Both year models can be reflowed (heat chip to remelt solder, chip settles back).
 
No.

Macbook's don't last longer than standard windows computers. Apple uses the same components that a lot of other manufacturers use. I've had many friends who have had Macs crap on on them within 2 years, and more than a few friends who have said Macs last for 3 years and then they're worthless after that (granted these are just normal people, not nerds or geeks -- but that's the view of some people when they think of mac longevity). I've personally had several windows machines that have lasted for 4-6 years without problems, so it 90% depends on the user. 10% depends on luck and the manufacturer you bought from.

There are some windows computer companies that are very bargain base, and they use lower quality components (to meet that low price). But there are also companies like samsung, sony, dell (sometimes), toshiba, whom all put quality components in their machines and they likely last just as long as others. There are tons of custom computer sites where you literally choose every component that goes into your machine (everything from Hard drive/SSD brands, Display brand, Professor brand, Graphics brand, Ram/Memory brand, even things such as Speakers, Wifi, and Bluetooth components. So with that type of set up you get all the name brands and don't have to worry about having mystery components in your computer. Of course buying a known quality brand like Sony is always a safe bet as well.

***Personal opinion*** I've heard the most complaints about people who own computers by the brands HP and Dell. Not to be a hater here but those two are also the american companies. Wish it wasn't like that but I'd stick with Japanese stuff or Apple hah.
 
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