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Guy at electronics store said MacBook Pro will last 10 years, what do you think?

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
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USA
I went to a big retail electronics store recently. I was looking at the Macs like I always do, and the guy started chatting with me and we had a nice discussion. I told him I have a 15" MacBook Pro with 6-cores, 16GB RAM, and plenty of storage for my needs. He said it could last me 10 years!

How likely do you think that is?

I think it's possible...

I have a late 2013 rMBP 2.6/8/256 that still works great. I only upgraded bc I started a new project in my life, and thought a 15" screen would be more useful. It turns out I don't even utilize the bigger screen bc of my 4K 24" LG monitor, but I do enjoy the horsepower the 6-core gives me as well as the higher RAM amount. No regrets.

I also utilize my 15" as a 2nd screen that sits beside my LG 4K 24". It's nice to use it as a TV for the weekend, or live feeds of data during the week.
 
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Software bloat and soaring expectations of features & responsiveness limit MacBook Pros to 5-8 years, I’d think.
That’s about 3 years longer than the lifespan (‘both ends of the range) of a Windows laptop.
 
My 2009 would be working fine right now if a certain family member hadn’t spilled coke on it while I was hiking in 2015.

My sister got hers at the exact same time and with the help of a ram upgrade, swap out to SSD, and a battery replacement I did it still runs great. Same story for my friend’s 2010 MBP.

Macs do tend to last with a little care, assuming you’re not hit with an unfortunate hardware failure along the way.
 
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I've got a mid-2009 13 inch MBP that still runs ADOBE PREMIERE! Thanks to a patch it's running Mojave. However, it is certainly not my daily driver, but it does work quite well for an ELEVEN YEAR OLD this month laptop.
 
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I think a Mac could last 10 years based on the longevity of the hardware -- but at some point in that journey you'd age out of OS updates and the ability to run current versions of software. But, for some uses that might not actually matter! I mean, a 2010 Mac could today be used for everything it could do when it shipped, provided you were willing to use older versions of software.
 
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Still using my 13” MBP. Going on 10.7 years with original battery.
 
My 2008 MBP lasted until 2018. I have 2014 and 2015 MBPs and I could see them lasting ten years. I'm not so sure about the 2016-2018 models.
 
My 2008 MBP is still chugging along just fine for it’s specs, amazing!

Pretty much guarantees me buying Apple products.
 
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My PowerBook G4 TiBook still works AND lasts up to an hour on the ORIGINAL battery.

Apple Products are many things, but short-lived ain't one of 'em!
 
Not today’s MBP’s. Yesteryears, sure, but poor thermal designs, bad quality control and failure prone batteries mean they’ll likely last about 5 years at most.
 
There were TONS of issues with PowerBooks, especially the ones made out of titanium. Hinges broke, keyboards got wonky, logic boards failed, SuperDrives grinded discs up, the works.

I've had two MBPs. My 2012 died attempting to upgrade to High Sierra (hard disk started grinding itself alive and the laptop shut down never to turn on again)

My second is fine so far. Granted it's a 2019 model but I learned NOT to update apps or the OS. I expect it will be as fast as the day I bought it when it's 20 years old, albeit I'll be likely using AC power to keep it alive.
 
I have a Sept 2003 revision 15" PowerBook G4 in my drawer that works perfectly (albeit a tad slow) so I can easily see a recent MacBook Pro going 10 years or longer. I know plenty of people who still use 2010-era MacBook Pro's even if they are starting to show age as far as newer content goes.
 
Shadowbech said:
I still have the 2011 MBP and still works for my needs.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you deal with it. I have an old one here and it's horrible to use: overheats like crazy, chrome can't use the gpu at all because they dropped support for the integrated graphics, and can't upgrade past high sierra.

Really though the constant slowness + insane heat and fans spinning is what drives me insane.

IMO a reasonable timeframe to hold a macbook is probably 5-6 years. You should be able to get decent resale value still at that point before it is antiquated. My 2015 15" macbook pro from work is still insanely fast - can barely tell it apart from the 2019 16" I have for everyday use. That's mostly intel's fault though since the last 4 years out of them have been a joke.
 
nquinn said:
Not sure how you deal with it. I have an old one here and it's horrible to use: overheats like crazy, chrome can't use the gpu at all because they dropped support for the integrated graphics, and can't upgrade past high sierra.

Really though the constant slowness + insane heat and fans spinning is what drives me insane.

IMO a reasonable timeframe to hold a macbook is probably 5-6 years. You should be able to get decent resale value still at that point before it is antiquated. My 2015 15" macbook pro from work is still insanely fast - can barely tell it apart from the 2019 16" I have for everyday use. That's mostly intel's fault though since the last 4 years out of them have been a joke.
Click to expand...

You use old operating systems with old hardware.
 
Hieveryone said:
I went to a big retail electronics store recently. I was looking at the Macs like I always do, and the guy started chatting with me and we had a nice discussion. I told him I have a 15" MacBook Pro with 6-cores, 16GB RAM, and plenty of storage for my needs. He said it could last me 10 years!

How likely do you think that is?

I think it's possible...

I have a late 2013 rMBP 2.6/8/256 that still works great. I only upgraded bc I started a new project in my life, and thought a 15" screen would be more useful. It turns out I don't even utilize the bigger screen bc of my 4K 24" LG monitor, but I do enjoy the horsepower the 6-core gives me as well as the higher RAM amount. No regrets.

I also utilize my 15" as a 2nd screen that sits beside my LG 4K 24". It's nice to use it as a TV for the weekend, or live feeds of data during the week.
Click to expand...
I don't believe the newer Mac books will last 10 years, especially with the T2 chips and strange logic board design (a short on the display can literally total a laptop). The bad engineering kind of scares me (just check out board repair videos, it's like it was intentionally made to break or just bad quality control), but I say 5 years minimum. I plan on keeping this 2018 version for a while. Just back it up weekly because of the complexity.
 
Hieveryone said:
He said it could last me 10 years!

How likely do you think that is?
Click to expand...

That guy is full of crap. Obviously it’s “possible”. Likelihood? Probably less then 30%. Based on failure rate statistics, premium laptops have around 20% chance to develop a critical failure in first 3 years of ownership. Median “survival” is probably around 5-6 years.

On top of that: in 6 years your laptop will stop getting software updates. It will become morally obsolete in 2-3 years since Apple is moving to a new CPU architecture with new capabilities. In 5 years you will start having issue with some popular software as developers will stop building/testing for x86 etc.

My advice: never rely on the computer to outlast it’s warranty. If you intend to keep it for longer, buy extended warranty. Anything beyond that is just a bonus. With these laptops out if warranty repairs have costs comparable to total replacement.
 
Yup easily possible if you look after your devices.
My wife still has a MacBook from 2008 that she uses occasionally.
 
Many computers will last for 10 years. There's a big difference between being functionally perfect in 10 years, being supported with software and OS updates for 10 years, and meeting a user's requirements for 10 years.

I have a very old Pentium II desktop are everything still works perfectly. It's not supported by Microsoft anymore and it doesn't fulfil any of my current needs.
 
It will last 10 years most likely, but probably won't be pleasant to use in 10 years. I have my 2011 15" MacBook Pro and while yes it does work just fine, it does work hard and heats up quickly even doing basic things like web browsing. Expect 5 years of good daily use.
 
My 2008 Dell XPS M1330 laptop still works fine and Microsoft is fine supporting Windows 10 on this ancient system. I also have a Dell Inspiron 4000 and Inspiron 4100 that still work. These came out in 1999 and 2000. The batteries, of course, are shot. I also booted up a 2007 MacBook Pro 15 and it booted into Windows XP and was actually fine. I left it on the charger for several hours and the battery even holds a charge. We have another 2007 MacBook Pro 15 that gets used from time to time for some audio work.
 
hftvhftv said:
It will last 10 years most likely, but probably won't be pleasant to use in 10 years. I have my 2011 15" MacBook Pro and while yes it does work just fine, it does work hard and heats up quickly even doing basic things like web browsing. Expect 5 years of good daily use.
Click to expand...

Microsoft has been better than Apple at supporting old hardware on their newest operating systems. I'm typing this on a Dell Studio XPS 435mt which has a Core i7-920, 48 GB of RAM, nVidia 1030 driving a 4K display and this is my daily driver. It cost me $580 used back in 2008.
 
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