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How long do you keep your Macbook Pro for?

This is my third mac within three years. I first got the black macbook to see if switching to mac would be for me. I was hooked after using it for about six months. I decided to upgrade to the 15" MBP late 2007 because i needed a bigger screen. I would have kept that model, but my wife started to us it as much as me. I asked her if she wanted one. She told me to get the new one because she didn't like the unibody's missing tracpad button.........SCORE FOR ME>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Of corse I got it right away.... But to answer your question, yes I will keep mine for the next three years.
 
I'm keeping my MBP (3.5 years old) til it dies or becomes too slow to use daily. I mainly use it for web browsing, email, and word processing, plus some light gaming with Boot Camp, so I wouldn't be surprised if I keep it for another 3.5 years. This is assuming that I don't have to pour any more time and money in (I've already upgraded the RAM, hard drive, and airport module (to 802.11n), plus a replaced battery). If the logic board goes (which happened a year ago to my sibling's identical MBP), I'm just going to get a new machine instead.

However, still feels as fast as the day I got it!
 
I need an incentive beyond raw power to persuade me to upgrade. I had a 06 white MB, was very happy with it, but I couldn't resist the late 08 uMBP - trackpad, higher res screen, miiiiles better quality display, illuminated keys - basically, an upgrade in the experience, not speed. Never really understand the obsession with upgrading for incremental cpu bumps, only really relevant if you're constantly running at full load. For the majority, I suspect it's a rather worrying psychological need.

I'll get another 2 or 3 years out of this, and see a significant speed bump when I can get hold of a sub £250 512gb ssd to bung in there.

My only slight concern is that the trackpad is slightly less responsive to click than it originally was. Not bad enough for Apple Care to fix though.
 
I have had my white MacBook for 3 years now and it is the first Apple Mac I bought and it is still working a charm. I have never had any problems with it and I still use it for the internet:) In 2008 I bought the MacBook Pro as an update because it was faster than my white MacBook and I needed it for Audio and video production aswell as music production and recording and just in the weekend I ordered the new 2009 top of the range Macbook Pro even though the new Arrandale model will be released soon.

Funnily enough i only get envy from other people when they see my white MacBook. When they see my Aluminum MacBook Pro they look at it with no interest. Oh well.


Art
 
I tend to sell my macbook pros every 6 months so I always have the newest version. I usually get top dollar and it doesn't cost me much at all if anything to upgrade. Buying from amazon saves a good amount on tax or buying from apple with a student discount and selling the free ipod touch and printer help with the cost.
 
I don't know, I used to keep my computers no more than 2.5 years before getting a new one but I've had my current and first MBP for over 3 years now and it's still going strong. I doubt I'll buy a new one any time soon, unless this one dies or Apple decides to add a Blu-ray drive to their laptops.
 
I will usually test drive a new, comparable model as soon as it comes out. If I find that it is a significant improvement over what I currently have, performance-wise and battery-life then I will upgrade.

Based on that, I think more or less around 3-4 years.
 
My dad and I have a titanium powerbook since its inception. So that's close to 9 years now. We no longer share it, but it is easily the best laptop I've ever owned. This thread comes at a good time, as tomorrow, I am going to replace it with a brand new MBP. Woo!
 
bware189 said:
My dad and I have a titanium powerbook since its inception. So that's close to 9 years now. We no longer share it, but it is easily the best laptop I've ever owned. This thread comes at a good time, as tomorrow, I am going to replace it with a brand new MBP. Woo!
Click to expand...

Which one?
 
snaky69 said:
It won't void your warranty. God people are ignorant about how warranties work.
Click to expand...

i have a MBP before the unibody versions came out and replacing the HDD voids the warranty and it's a pain to do (about 20 screws and some tape needs to be removed). I replaced it anyway.

"God people are ignorant about how warranties work.":rolleyes:

BTW: i always plan to replace my macs after 2 1/2 years but I end up replacing them after 4-5 years. My current MBP is 2 years old. I try to get about 3-4 times raw processing power and some other improvements with the upgrade.
 
i've owned 2 macs in my life, soon to be 3:

2002: titanium powerbook g4
2004: powermac g5
2010: Macbook Pro (when the update comes out)
 
I've had my MBP since April 2007 and I'll probably think about trading up the next time they get upgraded, depending on how significant the update is. I'd obviously get a moderate speed bump but, like others have said, there's a user experience upgrade to go with it because mine predates the improved batteries, LED screens, new-style trackpads, etc.

To be honest, I could stay with this one for a while yet, though. It's not up to much in the gaming department and hard drive space is becoming tight (120GB drive), but for general use, which is 95% of my time on it, it's perfectly adequate. I just fancy a new toy ;)
 
I have purchased a:
  • Black Macbook in February 2007
  • Unibody Macbook in October 2008
  • Unibody Macbook Pro 15" in September 2009
I am going to TRY to keep this one for 3+ years. I may have to purchase a desktop Mac variant sometime along the way to satisfy my new computer urges. :)
 
Generally I buy a new mac in 4 year cycles:

2000: iMac G3 DV SE
2004: eMac w/superdrive + iBook 12 inch G4 (I wanted a laptop)
2008: Macbook Pro 15 inch 2.4 Intel Dual Core

iMac is long gone, but I'm still holding on to the iBook and eMac. The iBook is a nice back-up computer to have that takes up very little space. Matter of fact, my girl is currently borrowing it since her PC broke...again. When it's not being borrowed, I use it as a poor man's apple tv (with the help of a Griffin Airclick) and an old school gaming console (Stella, Nestopia, SNESX, Genesis Plus). The eMac is virtually obsolete but runs perfectly well. It now serves me as a jukebox and alarm clock, plus it's nice to use a desktop once in a while, as opposed to a laptop all the time. Any ideas on what else I could do with it are totally welcome, though. LOL!

Anyway, far as I go, part of the fun of owning a mac is figuring out what else it can do for you and expand its life.
 
Wheee! Fun thread.

My tendency has been to upgrade every 1-2 years --- but I'd like to be more steady now. when I got my first Mac back in 2001 (the first white iBook!) I had it for only about 5 months before adding a G4 Titanium Powerbook to my arsenal. I sold the iBook on eBay and did pretty well for myself, but I soon found I missed my little iBook. So then I got a newer iBook and sold the Ti on eBay. I kept that iBook until 2006, so I spent around 3 years with it.

I really goofed up that fall when instead of replacing my iBook with another Mac, I got this terrible Gateway laptop that cost about $600. BAD MOVE. I kept it about a year, then I got an HP Pavilion with a 17" screen and Windows Vista Home Premium. I really can't complain about that one -- it did the job okay, but I got an iPhone in November, and it just hit me how bad I wished I still was on Mac, so I shuffled some funds around and picked up a sweet 15" Macbook Pro in mid December (just the basic one, standard from the Apple store) and since it's so upgradable I anticipate keeping this one for several years. I can add 4 more gb of RAM and upgrade the hard drive if I need to. :D
 
This is probably not a good way of estimating how long macs last. A lot of people get new ones just for the sake of it even if their old one still works great. I used a 1999 imac g3 with a .5 GHz (500 MHz) processor and 1 gig of ram for around 7 years and never really thought about upgrading until I realized I would need a notebook for college. I expect my MBP to be with me throughout college, hopefully med school ;) , and beyond, until it literally stops working or cant handle daily tasks.
 
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