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How long do you keep your MBP?

How long is your average upgrade cycle between laptops?

  • 1-2 years

    Votes: 17 9.1%

  • 3 years

    Votes: 48 25.8%

  • 4 years

    Votes: 30 16.1%

  • 5+ years

    Votes: 91 48.9%
  • Total voters
    186
Z

zeemeerman2

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 21, 2010
272
25
I'm curious as to how long you keep your MBP before upgrading to a new laptop.
I have a 2011 MBP, seriously considering a new rMBP.

Just checking the forums today, at least two people on page 1 upgraded their 2011 MBP to a 2015 rMBP. Is 4 years the standard upgrade cycle? Or is it just selection bias speaking?

I will make my final upgrade decision myself, so no advice needed here. But I was just curious. Do you take 2 years? 4? More, less?
 
Hi zeemeerman2, my first MBP was a 17 inch late 2007, second a 17 inch late 2011, third a 15 inch MBP middle 2014.
I am considering a new one in 2016 but depends on the specs. I hope battery life will make a jump with Skylake and a redesign will come up. Seems like my buying cycle is getting shorter and shorter. :rolleyes:
 
I have a 4 month old 2014 rMBP 15" and I plan to keep it for atleast 4 years, if not more :p can't think of spending 2000$ on a laptop anytime sooner.
 
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A year, minimum but I always sell them before Applecare expires (education discount + free 3 years Apple care = decent resale value)

I'll probably keep this one (see sig) until after Skylake, it does everything I need it to and it has a nice balance of power and portability.
 
I have the original 13" rMBP from 2012. I might upgrade when Skylake comes out with Thunderbolt 3, but I'm not sure yet. I think the "big things" to come to Mac laptops in the last couple of years are the SSDs and Retina. If you don't have both of those, you are really missing out.

I upgraded to the rMBP from a MacBook Air based on the better display alone.
 
zeemeerman2 said:
I'm curious as to how long you keep your MBP before upgrading to a new laptop.
I have a 2011 MBP, seriously considering a new rMBP.

Just checking the forums today, at least two people on page 1 upgraded their 2011 MBP to a 2015 rMBP. Is 4 years the standard upgrade cycle? Or is it just selection bias speaking?

I will make my final upgrade decision myself, so no advice needed here. But I was just curious. Do you take 2 years? 4? More, less?
Click to expand...
I'll give the same answer I gave in the 100+ threads about this very same subject.

As long as it suits my computing needs/doesn't die. If my needs dictate more power for compatibility/efficiency reasons, it's time for an upgrade.
 
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5+ years. Well, at least that's how long I plan on keeping this machine for (it's my first Mac). My Windows Gateway PCs prior to that, though, lasted me around 3 years each on average before hard drive failures of some sort.
 
I am typing this on a 2003 17" 1.0Ghz PowerBook G4. I own a 2001 PowerMac G4 Quicksilver with a 1.2Ghz Sonnet upgrade. In our home is a 1.0Ghz PowerBook G4 Titanium DVI, a 1.42Ghz iBook G4 and a 1.0Ghz 12" PowerBook G4 along with a 20" iMac G5 and a iMac G3/250mhz.

The sole MBP I own (and the only Intel I own) is a 2006 17" 2.16Ghz MBP Core Duo running Snow Leopard.

Yeah, I'm probably not the guy to be answering the question. :D
 
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I have an early 2011 MBP 15 inch. It's my first MB and at these prices, I want to hang onto it as long as possible. It has the 1680x1050 display, so while I wish it had Retina, I am okay without it because the screen is a lot farther away from my eyes than when I use my iPad.
Lack of after purchase upgradability is a also deterrent for me now as well.
My hard drive was causing problems so I upgraded to a 1T SSD s few months ago and that alone makes it feel like a new machine, so hopefully I am good for another 2 or 3 more years before I give in to the replacement bug.
 
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I generally buy the high-end models and then stick with them for a minimum of four years, usually longer.

I'm using my Mac Pro 2007 as my main machine and it's still going strong. However, I'm still going to upgrade to a maxed out iMac Retina sometime this fall.

For my secondary machine, I used a 2008 black Macbook but have replaced it Christmas 2 years ago with a mid-2012 Retina Macbook Pro.
 
Just sold a 2009 17" MacBook Pro that got replaced with a 2015 13" MacBook Pro.
 
The misses is using my old 2008 15" MBP with 8 Gigs of RAM(she NEVER shuts any program down, EVER!!!) and an SSD. I'm using a 2012 cMBP 15" with 16gigs of RAM and SSD. Both are going strong, and I've not hit anything yet that would cause me to replace them.

Granted, I am NOT a gamer, by any means.
 
3+ years for MBPs, always after AppleCare warranty expires and then just waiting for the problems to appear. I do sometime buy a new one sooner if there's a killer feature, like the last one was the Retina MBP for well, the Retina screen of course. I'm still using that '12 rMBP and don't plan to upgrade until this one dies.
 
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I had my first MacBook unibody since 08 and just replaced it with a mid-2015 rMBP. I am leasing it on behalf of my business so it'll be at least three years and I'll probably just invest in another one.
 
The longest MBP I've owned was about two years.

I have a 2008 black MacBook that still works but since buying my 2015 15" i7 quad core and 2012 13" MBP, I've boxed up the black MacBook in it's original box and put it in the closet.
 
I keep my computers until they can't do what I want them to do. I just bought a 13" rmbp to replace my 2008 white MacBook. To get seven years is great I think, and I still use it for kitchen duty. I also still have a dual 1.8ghz G5 from around '04 or '05 but it's just collecting dust in the closet since our home office turned into a baby room. I would still use it if I could.
 
I bought a mid 2010 13" model a couple of years ago 2nd hand. Cost me £500 (uk)
Added RAM up to 8GB, and a Hybrid drive for space/speed jump and it runs great for my needs.
Im on the latest OSX
I am a keen photographer and use latest lightroom... a lot....

I'll continue to use it til it dies
 
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