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How Often Do You Upgrade Your MBP?

H

Hrothgar

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
530
23
New York
My first MBP was a 17" 2007 model. I dropped it a few times, and the cover latch/sleep thing didn't work so well. I got nervous and upgraded to a Late 2011 15". I still use the 17" as a spare unit -- but it is stuck at OS 10.7.

My Late 2011 seems to be working fine. Is there any reason to upgrade to a new unit?
 
Hrothgar said:
My first MBP was a 17" 2007 model. I dropped it a few times, and the cover latch/sleep thing didn't work so well. I got nervous and upgraded to a Late 2011 15". I still use the 17" as a spare unit -- but it is stuck at OS 10.7.

My Late 2011 seems to be working fine. Is there any reason to upgrade to a new unit?
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1463959199][/doublepost]I sell my desktop and laptop every year to update to the latest each year. Why? Because I am out of my freaking mind and can't help myself.
 
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I 'upgrade' every 18 months or so. I have a few MBPs. I'm changing based on my needs. I recently did a backwards move from a 2012 rMBP to a 2012 cMBP because I was maxing out the SSD on the rMBP. I like the cMBP because I can add one or even two SSDs.

Your 2011 should be perfectly fine for most people. The retina display in newer Macs is nice but the storage is limiting, imho. Also, your 2011 might not be worth that much because of the gpu issue so it's not really worth selling.
 
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In the days before iPads, I was an every-three-years kind of person with updates to my desktop and laptop (tried to alternate so I wasn't buying two machines in the same year).

My most recent laptops were a 2008 unibody aluminum MacBook which was replaced with a 2011 11" MacBook Air.

However, with the iPad Air, iPad Air 2 and now the 12.9" iPad Pro, I've been using the same 2011 MBA ever since. I really don't require the laptop very much at all, so I haven't felt compelled to replace it. Other than the battery which will barely run the machine for 2 hrs, it did everything I needed a laptop for.

Just a couple weeks ago, I reclaimed my oldest daughter's late 2013 13" MacBook Pro for myself. She needed an upgrade for her video work so over the winter we got her a fully-loaded 2015 13" MBP. I finally got around to reformatting the old machine, so I've taken it for myself and finally retired the 2011 MBA.

This late 2013" 13" MBP is a great machine, actually. I was a bit jealous of my wife's 12" rMB, but since I do most of my work on the iPad Pro these days, the price of one wasn't worth it. But I'm pretty happy with my "new" and "free" MacBook Pro.

My 2013 27" iMac, however, is due for a replacement this year. I'm waiting to see what, if anything, happens to the Mac Pro line before I pull the trigger on a retina iMac.
 
I currently have a late 2013 13" MBP with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. There is very little difference between mine and the newest version so I see no reason to upgrade (especially given the price 'upgrades' of everything Apple here in Europe). But before that I had a late 2010 MBA and before that the 13" unibody MacBook from 2008 (and some others before that). So I guess 2-3 years on average. However I think my current one is going to last significantly longer than that.
 
If not at will, then after the AppleCare runs out..

However, the laptop ( Desktop is still my Dell XPS 8700...yes Windows 10 Pro and it's great ) updates are becoming more infrequent.. I absolutely love my late 2013 15" rMBP and with battery health at 98% and zero defects.. I might just keep this one a bit more!
 
I upgraded my Macbook Pro computer's RAM about 3 years ago. Haven't upgraded the computer in 7 years. Runs beautifully, though I'm loathe to shut it down completely. :p
 
I've had my MBA since 2011 and am getting a MBP soon...so I guess 5 years. I've had my iMac since 2009 and am typing this on it now, so going on 7 years. hehe.
 
i'm currently using a 2011 Macbook Pro 15" if the recent rumours are true about the 2016 Macbook Pro, then i will be upgrading this year and retiring my now 5 year old Macbook Pro.
 
I'm on my second one and changed after 3.5 years, and after 2 1/2 years with my late 2013 rMBP I can't see being tempted for a while yet it's still perfect for my needs.
 
I'm still have my 2012 rMBP, its working well, though I think I may be getting close to replacing the battery on this thing. I see no reason to upgrade that to a 2016 model (when it comes out), as it does what I want it too. Plus I don't want to spend 2k on the laptop.
 
Early 2006 -> Late 2008 -> Early 2011 -> Mid 2016 (please..?)

I think in 2008 I was overcome by the shiny new design, but by 2011 it was feeling sluggish when working with video.

This current one (early 2011) has been superb, definitely the best laptop I've ever purchased. Touch wood, it hasn't suffered Radeongate and its quad-core i7 is still very competitive today, even against new rMBPs. With an SSD, it definitely doesn't feel 5 years old.

However, the screen isn't great compared to most nowadays, it's quite heavy, lacks Bluetooth 4.0 and ac WiFi and the battery only lasts an hour and a half so I think it may be time to upgrade it this year. Just need Apple to release some laptops.
 
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