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What's the average life of a MacBook?

L

livebackwards

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2012
44
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So I will be getting my first MacBook pro once ML comes out and I was wondering what the average life span of a MacBook is
Not counting physical damage ( dropping water etc)

I have an old friends iMac from 2006 and at the begining of this year it went south. So that last 6 years. Granted it was not an intel imac so a lot of newer programs would not work on it. Firefox and chrome being 2 on a long list of programs.

But is 6 years a good number for a new MacBook pro?
 
livebackwards said:
So I will be getting my first MacBook pro once ML comes out and I was wondering what the average life span of a MacBook is
Not counting physical damage ( dropping water etc)

I have an old friends iMac from 2006 and at the begining of this year it went south. So that last 6 years. Granted it was not an intel imac so a lot of newer programs would not work on it. Firefox and chrome being 2 on a long list of programs.

But is 6 years a good number for a new MacBook pro?
Click to expand...

It's pretty damn good.
 
I have a 13" MB pro from late 2008 that is still going strong and stil looks great as well.

I have recently upgraded to a 15" Retina as I wanted a bigger screen and bit more power graphically and I plan to keep that for the same period of time, if not longer.

The same cannot be said for Windows Laptops that I have had at work or personally... ;)
 
I usually can get 4 year out of a windows desktop and 3-4 for windows laptop before I feel like I am using a dinosaur.

This will be my first "new" Mac. So I was wondering what other people's experience was.
My friends 2006 iMac I had to do a lot of work to get it running (2010 till February 2012)
 
I find they're useful for me until age 5-6. Still using a 2007 MacBook as the primary machine at my parents house. And my father uses it for Photoshop. Gets the job done.

Granted, I'm an early and eager adopter, so I often take advantage of high Apple re-sale value and upgrade early.
 
It depends on what you mean by its lifespan. Is that the time that it remains functional, or the time that it remains useful enough for you to use it every day? We have a 2008 MBP that's still in perfect operating condition and will be getting an SSD upgrade this weekend. It's still functional and we'll probably keep it for a few more years, then pass it on to my mother, assuming it's still running (right now she has our old white MacBook). For my husband, the 2008 model meets his needs and he's happy with its performance. For some people, though, they need a new computer every couple years because they actually need the performance increases. So in that respect, it really depends on what you need to use it for and it's a much more personal issue.
 
My wife's late 2006 Macbook White was her main computer until last month when it was replaced with an iPad. I upped the RAM to 2GB and put in a new hard drive. Had to replace a few keys that had come off, they're $3 on eBay. The original battery was still going fairly well too, I'm not quite sure how though.

The late 06's were Intel Core2Duo so I was able to put Snow Leopard on it, which made a big difference. I believe the early 06's were Core Duo so only 32bit.
 
i was surprised how well they kept being good, because some people still claim they work even though their computer is the slowest piece of ***** i've ever seen.. thats not the case with a macbook, it will still be as fast as the day you bought it.. so it's actually only a matter of how you threat it and how the hardware keeps up with the software released :)

some people gain a lot by adding a new SSD and a few ram sticks.
 
I am looking at usability not speed over time. I am looking when it becomes unusable completly.
I am getting a non retnina mackbook pro 15". Hi res screen anti glare.
I have seen that you can add 16 gb of ram. And will be doing that
Mid to late next year I will upgrade it to a SSD ( as price come down more)

I hope to get 5 year to 6 years. Which looks possible.
So glad I am making the switch.
 
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livebackwards said:
I am looking at usability not speed over time. I am looking when it becomes unusable completly.
I am getting a non retnina mackbook pro 15". Hi res screen anti glare.
I have seen that you can add 16 gb of ram. And will be doing that
Mid to late next year I will upgrade it to a SSD ( as price come down more)

I hope to get 5 year to 6 years. Which looks possible.
So glad I am making the switch.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "unusable?" in 5-6 years i guarentee you (with the exception of unforseen hardware failure) that you will still be able to use it to edit pictures and surf the web.

heck you could still use an ibook g3 to surf the web if you wanted and those are 10 years old.
 
5 years is doable. My 2007 was still working fine when I upgraded in 2011. Sold it to a guy and he still uses it.
 
1000 days, then they die. Immediately.

In all seriousness, I'm typing this on a base model macbook I purchased Aug 14, 2007. However the hard drive did crash and need to be replaced at some point, and I did upgrade RAM in it to 4gb. Now, it runs very smoothly and very well. The question itself is hard to answer though because it depends on how you treat it, and if you choose to upgrade and repair it.
 
Macs Last Forever... almost :)

I have a pristine, Nov 2002 PowerBook Ti G4, which I bought new from the Apple store in downtown Palo Alto.

While not my primary laptop, I still use it from time to time just for the fun of it. The only component I've had to replace is the battery, which is perfectly normal.

This is such a sweet laptop, I simply could not part with it.

People who are not familiar with Macs ask me if it's a brand new model. (True)

That's just one of many reasons I really enjoy my Macs. :D
 
I still use my 07 White MB, Core 2 Duo 2.2. I do upgrade the RAM - 4GB and 500GB 7200rpm HD. Just got my battery and top case replaced by apple last december. The speed never bothered me.
 
All of mine have lasted exactly 31 months, which in each case has conveniently coincided with a major update; MBP (Intel), uMBP, rMBP.
 
I'm seeing a lot of working iBook G3s on ebay in working condition. Thats abot 10-11 years :)

Oldest we have here is a late 2006 imac (6 years, still goin strong), and my laptop is a late 08... 4 years old and it works great.
 
My BlackBook had been my daily use machine... about four years of very heavy use. Just replaced it last month with a new MacBook Pro, but it still works beautifully and I could certainly see it running usefully for another couple of years.
 
I have a 5 year old MBP that is still working pretty great (using it to type this post). It still is plenty fast enough to do things like surf the internet, email, type documents, etc. It is a very usable computer IMO, even though it's somewhat old.
 
I hope to get probably 5 years out of my current laptop (2010 13" mbp).

I'll "upgrade" maybe a year from now and get an SSD so I can push off the "upgrade bug" a bit longer :)
 
These are all great numbers. I mostly wanted to know how long under average use (meaning not dropped, water damage or any thing else like that) will the Macs keep working before they burn out. I use get a New PC every 3-4 years usually, more often than not I wanted to switch at the 3 year mark but made it last till 4. So 5 years with a Macbook sound sweet.
 
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I'm on a 5-year replacement cycle. My 12" Powerbook made it 5 years, and my current Macbook is 4.5 years old.

At this point in time, I don't need a new computer. But I really want one. So it's just a matter of fighting off the impulse.
 
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