6 ms·

I just replaced my MacBook Late 2013 after similar usage. No repairs, no hiccups or any component failure whatsoever except for a very badly degraded battery -

I just replaced my MacBook Late 2013 after similar usage. No repairs, no hiccups or any component failure whatsoever except for a very badly degraded battery - it lasted about 1.5 hours on a full charge at the end. There’s a lot to be said about Apple but honestly I don’t see any other manufacturers that produce laptops that last so insanely long. Hopefully my new one will last as long as well :)

myth_drannon 6y ago
Dell's business line models are very good. I still use my Latitude from 2010, 10 years of heavy usage. It cost 2000$ but well worth it.
thedjinn 6y ago
I'm on a 2012 MBP with similar experiences. Every year I think about finally replacing it, but hold off on it because everything still works fine apart from some increased fan noise and reduced battery capacity (which doesn't concern me too much). If you treat your laptop with care it really does last a long time. At some point I expect I will stop getting MacOS updates which will force me to upgrade to a newer model.
- galuano1 6y ago
  Another happy mid 2012 MBP owner here. I am happy that I could upgrade the RAM as soon as I bought it to 16GB, and replaced the HDD with SSD after 5 years, and have replaced batteries twice. Running 10.15 without any problems. The screen hinge has loosened, but nothing a screw driver and ifixit couldn't fix.
- jkestner 6y ago
  I’m still running my 2010 MBP (it was worth maxing out the config, and I've replaced the optical drive with an SSD), though recently I bought a 2009 Mac Pro for my main machine. The MBP has fallen several feet into a concrete shop floor with only a squished corner in that milled aluminum case, and is on its third or fourth battery (I should stop cheaping out). I did splurge a few years ago on a replacement keyboard when the original's PCB traces started corroding. That's one of the first parts they integrated to the detriment of its repairability. With a tweak I was able to get Mojave on it, and another tweak to get Xcode to compile for iOS 13 on it. That should do me for a while, until either the video cable exposed through a hinge breaks, or they can’t get the latest iOS to compile on it. But I’m loathe to get a machine that won’t let me keep it alive the next 10 years. Intel CPUs haven’t advanced that much since this machine's 2.66x4 i7. The video probably hurts more. It points to a future where we can just expect to put some money into maintaining our computing machinery instead of consuming it like it's a service. But given that John Deere has moved this way, I’m not hopeful that computers will go back that way. Support right-to-repair bills!
  - scraft 6y ago
    I have an Early 2011 MBP which I stopped using precisely because it couldn't get Mojave and therefore couldn't run the latest Xcode and therefore couldn't build for iOS 13. When I searched it sounded like any hacked upgrades would leave the graphics in a pretty poor state and it sounded like it just wouldn't be worth it. So I am curious on your results?
  - acjohnson55 6y ago
    > I’m still running my 2010 MBP (it was worth maxing out the config, and I've replaced the optical drive with an SSD), though recently I bought a 2009 Mac Pro for my main machine. The MBP has fallen several feet into a concrete shop floor with only a squished corner in that milled aluminum case, and is on its third or fourth battery (I should stop cheaping out). I did splurge a few years ago on a replacement keyboard when the original's PCB traces started corroding. That's one of the first parts they integrated to the detriment of its repairability. Exact same story here. I finally bought a Lenovo last fall after giving up hope that Apple would make a machine I could also get 3TB into. I still use the old MBP for photo management.
zomglings 6y ago
Thinkpads last insanely long, too. I have a Thinkpad that I purchased in early 2014 that is still going strong except for, as in your case, a degraded battery. My grandparents used to play Freecell on a very early IBM Thinkpad (manufactured in 1993, I think) that I picked up for free in a garage sale in 2001. This machine lasted well into 2005, and probably still works today. Highly recommend trying them out. These days you can get equivalent performance to Macbook Pros for maybe 60% of the cost.
- dmd 6y ago
  I have a mid-90s Compaq laptop that still works.
  - timbit42 6y ago
    But do you use it daily as your primary system?
- ryukafalz 6y ago
  >I have a Thinkpad that I purchased in early 2014 that is still going strong except for, as in your case, a degraded battery. Fortunately most ThinkPads of this era had removable batteries, so this isn't as big of a deal as it would be for most laptops today. I'm currently using an X230 that I bought off eBay as my main personal laptop; it needed a new battery when I got it, but otherwise works great.
  - soperj 6y ago
    I'm using a x230 as well, where'd you purchase your battery? mine's nearly done I feel.
    - bestnameever 6y ago
      I find it pretty difficult to buy a reliable laptop battery unless I can get it from the mfg.
    - ryukafalz 6y ago
bitwize 6y ago
Back in 2006, all my coworkers bought brand new MacBooks. Within a month, all those MacBooks were in the shop for repairs/parts replacement. I bought a $900 Compaq. Aside from the occasional cleaning, that thing worked for ten years plus. 2006 had a bad run of MacBooks, so this is not an indictment of Apple equipment in general. But Apple equipment is not universally particularly durable, nor is Apple the only vendor to make durable laptops. They've taken a lot of shortcuts recently, and currently they've set the expected service lifetime of a new MB at around four years.
Hamuko 6y ago
I just replaced the battery on my early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro. The original battery gave out ages ago and so did the Chinese aftermarket battery. Other than replacing the battery and replacing the old 320 GB 5400 RPM HDD with a Samsung SSD, there's not really been any issues with it. I was actually surprised how usable the computer still was after all this time, although the thermals suck quite hard. I imagine the 2011 thermal paste is nigh on useless at this point. Granted, I don't use the laptop much these days, but it'd still serve for basic browsing when needed.
spookybones 6y ago
I'm reading this on a late 2012 Macbook.
- pseudoramble 6y ago
  Same here! My main change was getting an SSD. If you're in this boat, I highly recommend it. If I wanted to really push it, upgrading to 8GB of RAM would probably make it work extremely well. It's nice to have things that run well with relatively small changes.
  - neurostimulant 6y ago
    Upgraded mine to 16gb ram and ssd years ago. I also replaced the battery last year. My only wish is to have more cores, but otherwise it's working fine. I wonder if the current MBP lineups can last 8 years of constant software development use like this 2012 model.
ajtjp 6y ago
Dell, HP, and IBM produce(d) some really good models, too. Precisions, EliteBooks, ThinkPads. Even some of the mid-tier ones will last quite awhile, and if not quite 7 years, a lot of them are more repairable than an Apple. I still semi-frequently use a 2007 consumer-grade Dell that served as my only machine for 4.5 years, and as my primary laptop for another 5. It took six years for it to need a repair other than replacing a battery, and even today I get two hours of life from its latest replacement battery, and can swap in the next-oldest for 75-90 minutes more away from a power outlet. Apple laptops do tend to last a long time, but if my goal were to buy a laptop I could use forever, I'd buy something else that was more repair-friendly instead.
dylan604 6y ago
don't buy a 2016-2018 MBP. these have to be the worst built laptops from apple.

myth_drannon 6y ago

Dell's business line models are very good. I still use my Latitude from 2010, 10 years of heavy usage. It cost 2000$ but well worth it.

thedjinn 6y ago

I'm on a 2012 MBP with similar experiences. Every year I think about finally replacing it, but hold off on it because everything still works fine apart from some increased fan noise and reduced battery capacity (which doesn't concern me too much). If you treat your laptop with care it really does last a long time. At some point I expect I will stop getting MacOS updates which will force me to upgrade to a newer model.

galuano1 6y ago
Another happy mid 2012 MBP owner here. I am happy that I could upgrade the RAM as soon as I bought it to 16GB, and replaced the HDD with SSD after 5 years, and have replaced batteries twice. Running 10.15 without any problems. The screen hinge has loosened, but nothing a screw driver and ifixit couldn't fix.
jkestner 6y ago
I’m still running my 2010 MBP (it was worth maxing out the config, and I've replaced the optical drive with an SSD), though recently I bought a 2009 Mac Pro for my main machine. The MBP has fallen several feet into a concrete shop floor with only a squished corner in that milled aluminum case, and is on its third or fourth battery (I should stop cheaping out). I did splurge a few years ago on a replacement keyboard when the original's PCB traces started corroding. That's one of the first parts they integrated to the detriment of its repairability. With a tweak I was able to get Mojave on it, and another tweak to get Xcode to compile for iOS 13 on it. That should do me for a while, until either the video cable exposed through a hinge breaks, or they can’t get the latest iOS to compile on it. But I’m loathe to get a machine that won’t let me keep it alive the next 10 years. Intel CPUs haven’t advanced that much since this machine's 2.66x4 i7. The video probably hurts more. It points to a future where we can just expect to put some money into maintaining our computing machinery instead of consuming it like it's a service. But given that John Deere has moved this way, I’m not hopeful that computers will go back that way. Support right-to-repair bills!
- scraft 6y ago
  I have an Early 2011 MBP which I stopped using precisely because it couldn't get Mojave and therefore couldn't run the latest Xcode and therefore couldn't build for iOS 13. When I searched it sounded like any hacked upgrades would leave the graphics in a pretty poor state and it sounded like it just wouldn't be worth it. So I am curious on your results?
- acjohnson55 6y ago
  > I’m still running my 2010 MBP (it was worth maxing out the config, and I've replaced the optical drive with an SSD), though recently I bought a 2009 Mac Pro for my main machine. The MBP has fallen several feet into a concrete shop floor with only a squished corner in that milled aluminum case, and is on its third or fourth battery (I should stop cheaping out). I did splurge a few years ago on a replacement keyboard when the original's PCB traces started corroding. That's one of the first parts they integrated to the detriment of its repairability. Exact same story here. I finally bought a Lenovo last fall after giving up hope that Apple would make a machine I could also get 3TB into. I still use the old MBP for photo management.

zomglings 6y ago

Thinkpads last insanely long, too. I have a Thinkpad that I purchased in early 2014 that is still going strong except for, as in your case, a degraded battery. My grandparents used to play Freecell on a very early IBM Thinkpad (manufactured in 1993, I think) that I picked up for free in a garage sale in 2001. This machine lasted well into 2005, and probably still works today. Highly recommend trying them out. These days you can get equivalent performance to Macbook Pros for maybe 60% of the cost.

dmd 6y ago
I have a mid-90s Compaq laptop that still works.
- timbit42 6y ago
  But do you use it daily as your primary system?
ryukafalz 6y ago
>I have a Thinkpad that I purchased in early 2014 that is still going strong except for, as in your case, a degraded battery. Fortunately most ThinkPads of this era had removable batteries, so this isn't as big of a deal as it would be for most laptops today. I'm currently using an X230 that I bought off eBay as my main personal laptop; it needed a new battery when I got it, but otherwise works great.
- soperj 6y ago
  I'm using a x230 as well, where'd you purchase your battery? mine's nearly done I feel.
  - bestnameever 6y ago
    I find it pretty difficult to buy a reliable laptop battery unless I can get it from the mfg.
  - ryukafalz 6y ago

bitwize 6y ago

Back in 2006, all my coworkers bought brand new MacBooks. Within a month, all those MacBooks were in the shop for repairs/parts replacement. I bought a $900 Compaq. Aside from the occasional cleaning, that thing worked for ten years plus. 2006 had a bad run of MacBooks, so this is not an indictment of Apple equipment in general. But Apple equipment is not universally particularly durable, nor is Apple the only vendor to make durable laptops. They've taken a lot of shortcuts recently, and currently they've set the expected service lifetime of a new MB at around four years.

Hamuko 6y ago

I just replaced the battery on my early 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro. The original battery gave out ages ago and so did the Chinese aftermarket battery. Other than replacing the battery and replacing the old 320 GB 5400 RPM HDD with a Samsung SSD, there's not really been any issues with it. I was actually surprised how usable the computer still was after all this time, although the thermals suck quite hard. I imagine the 2011 thermal paste is nigh on useless at this point. Granted, I don't use the laptop much these days, but it'd still serve for basic browsing when needed.

spookybones 6y ago

I'm reading this on a late 2012 Macbook.

pseudoramble 6y ago
Same here! My main change was getting an SSD. If you're in this boat, I highly recommend it. If I wanted to really push it, upgrading to 8GB of RAM would probably make it work extremely well. It's nice to have things that run well with relatively small changes.
- neurostimulant 6y ago
  Upgraded mine to 16gb ram and ssd years ago. I also replaced the battery last year. My only wish is to have more cores, but otherwise it's working fine. I wonder if the current MBP lineups can last 8 years of constant software development use like this 2012 model.

ajtjp 6y ago

Dell, HP, and IBM produce(d) some really good models, too. Precisions, EliteBooks, ThinkPads. Even some of the mid-tier ones will last quite awhile, and if not quite 7 years, a lot of them are more repairable than an Apple. I still semi-frequently use a 2007 consumer-grade Dell that served as my only machine for 4.5 years, and as my primary laptop for another 5. It took six years for it to need a repair other than replacing a battery, and even today I get two hours of life from its latest replacement battery, and can swap in the next-oldest for 75-90 minutes more away from a power outlet. Apple laptops do tend to last a long time, but if my goal were to buy a laptop I could use forever, I'd buy something else that was more repair-friendly instead.

dylan604 6y ago

don't buy a 2016-2018 MBP. these have to be the worst built laptops from apple.