How long should a laptop last?

The reason I said laptop is that unlike a typical desktop that has the capacity for upgrades, most traditional laptops do not. Therefore, it's important to have some idea on what kind of return you should expect to get on your investment. How many years should your laptop last?

 

Depends how much you pay for it.

With the notebooks I buy, which are usually $1800+, I demand atleast 3 years lifespan for it. I usually sell them after 1-2 years anyway, but I haven`t heard any complains from my buyers so I guess they last for quite some time
If you buy a $600 notebook you have no reason to complain if the buttons detach after a year, or if the battery is reduced to 50% etc. You get what you pay for.

 

Ah, then you're the atypical buyer: You buy it, us it, then get rid of it before it gets too old or anything goes wrong?

I'm not entirely convinced of that. Hence the thread.

 

I tend to replace my notebooks after ~3 years (by choice), but ideally it should be able to last 4-5 years.

Asking this type of question on this forum will probably give you a skewed response though since most people responding to this thread tend to buy laptops more expensive than the average consumer, and generally take care of said laptop.

 

If that's turns out to be the consensus then I got my money's worth. Everything has an expiration date. I'm just not sure what that is for the laptop yet?

 

I expect 3 years, but i've gotten 6 out of my old Toshiba M40, my N50 is getting pretty darn close to 4 years (some minor wear and tear as well as mouse button top layer peeling a little), my G73 has passed the 2 years and a half and is still going. I do not baby my laptops, but i am careful with them and make sure they're free of dust.

 

There is no reason why a notebook shouldn't last for a decade or more - just depends on what the user expects out of it.

Sure, such an old computer is basically a glorified typewriter - but nevertheless; it should still work.

I agree with the 'you get what you pay for' statement too - my systems last 3 to 5 years easily (with RAM, O/S and HDD/SSD upgrades) - but for the system to be worth the time and $$ to upgrade; it must be at a certain level.

(And $600 is not that level).

Spend $2K and expect around half a decade - this has been the 'norm' for a very long time, ime.

 

Depends if you have person/place to pass it down, all computer me and my family brought still runs in different place of the house.(oldest one is like 6 years, none cost more than 1k each) Though I have used 3 laptop in around 5 years.

 

My (once) cheapo Acer is still going strong - 4,5 years (5+ years old model) and counting. I wasn't expecting anything at all, but I'm more than happy with it. I hope that it would last at least a decade I'm looking at 8740w (16:10, MXM, DreamColor... oh yeah), but it doesn't mean that I'll ditch my 5920G.

 

It's a pretty generic question that's hard to answer because it depends completely on the laptop, performance expectations etc. As far as longevity before an acceptable amount of time for it to fail, I think 4-5 years is reasonable. Even if a laptop performs fine after a couple years, I find the improvements in technology from the displays, to I/O (i.e. USB, thunderbolt, etc), to just overall RAM and CPU greatly outperforms the older tech significantly. I see users taking out 4 or 5 year warranties on their laptops for what amounts to as much as half the cost of the laptop, which I find ridiculous. In two years time, that laptop will have lost 50-60% of its value. If the mainboard has to be replaced, it usually costs close to the amount to buy a new entry level laptop that will likely out perform the "aged" laptop. IMHO you're better to pocket the money from that warranty, throw it in the bank, and put it in a fund for your next laptop.

I had a Sony laptop that lasted over 7 years and sold it on eBay for ~ $200, lol. But it was far from "ideal". It worked for email and MS Word/Excel and that was about it. Too slow for most web tech (Flash,etc).

 

A better question would be how long before it becomes obsolete. I have a laptop that takes forever to run CS5, yet my M18x can do the same process in a matter of seconds.

 

But again, it all depends on the use. For a gamer it's one thing, for a casual user, it's completely another. I can see easily getting by with an i3 or i5 Ivy Bridge laptop for 4 years if all you mainly do is consume web content, media (videos, music), and do basic word processing tasks. But beyond that, any type of gaming will destroy that "obsolete" curve.

 

My Dell 1537 was top of the line back in 2009 with the T9900 processor and 8GB of RAM. Today’s programs require at least a quad core which you did mention. Now how long will it take for Intel to release a chip that is an eight core and programs will be right behind it.

 

Isn't this kind of a silly question? I mean there are a lot of different ways to interpret it but I would think by "last" you mean until some part of the motherboard or maybe the CPU fails? Obviously no notebook was electronically designed to fail, ever. Just my 2 cents.

 

My cousin is still using HP Omnibook 6000. I'm not sure, but I'd say it is around 12-13 years old now.

P3-850, 512MB ram and XP. It'll do basic websurfing and email, so she hasn't seen the need to downgrade from 15" 1400x1050

 

Really depends on the specific model and usage, as HTWingNut said. With that said though, my $430 Toshiba Satellite only lasted my 2 years (won't charge anymore, nor turn on with the charger plugged in). My W520 has only been in my hands for about a year and a half so far, but already I've dropped it or otherwise abused it to hell plenty of times without damage. Expecting to use it for at least 4 years, if not longer. I do have a 3yr TPP warranty on it though, just in case (and it was on sale, so why not?).

 

Hmm. I wonder if Lenovo made a decision to keep more durability and structural integrity at less weight by not using MXM in their 15.6" systems, thereby making them last longer physically but not last as long performance wise.

 

And yet you answered it quite satisfactorily? I think in car terms: The engine can run well, but it won't be worth much if the body rots out.

Just when we think we've got this answered, you open up another can of worms. Sure I can get a new car with more power, better conveniences and more features, but will it get me to my destination any sooner? Well yes, but is speed necessarily factor? Ever try ray-tracing with a competent GPU? The HDX can run CS5 (as long as you're reasonable) but put in CS6 and you can hear the bones begin to creak.

In any event, you hit on exactly why I asked the question. My 4 year old HDX purrs like a kitten (it has a rough start though) but because of my locked in video card, it won't run the the latest software I need. On the casual side, I'd likely be fine able to get another 2 or 3 years before structural integrity failed. I'd be okay with that.

When you go to games all bets are off since they have virtually unlimited potential. Can anyone ever keep up?

 

There is no reason to think a 'cheap' buy is inherently inferior in terms of durability.

I still do 3d design, gaming, and everything else on the laptop in my signature which is 4 years old now.
Granted, I did upgrade the RAM, HDD and CPU for a low price in the interim, but it works just fine.

As for gaming... that really depends on what kind of games you play.
I don't bother with most 'top titles' because I find them incredibly boring and uninteresting.
The games I play don't have high system requirements (enough for me to run them fine on high settings) because they were released some time ago, but at the same time, there were several ones released recently that grabbed my attention and run just fine too: Mass Effect series (plays fine on my laptop), Darksiders 1 & 2 (the sequel behaving a bit more choppy in certain areas because its horribly optimized compared to the first part), Batman Arkham Asylum (still hadn't played Arkham City), Torchlight 1 & 2.
But these days I still find myself playing more of the VERY old games (from DOS, Win 98 and early XP days) such as Birth of the Federation, KOTOR 1&2, The DIG, ST TNG A final Unity, etc..

So gaming really depends on what you play.
That of course doesn't take into account 3d design and for example Photoshop you can do... most of which CAN be done on 4 year old systems without issues (depending on how you use those programs in the first place). Rendering on Max may take a while longer, but at the same time, if you mostly do presentations that involve a single scene render, then it's ok (plus setting up the render is important since you can cut back a lot of render time on that alone).

In the end, it depends on what you do with the system and what your expectations are, but one could expect for a laptop to last about 4 or 5 years (probably less if you play everything under the sun) before an upgrade is needed (and even that depends on how much change there was on the hardware side of things).

 

Even with the upgraded parts, it's still an Acer Aspire, and won't last long with a lot of physical abuse, so still not really durable. That's the qualifications I had in mind for length of a laptop life; as for components and usage, pretty much any laptop 4+ years old will still do for the majority of people.

 

How long before it becomes obsolete? Just as fast as a desktop.

How long before it breaks? Depends on the build quality (i.e. make/model) of the laptop.

My Dell Vostro 1400 just took a nosedive (I think the mobo died) after 5 years of heavy usage. It has been technologically obsolete for some time, but had it not died, I would have kept using it for years to come.

But just to give an idea of how obsolete it was: the netbook I'm currently using (as a temporary replacement) has more powerful integrated graphics (HD 6290) than my Vostro's integrated graphics (GMA X3100). The difference is marginal, but it's there. The CPU, though, is obviously much slower (AMD C-60 vs. Core 2 Duo T5470). But, given this netbook has a whopping 4 GB of RAM, it actually runs very well, so long as you're not running any Flash (the CPU just can't seem to keep up with it).

Meh.

 

What kind of an 'physical abuse' are you talking about?
I don't hit it (nor the keyboard), and I am careful to not throw it on the floor.

To be mindful of something - no laptop will suffer through extensive physical abuse if you hit it or generally mistreat it because they are ALL being made of 'cheap' materials to begin with.
However, putting some care into the thing will make it last a LONG time.

My very old Dell Inspiron 1350 (I think) with a Celeron M, upgraded RAM to 2GB and 160GB HDD, still works after 6 years (granted, it needed a backlight replacement 2 years after initially getting it, but that was mostly because it fell on the floor twice by accident - its been 4 years since the upgrades and backlight replacement and it still works fine).
Either way, both my parents use the thing from time to time for light tasks mostly (web browsing, email, internet banking and MS Office).

 

My current notebook is coming up on 10 years (i think - it may be closer to 8, it was my Dad's first), and it still works. It's not fast, and is particularly frustrating. But I can run all the office programs I need to (ms office 2007), chrome, spotify and foobar (usually all at once) and minecraft. The lag is getting a lot worse, but up until a year or two ago, it was much much faster than the computers we had at school.

However, I am pretty happy that I have a new clevo being shipped to me right now

 

I expect the notebook to last the length of the warranty period - for my current notebook, it's coming up on its second year out of three. So far, so good.

 

5 years.

and if the laptop can not make it past 3 years then IMO it's a fail in terms of a good purchase.

 

I would say it depends on the user, and what he/she uses the laptop for. I would expect an expensive laptop to last at least four years.

 

If the system lasts 'only' as long as the warranty - it failed imo too - even if the warranty is 7 years or more.

If the system 'dies' in any way shape or form of it's own accord (and was not misused/abused/overclocked/etc.) before a decade passes (even if the original owner is not using it any more...); it was a poor choice for a system.

If the system continues to work as it originally did when new, but fails to be fast enough, have enough capacity and/or doesn't support new standards (wireless/usb/esata/etc.) then it is honourably discharged from service and remembered favorably for years/decades to come.

(And ideally; that should be the only reason we should 'need' to buy new systems for...).

 

The two biggest culprits of failures in some of my previous laptops were hard drives errors and the video card overheating (Dell Inspiron 1420 debacle). But these days, with laptop batteries being non-replaceable, they laptop could last 3 years or more, but they could have half the battery power or less by that time. That's why in my next laptop, which will likely be a Haswell model in 2013, I will definitely look at only laptops with replaceable batteries.

 

How long should a notebook last? Alot of conditions apply, whether it's abused/beat up, how long it is before it is considered obsolete, etc. My Vostro 1500 has seen it's share of abuse, and once I complete my WUXGA swap and rebuild, it will be back in order as a backup laptop. I have an old D600 from 2004 that is used as a fileserver/print server. How long before notebooks are considered obsolete? The moment you buy it as Intel already has plans up to 2016 on their current processor lineup. Whatever you buy today will be outdated in 1 year, far surpassed in 2 years. Notebooks should last at least 2-3 years I should think, but of course alot of factors influence that too, was the initial build quality of the notebook good (299 Acer vs a 800 dollar Dell Latitude). Does it have features that will make it more durable, ie Lenovo's magnesium roll cage, LCD rollcage, use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics and not milk chocolate tray plastics.

I think in terms of durability wise and usage wise, it should last at least 2-3 years before it is retired from major duty and repurposed, or you can resell the computer before the next generation and pray for the best..

 

I would say 4 years at least.

My old Pavilion lasted 6 years, not a single issue except for a burned motherboard (my fault I flashed the wrong BIOS ) but eventually I had to replace it, really it was too old technology wise.

I bought my XPS in 2010 and still going strong, I will "squeeze" it until the GPU will play games in 720p with everything low..lol...

 

We aren't talking about Toughbooks here, so every other laptop should be able to handle it's fair share of abuse, some more, some less. As an Acer owner I can say that mine has been put through good amount of abuse and it's still here. Even though most of you are braging about the built quality, the allmighty magnesium and etc. how many of you have dropped/kicked yours, intentionally, just to check the structural rigidity?

 

I've seen an elitebook survive falling down the stairs. The HDD was toast, but that's it, barely a scratch too.

 

Problematic question. You have different tiers of expectation regarding the price paid. The lower the price the lower the expectation. However you have to create a dynamic metric, otherwise it wont fit in that described expectations model.

However this brings us a question the higher the price the higher the hardware/quality?

The problem in the 2nd assertion is that you are expecting a higher power hardware from a higher price, you dont get that on ultrabooks for example. Quality is a total different can of worms, it can be build quality, fit and finish, better power utilization, better component selection and the list goes on.

So what can we come up with this:

Consumer models - consumable goods - warranty time
Enterprise class models - semi permanent goods/ investment - past warranty time
Enthusiast - get a better hobby , we have an obesity crisis right now, I advise running (reminds me that I have to run) - next change of hardware

There are other problems in this theory like the low end consumer models and the high end consumer models, for the former I dont even expect it to last the warranty time, and when they do I vouch for their price/benefit ratio and tell everyone how they are overpaying everything, for the high end consumer models I only expect that I should give them to my grandchildren and when they dont, I tell everyone how bad that company is, how they make terrible notebooks.

The paradoxal extremists behaviour are observable and quite realistic. They still play their role in what determines the expectations. In the end lets say a OEM A builds only entry level consumer products, and OEM B produces high end consumer products.

If A builds a better than comparatively average quality consumer products we are going to think that B is overpriced.

If B builds almost enterprise grade level of products we also expect that we the elite are going to have a tremendous boost in performance compared to A, when we discover that it aint the case we praise the quality or say that we overpaid

As always the best strategy for B is to create demand based on desire, it doesnt matter that I cant even pay for A, but I want B, and I want it because the design is interesting, the build quality is better, the support is excelent, the machine is powerful... Its still going to do every task that A could do, but you still want that.

So I still think that this:

Consumer models - consumable goods - warranty time
Enterprise class models - semi permanent goods/ investment - past warranty time
Enthusiast - get a better hobby , we have an obesity crisis right now, I advise running (reminds me that I have to run) - next change of hardware

is true and verifiable, and foremost I expect that higher quality consumer items emerge more and more, given the consumerization of IT.

 

Here's my .02 cents. I think a lot depends on how the owner takes care of the laptop and that means maintaining and dusting out the laptop. Here are few things one should do if need be to do far from the laptop just dying because of age or component failures. IMO

1. Not abusing or mishandling their laptop!
2. Dusting out of the laptop from dust bunnies(a must do if you never done it before)
3. Reapplying the thermal paste on CPU and GPU(if it has a dedicate GPU)
4. Reinstall the O/S and apps
5. Replace HDD or SSD and or batteries, or keyboard
6. Some times LCD needs replacement(but sometimes it does cost so that should also be a factor to replace to just get a new laptop)
7. Sometimes Ebay if one can find it can get inexpensive used parts to keep a laptop working far beyond it useful age(but motherboard replacement should be a consideration if replace or get new laptop)


There might be more but that what comes to mind right now as I have fixed some laptop and they are still working and functionng. And if all this is done and the laptop still goes to the heap then that means you most likely have used the laptop to it's potential right up to its lifespan usage. Time for a replacement.....

 

@StormJumper, agree with all that. point 1 is way above all others. point 2 is also essential but always overlooked and never mentioned in any user handbook.
i have had my acer aspire 6920g for 4 years now. it looks as good new. the only part that actually failed was the replacement upgraded graphics card which was an engineering sample from ebay. even that lasted 2 years. original one is back in there again. just ordered my 3rd battery only because the last (cheap) one was only lasting about 15 mins
i have swapped and changed the harddisks and have at least 15 partitions and 7 or 8 os's on there.
just be nice to your laptop
i am always surprised/dissapointed at how many people replace their laptop because "it is really slow now"
hmm let me see, 15 trojans/virus and a whole ton of malware and adverts, and 3 screen fulls of startup programs.
ok, sure, buy another one...