How long are you keeping your machines for?

[Al Rukh]

With Apple silicone now available for three years, is it a feasible option to upgrade yearly or maybe every other year? The specs and design upgrades are minimal, so how long do you plan to stick with your current devices before considering an upgrade?

 

[throAU]

Past has been 4-5 years. I'm on an M1 Pro, stepped from a 2015 13" Pro via a 2020 Air as a stopgap.

I suspect apple silicon will be the same - due to warranty and the passage of time vs. technological progress. The M1 Pro was a big jump, but there will be other jumps in the coming years - already in GPU (RT), wifi standards, new thunderbolt speeds, storage speed improvements, etc.

Also, I can expense one for tax purposes on a regular basis, at least every 3 years so....

 

[TheRealAlex]

With Apple silicone now available for three years, is it a feasible option to upgrade yearly or maybe every other year? The specs and design upgrades are minimal, so how long do you plan to stick with your current devices before considering an upgrade?

Keeping 14” Black M3 Max 1TB 36GB RAM with 14 Cores.
#1. Until there’s Something twice as fast On the market
#2. or Apple updates the MacBook Pros with a new dual layer QD-OLED Display in 2026

I just feel bad for M2 owners they got DUPED!

 

[Al Rukh]

Keeping 14” Black M3 Max 1TB 36GB RAM with 14 Cores.
#1. Until there’s Something twice as fast On the market
#2. or Apple updates the MacBook Pros with a new dual layer QD-OLED Display in 2026

I just feel bad for M2 owners they got DUPED!

That’s true. The M2 Pro/Max seem to be a transitional lineup after all.

 

[David1986H]

I say this every time I buy one that im keeping it for 3 years or so then buy the next one lol.

But after spending 4k on my 16" full fat M3 Max even in 5 years it'll be way more power than what I need.

Ill try hold off till 2nm comes out but we'll see.

 

[Aggedor]

M1 MBA here. I'm going for 4-5 years, which I have always done. So probably 2025 for me.

 

[revs]

I'll keep my M1 MBA until there are no more OS upgrades, or (hard to imagine) it becomes too slow.

 

[throAU]

I say this every time I buy one that im keeping it for 3 years or so then buy the next one lol.

But after spending 4k on my 16" full fat M3 Max even in 5 years it'll be way more power than what I need.

Ill try hold off till 2nm comes out but we'll see.

I plan on (i.e., budget money for) 3-4 as that's a realistic expectation before some form of hardware failure or battery degradation. if I get 5, great!

This has also been my general rule of thumb for PCs before I ran Macs, going back to 1992. 5 years really is pushing it imho.

 

[gianton]

At least 5 years

 

[JustAnExpat]

Are you using it for business purposes? Keep it until you can't write off the tax value (three years, I think) or if a new machine can save or generate more income than the existing machine.

Are you using it for pleasure? Keep it util the machine no longer is supported by Apple, or it no longer functions like it should, or a person's hobby changes.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Since start of 2023, used my MBP for 13 yrs. This M2 I'll possibly try keeping for 6-7 years.

 

[cheesygrin]

I normally keep mine for 5-6 years, but the repair costs of SoC devices is making me consider more frequent changes, so I can sell old devices while still working and holding a higher value.

 

[Gezellig]

Since the M1 arrival, I decided not to upgrade as regularly as before.

First (very controversial) reason : they killed my main machine, the 27 inch mac. Making me move to its laptop just for profit is not very rewarding as a long time customer. I understand the world I live in. Don’t have to buy into it at every turn.

Then. Their upgrade cycle, after moving to M1, was inevitably gonna make sourcing and stock issues worst, straightening their position on the market. Meaning, delaying new technologies and upgrades in search of more profit. Understandable, but I grew particularly tired of this game. Plus, they were eventually gonna pull the kind of thing they did with the M2. Updating and upgrading to save profit - not for their customers.
Again. Don’t bash me. I’m a fan boy. But I’m educated enough to see that it’s not my philosophy when it comes to the machines I use.

And last one, the ecosystem is getting worst. And they are pushing towards a « same chip bracket » kind of ecosystem in the end. So I’m thinking the good old days of Intel reselling cycle is dead. Here comes the Apple owning the reselling cycle era.
So, new tactic. I’m keeping the M1s to the point where it’s barely functional and upgrading then. Probably around the M5/6 family.

It’s a shame, but my paycheck is definitely not going up as fast as Apple’s margin. So I better get the best out of the 10k ecosystem I bought back in 2021.

Interesting thread, btw.

 

[Abdichoudxyz]

iMac G3 DV+ Summer 2000; bought Sept 2000, still got it.
MacPro 1,1; bought Sept 2006, still got it (want to get rid of it tbh). Was in use for fourteen years.
Couple of 21.5" iMacs; obtained s/h between 2012-2018, moved on.
MacMini 2012; bought s/h in 2020 as a 'stopgap', kept for legacy reasons (good to help when fixing other, older Macs, as I sometimes do).
iMac M1; bought August 2021. Intend to keep for at least another 4-5 years.

So I'd say I tend to use a Mac for around 6 years on average, before 'upgrading'.

 

[henrikhelmers]

With Apple silicone now available for three years, is it a feasible option to upgrade yearly or maybe every other year? The specs and design upgrades are minimal, so how long do you plan to stick with your current devices before considering an upgrade?

Work laptops are usually 3 years. Home machines for longer. Upgrading every year seems pointless, just the annoyance of migrating would deter me.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I normally keep mine for 5-6 years, but the repair costs of SoC devices is making me consider more frequent changes, so I can sell old devices while still working and holding a higher value.

Indeed, balancing the cost of AC+ for covering logicboard failure vs more frequent upgrades. It's a tough call. In either scenario Apple pockets our money.

Edit: with the frequency of updates seen recently, I'm thinking the resale value just won't hold as it used to?

 

[Basic75]

Is it a feasible option to upgrade yearly or maybe every other year?

Why would you want to upgrade every 1-2 years? The upgrade decision should be driven by when the tool that you have doesn't get the job done anymore, or sometimes when the new tool does the job so much better that it's worth the expense. Just counting the number of years is rarely useful.

 

[aries81]

until they no longer run properly/can't be updated/die.

 

[jbachandouris]

Kept my M1 MBP 14” 2 years. Only updated just because. My M1 is on market place.

New M3 bought yesterday. Space black. First one Best Buy got. Only one they had in stock. I’m a sucker for ‘launch day.’

 

[AJB1971]

I used to upgrade regularly, every 18 months to 2 years. My preference was to buy lightly used or refurbished models at 25–30% off and then sell them while they still had a decent resale value. That changed when Apple introduced the butterfly keyboard, and I was still using my 2013 MacBook Pro in 2021.

I’m currently using a 2020 Air and would like to upgrade soon, but it probably makes more sense to wait. The one issue at the moment is that I see Apple increasing the base RAM with the M4 chips, probably to 12GB, and I would rather have a new machine with more than 8GB.

 

[SalisburySam]

How long are you keeping your machines?​

With no more upgrade paths for those of us looking for a 27” all-in-one, apparently I’m keeping my 2017 iMac much longer than anticipated. Worse, there are no longer any newer models in the refurb’d store.

 

[splitpea]

I used to replace around 3 years because that was how fast tech advanced.

The previous one was 8 years because I was holding out for 32GB RAM in the 13” MBP, and CPU speed improvements weren’t compelling.

Current one was originally intended to tide me over 1.5-2 years (because 32GB wasn’t available quite yet but 8GB wasn’t cutting it any more) but will probably be 5-6 years because it’s good enough for what I use it for these days, and I currently have better uses for my money than new and shiny for the sake of new and shiny.

I do need to get the work computer (3 years) upgraded to an AS model sooner than later, tho. Extra power makes a difference there.

 

[SirAnthonyHopkins]

I'll keep my M1 MBA until there are no more OS upgrades, or (hard to imagine) it becomes too slow.

Same. Upgrading a computer every year is properly mental, unless you have a job which for some reason requires the absolute bleeding edge of technology all the time, and also requires you to use macOS.

 

[MacProFCP]

With Apple silicone now available for three years, is it a feasible option to upgrade yearly or maybe every other year? The specs and design upgrades are minimal, so how long do you plan to stick with your current devices before considering an upgrade?

I usually keep machines until either they don’t work for my needs; Apple ruins it with software upgrades that slows down older units, or until Apple comes out with a new machine that will increase efficiency and workflow.

I used to buy a MacPro every 2-4 years, then came 2013 Trash can with no upgrades for 7 years. Now I’m still on 2019 because the new M2 is a joke. My laptops typically lasts 3-5 years and I currently have an M2 Max.

Regular office or home machines are replaced 4-6 years as needed.

 

[Coreymac84]

Priors:
1) 2006 15" MacBook Pro.... loved that thing.
2) 2008 13" Unibody MacBook - Wanted something smaller for college.
3) 2013 13" Retina MacBook Pro
4) 2016 13" MacBook Pro with TouchBar

Currents:
5) 2021 16" MacBook Pro M1 Pro
6) 2022 13" MacBook Air M2 Midnight to be a portable companion to my 16" M1 Pro

Reallllllllyy tempted to swap out my M1 Pro for the M3 Max Space Black. Probably will in the next month or two.