How long are you keeping your machines for?

[GoetzPhil]

I remember when I was a kid - our German washing machine lasted for 15+ years ... we drove our car for 10+ years... our TV was used for 10+ years too

Don't ask ME about the longevity of modern products! Its the modern generation plus the marketing and sales IDIOTS that invented the trash and buy new habit that kills the planet!

 

[Abazigal]

Got an M1 MBA in 2020, still going strong after 3 years. See myself using it for another 1-2 years at least. I think at this point, it's really whether Apple can entice me to upgrade with something far better. Otherwise, I will just hang on to my MBA till the way it dies.

 

[trusso]

Its the modern generation plus the marketing and sales IDIOTS that invented the trash and buy new habit that kills the planet!

The "modern generation"? Please tell me you're not talking about folks under 40. Boomers are still calling the shots around the world, and the rest of us are suffering the consequences.

But yeah, I think we're agreed that mindless, needless consumption is bad.

 

[MacHeritage]

A lot more power for what exactly? M2 Ultra and 192 GBs of RAM?
Again, a lot more power for what exactly?

For Canon RAW workflows etc. and other taxing CPU / GPU workflows (that one example uses all your CPU and GPU just to play one 8K clip). The M2 Ultra as a starter was OK but to be the only option, which is the same as the Studio, is underwhelming and now that the M3 Max is shipping, it really looks underpowered and not worth the money at all. Also no ECC and only 192GB is really poultry compared to the 2019 Mac Pro.

Hoping the M3 version will change some of this.

 

[parlem]

I make my MacBook Pros last 9-10 years. I look after them and will change the battery as necessary. But they're not cheap and for office work they can last up to that long. I'm not hugely concerned about Apple's lack of support the last few years of their life. They just coast along.

 

[smirking]

Also no ECC and only 192GB is really poultry compared to the 2019 Mac Pro.

You got that right! I cry fowl.

 

[okkibs]

With Intel I was basically forced to upgrade every 2 years and went through nearly a dozen of these as performance was always just barely not enough. The upside is that I got to know every Macbook design and how Apple evolved these devices over the past 16 or so years.

I had the GPU defective 2007 and 2008 MBPs, a 2009 Macbook (the one with a removable battery), another GPU dead 2011, a 2012 that finally was without a GPU defect but I helped that by accidentally pushing it off a desk and various retina ones where I still use the early 2015 today as the display is still better (both quality and resolution) than anything you could get used for the same price as this Mac (<$300).

The worst purchase was the 2017 MBP, within a couple months all 13" laptops with a dualcore CPU were instantly outdated by Intel doubling the core count and I sold that Mac before it had its first birthday. Not to mention the weird keys that were later known to break. Good riddance!

When Apple Silicon appeared I had just recently bought a 2020 Intel MBP. The M1 was so much faster that I immediately switched but had to go back from 32GiB to 16GiB and that meant MacOS regularly swapped itself to death. Replaced it a year later and now I finally think with the 64GiB and the power of the M1 Max I am good for a while.

Yet I already see some annoying situations for example where I'll want to convert something with ffmpeg but it's not hardware accelerated and at that point that M1 Max is slower than my 5800X. Granted that's a desktop CPU with a much more generous power envelope but I just wish the MBP could do it all even faster.

The M3 doesn't interest me without a design upgrade like switching from miniLED with its quite noticeable blooming to something improved like microLED though that is quite a few years out still (I thought the AW 10 would mark the beginning of microLED becoming mainstream next year but supposedly that's been postponed). What tempts me is doubling the memory but if I am honest my workflow doesn't really need it as it's starved by CPU performance first.

I will keep the M1 Max for as long as I can as it's finally the first Mac that has exactly as much power as I need even now 2 years after it was introduced. Since I usually hand these things down to family members I will certainly replace it early, but early here means after 4 years or so which is really long from where I am standing. The rest of the hardware is also excellent for a laptop, especially display and speakers leave little to be desired. My 2007 and 2008 MBPs I was happy to get rid of just for the horrible speaker quality. The 2012 was better but looking back at it now it was still horrible. All the 13" models were somewhat disappointing compared to the 14" and 16".

 

[mrt.plt]

Every time I get a MacBook I tell myself I'm gonna keep it for 5 years.
I kept my 2013 13" MBA for 3 years (spilled coffee on it)
I kept my 2015 13" MBP for 3 years (great machine), then got a 2015 15" MBP which I kept for about 6 months.
I got a 2018 15" MBP, kept it for about a year (worst MacBook I ever owned, constant problems)
I then got a 2019 16" MBP in 2021, also kept it about a year (This one also didn't run great), finally a 2020 MacBook Air that I kept for around 2 years; sold it because I had a work laptop already that I didn't use for work (so I basically had two laptops lying around)
Finally got a 2023 MacBook Pro with M2 Pro 12/19 and 32GB RAM. I'll definitely keep this one for at least 3 years.

Of all the Intel MacBooks I used, I felt like the 2013 MBA and 2015 MBPs had sufficient power for what they were (that MBA was surprisingly snappy despite its 4GB RAM). 2018-2019s were a disaster in my opinion, got my 2018's bottom case replaced about 4 times and the 2019 would crash in sleep mode all the time.
ARM-wise, I liked the M1 Air a lot. It was quiet, snappy and overall a great daily driver, but I needed a bigger screen and 8GB RAM was showing its downsides at times. This M2 Pro though, I haven't seen a single downside yet. I'm constantly getting 10+ hour battery life, 32GB RAM is more than enough for now (and will be fine 5 years from now) and I really like the ProMotion screen.

 

[pshufd]

I use a 2010 iMac regularly. My primary desktop is an M1 Studio + 2015 iMac 27. I buy and sell Macs to use cooperatively so I can use a newer Mac and an older Mac to use the best aspects of both machines types. I normally expect to get 10 years of use from a Mac.

 

[Queen6]

Consumer society is by far one of our worst creations as now companies no longer serve the customer producing the very best they can. Companies now look to produce what is most profitable and how to exploit the consumer to the maximum with time limited products.

As much as I like OSX am likely to flip to Linux next as not into Apple's throw away culture. Many things in this life I can tolerate hypocrisy isn't one of them.

What's worse is we all very stupidly allowed this to happen...😡

Q-6

 

[Mr. Dee]

Consumer society is by far one of our worst creations as now companies no longer serve the customer producing the very best they can. Companies now look to produce what is most profitable and how to exploit the consumer to the maximum with time limited products.

As much as I like OSX am likely to flip to Linux next as not into Apple's throw away culture. Many things in this life I can tolerate hypocrisy isn't one of them.

What's worse is we all very stupidly allowed this to happen...😡

Q-6

I use my Apple computers and devices as practical tools. I don’t change them like they are underwear. The constant chase for the faster model came with the transition to Intel and it’s just an unrealistic goal. What the heck are most of us editing to need 128 GBs or even 48 GBs of RAM? I can understand the niche user: 3D modeling, film editing, developer. But I’m reading some post, is 96 GBs enough for 32 Chrome tabs, Excel and Spotify? Even if you are an indie film maker, you could still do your work on a 2015 MacBook Pro and not necessarily worry about time. We are so saturated with content right now, the world is not somehow gonna go into chaos if you don’t get whatever project your are working completed in 1 hour to upload to YouTube where it’s gonna be lost in a sea anyway.

I get it, if you just like nice things, fine, it’s your money and you are entitled to spend it however you choose. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Cook and John Ternus are still using an M1 iPad Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro respectively.

I do understand the inertia around having the latest and greatest; and in some ways pushing the boundaries of technology. For many though, it’s starting to feel like diminishing returns. When I think about the idea of spending 4,500 on a laptop that will likely be obsolete 9 months from now, I’d rather buy some stocks. I still have Early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro, it’s slow now but does web browsing just as well as my M1 13 inch MBP.

 

[MacRazySwe]

Avg is around 3-4 years.

- 2007 MBP
- 2011 MBA
- 2013 rMBP
- 2018 rMBA
- 2020 MBA M1

I was expecting to upgrade this year, but the M1 is still amazing. We'll see if the M3 MBA can entice me next year.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I wouldn’t feel so bad about Apple releasing newer products if they kept minimal security support for older products and prevent them from entering ewaste. The 2012 retina MacBook Pro I believe could be a supported product. Sure, no new features, but at least have a Long Term Release focused on security and minimal compatibility for older hardware. Keep it out of the trash, growing the user base and showing real committment to the environment. If Ubuntu Linux and Windows 10 22H2 can run on it, I don’t see why Apple couldn’t do the same. I felt like during the PowerPC days they squeezed more OS support for their hardware or didn’t make difficult to enable support with third party tools like XpostFacto. They could even drive it in a direction where it can run web based versions of Apple software iWork using the pin to dock feature. It would still be an awesome platform to demonstrate how much more efficient Safari is over Chrome or Edge. You can bet those developers would follow suit and provide optimized versions of their apps just for this specific edition of macOS.

 

[Al Rukh]

I remember when I was a kid - our German washing machine lasted for 15+ years ... we drove our car for 10+ years... our TV was used for 10+ years too

Don't ask ME about the longevity of modern products! Its the modern generation plus the marketing and sales IDIOTS that invented the trash and buy new habit that kills the planet!

What’s your point here? When you earn enough money through hard work, it’s natural that you want to treat yourself with nice things once in a while. These things may come in the form of vacation, car, watches, phones and even laptops.

Apple is doing their best to push sales through while being environmentally friendly. They use 100% recycled aluminium for the enclosure of their notebooks.

 

[Al Rukh]

Got an M1 MBA in 2020, still going strong after 3 years. See myself using it for another 1-2 years at least. I think at this point, it's really whether Apple can entice me to upgrade with something far better. Otherwise, I will just hang on to my MBA till the way it dies.

In a few years time, we will be looking back at the M-series line of MacBooks and the M1 MBA will be remembered as the MacBook that started it all. It’s an iconic device and we will remember fondly of it.

 

[Al Rukh]

I use my Apple computers and devices as practical tools. I don’t change them like they are underwear. The constant chase for the faster model came with the transition to Intel and it’s just an unrealistic goal. What the heck are most of us editing to need 128 GBs or even 48 GBs of RAM? I can understand the niche user: 3D modeling, film editing, developer. But I’m reading some post, is 96 GBs enough for 32 Chrome tabs, Excel and Spotify? Even if you are an indie film maker, you could still do your work on a 2015 MacBook Pro and not necessarily worry about time. We are so saturated with content right now, the world is not somehow gonna go into chaos if you don’t get whatever project your are working completed in 1 hour to upload to YouTube where it’s gonna be lost in a sea anyway.

I get it, if you just like nice things, fine, it’s your money and you are entitled to spend it however you choose. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Cook and John Ternus are still using an M1 iPad Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro respectively.

I do understand the inertia around having the latest and greatest; and in some ways pushing the boundaries of technology. For many though, it’s starting to feel like diminishing returns. When I think about the idea of spending 4,500 on a laptop that will likely be obsolete 9 months from now, I’d rather buy some stocks. I still have Early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro, it’s slow now but does web browsing just as well as my M1 13 inch MBP.

I have an early 2015 13-inch MBP as well. Got it in 2018 and retired it last year for a M1 Pro MBP. The old machine was struggling. The moment I start to play a YouTube video, the entire MacBook starts to behave like an oven and everything slows down and stutters. It’s probably the thermal paste that requires replacement.

Anyway, I agree. We have reached a point where the laws of diminishing returns apply. The jump from Intel MacBooks to the M-series was huge. It’s unlikely we will ever gonna get a similar jump in experience. At this point, one is incapable of doing a mistake shopping for a MacBook now - whatever you decide to get, it’ll be good. At the end of the day, the winners are the customers.

 

[Queen6]

I use my Apple computers and devices as practical tools. I don’t change them like they are underwear. The constant chase for the faster model came with the transition to Intel and it’s just an unrealistic goal. What the heck are most of us editing to need 128 GBs or even 48 GBs of RAM? I can understand the niche user: 3D modeling, film editing, developer. But I’m reading some post, is 96 GBs enough for 32 Chrome tabs, Excel and Spotify? Even if you are an indie film maker, you could still do your work on a 2015 MacBook Pro and not necessarily worry about time. We are so saturated with content right now, the world is not somehow gonna go into chaos if you don’t get whatever project your are working completed in 1 hour to upload to YouTube where it’s gonna be lost in a sea anyway.

I get it, if you just like nice things, fine, it’s your money and you are entitled to spend it however you choose. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Cook and John Ternus are still using an M1 iPad Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro respectively.

I do understand the inertia around having the latest and greatest; and in some ways pushing the boundaries of technology. For many though, it’s starting to feel like diminishing returns. When I think about the idea of spending 4,500 on a laptop that will likely be obsolete 9 months from now, I’d rather buy some stocks. I still have Early 2015 13 inch MacBook Pro, it’s slow now but does web browsing just as well as my M1 13 inch MBP.

If engaged on an engineering project I opt for the best tool for the job be it Mac or PC. Why did I opt for the base 13"? MBP It's battery runtime is exceptional. I for one have learned that the most powerful is simply a deadweight once the battery runs dry, while those that sip power can and do pay the way well beyond their entry cost...

Similar a tool to perform a task, nothing less, nothing more...

Q-6

 

[pshufd]

I see new Mac users with questions on 2007, 2008, 2009 Macs and so there are a decent number that get recycled.

My oldest working computer is on my desk and I got it around 1977.

 

[Nyy8]

I work in the cybersecurity field and in the past probably 5 years, I would say my 2015 Macbook Pro has become basically an internet machine.

Very few things are run locally on the machine anymore and the things that are like Python scripts aren't super CPU intensive due to the efficiency's of the language, which makes it perfect as a email/web browsing/office work machine.

Honestly, the lack of OS updates is probably what is going to make me upgrade. Probably a second hand Macbook Pro M1.

 

[Totally Bored]

Apple only supports products for roughly 9 years and then they don't work well.

My 2014 iMac and 2011 MBP still work well but not so good on the internet. My favorite site won't let me on it.
My 2013 iPad Air just struggles with anything.



My 2023 M2 MBP will probably be good till 2032
My 2021 M1 iPad Pro will be probably good until 2030
My 2019 iPhone 11 will be probably good until 2028

unless they physically break, thats what I'm thinking ?

 

[Queen6]

Don't care what what Apple does and doesn't support as there are plenty of third party solutions. My 2011 MBP is rock solid on the web and has far more security than any new mac out the box...

Q-6

 

[pshufd]

Don't care what what Apple does and doesn't support as there are plenty of third party solutions. My 2011 MBP is rock solid on the web and has far more security than any new mac out the box...

Q-6

I have a local shop that can take care of any hardware stuff that I don't care to deal with.

I can take care of the operating system and software stuff myself.

There are a lot of technically-saavy people here that can keep old systems running.

 

[WC7]

One more thing ... I know it goes without saying, but I always install the latest security, system, and application updates. I feel this goes a ways to keeping my hardware good for longer or until I normally trade-in my system. So, now Sonoma is at 14.1.2 ... hopefully this will cover a few of the latest security issues! Also, I think that some of the Mac applications that come with the machines by now have been updated to the Swift language and they may run more efficiently.

 

[dpny]

Currently have a 2018 MBP. Planning on upgrading the an M3/M4 MBP next year mainly because I think the 2018s will be obsoleted with the next macOS release.

 

[jamdex]

Finally upgrading from my 2016 15" MBP to a 16" M3 Max 64gb/1TB.

This one will probably last 8 - 10 years i'd imagine