I have an M1 Pro 14" MBP and I love it. I will try to ride this one as long as I can, but typically I upgrade every three years. With the Intel Macbooks I felt it was necessary for my workload. With Apple silicon, it's a different story. My laptop feels as fast as it does the day I bought it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How long are you keeping your machines for?
- Thread starter Al Rukh
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That is what I felt for years with the Mac Pro 2010. The first Mac I had that felt as fast as when I first purchased it years later. Never had a desire to upgrade for speed or everyday tasks.
Keep them all. They get retired but then I can use them to do secondary stuff like running my direct tv or apple tv content etc, whilst I work on the current ones. Trade in value after 4 or 5 years is insufficient encouragement to trade them in. Apple gear is well made.
They probably aren't by the time you take reliability figures into account. Apple equipment is well made and reliable.
I have had a Refurbed M1Pro MacBook Pro 14 for just over a year. Because of a stupid mistake I made, I no longer have AC+. and I am not allowed to renew it. While there is nothing at all wrong with the device, I am wondering what to do:
Would it be best to trade it in for a new warrantied MB Air M3, an Apple refurb M3Pro MBP, or just hang on to it and hope that nothing goes wrong?
Any thoughts or advice to offer?
Well the MBA seems like a downgrade to me - you’re giving up OLED and superior speaker system for the M3 that’s fast, but not that you’re gonna notice it day to day basis.
If money is the least of your concern, I would suggest you trade in for a refurb M3 Pro MBP. Or, you can sell the M1 Pro MBP in the used market for more money to fund your next purchase. There’s no wrong decisions here.
I have an M2 Air 13". My previous Apple laptop was the first gen (2007) Intel MacBook--the one with the white plastic body--not the unibody--that fell apart and discolored. The M2 Air is the best laptop I've ever owned.
To be fair I may have had a couple of Windows machines in between those...
To be fair I may have had a couple of Windows machines in between those...
My current laptop is a M1 MBA, and I plan to keep it until 2025 at least (fingers crossed). The form factor and battery life are just right for me. That would put it at ~4 years.
Before that, I had a quad i9 Intel Macbook Pro and it was hot and noisy. I think I had it for a relatively short time (on the order of a year), and switched to Apple Silicon as soon as I could.
I still have my old 2015 15" Macbook Pro ... one of the best laptops Apple ever made. I was using it heavily until a few months ago to test software against earlier versions of macOS, so you could say that one's been used for ~9 years.
Before that, I had a quad i9 Intel Macbook Pro and it was hot and noisy. I think I had it for a relatively short time (on the order of a year), and switched to Apple Silicon as soon as I could.
I still have my old 2015 15" Macbook Pro ... one of the best laptops Apple ever made. I was using it heavily until a few months ago to test software against earlier versions of macOS, so you could say that one's been used for ~9 years.
Last edited:
Now that I have two of them, I can fully agree. Best laptops (except the batteries) until the 16-inch Intel and later M-series. But unlike those, these can run Mojave 10.14 and all the way back to El Capitan 10.11. So I don't have any software issues with these since they can run whatever may be needed. I currently have them running Mojave and Monterey and working great.
Considering that I also still have a Late 2013 MacBook Pro, I’m planning on keeping my 15 inch M2 MacBook Air for a long time. Yes, I bought it a month before the M3 Airs came out, but I couldn’t pass up the deals Best Buy had
I would keep the notebook and setup a fund or seperate account for the Apple insurance payments that Apple will no longer accept from you.
The probability is that nothing will go wrong for many years. If it does, you'll have that fund to assist you, either chucking the machine or getting it repaired.
I had a 16.2" MacBook Pro M3 Max 1TB/36 notebook and returned it within the two weeks. I still have a protective case for it. I thought the 1 TB was just too small for long term keeping the notebook. 1 TB machines were discounted at the time. I still use a 15.4" 2017 MacBook Pro 4 core i7 unit with its extra 4MB GPU.
I found the 16.2" bulky and heavier than I expected. The screen did not seem bigger than my 15.4". I never saw the benefits of it being potentially brighter either. Its battery life was awesome though. For day to day tasks it felt no faster than the old 2017 unit does. I was surprised how bulky and cumbersome the 16.2" felt, and it also felt heavy compared to the 15.4" thin at the edges MacBook Pro. But I have always wanted an SD slot in a notebook too ... I realised there is a price to pay for that - a more bulky notebook. While the 14" is better value, I reckon a 14" screen would be a big let down for me.
I am thinking I may replace my 2010 twin CPU 5,1 MacPro with a Studio, and buy a 15" MacBook Air. The 15" air is compact, has a good sized screen, and handles the day to day stuff.
Why low quality? My last MBP was almost 12 years old and yes I think my M3 MBA will not last that long. Not because the HW is bad but I think the SW support will stop much sooner and all those upcoming AI features will make it much sooner obsolete.
I spec'ed my 14" M1 Pro with 32GB of RAM and I push it pretty hard - with audible fans and case heat but I couldn't imagine a justification to replace it every year or yearly. The machine has just been so good at handling the workload. The case is creaky and the keyboard feels a bit worn, but the battery life is still strong and it handles my 61MP raw files and videos like a champion. It's in use 10-14 hours per day on average.
When I purchased it I was thinking the M3 generation would be my next jump but I'm now thinking M5 or M6 unless I start experiencing a hardware failure. I was always an annual or every other year purchaser in the G4/intel years.
I'm genuinely interested in what people do with their machines that the M1 Pro/Max/Ultra is greatly improved upon with the latest generation.
I have just finished to replace my left speaker on my MacBook Pro 17' from 2010 to have a perfect System again.
Since Open Core Legacy Patcher released the fix to have full supported GPU on the Nvidia 330M chip, my systems runs completely perfect again with the latest macOS Monterey.
Coming up on 15 years now.
This is what's good for the environment. And what is hated by Apple
Same on my heavy lifter Mac Pro 5.1
Sorry Apple. I love your older Systems. And I can't stand Apple pretending being environmental friendly, while at the same time shortening the product live cycle every single year and designing products that can't be upgraded any more.
Since Open Core Legacy Patcher released the fix to have full supported GPU on the Nvidia 330M chip, my systems runs completely perfect again with the latest macOS Monterey.
Coming up on 15 years now.
This is what's good for the environment. And what is hated by Apple
Same on my heavy lifter Mac Pro 5.1
Sorry Apple. I love your older Systems. And I can't stand Apple pretending being environmental friendly, while at the same time shortening the product live cycle every single year and designing products that can't be upgraded any more.
OK - I have a 2017 MacBook Pro and a 5,1 ... but as far as the environment goes, the 5,1 chews a lot of CO2 compared to Apple Silicon. And it's the 3rd party software that demands the latest security upgrades, and those will stop in a couple of years for Intel Macs. That's not really Apple's fault from various perspectives. And Apple's hardware profits likely comes from phones and notebooks. Which benefit from Apple Silicon.And the unified memory benefits power consumption and weight - both phone and notebook benefits. I would be happy with Apple if they had a policy to upgrade Apple Silicon storage and memory. Since they do not, it makes me angry at Apple. I'm uncertain though about them being environmentally evil, because I reckon the rest of the intel/AMD boxes are much worse environmentally than what Apple produces.
I am on 2018 MacBook Pro and I change when it no longer support the latest OS
Yap, I guess you are correct on that. It’s a mixed bag. Currently I really need to keep the old devices to fund other projects. I was granted some federal bonus last year to build solar panels with a small power wall and a wall charger. Half of it is already installed, the second service team will finish once a critical component becomes available. In Europe we have no choice, because of the Ukraine conflict with Russia. I am basically in War prepping mode, - kind of.
If you’ve ever taken some business classes, you may have studied Apple, and in all these classes you’d have learned the real competitive advantage of Apple. Apple is not a high tech company. Their main business doesn’t focus on quality or high tech but on marketing. Their point of differentiation and their whole value proposition lies in marketing. This encompasses all from the box in which the device gets delivered and how it feels, and material the device is made of and how it feels and looks, its design, the brand image and the emotions it is associated with, such as the brand's irreverent attitude.
This is what you’ll read in business books. This is the actual business Apple is in.
The problem is we have monopolies in this field. And therefore no competition. We don’t have real capitalism here. The government should break this and give way to more liberalism. Software should be more liberal and more easily integrated globally and hardware monopolies should be broken to drastically lower the real price of hardware.
Had some different milage on MacBooks en powerbooks.
My 2003 G4 powerbook was used (by me) for about 4 or 5 years. When the Intels took over the G4 just was left behind in functionality and speed, it showed its age quickly. Then an early core2 MacBook Pro, which served me well for 2 years before it got stolen. Then I've tried an Air, which was underpowered (CPU and memory) and sold quickly.
in 2010 I bought a MacBook Pro which was a dream to me, had upgradable parts (memory and storage) and served me until 2019, then the second battery died and was left behind with macOS updates (this was by far the best MacBook for me). The 2019 MacBook Pro which followed was the biggest disappointment to me, the Touch Bar was not only useless to me but an actual nuance in my daily usage, with unintended light touches it always interfered and never did anything useful while taking function keys which I actually did use. The security enclave gave headaches in earlier software but those dissolved, and the keyboard being better still not great .. after only 2 years I stoped using it, it's still collecting dust an expensive disappointment
Now on a MacBook Pro m1, apart from a dent in the case of the screen (own fault) it's great, keyboard, performance, screen, speed in every way it resembles the MPB 2010... hope it's still my main laptop in 2029 or maybe 2030
My 2003 G4 powerbook was used (by me) for about 4 or 5 years. When the Intels took over the G4 just was left behind in functionality and speed, it showed its age quickly. Then an early core2 MacBook Pro, which served me well for 2 years before it got stolen. Then I've tried an Air, which was underpowered (CPU and memory) and sold quickly.
in 2010 I bought a MacBook Pro which was a dream to me, had upgradable parts (memory and storage) and served me until 2019, then the second battery died and was left behind with macOS updates (this was by far the best MacBook for me). The 2019 MacBook Pro which followed was the biggest disappointment to me, the Touch Bar was not only useless to me but an actual nuance in my daily usage, with unintended light touches it always interfered and never did anything useful while taking function keys which I actually did use. The security enclave gave headaches in earlier software but those dissolved, and the keyboard being better still not great .. after only 2 years I stoped using it, it's still collecting dust an expensive disappointment
Now on a MacBook Pro m1, apart from a dent in the case of the screen (own fault) it's great, keyboard, performance, screen, speed in every way it resembles the MPB 2010... hope it's still my main laptop in 2029 or maybe 2030
Last edited:
1) My first Mac was the 2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro. In 2020 the original motherboard began to fall apart and a tech guy swapped it out with a 2011 motherboard he had laying around. I gave that Mac away to my brother, but now I'm thinking of getting it back and putting Ubuntu Linux on it.
2) I then got the 2020 Intel MacBook Pro as the previous one was beach-balling too much before I figured out the real cause (dying battery), and I got just under 8 full years out of the 2012 one. If I had figured out the battery issue in the 2012 one early on, I could have gotten by with it long enough to get the M1 MBP a few months later. Oh well.
Now that I have more disposable income and have been jealously eyeing Apple Silicon all this time, I'm very likely to get an M4 MacBook of some sort when those are released, so that would be maybe 4 and a half years or so for this 2020 Intel MBP I'm typing on.
2) I then got the 2020 Intel MacBook Pro as the previous one was beach-balling too much before I figured out the real cause (dying battery), and I got just under 8 full years out of the 2012 one. If I had figured out the battery issue in the 2012 one early on, I could have gotten by with it long enough to get the M1 MBP a few months later. Oh well.
Now that I have more disposable income and have been jealously eyeing Apple Silicon all this time, I'm very likely to get an M4 MacBook of some sort when those are released, so that would be maybe 4 and a half years or so for this 2020 Intel MBP I'm typing on.
I had iBooks and Powerbooks for a couple of years each and later I bought Macbook and used for 2 years. The next one was a Black Macbook (One or the most beautiful MacBooks in my opinion) for three years. Next one was a MacBook Pro 13" Which I replaces with a 2015 MBP Retina. I had it until 2022 which I replaced with a 16" M1Pro. As I needed more portability, I went for a 14" M1P. I will replace this only if it can't run latest or second latest macOs.