Hacker News Reader

Comment by beretguy | Hacker News Reader

A much more major issue with Macs is planned obsolescence. It’s the only reason I am not buying any Macs.

My late-2013 MacBook Pro recently gave up the ghost. I'd used it daily in the ten years it worked. Are there other PC manufacturers who make laptops that are still useable after ten years?

Both desktop and laptop computers have been perfectly serviceable for that long for a while now. Computers are "good enough" for tbe overwhelming majority of tasks most users (note, most regular users, not the HN crowd) would throw at them

Desktops, I'd agree. My experience with most Windows laptops, non-Thinkpad class, is that they physically haven't been able to survive that long. Like, people rag rightly on the butterfly keyboard era of Macbook Pros, but until recently you'd see pretty drastic hinge or keyboard or touchpad or case failures on even fairly expensive laptops. Especially as you get into more slimline/ultrabook form factors; I've seen some really bludgeoned Dells and HPs in particular. (Though I liked my Spectre x360 aside from the party where it fell apart in normal everyday use.)

I recently took a 2012 rMBP out of rotation (~five years dedicated use, the last five intermittently as a Logic Pro workstation) and now it's a Kubernetes homelab node. But I took it out because Thunderbolt 3 now means I can just slot my M1 Max into my workspace and don't need a dedicated box; the keyboard, touchpad, hinge, screen, and case are all pristine, I didn't remove it due to hardware expiry.

I mean if we're playing anecdata, my spouse has been through 4 mac laptops in the same period, which have given up the ghost in various different ways.

Apple hardware is mediocre at best. 2020 MacBook Air with i5 is unbearably slow. I have Samsung ATIV 700T with i5 from 2014 and it feels much faster than 2020 i5 MacBook. You can now say that it is the problem with Intel and that M1-2-3 are so much better but I have some Intel i7 laptops from 2016 and 2021 and they also blow Intel Mac away in speed and reliability and are comparable in speed with M2 that is sitting next to 2020 Mac. 2 other older MacBooks are falling apart (2009 and G4) wheres even older Dells and comparable HPs are still feeling robust...and are used more than decrepit Apple hardware.

> other PC manufacturers who make laptops that are still useable after ten years?

my Lenovo Thinkpads are working great after 12 yrs, with 16G ram and disk upgraded to 4TB SSD

My 2013 MacBook lasted 9 years (I'd still be using it if the battery connector wasn't shot.) In my experience Mac's last a lot longer than my equivalent PC's, although w/ an initial premium of course.

And traditional PC makers have a problem with unplanned obsolescence. A lot of consumer hardware does not receive updates from the manufacturer after the device is off shelves.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com