Home Profiles Articles Groups Deals News Software Mac Help News Feed

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Apple Archive

How Long Is the Useful Life of a Laptop Computer?

- 2004.07.16

How long should a laptop last?

Desktop Macs can last for years and years. To prove that, I can pull out the Mac Plus that I've still got around here, and it'll boot up to system 7.0.1.

But how about laptops? eBay is full of PowerBook 140s, 540s, and 1400s - that's obviously a testament to their longevity, right?

Unfortunately, many of these PowerBooks have "slight issues." The battery connectors are broken, the screen has lines through it, the case is cracked, the power connector is loose. Laptops simply don't last forever.

Face it, most laptops don't just sit in one place for their entire lifetime like desktop computers do. People buy a laptop in order to work wherever they happen to need it - and that may be on a train, in an airplane, or even at the beach. Laptops have to put up with conditions that a desktop computer would never face.

Laptops are shoved into their bags, sometimes with the hard drive still in the process of spinning down, and some inexpensive bags don't offer enough protection. If the bag is dropped, the laptop inside is often damaged or broken.

Older laptops tended to last a bit longer because their larger components required larger, thicker plastic cases, but that isn't the case anymore. Since silver colored everything seems to be all the rage, modern Mac laptops are made out of aluminum. Drop that on a hard surface, and it will certainly sustain damage.

While dropping the unit or just handling it poorly will cause damage, there are other design flaws inherent in laptops. The most notable is heat. Perhaps one of the reasons that many older laptops are still around is because the older 68030 and 68040 processors didn't generate as much heat as the new chips. That G4 chip in the latest PowerBook has to be designed so that it will generate the least amount of heat possible while still providing a good amount of performance.

The truth is, regardless of how well designed the chip or the heat sink/fans are, it will still generate a fair bit of heat. And if the computer is on a lap or a bed, the heat can built up inside the case and shorten the life of other components. While it was completely possible to have a laptop die because of overheating 10 years ago, these days it's even more likely of an occurrence.

How long should a laptop actually last? If it dies within fouor years, I'd be pretty disappointed. After all, a $2,000 computer should last longer. Five years would be slightly disappointing as well - think of a trusty old Lombard dying out on you. It's certainly not a useless computer.

Someone recently asked me if I could look at her PowerBook 3400c. They said that it just wouldn't power up. That machine is seven years old, and it's been in constant use. Between 4-6 years seems to be when a Macintosh can no longer run the most recent software and be considered "up to date," so you could say that the owner of this 3400c definitely had it for it's useful life.

In terms of how long a laptop should last, it should, at the very least, give you a "useful life" of around five years. If you're lucky and careful with the laptop, maybe it'll last you a bit longer.

Who knows, in ten years it could end up on eBay like those old PowerBook 140s.

Recent Apple Archive articles

iPods, notebooks, and other modern electronics more readily replaced than repaired, 12.07. Whether it's an intermittent failure or a broken display cable, more often than not it's cheaper to replace a broken electronics device than repair it.
Options for replacing your older iPod, 11.19. Whether you've run out of space on your old iPod or want features it doesn't have, here are your options in new and used iPods.
Could the $200 'green' PC with gOS Linux become a threat to Apple?, 11.14. The low cost, low power Everex desktop comes with a customized version of Ubuntu Linux, has a Mac-like Dock, and sells for $400 less than the Mac mini.
Leopard different, a bit buggy, but worth the upgrade, 11.02. Leopard on a Power Mac G4 and a MacBook Pro: It runs well on both computers, but each has some odd bugs, and some of the changes are a step backwards.
More in the Apple Archive index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: PowerBook 2300, Aug. 1995 - The only Duo equipped with a PowerPC processsor run at 100 MHz.
Group of the Day: MichiMac is our list for Mac users in Michigan.
September 9 in LEM history: 98: The LCDs are coming - 99: PowerBook G3 WallStreet 13.3" display issues - 02: Building a fast, reliable network economically - Using 2 mice at once - 03: Mac virus writers return from extended cruise
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best iPod touch Deals, 09.03. Used 1G/32, $199; 3G/64, $300; refurb 3G/8, $149; 3G/32, $230; 3G/64, $339; close-out 3G/8, $174; 32, $249; 64, $339; 5G/8, $223; 32, $288; 64, $383.
Best iPod nano Deals, 09.03. Used from $79; refurb 5G/8 GB, $99; close-out, $129.54; refurb 16 GB, $149; close-out, $158 to $160; 6G/8 GB, $144; 16 GB, $172. Shipping included.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 09.03. Close-out 2 GB, $49; 4 GB, $65; new 5G/2 GB, $49. Shipping included.
Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 09.02. 1.6 GHz single, $200; 1.8 dual, $300; 2.0, $350; 2.3, $400; 2.5, $500; Quad, $730.
Best MacBook Air Deals, 09.02. Used from $969; refurb 1.86 GHz/120 HD, $1,249; 128 SSD, $1,349; 2.13, $1,549; new 1.86 GHz/120 HD, $1,428; 2.13 GHz/128 SSD, $1,707.
Best Mac mini Deals, 09.01. Used 1.25 GHz G4, $250; 1.5 Core Solo, $325; 2.0 Core 2, $439; close-out 2.66, $699; 2.53 Server, $819; new 2.4, $669; 2.66, $849; Server, $949.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 09.01. 12" 1 GHz Combo, $200; 1.33 GHz, $250; 14" 1 GHz, $285; 1.33 GHz, $320; 1.42 GHz, $448; SuperDrive, $500.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Apple Archive articles copyright ©2000-07 by Adam Robert Guha. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.