Lifetime of a Macbook Pro?

I totally get you however I have had the same problem with you.I had 2012 MacBook Pro too which you could put a CD and in March 2017 it became slower and after 3 months it actually died.Yesterday I bought the new one and it is really scary cause I paid 2,800 dollars and Always a new version comes and our computers get slow.In my opinion you are gonna have to buy a new computer in a year.

For what it's worth: I have a Late 2008 (first) Unibody Macbook that is still going strong in its 9th year currently running El Capitan (Sierra is not supported). Over the years I upgraded RAM (from 2 to 8 GB), replaced the battery once and switched out the HDD for a SSD. Today it is still running flawlessly any day to day tasks (email, MS Office, Safari, photos etc.). There is no "age limit". Depending on your task you may eventually run out of RAM or processor capacity, but that's it. Eventually more critical parts might fail and then you need to assess, if a replacement is worth the money.

I recently bought a 2017 MBP 15" to replace the 2008 as my work tool. The 2008 has been retired as a "shared family laptop" and I expect it to run still some time before finally going to Mac Paradise.

Hi LemonBox64:

Here is a list from Apple as to what computers are now vintage or obsolete. Vintage and obsolete products - Apple Support

Lifetime appears to be about 5 years.

Looks like your computer has another year.

Kim

Kim,

If you carefully read the article you linked, the "five year" reference is not to life expectancy but rather to how long Apple will provide parts and service. And that is five years from the date the computer model was last manufactured. The Mid 2013 13-inch non-Retina model was in continuous production until October of last year so, according to the terms of the article, service and parts should remain available until October 2021.

I had a 2008 MacBook Pro, 15" screen, that ran until I replaced it, in late 2016, with a 2016 MacBook Pro, with Touch bar. I did replace the HDD with a solid state drive (SSD) and added memory in 2013. Replaced the battery in 2012. Gave it away, in full working order at the end of 2016. It had traveled with me around the world and across the USA. Very reliable laptop, but also well cared for. We also had a 13", mid-2009, MacBook Pro. Also replaced the battery in 2013, upgraded the HDD to SSD and doubled the RAM. Also given away at the end of 2016, still in working order. Our original 1984, 128K Macintosh, luggable computer also traveled the world until 1993, when the ROM BIOS chip failed. Apple's products are built to last. Generally, we replace a computer when it will no longer update to the latest Mac operating system. As we spend most of the time online, it is important to maintain the latest standards and security updates. As others will tell you, however, "your mileage may vary. . ." If you can afford it, I would recommend an upgrade to one of the new 2017 MacBook Pros. The 13" laptops we have now are only 3 lbs, run the latest Mac OS and are fast, even in the base touch bar model. Hope this helps.

Drives can and will fail. And then there was that battery-swelling issue that made a trackpad wonky on the 2008 until I figured out a way to put a little shim in with the battery so that the connections were made properly. Once I had a problem with the in-board CD/DVD drive. Outside of that, I have never had any problems with my MBPs failing due to "age." I recently let the 2008 & 2012 go and both worked great. The 2010 17-inch is still running fine - I am hanging on to it because the extra screen real estate comes in handy, tho I use my 2015 for most of my stuff. I have been using notebooks exclusively since 2001 (and MBPs since they were introduced) for hours daily. So long story short, "it could be the age" is just another way of telling you the tech has no clue what is causing the problem.

“Usual”, “average”, ”normal” are just that. Your can’t take those and apply them to a specific item.

The answer to your question is that no one can tell you how long your particulal MacBook will last.

Allan:

Thanks for the correction. I guess I should have read it a little more closely.

My mistake.

Thanks again,

Kim