Sadly, yes.
They used to be of much better quality.
Don’t get me wrong, some do last much longer, but lot’s of them fail, after just around 2 years.
Why? Quality and heat issues or people are using them like normal PC, where as they are not build for a 10hour work out every day.
Or they are just handled wrong.
Some makes are peticulary bad, like Fujitsu Siemens or HP/Compaq. They do have good ones as well, but why take the chance.
Samsung, Lenovo & Acer seam to be, for the most part, better.
Man, if that’s true, I’m not sure I want a “lappy”.
Do you have a sourse for this info Doughbag? Would a ‘lower-end’ laptop last longer than prehaps a gaming laptop?
Laptops suffer a lot of abuse that desktops don’t. I have a laptop (Apple ‘Pismo’) that I still use, and it’s getting on a decade old. But, it never moves from the kitchen. Even a well-built laptop is going to fail the first time you trip over the cord and it crashes to the ground screen-first (of course, that can’t happen with an Apple, but, still…). I think that a useful lifespan of 2 years is too pessimistic, but 3-4 is probably not too far off.
I usually get about 4 years on average from a Mac laptop if significant fixes & swapouts are considered the equivalent of replacements. (The entire operating environment — operating system, installed apps, documents, settings —always remaining the same & carrying forward).
If major chassis repairs and swapouts of nontrivial equipment is permissible, my 1998 “WallStreet G3 Series” PowerBook sits about 2 feet to my left; I actually bought it in '99, so it’s a ten year old. This one that I’m typing on (last of the G4 17" PowerBooks) was acquired in spring of 2006.
I’ve never had a PowerBook require more than auxiliary circuit-board replacement (audio + AC power-in card) within the first 2 years after purchase.
Again, I’m typing this on a five-year-old PowerBook G4. This is my “daily driver” for non-work stuff, and it goes damn near everywhere with me in a bag. It has a couple of dents in the back, the screen is slightly scuffed from the keys, and I’ve gone through three power adapters when the line began to fret due to being pulled on too much, but it is still a very functional machine, save the 74 Gb hard drive is now somewhat too small. It’s not a high powered gaming machine, of course, but I use it for everything from office productivity and web browsing to Perl/Python hacking and burning movies; in other words, pretty much everything most users would ever use it for.
Stranger
Well I got one and I like it… It’s not an Apple. :eek:
I have never owned an Apple product until last week when I gave my wife a Macbook Pro 13" with 2.53GHz processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB drive. The build quality is exceptional. High grade LED back lit LCD panel with a glass face, instead of easily scratched plastic. LED back lit keyboard that automatically comes on when you turn off the lights in the room. You decide how bright the keyboard goes. The built in camera has a very high quality image, especially when the tiny lens size is factored in.
All of the ports are on the left side of the computer, along with the SD card slot and the magnetic power plug. The power plug has a green indicator light when the battery is full, and amber when it is charging. None of the indicator LEDs are too bright. My Asus notebook has tape over some of the LEDs because they are like a flashlight aimed at your face. It is the quietest notebook computer I have ever experienced and almost inaudible. The slot loading DVD drive is more convenient than the slide out trays. There are no fan intake vents on the bottom of the notebook, so you will no longer get the high rpm whine as your leg blocks a fan intake. The screen is held closed with magnets, not a mechanical latch. Over 6 hours of honest battery life (we ran it that long!) and the power supply is TINY compared to any other notebook I have seen. The machined aluminum chassis makes it a stiff, light notebook.
No other notebook is built like this. Not just the engineering and design, but the littlest details.
We are taking a a free one hour workshop at the Apple store this weekend to speed up the learning curve to Snow Leopard. Problems with Vista have me so angry that I am willing to spend more money just to get away from the Microsoft headaches. The high grade hardware is a nice bonus.
I feel like someone who hase been putting up with early 1980’s American cars and just got to drive a Honda Accord. There is no going back.
Amazon’s selling it for $1,410 shipped, no tax if you are in California.
Drink the Apple flavored Kool-Aid. You will not regret it.