CrunchGear

I’m planning on getting a Mac next week, I was hoping he’d have a less ambiguous answer, lol.

Well then you are just plain dumb.

The limiting factor ends up being what you use the computer for, high-end graphics work you need a new one every two years simply due to the software requirements that keep being pushed up higher with new features being released.

If all you do is type a few words in notepad, you are fine with a laptop that is 10 years old!

Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories

My (almost) seven year old ThinkPad A31 at home is still going strong, and my primary home computer. It’s seen heavy use over that time, including some serious abuse at college. Nothing has been replaced (XP has been re-installed numerous time, naturally), and its now maxed at 1 GB of RAM.

You can abuse the hell out of those old ThinkPads, and they keep ticking. I spilled beer into the keyboard at least twice, that I remember. Pulled keys and dried off, no problems then or now. My brother did same with MacBook Pro, they wanted (reportedly) over a thousand dollars to fix.

Macs are definitely some of the best looking computers out there today, but its safe to say they are, in no way, shape of form, the most durable. They’re high end, precision machines, and they don’t take abuse well. If you’re going to college, they probably won’t take as well to getting dinged as comparable PC machines.

It’s nonsense that Macs can’t take abuse. They’re at least as good as most PCs. Unless you guy one of those massive butt-ugly laptops designed to survive a mortar round in Iraq, computers are going to be pretty much the same depending on the quality of the build.

Apple’s have a reputation for quality, their customer service is second to none and they normally obsolete themselves more by making the next generation so cool you want it.

So, you’re wrong if you think a Lenovo laptop is going to outlast a Mac laptop. We have an old 500 MHz G4 PowerBook at work that I travelled around the world with and it’s still going six years later! In fact, it’s still doing duty as a MIDI converter at one of our production manager’s home.

I had to upgrade to a MacBook Pro for speed, not because the PowerBook wore out. Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 Extended all require massive hardware to run fast enough for me when I’m downloading 16.7 megapixel photos in Arusha, Tanzania or Jaipur, India.

I don’t need a support nightmare that PCs are with Windows. (For me, I used to know and fix Windows, but since OS X, I have no desire to figure out how to connect to a hotel wireless network connection in India. Macs just work with Wifi, no muss, no fuss.)

The ThinkPad (not Lenovo, as its over six years old therefore built before IBM sold division to Lenovo) is not “butt ugly”, and certainly wasn’t built to “survive a mortar round in Iraq”. Outside this discussion, though, there’s a reputation for ThinkPads as being “tough” little machines. Not sure how Lenovo acquisition will effect this (I suspect for the worse), but time will tell.

Apple software has a reputation for quality, but your’s is the first post I remember reading pronounces them as physically durable as other offerings. That’s fine, I’ll take your word for the PowerBook. My experience with a MacBook Pro says otherwise.

I made no mention of customer service. Nor did I mention obsolescence. Neither pertain to hardware durability. Unless you’re getting it fixed, in which I did reference the $1400 quote (again, unverified, but swears its true). I fixed with $75 part. I hardly consider this good customer service, even if the bill was only 1/3 the quote. But that’s just me.

That’s fine about upgrading for speed, I’m not contending that point. And supporting Windows, again, has nothing to do with hardware. Your enthusiasm and exuberance defending Apple is commendable, but delving into arguments I never made by pointing out shortcomings I never mentioned (or contend) betrays motive many non Mac users are growing tired of. You love your Mac, we get it. You don’t need to point out all its virtues in every discussion. You’re obviously free to do so, but my post concerned hardware durability.

I’m actually considering an Apple down the line though, and appreciate your feedback. Because I do have concerns about durability. Thanks.

It’s not a question of how the machine physically lasts, which of course depends on the quality of the components, which is what Mossberg answered. The question is how long the machine’s useful lifespan is, which is a matter of how well the latest OS and software runs on older hardware. This is, of course, somewhat subjective, but in my experience, Mac’s remain useful for far longer, because Apple’s OS updates and the latest apps work well on much older hardware. For example, I have an 8 year old G4/733, running Mac OS X 10.4 (and which doesn’t quite meet the spec’s for 10.5). For comparison, I have a three year old Sony that is completely unusable (doesn’t meet the spec’s, and has no driver support from the manufacturer) under Vista.

As a less anecdotal indicator that Mac’s remain useful for significantly longer, look at prices for used computers on eBay - older Mac’s sell for significantly more than used PC’s, even PC’s from name-brand manufacturers. To a degree this offsets the Mac’s somewhat higher purchase price, because you can look at it as being amortized over a longer lifespan, or being paid by by being able to re-sell the used Mac when you buy a new one.