How long do you keep your laptop?

[It's Not Lupus]

How long do you use your laptop before you replace it?

I have a ASUS laptop bought in 2010 that's falling apart almost everywhere but still usable.

 

[corkyg]

Never had a laptop that "fell apart." I still have my old Lenovo T60 running Win 7, and the newer Lenovo T510, also running Win 7. The T60 will be viven away soon to grandkids. A new one will then see the T510 in the "reserve" spot. Am considering moving to SurfacePro 3 next. But, both Thinkpads do everything I want and are very reliable. Am in no hurry.

 

[nickbits]

Until my wife drops and breaks it.

That's averaging less than 2 years right now.

 

[Darknite39]

My T61 will only be replaced because I'm tired of the weight, and, even then, I'm probably looking at another 6-9 months with it.

 

[Bateluer]

I first thought the poll was in months and went to select 6-9. Then I realized it was years. Most of the laptops I purchase are under the 700 dollar mark.

 

[Wall Street]

I have a Thinkpad x41 I am still using from 2004. The left click button is starting to wear out and all of the keyboard keycaps are polished over from the typing, but it otherwise works fine. I realize now that I never travel with it so it is alright that the battery does nothing (I don't even have the battery plugged in anymore). I use the laptop as my "TV" laptop on my sofa, so I don't want to spend money replacing it. It still surfs the web fine except for videos.

 

[ElFenix]

my laptop was purchased in 2003. i haven't had any need for one since 2006, so haven't bothered getting a new one. right now it just sits unused somewhere.

 

[SithSolo1]

Until I can find a faster replacement for less than I paid the previous time. Right now I may have pasted myself in a corner as my current "laptop" is a refurb haswell chromebook I picked up for $180. That beat the previous $250 pre-core2duo celeron machine I got the one and only Black Friday I have ever spent outside a store.

 

[gmaster456]

Usually until it dies or doesn't do what I need. My requirements for laptops are generally lighter than they are for desktops. Right now I'm using one from 2008 if I remember right, came with Vista Ultimate, 4gb RAM, 2.1Ghz Turion X2 and a 250gb HDD. Planning an SSD upgrade soon as I think the HDD is the weakest link. It's a Touchsmart TX2. I have other more powerful laptops but right now that one gets the most use. I'm also a fan of thinkpads and dell latitudes.

 

[holden j caufield]

all my thinkpads are still running, the 10 year old ones I use as a router/utm box. My gf says I should sell them but they are such well made machines I like to keep most of them pre 2013, not sure about the 2013/2014 models as they don't appeal to me.

 

[Imaginer]

My Inspiron 6000 lasted me for a good 5 years, though by the end of it's life, the screen flickers on occasions, and spent most of it's life plugged in. It now rests at my parents' place, not utilized.

My Envy 14 was in my possession for 3 years. It would be longer though and still ran strong. Again, most of it's life was spent plugged in, but did spent more time than the Inspiron unplugged. This was sold off after my time with it for a more compelling and able solution.

Both were bought with good screens and decent GPU solutions.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Until it breaks. My current machine is going on nearly 4 years old. Being my only computer, it gets hammered by games, rendering, the works.

 

[Bateluer]

Until I can find a faster replacement for less than I paid the previous time. Right now I may have pasted myself in a corner as my current "laptop" is a refurb haswell chromebook I picked up for $180. That beat the previous $250 pre-core2duo celeron machine I got the one and only Black Friday I have ever spent outside a store.

Yeah, you're screwed. Unless you want something more than a glorified dumb terminal.

 

[mauiblue]

I just finished stress testing my Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 laptop. I got it in around 2006. It finally gave up the ghost a couple nights ago. It weighed about ten pounds with a 17" screen and cost was about $2000 back then. Just got a new Levono Ultrabook to replace the Toshiba. My has things changed. May just hold on to the new Levono for a long time also.

 

[LPCTech]

An SSD and a ram chip makes an old laptop new....

I selected 5 years in the poll and I mean as a "main use" computer.

I keep it till it wont work anymore and play with it and mod it and upgrade it for fun and informational purposes till it just wont turn on.

 

[PCunicorn]

Until it gets to be to slow to were it can't run most games at medium. Same with my desktop, that's when I upgrade my GPU (except at high, instead if medium).

 

[midwestfisherman]

Mines going to 4+ years now. I'll be replacing it later this year.

 

[jjmIII]

I've got an awesome 18.4" HP that has an i7, 8gb, and Intel SSD. It is going no where soon. Can't even find 18.4" now.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I had a bunch of crappy laptops that I was breaking or replacing every couple years. That's what happens when you buy used stopgaps.

I broke down and bought a fancy new one in fall 2009, replaced it a couple months ago.

 

[Ayah]

My oldest currently used laptop is a Vostro 1500, *BUT* my primary laptop is a Lenovo X220.

I tend to repurpose them or like the Inspiron 9300 I had before that vostro, give to my parents.

 

[Ben90]

My T61 will only be replaced because I'm tired of the weight, and, even then, I'm probably looking at another 6-9 months with it.

I think the T61 was the greatest laptop ever created. 4:3 just works with a laptop so much better, and the T61 was the last of the Thinkpad line to carry 4:3. Too bad a loaded out 14.1" T61 cost nearly 3k.

 

[crashtech]

Since I buy them used at about a couple years old, I only keep them about 3-4 years or so before replacing them. Currently have a T510 with an add on SSD, should be good for a couple more years. Got a little over $300 in it.

 

[MongGrel]

Where's the I've never owned one option ?

 

[chimaxi83]

Where's the I've never owned one option ?

Its right under "check this box if you have something useless to post."

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'll place my vote after writing this: 10+ years.

Back around 1983/1984, I took Grandma's old Samsonite over-nite suitcase (a little bigger than a portable electric typewriter), and built a "mobile" computer using a Timex-Sinclair 1000 (Z80A Zilog processor). It had a rechargeable battery, which fed the Sinclair, a small thermal-printer, and a Sony Watchman TV (the monitor). I was able to "do computing" for the length of a ride on the Washington Metro from Clarendon Station to L'Enfant Plaza. It was a good "demonstration" item, but not practical. Dealing with the battery-pack and the short charge life powering those three items -- it was too much trouble. I backed away from the emerging laptop technology after that, because of the battery issue and lack of a real need. I didn't travel enough to need one. And fact is, wireless technology emerged to a practical level after the earlier IBM thinkpads.

I put off acquiring any laptop device during the last decade for similar reasons. Now, I've acquired a six-year-old refurbed/surplus Gateway E-475M. I upgraded the HDD to SSD, and replaced the wireless network a/g card with a wireless-n model. I also upped the memory from 2GB SO-DIMM DDR2-667 to 4GB DDR2-800. The processor is a Centrino C2D T8300. [Apparently, someone had replaced a less-powerful stock T7xxx with the T8300; the model didn't ship with anything more than the T7xxx as far as I know.]

The laptop cost me about $250+ and the extras brought the total to under $500.

I can't say how long this will last for me. I'm rocking an i7-2600K in my desktop system right now, and have no inclination to upgrade or update that item for a while. I'd been in the habit of building a machine for myself about every two or three years, and was building systems for the extended family so that my projects averaged about once every two years.

The thing I like about this 8.5 lb "executive class" lappie is the charge-life of the battery -- about 4 to 5 hours. When it loses its charge potential and needs replacement, I can get a 12-cell unit that will likely last all day. Looking at retail offerings in the weekly Frye's ads, for more than half my expenditure on this unit, I might have had an Acer notebook -- dual-core i3 -- with a battery-charge-life of less than 2 hours.

And buying a new machine with a warranty or even a service agreement -- you would be reticent to grab a Phillips screwdriver and start fiddling with the hardware. I didn't hesitate to do that right away with this old Gateway. It was -- in fact -- a "learning" process which cost me some money. [It often does, anyway.]

I've opened up the wireless feature on my household router, and I'm getting darn good wireless-N speeds. I'm going to improve that some more -- and soon.

Yup! That's about all I can say. THIS . . . IS . . . MY LAPTOP. Now that I've put that behind me, I'll start looking for a tablet of some sort -- Android, iPad -- maybe a "Surface" -- and take my darn time before I shell out more buckets of ducats. Oh. I can upgrade my cell-phone to "smart."

"Beam me up, Scotty!" Whoop-i-ty doo-dah! [Big deal . . . ]