Reply to post: Re: Selective deafness

Complete with keyboard and actual, literal, 'physical' escape key: Apple emits new 16" $2.4k+ MacBook Pro

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: Selective deafness

Another in this boat. I bought one of the late 2009 Macbooks, and it was an absolutely solid daily driver. Used it throughout university switching regularly between OSX and Windows in Bootcamp (depending on needs), and then running OSX doing front-end dev as my main computer for a few years full-time. HDD started to chug along around 2014 so bought an SSD replacement, which gave it a new lease of life. Replaced the battery around 2016, and despite being a bit slow by this stage it was a reliable backup machine for light work on-the-go.

Unfortunately, in 2017, it finally kicked the bucket. The first batch of refreshed 2009 Macbooks had issues with the motherboards. I thought I had been lucky and got one without any issues, but in 2017 I finally switched it off in the evening, and it never switched back on again.

It lasted 8 years of regular abuse though - made possible by the fact that I could replace the old HDD when it wore down to a glacial stutter; upgrade the RAM (2GB was the baseline at the time); and replace the battery when, after several years of use, it was lasting about 10-15 minutes on a full charge. Each time I replaced a part, it got a new lease of life and lasted another few years' use.

Last year I had a meeting with a graphic designer - they drew out their bag the same model Macbook (not their main dev machine - they use it for meetings on-the-go). Theirs is still going strong, and will likely top a decade of use.

£2500 for a device of the specs Apple provide isn't bad value for money (and don't get me wrong, if I was rich I would buy one without question). It's even good value for the specs you get *on paper*. The problem is, if your SSD corrupts in 5 years time, you're out of pocket. If your battery wears down after 5 years of heavy use, you're tied to a charger. And using this device as a main development machine (as it's intended to be) it'll likely be hammered a lot, and parts will wear down quicker.

The lifespan of this product is just inherently more capped than older machines, and peripherals don't extend the lifespan of a product like replacement parts do - peripherals are more akin to life support.

£2500 is good value if the laptop lasts, but with parts being non-replaceble you're taking a risk, and inherently reducing the average lifespan of a product. And being unable to update means that even if it does last, in 4-5 years you will likely be seeking a new device anyway, shooting that price even higher. Suddenly, if you're not lcuky, that 'good value' becomes somewhat a more questionable claim.

Simply put, the newer Macbooks are nice machines, but I can't imagine the baseline models being devices that people would consider reliable daily drivers a decade from now. In fact, I should imagine there will be a lot more 2012-13 Macbook Pros in regular use in 2022-23 than current Macbook Pros come 2029. That in itself is a sign that there is a problem.

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