[mac_pc]

Hi, I currently use a thikpad t41. Its durability is unbelievable. owning for 2 years with everyday use, nothing has gone wrong. But it is a little slow and lags. No monitor brightness going down or anything. I looked at the macbook and it looks really nice. It seems fast and reliable. But my question is, is it the kind of laptop that will work nicely for 0.5-1 year and go dead, or will it provide a long duration? Ive heard about apple laptops monitors brightness going down. So how will the macbook be for me? my current set up is 1.4ghz centrino, 256mb, 30gb harddrive

[mac_pc]

anyone please?

[InThe2ndHalf]

Only had a Mac since November 2004 but still going strong. Some on this and other boards report using theirs for five to six years without issues. Don't think they are as hardened as the Thinkpads, though.

[Jawbone54]

Some people have issues with their Macs. I never have.

April, 2004 - 12" iBook
This was my first Mac. Used it until December of '05. I never had one issue with it. It was absolutely fabulous.

December, 2006 - 15" PowerBook
It's a beautiful machine, and it's served without even the slightest hiccup. No dead pixels, no heat issues, no horizontal lines (this rev. of PBook was said to be prone to it), no negative reactions whatsoever. I was thinking about selling it to get a MacBook, but I think I'll just save up for a third revolution MacBook Pro down the line.

I'll list some of the machines that my converts have bought.
4 12" PowerBooks - no problems
3 Mac Minis - no problems
1 Intel Mini - no problems
3 15" PowerBooks - no problems
1 17" MacBook Pro - no problems
2 MacBooks - one with absolutely no problems, the other had some issues. The one with problems was sent back to Apple and then upgraded free of charge by Apple. He originally bought a white MacBook. When he told Apple about his issue, they sent him a black MacBook (because they felt bad that his first Mac experience was a bad one).

[msuper69]

With my recent purchase of a black MacBook I've finally given my TiBook (the first one from February 2001 - 500mhz, 512mb, 30gb) to my brother so he can get an idea of what using a Mac and OS X is like.

I figure it's got at least a couple more years of use left in it.

How many PeeCee notebooks are still running the latest OS after over 5 years?

[mac_pc]

well my old thinkpad ran for 8 years nicely and it still turns on.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by msuper69

How many PeeCee notebooks are still running the latest OS after over 5 years?

With Windows release schedule? Just about all of them!

[Dillon-K]

Well, ThinkPads are of course more durable then MacBooks!! Look at the ThinkPads. They're ugly and heavy and bulky. While the MacBook may be less durable, it is, slim sleek beautiful and well designed. Pick which is most important to you.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by Dillon-K

While the MacBook may be less durable ...

It's a tad early to know how durable the MacBook is. We'll have to have a few years pass by before passing judgement.

[Dillon-K]

c'mon! it has to be less durable! you can tell just by looking at the build of the machine!!

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by Dillon-K

c'mon! it has to be less durable! you can tell just by looking at the build of the machine!!

Looks fine to me. Everything fits together cleanly. I'm happy with the build quality.

You can't just the majority of MacBooks based upon the horror stories you read here. The old hospital analogy applies. You wouldn't judge the entire human population based upon what you saw in a hospital.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally Posted by Dillon-K

Well, ThinkPads are of course more durable then MacBooks!! Look at the ThinkPads. They're ugly and heavy and bulky.

Dillon-K, you have never touched a T41, thats for sure!

No Apple machine will come close to the build quality of a Thinkpad. You use macs because of Mac OS not because apple makes great hardware.

Macs usually come with the latest features and they look pretty (as long as you do not touch them and leave fingerprints). But they cannot be treated as roughly as thinkpads. My T40 is nearly indistructable. I know few mac models that are flawless.

That does not mean that your mac will last only a few months. I guess most of the macs are used for a longer time than pcs. An average of three years for a Macbook should not be a problem.

But: My 3 year old powerbook is slow (although it is a nice machine and I like to use it). My Thinkpad still feels fast (with linux - a windows installation would have brought it down to a crawl within 3 years, thats sure. But thats not the thinkpads fault, its MS.).

[bryanmsi]

Your "computer" is the sum of its hardware, its OS, and its applications. Anyone who uses Windows knows that each day the system gets a little bit slower and after 2 years the zippy PC you bought has been replaced by a hard-disk-thrashing, slow booting sloth due to the garbage Windows seems to accumulate. You know, hundreds of security patches, applications that almost-but-not-quite uninstall leaving bits of themselves, and processes still running for software you may not even have anymore.

CTRL-ALT-DEL on a Windows box that is several years old usually reveals a shocking number of processes running.

Macs, on the other hand, not only seem to run just as fast after 2 years as they did when new but since Apple has consistently optimized OSX since its release your Mac often seems just a little bit faster as time goes on. 10.1 was faster than 10.0 on the same hardware, and 10.2 was faster than 10.1. 10.3 really started to speed up graphics and "noticable" speed.

I still use a 1GHz G4 laptop and am just amazed at how totally useable it still is. My boss uses an 800 MHz Titanium PowerBook and has no trouble. Try doing that on a 4 year old PC. Even if the hardware is fine, Microsoft's curse will have struck and slowed the system way down.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

When he told Apple about his issue, they sent him a black MacBook (because they felt bad that his first Mac experience was a bad one).

10:1 the upgrade was only because the black one was actually in stock.

Either way: sweet!