Mac laptops & their reliability

JustAnotherSaver

My sister is interested in an apple laptop instead of the 'normal' Windows laptop.

I was just wondering how they fare with reliability. Some of the iPhones we've had over the years have started acting up around the 2 year mark. In fact 3 of them have done this.
I also notice that most of the storage drives seem to be small SSD drives (256GB) instead of larger HDD drives. I saw 1 on eBuyer which had a HDD instead of an SSD.
I don't know how accurate it is but i read a while back that SSD drives aren't as reliable or don't have as good a lifespan as a HDD. I don't know if that means that instead of getting 30 years you'll only get 29 or instead of 10+ years you'll only get 2.

They're quite dear for what they are & i was just wondering if they're known for lasting or do they start acting up after a short timeframe like some of their other products?

securityguy

"I don't know how accurate it is but i read a while back that SSD drives aren't as reliable or don't have as good a lifespan as a HDD."

It's complex: they probably have a shorter maximum life but a longer median life.

But who cares? They're massively, massively faster, lighter, lower power. My Air has an SSD and I've retrofitted a Fusion Drive into my 2007 iMac. Both boot in about 15 seconds. I've just taken delivery of an HDD Mac Mini for my desk at work and it's way, way slower in every regard. And I've replaced far more HDDs over the past few years than SSDs. If the price of that is a slighter shorter lifespan then, given they're easy to change and the parts are cheap, why would I care?

And it's nothing to do with Apple anyway: they're standard parts (Samsung, etc). If you're trying to argue that Apple are using "small SSD drives" as part of some conspiracy to reduce lifespans you're off your head.

zarf2007

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

My sister is interested in an apple laptop instead of the 'normal' Windows laptop.

I was just wondering how they fare with reliability. Some of the iPhones we've had over the years have started acting up around the 2 year mark. In fact 3 of them have done this.
I also notice that most of the storage drives seem to be small SSD drives (256GB) instead of larger HDD drives. I saw 1 on eBuyer which had a HDD instead of an SSD.
I don't know how accurate it is but i read a while back that SSD drives aren't as reliable or don't have as good a lifespan as a HDD. I don't know if that means that instead of getting 30 years you'll only get 29 or instead of 10+ years you'll only get 2.

They're quite dear for what they are & i was just wondering if they're known for lasting or do they start acting up after a short timeframe like some of their other products?

I've had an apple laptop since 2008 without any problems....i have an 'air' for work as well. tbh when you use SSD you will never go back, it by far gives the biggest performance boost along side memory for anything you do on a laptop.

Also don't worry about the life span as a modern SSD is likely to outlive the laptop as many have 'housekeeping' routines like TRIM which ensure they operate efficiently.

If your sister is worried she can always buy applecare which extends the warranty from 1 to 3 years (you can usually get this cheaper on amazon or ebay but make sure you get a sealed 'pack' and not just an emailed serial number as those are scams). Its well worth it as apple have a policy if the worst does happen and the laptop needs to be repaired more than 3 times under applecare they replace it with the latest model at the time and quite a few people have had a 2012 laptop replaced with a 2014 for example.....

their customer service is second to none....

JustAnotherSaver

securityguy wrote: »

It's complex: they probably have a shorter maximum life but a longer median life.

But who cares? They're massively, massively faster, lighter, lower power. My Air has an SSD and I've retrofitted a Fusion Drive into my 2007 iMac. Both boot in about 15 seconds. I've just taken delivery of an HDD Mac Mini for my desk at work and it's way, way slower in every regard. And I've replaced far more HDDs over the past few years than SSDs. If the price of that is a slighter shorter lifespan then, given they're easy to change and the parts are cheap, why would I care?

Thanks for the info. Fair point.

If you're trying to argue that Apple are using "small SSD drives" as part of some conspiracy to reduce lifespans you're off your head.

Whoa!! Easy tiger!! Don't jump to conclusions like so many others here, relax yourself.

I said "small SSD" because i just thought 256GB as your main drive is actually quite small in this day & age. With 1TB & 2TB drives available. When i last bought a pre-made PC it came with a 500GB drive & that was some years ago. I built my own in 2010 & fitted 1 TB. It's just my personal opinion that 256GB is a tad small.

I guess you could always use a USB drive for extra storage.

zarf2007 wrote: »

If your sister is worried she can always buy applecare which extends the warranty from 1 to 3 years (you can usually get this cheaper on amazon or ebay but make sure you get a sealed 'pack' and not just an emailed serial number as those are scams). Its well worth it as apple have a policy if the worst does happen and the laptop needs to be repaired more than 3 times under applecare they replace it with the latest model at the time and quite a few people have had a 2012 laptop replaced with a 2014 for example.....

their customer service is second to none....

Thanks for the pointers.

She told me earlier that she's been looking at their "Air" & "Pro" & is unsure as to which to go for as she doesn't really know which is best. I think she said the Pro sounded best but she's just unsure about it all.

She doesn't do any major movie or photo editing. Just browsing the internet & the like. Word processing. Basic stuff.

shortchanged_2

If all she is doing is basic stuff then tell her to save her money and not bother with apple.

Why pay over £700 for a machine to only do basic tasks?

Tell her to get sub £400 machine and treat herself to a nice holiday as well with the savings.

JustAnotherSaver

Because laptops these days have that horrendous Windows 8

But then we say get start 8 & all the rest & we go around in circles not really helping what she's looking for.

I know this is a moneySAVING forum but some times people just want what they want & they're happy to pay the money for it.

I paid out about £1300-£1400 to build my PC. A £300 pre-built would've carried out the tasks i use the PC for. I built to the spec i did at the cost it was because that is what i wanted.

dotdash79

If its for docs and stuff like that the the air will do, otherwise the pro is great for graphic production and 4k video.

Hard drive space will get smaller than before as streaming becomes a larger part of people habits.

shortchanged_2

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Because laptops these days have that horrendous Windows 8

But then we say get start 8 & all the rest & we go around in circles not really helping what she's looking for.

I know this is a moneySAVING forum but some times people just want what they want & they're happy to pay the money for it.

I paid out about £1300-£1400 to build my PC. A £300 pre-built would've carried out the tasks i use the PC for. I built to the spec i did at the cost it was because that is what i wanted.

There's not really a lot of logic in that though as it is a total waste of money.

It's like why buy a PC with an i7 processor and a top of the range graphics card just to surf the internet. It's overkill and a waste of money, but heyho each to their own.

RobTang

Reliability wise I would say Apple laptops are on the same level as business class laptops, although the ally chassis kind of make them a bit heavier than the competition.


Older ones tend to fine however then general consensus from other owners is don't upgrade OSX if it doesn't have an SSD because the newer version seem to perform really really poorly.


Air vs Pro, the main thing is the screen, the Airs still have quite low resolution screens, where as the retina pros have nice high res screens; its best to go into a Apple store and take a look.
The Air's selling point is it's lightness and thinness, a couple of my female colleagues say the Pros are too heavy to cart about, obv not an issue if it doesn't get taken anywhere.


SSDs have a more easily quantifiable theoretical lifespan, in that you can only write to it so many times; for consumers its pretty irrelevant as your never likely to hit the limit. MacBook SSDs are soldered into the board so they are not replaceable (most ultrabook class laptops are the same.)

InsideInsurance

RobTang wrote: »

MacBook SSDs are soldered into the board so they are not replaceable (most ultrabook class laptops are the same.)

No they're not, see https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2014+SSD+Replacement/27849 as to how to replace the SSD in the latest version of the MBP. You'll note that no soldering iron is required


In general I would agree with others that Macs tend to last similar to business grade machines and so considerably better than consumer machines. That isnt to say they are faultless and will never ever have hardware problems.

We have a MBA (4 years old) and MBP (3 years old) and an iMac (5 years old), the MBA screen developed a line down it after 21 months, could have lived with it but it was covered by warranty so the screen was replaced. The iMac's DVD drive died after about 3 years. Other than that the machines have missed a beat, indeed the only times the iMac has been turned off or reset is when either moving home or installing software that required a reset.

thescouselander

A lot of people worry unnecessarily about SSDs. Yes, they are lifed as are the electronic components in a conventional hard drive. When you look into hard drive failures it is generally the mechanical parts that are the week link so in some ways there is less to go wrong with a SSD.

I know if instances where SSDs are being used in datacentres and the reliability of these drives has compared favorably vs the conventional drives. If it works in a datacentre I'm sure there will be no problems in the home environment.