How fast do laptops become obsolete

When you take good care of it, it will last longer. This is something that gaming laptops go through, but you can try it for any reasons you might see fit. Overclocking your laptop pushes it beyond its limits, reducing its lifespan. So try to do this sparingly, if really needed.

A laptop computer is not like a desktop — keeping it plugged in at all times will do more bad than good. This is a sure way to destroy its battery. So try to only keep it plugged in just when needed or, if the model allows it, remove the battery if you want to constantly keep your laptop plugged in. Even more, very high humidity levels can cause your laptop to short circuit , destroying it.

Therefore, you must make sure that you are always using your laptop in a safe environment, appropriate for the product you have. Otherwise, its life will be much shorter than anticipated. Extremely warm temperatures are the worst for laptops though, as the components will overheat faster. You can solve this problem partially with a cooling pad. Whenever you spill a liquid on your laptop, you should shut it down ASAP, unplug it and let it dry completely before trying to use it again.

And hope no permanent damage has been done. Blocked fans : Even clogged fans will cause your laptop to overheat. So make sure yours is properly ventilated at all times. Physical damage : Obviously, if you start hitting and smashing your laptop when you go into rage mode from losing at your favorite game or for whatever reason , you will risk destroying it. I would say that most laptops nowadays can easily last for around 5 years — with most of them being able to live a longer life with only minimal repairs needed if any.

Best Laptops with Numeric Keypad Update. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. What is the average laptop lifespan by brand? Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn. How to Decorate Your Laptop? The successfulness and the time frame of support depends from brand to brand, but from my experience, Lenovo tends to do the best job. The battery on your laptop is usually one of the first things to go and, while this can be overcome by having your laptop plugged in constantly, you want to invest in a laptop which has a sizable battery that will last over time for the occasions when you cannot plug it in.

The lifespan of your laptop battery will depend on many factors. The chemical composition will dictate how long the battery lasts, and the battery capacity will decrease as the battery ages. You will also notice that different programs and applications will drain the battery in different ways. If you are streaming videos, you will use more battery power than if you are using your word processor. The typical laptop battery has charge cycles.

This means that you can discharge and recharge the battery times before the capacity begins to diminish. Based on the regular use of a laptop, your battery will start to diminish after years of regular use. A simple Google search will throw up many free pieces of software which you can use, and there are no real stand out winners. However, the one I like best is BatteryInfoView.

Once you have installed the software, a simple scan with it will give you detailed information about the life of your battery. This is great if you are able to replace your battery and can do so when the time is right, without having to replace your laptop. The life of your battery is not something which we often think about when we are using our laptops, but most modern laptops will tell us when it is time to replace the battery. Replacing the battery can add new life to an old laptop and can keep it going for a year or two without having to replace the laptop.

Both Windows and macOS laptops along with other operating systems have the functionality to alert you when the battery is close to the end of its life. With Windows , when the battery reaches a predetermined capacity, a warning will appear in the icon tray which you can clock on for more information. The icon will alert you to the capacity of your battery and suggest that it is time for a new one. It will also let you know that the laptop could shut down at any time when on battery power due to this capacity.

With macOS , you can find out what needs to be done with your battery by clicking on the battery icon in your menu bar. If you do not see any message, your battery is fine.

Of course, there will be times when your laptop cannot give you this information. If you find that you cannot be on battery power for very long, or if the computer shuts down when on battery power, then it may be time to invest in a new battery or laptop.

I bought my Lenovo ThinkPad Tp in When I was looking for a laptop, I wanted one which I could use daily, use a lot, and would last years hopefully more. My personal checklist included:. I previously worked as an IT technician at a large IT company and, from experience, I realized that Lenovo laptops were generally very reliable.

Lenovo has always boasted about quality and reliability, especially with the ThinkPad line of computers. The ThinkPad hardware is tested against 12 military-grade requirements, and more than quality checks are performed to ensure that they run in extreme conditions.

If Lenovo is durable enough for the military and outer space, then they are durable enough for me. As I mentioned, business-grade laptops enjoy a 3-year warranty and, if something breaks, you get priority support.

Lenovo also allows users to replace a faulty part without voiding the warranty. The hardware in business-grade laptops is the highest possible quality, and the casing is made to withstand accidental falls and rough use.

On selected ThinkPad models, Lenovo uses carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, which makes it extremely durable. Another important aspect is safety. It is used to authenticate your encrypted computer and give you access to all the encrypted data when the device trying to access it is identified as trusted. With business-grade laptops, you also get a longer battery life and more ports to hook up your external devices. As laptops got thinner and lighter, manufacturers started integrating them in a way which would not allow users to change the battery.

If your battery malfunctioned or if it degraded, you had to take your laptop to a computer repair shop where they would replace the battery for you. This cost money and time. Essentially, if your battery dies, you need to buy a new laptop. Talk about planned obsolescence. In , when I was buying my laptop, a new trend of CPU integration was already gaining momentum. Again, for the sake of making laptops thinner and lighter, manufacturers started soldering the CPUs to the motherboard.

I bought my Tp with an Intel Core i5 M processor, which was, at the time, a solid mid-range processor, but I knew that in the long-run an upgrade would be needed. Planned obsolescence's running mate is Moore's law , which decrees that every two years the computing world doubles the amount of transistors on a computer chip and therefore the power of the computer.

So you might say the average lifespan of a laptop is two years. I have previously described the resources needed to make a computer, but here's a recap: one metric tonne of electronic scrap from personal computers contains more gold than that recovered from 17 tonnes of gold ore.

Where will it all end? Moore's law should see transistors miniaturising every two years until we reach technological singularity — the point at which computers gain human-level intelligence and can build better versions of themselves. Heat is the enemy of Moore's law. We need to keep our cool, too. There's a huge amount of skill and knowledge online about how to make old computers worth their weight in gold.

People who have dealt with IT for not-for-profits where there has never been much money for shiny new IT are particularly expert. Try Itforcharities. An untold truth is that we use a tiny fraction of each computer's capacity: you could say we're already outwitted by them.