How often do you get a new laptop?

[Spacecadet]

I got mine 3 years ago (Dell M65, Core2 @2.17Ghz)
Had been planning to upgrade this summer but with windows 7 and a memory upgrade current lappy seems more than fast enough.
Only reason for upgrading is so that I can get some better games on it, but I'm finding it hard to justify spending over £2k on a worthwhile upgrade

[The Wikir Man]

I buy one when I can justify it.

In the past 4 years, I've bought 4.

Acer Travelmate 3000 - now in use by my wife.
Zoostorm something or other - rarely used, but at the time of buying was one of the few laptops with a big enough hard drive to install and run 11i comfortably.
eeePC - used for travelling,and when I don't need to do anything major
Toshiba Portege M800 - current main one. Replaced the HDD with a 600GB one this year, so it has enough disk space to run my R12.1.1 virtual machine.

Can't see me buying another one for a while - until this one dies. It does everything I need it to do and then some, and I can't really see my demands growing much.

[wxman]

I tend to ruin laptops normally due to water and dust ingress



So for me is is about one every 12 months - I tend to buy one of "yesterdays models - i.e. a current model six months ago but not one of todays current flagship powerhouse.

I always go for a branded make - often a Dell but the last two have been Lenovo (I love the keysboards)

[Spacecadet]

I always go for a branded make - often a Dell but the last two have been Lenovo (I love the keysboards)

do they help your typing?

[FarmerPalmer]

I tend to ruin laptops normally due to water and dust ingress

Thats why mine travels in a Peli case these days

So for me is is about one every 12 months - I tend to buy one of "yesterdays models - i.e. a current model six months ago but not one of todays current flagship powerhouse.

I always go for a branded make - often a Dell but the last two have been Lenovo (I love the keysboards)

Lenovo for me too - Dual Core, Upgraded the RAM after 18 months from 1g to 2g to run a few XP embedded virtual machines, and probably replace at 3 years ... so that'll be in the next 6 months then

[portseven]

[QUOTE=wxman;1123922]I tend to ruin laptops normally due to water and dust ingress
[QUOTE]

Tried a toughbook?

[cojak]

My MacBook will be four years old this summer. I'm planning to replace the current 250/5400 HDD with a 500/7200 at some point, mainly because I've only got about 60Gig left, but other than that it's just fine running Mail, multiple browsers, Eclipse, Apache/PHP/MySQL, XCode/Interface Builder, iPhone Simulator, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Preview with multiple large PDF documents open, iTunes, Transmit, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie... and usually a few other things, all at the same time under Snow Leopard. Oh, and a Windows VM under Parallels when I need one to test stuff on IE or do some debugging in Visual Studio.

I doubt I'll see any need to upgrade until it's at least five years old. In fact, when I get an iPad for general web browsing, email, video, and so forth, there's a good chance the MacBook will serve mainly as a development machine for longer than that.

You've just given me my justification for buying Mac as opposed to a PC laptop.

(I've never quite managed to hit the 'confirm' purchase button up until now...)

Ta NF!

[expat]

I tend to ruin laptops normally due to water and dust ingress

spilling beer and fag ash on it
FTFY

[Sysman]

spilling beer and fag ash on it
FTFY

This is one reason that I use an external keyboard and mouse when using my laptop at home. I can shove the laptop to the back of the desk and out of harm's way.

Those old Apple white plastic keyboards were a magnet for cups of tea. I was getting through two or three keyboards a year until I invested in the aluminium variety.

[Sysman]

You've just given me my justification for buying Mac as opposed to a PC laptop.

(I've never quite managed to hit the 'confirm' purchase button up until now...)

Ta NF!

Do consider purchasing AppleCare. You don't have to buy it at the same time as you buy a system:

The AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased only while your Mac or Apple display is still covered under the standard one-year limited warranty.

If something like the screen packs up after the 1 year warranty expires, you are quids in.