How long would you expect a laptop to last?

[MedusaIsHavingABadHairDay]

I bought DD1 a laptop for her 16th birthday..it was her big present (ie nothing expensive for her 18th) ..it was a mid range Toshiba.

It lasted 2 years. The day she left for university it conked. Being essential we replaced it. Had another Toshiba which lasted 3 days..yes days.. before complete HD failure, then got an HP. Which, two years almost to the day.. has just conked. Completely...HD failure plus a few other more minor bits.

I am not faced with having to get another.. she does not have any funds, and it is certainly not her fault. Thank GOD we backed her work etc up to an external HD at the first signs this time...
I'm wondering what to get now. I am tempted to get THE cheapest thing possible.. Currys have Lenovo ones down to £299, given that they don't seem to last. I hate that none seem to come with back up discs any more either.

Are we just unlucky? SHould I be hitting the visa for a 'decent' one or would cheap do the job (she uses it for study, internet, watching the odd film)

She refuses to consider a mac which is a shame.. the rest of us are mac users and even our second hand 6 yr old ebay job has outlasted two of hers..:(

Hmmm.. in the same boat here.
My HP fancy pancy pants touchscreen thingy died after just over two years, had a new HD - immediately blew again. It is currently in the repairers.

Our eee pad gave up the ghost just prior to one year.. unfortunately we were away on hols and came home one day after the warranty expired. Thankfully Asus will honour the warranty - that is also in for repair.

IME they don't last long.

We have a vast selection of laptops - DH needs them for work, after a year or so the DC get touse them as they just end up going so slow, even the mid-high price ones don'[t last mor than a couple of years.

I think itis probably not a wise move to spend £££££ - just the bare minimum. If she is using it just for typing up and internet usage then keep it simple.

Ds1's has lasted 3 years but the battery needs replacing. It's nearly 50 to do this so I hope if I replace it, it doesn't go and conk!

Mine and Dp's has lasted over 5 years. The screen has cracked at bottom left. It runs quite slow and freezes but it's still somehow working? This one's an acer. DS1's is Toshiba.

In terms of durability I would expect at least three years - anything before that I would be asking the manufacturer/retailer for repair or replacement depending on age.

Laptops aren't reliable. This is a hard lesson which an awful lot of people are learning now. The price for that portability is durability.

I saw a survey on laptop reliability some time ago which will give you some idea of just how unreliable they are.

1 in 4 HP laptops are predicted to fail within 3 years. The most optimistic projections are for Asus and Toshiba, which have a 1 in 7(ish) failure rate. If you want a more reliable machine, buy a desktop.

Note the Apple figure in there which puts them as marginally less reliable than the market leaders. Apple and Sony both carry a price premium (and both are made by Foxconn) but in terms of reliability they aren't any better.

Note that some manufacturers and retailers are offering a longer warranty. John Lewis offers a 2-year warranty as standard. I'm seeing Toshiba laptops with a 3-year hardware warranty. It's worth shopping around to find that extended warranty.

I think the manufacturers wire them to fail at about three years after purchase. I've had three laptops that have broken about that time and I started to think that it's very possible for them to do. Bastards. Don't buy a Dell.

2 years in terms of speed, etc. but should last longer in terms of actually turning on and working.

My Compaq was bought 6.5 years ago, it was quite an expensive one at the time (£750), I think the cheaper ones were around the £450 mark then.

It's slowing up a bit but it is very loaded now. It's not portable either as the battery won't hold it's charge so it's constantly plugged in.

I saw an advert for a Compaq in Comet for £279 which I am tempted by....

Mine is 4 years old (Asustek) the time it lasts is very dependent on the brand but I would expect at the very least with heavy use 5 years and with light use 10+.

It's hard to say how long they will last obviously individual components will need replacing, I wouldn't expect a Seagate HDD to last very long for example maybe 3 years at the most (they over heat like a bastard) and Apple are well known for shit battery life because they use the wrong type now for space saving reasons, they prefer there products to be wafer thin then have a battery that lasts a decent amount of charge times.

flatpackhamster Sony are well known to overheat like a bastard.

It's the price people pay (and the same goes for desktops) everyone wants something as small and thin as possible and as silent as they can be, the upshot of which is over heating like a bastard which leads to conking out, people need to decide what there priorities are. Sleek looks, silence and short life or bulky utilitarian things that sound like the world coming to an end and last years.

Unfortunately the market shows that people are shallow really preferring things designed to look nice rather then work properly, you weep what you sew.

Today I saw a Medion with 3 year warranty for about 350 quid (unfortunately it was while discussing laptops vs tablets vs desktops with the son of a neighbour and as he is 'determined' to get a laptop [but has a budget of 75 quid] so I'll have to hunt for it!)

I know she's not wanting one, but if DD1 was to have an Apple, how much would you spend, and what would you get ?

Only asking to determine whether it is the fact it is a laptop that is making it more unreliable, or the way it gets (ab)used. Seeing how some young people lie tummy down on their bed with their laptop in front, it makes me wonder whether some of the laptops just overheat after months of this, or whether they get 'slung' onto a pile of clothing, and that 'kills' the HD or something else (eg fan)...

I'm using a 6 yo Toshiba, and was given a 'dead' Gateway around 5 years ago (it was at least 4 years old then, and previous owner had spilled a glass of wine into it, so decided to buy something new - I just added a USB keyboard to get around some 'dead' key problems).

The 6 or 7 laptops I have are all more than 3 years old (most older, running Win XP), and the netbooks and other kit I have are almost without exception at least 2 years old. Have been tempted to get an HP Proliant server (deal on brings the price down to about 105 quid) and that would be the first brand new PC bought in 11 years.

I think she is not overly kind to them.. typical student.. she has it on her lap, on on the duvet, slings it down... they have a rough life, which definitely doesn't help.
Really she needs a panasonic toughbook (do they still exist?!)

She is very anti Apple.. a shame given that we have plenty of software (she is the only windows user) otherwise I'd be looking for a second hand/recon one.

Any views on Lenovo? Currys have some very cheap ones at the mo (tho mostly out of stock, surprise surprise...)

I've had 2 Dells, one lasted about 5 years before the fan went, the current one is 4 years old and still going like a trooper. I certainly wouldn't expect a laptop to be gone in 2 years.

I think you get what you pay for (except with Apple), it's not j

Hmm, posted before I was done! It's not just about the processor speed and hard disk size. You pay for better quality components. I'd probably look at spending at least £3-400. Alternatively, if you can wait a few weeks, the Microsoft Surface launches soon, rumoured to be £200 (MS selling at a loss to get Windows 8 user base).

I've got a 4 year old Dell -can't fault it really (touch wood)

Hard disks are usually the first thing to die on any computer. Backups are absolutely essential but unfortunately most people only learn that too late.

Laptop's are generally 'less reliable' because they have a much tougher life. They are moved about, shaken, sometimes dropped. Again what most people fail to realise or appreciate is that when you put it down on something soft then most of the time you end up blocking the air vents. This of course makes the laptop much hotter and stresses the components much more.

A desktop however will sit in one place and (in general) have much better airflow.

Personally I would never spend loads on a laptop. Given most people just surf and listen to music there really is no need to get the top of the range. Not unless you are playing games. Plus the more money you spend, the faster the CPU. The faster the CPU, the more heat it generates!

My dd is tough on laptops, hers have lasted 2 years each (just off out this weekend to buy her another one). She has has an HP and an Acer.

I won't spend much more than £300 for this new one. There is no point really.

I'd expect a laptop to last two to three years of working well (in terms of speed/weird and irritating quirks) if taken decent care of (no dropping, no using it for a coaster, using it on hard surfaces only ie not half buried in a duvet). If you continue to take good care of it you can happily keep it running for longer than that, but it'll be very outdated and slow by that point and things will start failing on it.

Backups are essential as you know, buy her a cheapish laptop (if all she needs it for is uni work/music/watching iplayer etc I wouldn't spend a penny over £350, probably less), then splash £60 or so on a 1TB external HD for backups.

Agree on backups but I am starting to suggest online automated backups with companies like Crashplan. The reason is that very few people actually do their backups. An online, automated system takes that out of the user's hands.

My eldest's went after 3 months. Fortunately, bought it at John Lewis where world-weary woman just asked "Is it a young female's?" It's the surfing in bed and leaving it on mattresses/duvets which kills them.

My DH has a macbook that must be at least 5 years old now. Hope I haven't jinxed it by saying that.

They do cost an arm and a leg though.

Automated, online backups are great, I do agree flatpack - I'm reluctant to suggest them though because they don't work for everyone. I don't use it myself because a lot of the stuff I'd need to backup is enormous and with my prehistorically bad upload speed I'd still be here next year, never mind doing it regularly. if it's just uni work etc, word documents and the like, it's a very good solution.

throckenholt - DH's macbook has just started to go after 6 years (touch pad and keyboard freezing - still working fine with an external keyboard and mouse). He took it into the Apple Store and they were amazed it had lasted as long as it did, and said that the usual life was around 5 years.

I won't mention that to DH ! It is his work one. Hopefully he has backed it up recently :)