Whether it is your smartphone, computer, or laptop, you will need to upgrade it after a certain period of time. This is due to the reason that any given device or machine cannot be used forever.
Other than wear and tear, these devices start to lack in terms of their power over time as your workflow demands more powerful hardware. Although, before you go ahead and upgrade to a new laptop you should first check how long do laptops last as it will give you an idea of whether your laptop is outdated or not as shown down below.
What is the Average Lifespan of a Laptop?
Even if you take care of your laptop physically, its internal components will start showing age after a couple of years. And while various factors may cause the same, the primary two are related with the average lifespan of your laptop’s major components and the average lifespan of your laptop’s battery.
While you may have a powerful laptop that can easily last for a long time, it will not be practical if its battery has degraded and does not allow you to use the laptop while on the go. But before discussing the average lifespan of your laptop’s battery, you should first check the following factors which can affect the average lifespan of your laptop in terms of its performance:
Laptop Hardware
As you would expect, the major factor or factors that determines the lifespan of your laptop when it comes to its performance is the hardware installed inside. This includes internal components like the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and others. If you wish to get a laptop that is going to last for a long time, then a high-end gaming laptop or ultrabook can be a great choice.
These generally offer high-end CPUs like Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 paired with 16 GB RAM or more along with GPUs in some cases. In case that you have a laptop with such high-end hardware, it can easily last for 4 to 5 years from the date of purchase in terms of its performance.
However, if you have an entry-level laptop with Intel Core i3, Intel Core i5, AMD Ryzen 3, AMD Ryzen 5, or other similarly powerful CPUs, then you can expect it to last for 3-4 years which is slightly lower than other high-end processors.
Tasks you Perform on your Laptop
While you may have a highly powerful laptop, its performance numbers may not be relevant enough for you. This can happen when you are using your laptop for heavy tasks like content creation, 3D designing, simulations, animations, and others. In such a case, the lifespan of your laptop’s hardware comes down to around 3 years despite having powerful hardware.
How is your Laptop Maintained?
Apart from the tasks that you run on your laptop, the way you maintain and treat your laptop can also affect its performance and relevancy in the long run. This includes taking care of your laptop in terms of cleaning the internals and cooling fans, running virus scans regularly, uninstalling any bloatware, and other things. With such maintenance procedures, the lifespan of your laptop can be increased by 6 to 12 months in many cases especially if you use your laptop only for lightweight tasks.
What is the Average Lifespan of a Laptop Battery?
Coming to the average lifespan of your laptop’s battery, it is highly important to consider the same since, without a proper battery, a laptop becomes more of a desktop since you cannot use it without plugging in the wall.
Unfortunately, the battery of your laptop is most likely going to last much less than the hardware. This is due to the reason that most laptop batteries last for 2 to 3 years in the case that your laptop has a large-sized battery. Because of this, if you wish to use your laptop for 4 to 5 years to get the most out of its hardware, you will likely need to get the battery replaced.
How Long Do Mac Laptops Last?
In comparison to most Windows laptops, Apple Mac laptops are much more expensive and use better hardware compared with excellent software support. Apart from having a highly efficient operating system that keeps getting regular updates for a long time, these Mac laptops also have high-end internals.
Due to this, they stay relevant in terms of their performance for quite a long time. Talking about the battery life, since these laptops use larger batteries, you can expect them to last for 3 to 4 years. This is quite good, especially when combined with the 5 to 6 years of lifespan regarding the hardware present inside.
How to Prolong Your Laptop’s Lifespan?
Those of you who do not want to get a new laptop but want to use your existing laptop for as long as possible might be interested in learning a few methods for increasing the lifespan of your laptop. In that case, here are some of the things that you can try out:
- You should always remove your laptop’s charger as soon as the battery gets fully charged up for extending the battery lifespan.
- To ensure that your laptop and its internals are cooled properly, it is highly important to clean the internals and cooling fans. You can either do it yourself or take your laptop to a service center to get it cleaned from the inside every 6 months or so.
- Another way to further lower the temperatures of your laptop, you can also consider getting an external cooling pad. With lower temperatures, your laptop will be able to perform effectively at its best for a long time with ease.
- When you are talking about electronics devices like laptops and mobile phones, it is best to keep all food items and drinks away from your laptop. This is to ensure that nothing gets stuck in the keyboard which can potentially make some keys stop working.
- Apart from maintaining the hardware, you should also maintain the software of your laptop. One easy way to do so is to run regular antivirus checks. Even though the inbuilt Windows Defender does a decent job for the same, you can also consider using third-party tools like Webroot to make sure that your laptop is not infected by any malware or viruses.
- While the performance of your laptop primarily depends on the processor and RAM of your laptop, upgrading to an SSD drive can help a lot. Since it lowers boot times and program loading times by a lot, you get a much snappier experience while using your laptop. If that alone does not help, you can also consider upgrading the RAM of your laptop especially if it has less than 8 gigs of RAM and runs on Windows 10.
Signs that You need a New Laptop
Now that you know the average lifespan of your laptop as well as its battery, you might want to know whether it is the right time for you to upgrade yours.
If your laptop is getting very slow and lags when you use your laptop for your daily tasks, then it can be an indicator of outdated hardware. If you wish to know this in detail, here are some factors to consider to check if you need a new laptop:
- Your Laptop is Bulky: While it may not affect the performance of your laptop, having a bulky, heavy, and thick laptop can certainly affect your overall experience. If you are using a very old laptop, then upgrading to a modern thin and light laptop will result in a day and night difference. These laptops can be taken anywhere with you without worrying about the extra weight or the space it is going to take up.
- Overheating Quickly: Those of you who are familiar with computers and laptops must know that most of the internal components heat up during operation. By default, almost all laptops have a fan on the inside that is meant to cool up all of these components. However, if you have an old laptop, then it may have dust clogged up in the cooling system. As a result, your laptop might be getting overheated quickly and suffer from low performance and possible thermal throttling.
- Keys not Working Properly: Similar to the cooling system of your laptop, its keyboard can also get filled up with dust. Even though you can simply clean it up, this dust can get built up over a long period of time. And in some cases, this may cause issues with the keys where they might not be working which can be a sign that you need a new laptop.
- Drastic Decrease in Performance: One of the most common ways to check if your laptop is outdated is to simply check its performance. If all of the tasks that you are running are slow, laggy, stuttering, and take a lot of time, then you should consider upgrading to a new one.
- Hardware Devices not Detected: While it is not as common as other issues with older laptops, a few laptops may cause issues where some hardware devices are not detected. This can include things like speakers, webcam, and even the keyboard in some cases. As you would expect, this can be highly frustrating because of which you should consider getting a new laptop if you are facing the same issue.
- Desktop goes Black: Just like the rest of the components of your laptop, its display can also stop working after a long period of time. While some of you may experience the screen going completely black, others might find multiple dead pixels on the screen that do not change their colors. In either case, if the screen of your laptop is not working properly, it can surely cause a lot of issues due to which it can be a great idea to get a new laptop.
- Battery Stops Working: One of the most common issues found in older laptops is battery-related. Even though a lower battery life is to be expected from an older laptop, the battery of your laptop may even stop working completely in a few rare cases. And at that point, you will have to keep your laptop plugged in at all times making it unviable for portable usage.
- Hard Drive Failure: If you are familiar with hard disk drives, then you must know that these have multiple mechanical parts inside them. Because of this, all hard drives end up not working after a few years which is especially true for laptops that get used for portable usage. In such a case, it is best to get a new laptop for a much better computing experience.
