this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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EDIT: Getting a ton of great responses thanks everyone <3 Once this is up for 24 hours or so I’ll make another edit summarizing everyone’s recs for future reference. Keep ‘em coming!

TL;DR Have any recs for non-Apple phones/laptops that have lifespans of at least 5+ years?

Wanted to get everyone’s opinion on want brands/products have worked for them. I’m lightly techy and not afraid to put some effort in, but also don’t want to build everything from scratch. I think Apple’s products are often anti-consumer, anti-privacy, anti-yadda yadda yadda.

At the same time, with both phones and laptops, I’ve found my Apple products to have double or even triple the lifespan of any other brand. I did my research and bought a $1000+ HP laptop with Ryzen7 a little over two years ago, and due to a flaw in the hinge which is now subject to a class action lawsuit, the screen has cracked and it’s mostly unusable. Other purchase haven’t failed quite that dramatically but don’t tend to last as long. On the other hand, my or my partner’s old Macbooks and iPhones are easily seeing 5+ years of use in addition to software updates.

So let me know what’s worked for you!

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Don't buy HP laptops. They're terrible. Framework is great, and Lenovo and Dell are generally pretty good. Put Linux on it if you care about privacy.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a little early to pronounce longevity on Framework. They could be great, the pieces are there for them to be great, but the whole enterprise could fail and leave you with an upgradeable/fixable laptop with no upgrades or parts.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At the very least, if Framework dies, many of the parts are standardized, and the ones that aren't are mostly open source. The SSD, RAM, WiFi card, and screen connector are all standardized. The expansion cards use USB-C and have an open-source shape; many people have already made third-party expansion cards. The motherboard has an open-source layout, and there are open-source CAD files to make custom enclosures (again, people have already done it). There are general schematics with pinouts on their Github, and they've provided exact schematics to repair stores. If they die, you end up with a laptop that is more repairable than almost any other, as well as a community with enough information to keep it alive if they want to.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I'm not knocking Framework at all here (and in fact they may be my next laptop), but repairability and long-lasting don't quite mean the same thing. Usually when people say "long lasting" they mean something that is durable and reliable. Repairability can contribute to that, of course, but the option of 3D printing my own parts, or open specs on certain parts, doesn't really make the device last longer without breaking. At best, it gives me some options to remediate it when it fails, and if I'm not capable of making my own parts, then my only option may be to buy parts anyway and deal with downtime.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Any laptop designed for enterprise like Lenovo Thinkpad or hp elitebook/ProBook

Your laptop was an HP pavilion, right? Those are designed to barely last the warranty period. Their engineers on this product line have a long experience of carefully choosing plastics that will degrade within 24 months

IMHO MacBooks are super overrated. OS support is not as long as normal computers (5 years instead of "indefinite") and they still have hardware flaws to hinges and keyboard

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t currently use macOS, but macOS support is typically about 7 years, sometimes up to 10. Apple supports the 3 latest versions of its operating system.

Mainstream Windows support seems to be about 1-3 years.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What are you talking about? You can take a Pentium 4 from twenty years ago and install latest windows 10. Microsoft releases a new version every 6 to 12 months but the computer updates automatically. Of course it makes no sense for them to continue supporting an old version that anyway everyone can update from without issues

And once apple decided the os is not compatible, your computer is on death row. Latest apps won't run. Ok, can get security updates, but you needed to run latest final cut pro x? Bad luck, insert credit card and purchase new Mac

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Ok then an athlon64 from the year 2003

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

IMHO MacBooks are super overrated. OS support is not as long as normal computers (5 years instead of “indefinite”) and they still have hardware flaws to hinges and keyboard

And batteries. Swollen batteries in MacBooks were very common at my work. I have never seen it in any other laptop but Desktop Support would just react to it with 'o, another one'.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Apple products are without critique for sure. But if they last 2 or 3 times as long, are they all that anti-consumer? Compared to Windows, are they all that anti-privacy? I suggest you take another look, without your preconceived notions of Apple products.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah saying Apple is anti-privacy is like… what? Compared to who? Apple is consistently fighting against meta and google (and governments) in favour of user privacy

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Is it far fetched to say that they fight against Meta and Google because they want to be the only ones who have your data?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

A bit. You can download your data from them, it’s not much.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think Apple is better out of the box than most other companies in terms of privacy, which comes from a lot more of their profit coming from hardware rather than data harvesting (ie Meta, Google). Although the EFF has said that’s more an indictment of other tech companies than saying Apple is particularly good.

I do think the lack of customization in macOS makes it more difficult to harden your security settings. PrivacyGuides lists their concerns along with their recommended configuration here.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At a quick glace ....

Most of the recommendations apply to all the major OS e.g. turn off Bluetooth, do not share location, keep admin account but use standard account for daily use, keep firewall on, etc.

A lot of privacy thing can also be opt-out.

OSCP, SIP and multi layer security hardening are where users could not customize.

in summary, Linux > macOS > Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do they last longer? I have an IPhone 3 somewhere that just decided to stop working, yet my HTC with Android 1.2 still works fine.

Most of what's held me back from Apple products has been their planned obsolescence, where the OS was no longer supported, which I've never had with a PC. I've had my cheap second hand laptop for 7 years now and that still works fine with the latest software

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

“Planned obsolescence”? Like where the iPhone 7 and on have received 6 to 7 years of software updates?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I am leaning towards a new MacBook for the reasons you stated among others. I came here to get some new perspectives, and to explore other options I might not be aware of yet.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would not trust apple products. Self cracking display on laptop? Updates that slow down devices on purpose? no, thanks

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Never had any issues on any of my macbooks and I've had them for over 5 years each. My 2012 mbp still runs as good as the day I got it!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I can't say the same about my 2012 mbp, it's been basically useless for like 5 years now.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • Laptop: Framework. Modular hardware, easy to upgrade and repair.
  • Smartphone: Pixel + GrapheneOS.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Framework definitely seems the way to go if you want a long-lived laptop - as long as you live in one of the few countries that they sell to!

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Laptops: ThinkPad P-series. The repairability that the T-series used to have with slightly beefier specs and better heatsinks. Great for Linux.

Phones: FairPhone 4 (FP5 will likely be announced end of the month so wait for that) - user repairable, supports alternate operating systems, 7 years official OS support from FairPhone.

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[–] briongloid 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ThinkPads are considered the Windows/Linux equivalent of Apple laptops in business settings.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

And owned by Lenovo. Who in the past loaded unremovable bloatware reinstallers into their BIOS so that fresh installs always reloaded their shit.

If you want a Linux laptop, System76 is your best bet.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

For phones, new pixel with grapheneos.

The new pixel phones have 5 year support windows now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They have 3 years of operating system updates and 5 years of security updates. Source

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Similar longevity to Apple products isn't a high bar.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm typing this on a ten year MacBook Pro that is running a currently supported version of MacOS and runs as fast as the day I bought it. I have two MacBook Airs that are eleven years old and still in secondary service. I have a pile of Dell and Lenovo Windows laptops of similar age that can still run but are basically doorstops or suitable for beater Linux or BSD machines, definitely not daily drivers.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Okay i'm not sure how much + is in your 1000$ and obviously there's a manufacturing defect at olay here. But man a MacBook is 2000$+ I have heard this argument too often unfortunately:

I tried Android once and it was horrible so i just went back to iPhone©™ and now everything is great again.

Context: they bought a 300$ Samsung phone and expected it to perform the same as their previous 800$ iPhone....

And this just sounds too similar. "I previously had a 2000$+ device, now I bought a 1000$+ one and it doesn't perform the same." Except for the part where it's also a shitty brand and the device had a manufacturing defect.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For phones 5+ years of updates is good compared to the alternatives, and is why I have one. For a computer, on the other hand, it’s just not very impressive. Perhaps FairPhones come close (don’t know how long their software is supported but their selling point is longevity), but their specs aren’t that impressive. On the flip side you get something repairable.

MacBooks are often built better with higher quality materials than many other laptops, but it is essentially a computer. Most computers that have high enough specs will always run the latest version of most Linux distributions or Windows barring any need for weird drivers from the past century. Feels a little iffy to have a perfectly good computer that won’t update software anymore just because. Up until recently you could just install some Linux OS on your old MacBooks when it went out of support but honestly I don’t know whether you can still do that after they started making non-x86 stuff.

With all that said, haven’t seen many laptops physically outlive MacBooks’ updates. With the exception of some ThinkPads and possibly some XPS models. Plastic laptops with plastic hinges tend to struggle keeping up, especially if the display is on the larger side. A large gaming laptop living the life of a typical MacBook, going to cafes and university in a backpack every day is probably gonna have more stress on hinges etc.

As for HP I have only heard bad stuff about them for the last 10 years or so. Don’t think I’ll buy stuff from them due to their evil printers that won’t scan without ink etc.

Not many specific recommendations here but just some observations I have made. Hope it’s helpful.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't say if the quality is still the same, but I bought a Chromebook when they first came out for $99 and that little buddy has lasted me a decade now. It's seen me through a deployment, a degree, several moves, and has been through a load of abuse and come out the other side working as spiffy as day one, minus some scuff on the screen. (Unfortunately Google has recently aged it out, but I'll find a use for it with a virtual machine perhaps).

I imagine most little netbooks are similarly built and can withstand a boatload, although their computing power definitely lacks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I have an aged out Chromebook running lubuntu just fine. In my case, I had to open the bottom and remove a "write protect" screw, then it installed and it's still going strong. I had to mess around with the keyboard settings a bit, but otherwise it worked just great!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

thinkpad T series laptop

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Oneplus phones are good. Beastly specs and run LineageOS. Also not too challenging or expensive to replace (most) parts.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, if we're going by anecdotes, on average, most gear will last 5 years more often than not. I still have my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that's still working, just that it's sorely obsolete on the software side. Another even more extreme example: I also have a Samsung i600 that's also still working, and only recently has the battery started showing signs of bloating. That's a 15+ year-old phone!

The several thousand laptops the charity I worked for (and still volunteer for sometimes) give out yearly also indicate that plenty of laptops will make it past the 5 year mark. Until last year we were still giving out 6th gen Intel laptops.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Side note, I have such mixed feelings on HP. I have only anecdotal things to say, so please keep that in mind!

I bought a budget HP Pavilion back in 2020, for a similar reason to you, because of the Ryzen setup. It sees use 4-5 times a week. And I have to say... I love it.

The build quality is, in my opinion, outstanding for a budget ($600) laptop. Its metal, solid, with almost no noticable keyboard flex. It feels so much better than both Dells my wife and I use for work. And the keyboard is actually my favorite of all the boards in my house.

My family has always had new tech coming in and out of the house and one of the longest lasting devices we had was an HP 2-In-1.

I don't support their scummy software practices (shoutout brother printers). But for the most part every piece of HP tech I've bought has been average or above. But online they're somewhat universally panned. Its interesting.

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