Advice Request How often to replace Low-end vs High-end Laptops?

[Ink]

General question for Windows 10 Laptops.

Low-end laptops costs less, but sacrifice performance for value resulting in slower storage and less memory. These can all have a negative impact on performance after a few years, and slower response times after major OS or software updates.

High-end laptops cost more, but have better components with faster storage and more memory. Upgrades are not as accessible compared to full desktop computers, but you get what you pay for, in a slim and portable form-factor.

Now considering the nature of wanting newer and better things, people replace their smartphones every 3 to 5 years, and desktop users upgrading parts every so often.

Should Windows 10 Laptop users follow this trend? How often to change low-end laptops vs high-end laptops?
Also, how often do Surface owners upgrade to the newer models?

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

First, a user shall understand what kind of task he does whatever very basic like YouTube web browsing emailing which even a 10-year-old mid-range can run the workload as effective as a high end by today's standards.
And I have seen users by top of the line components to run grandma like workload which is pure waste of money and time.

 

[Brahman]

I have ( I still have it in pristine condition) My Dell inspiron 7250 form 2012, thats about eight years of pretty heavy usage and boy i got my moneys worth. It had an i7 (i7-3612QM ) mid range processor at the time of buying it and because it is an i7 it is still (very)usable. So if your financial condition allows it and if you have a good use case scenario as Vitali Ortzi pointed out there is nothing wrong in going all out.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

I have ( I still have it in pristine condition) My Dell inspiron 7250 form 2012, thats about eight years of pretty heavy usage and boy i got my moneys worth. It had an i7 (i7-3612QM ) mid range processor at the time of buying it and because it is an i7 it is still (very)usable. So if your financial condition allows it and if you have a good use case scenario as Vitali Ortzi pointed out there is nothing wrong in going all out.

Maybe not laptops because of Wight/power efficiency.

 

[Local Host]

How often to replace a laptop depends entirely on the use case scenario, and also on the owner himself (as the laptops need maintenance).

A laptop for heavy software (including gaming) lasts around 5 years (more but you won't have acceptable performance by then), while a laptop for light case scenarios can last 10 years or more.

We would be able to use them for longer, if developers optimized their Software (they abuse the modern hardware to become more and more lazy with their code optimization).

 

[shmu26]

First, a user shall understand what kind of task he does whatever very basic like YouTube web browsing emailing which even a 10-year-old mid-range can run the workload as effective as a high end by today's standards.
And I have seen users by top of the line components to run grandma like workload which is pure waste of money and time.

My experience is the opposite of this conventional wisdom.
My wife just checks her Gmail and does light web browsing like you described, but her new laptop is SO much faster at these basic tasks. From the time she opens the lid to the time she sees what she wants on the screen, the frustrating delay has been basically eliminated.
I upgraded her from a Dell i3 5th gen with SSD and 4 GB RAM, to an ASUS i5 10th gen with SSD and 8 GB RAM. It's night and day. Also the wifi card works ten times better!

 

[Brahman]

she opens the lid to the time she sees what she wants on the screen, the frustrating delay has been basically eliminated.

Being a husband myself, I can understand how important it is to keep a wife in a happy mood all the time, for that even an investment in thread-ripper 3990x is value for money.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

My experience is the opposite of this conventional wisdom.
My wife just checks her Gmail and does light web browsing like you described, but her new laptop is SO much faster at these basic tasks. From the time she opens the lid to the time she sees what she wants on the screen, the frustrating delay has been basically eliminated.
I upgraded her from a Dell i3 5th gen with SSD and 4 GB RAM, to an ASUS i5 10th gen with SSD and 8 GB RAM. It's night and day. Also the wifi card works ten times better!

Did you try to run chrome OS on the old hardware? .

[

Being a husband myself, I can understand how important it is to keep a wife in a happy mood all the time, for that even an investment in thread-ripper 3990x is value for money.

I disagree she won't use 1% of the cores .
Better off getting a cheaper ryzen with higher clock speed.
Then selling your kidney
At least for most workloads.

 

[Brahman]

[

I disagree she won't use 1% of the cores .
Better off getting a cheaper ryzen with higher clock speed.
Then selling your kidney
At least for most workloads.

Well then you don't know what "wife" actually means... (Worries Invited For Ever )..........(just kidding- no offence intended against fairer sex )

 

[shmu26]

Did you try to run chrome OS on the old hardware? .

When you can run Microsoft Word on Chrome OS, or on Linux, then they become legitimate alternatives. Until then...

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

When you can run Microsoft Word on Chrome OS, or on Linux, then they become legitimate alternatives. Until then...

Office from play store should suffice for most users.

 

[shmu26]

Office from play store should suffice for most users.

From what I can tell, it is an online app. That makes it a non-starter, with our unreliable internet connectivity.

 

[Howard1975]

I think it really depends on the needs of the individual. Some people need to update, more often compared to other people.

I'm still using a Dell laptop with an Intel Core2Duo CPU, 4 GB ram, and a 250 GB hard drive. I have Linux installed, that does help with performance. I'll be upgrading that laptop to a 120 GB SSD, to replace the mechanical hard drive. But otherwise, it works fine for my needs.

I use my desktop PC for most of my everyday computing needs, the laptop gets used rarely. I have no need to get a new laptop right now, because I hardly use it.

 

[MonSpyder9]

I have laptop that I used mainly for gaming back in the day. At some point the graphics card overheated and now it's running on the integrated card so the list of games I can play is greatly reduced. I've considered using it as a test station for Linux as I have a desktop now for gaming, while the laptop is getting no use.
I also learned that I don't really like bulky laptops. Thin, light, portable and focused on productivity is what I need.