My 18 month old HP Laptop's hinges failed a couple weeks ago. The little brass nuts that were implanted into the plastic lid and case pulled out of the plastic. They refused to fix them under the extended warranty, but Costco gave me a refund. I looked at my wife's very lightly used 6 month old HP laptop; it is starting to fail in the same way.
I suspect that it is planned obsolescence. Electronically there just is not the need to replace laptops as often as we used to. The advances have slowed down. The weird thing is that most of the super cheap devices that I have bought in the last few years have outlasted the more expensive ones. My $250 Apple TV box quit working about a week after the warranty expired, while my $40 Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire tv sticks keep going and going... So my experience would seem to contradict some of the premises of the article.
I destroyed my Dell after 2 years of maddening frustration with it’s crappy touchpad. It was the type that had the mouse buttons hidden underneath. They were so unresponsive that I would have to repeatedly tap to get them to work.
Eventually I started pounding the touchpad to the point I balled up my fist and beat the sh*t out of it.
Now I have an HP with discrete mouse buttons. Couldn’t be happier.
HA! Tell that to my still perfectly functional iPhone 5C that is stuck on iOS 10.3.3.
For surfing, I bought a HP chromebook and have not had one single problem with it.
On other devices, I always got those scams ads... such as that fake Microsoft ad about a computer virus, etc. I even got that a couple of times at the library.
I just love love love my chromebook. Cost me all of $199.00
Strange that the article ignores Apple being caught red-handed throttling older devices...
I picked up a Toshiba laptop in early 2013 and bumped up the RAM to the maximum 16GB. While it serves me well enough to this day, it’s buggy and boots slow. I’ve been meaning to do a wipe and reset to see if it works better. It runs Windows 10 these days.
I’ve been meaning to upgrade but I honestly don’t use it enough so it’s just a minor annoyance. For internet consumption, I almost exclusively use my Samsung Tab S 10.5 (picked up in early 2015 but I rooted it and it runs a custom ROM). It’s fast, reliable, and suits my needs perfectly. I did have to replace the battery about 2 years ago because it stopped holding a charge well but now it’s running great.
>>>My $250 Apple TV box quit working about a week after the warranty expired<<<
Take it to the nearest Apple Store. I’ve read that they are very responsive to Customer issues and they might replace it even of the Warranty ended.
As my Father always used to say, you don’t know unless you ask.
I had good luck with an old Acer-Windows XP. My current Dell-Windows7 i7 is still going strong after about 7 years. I did replace the hard drive from a 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM after about a year, and I noted a significant improvement in loading and running programs.
Before the Dell, I bought a Samsung-Windows7 i7. It lasted one month after the warranty expired. I tried to get it fixed locally. The local computer shop tried to get a new motherboard, as that was were the problem was. They were told Samsung didn’t make replacement motherboards for that model. Thus, I have an $800 door-stop and I will never buy anything from Samsung again. [My Samsung DVR died after only 2 years of use.]
I also have Toshiba Linux Mint i3. It is okay, but somewhat sluggish.
I have an RCA android tablet that is nearly junk. It takes forever to reboot after it shuts itself off frequently.
I have a Win10 tablet that has similar problems. Sometimes, it reboots 2-3 times in a single day. I find Win10 frustrating anyway, so I usually stick with the Dell Win-7 laptop and Gateway Win-7 i5 desktop.
My desktop computers typically last around 10 years before the hard drive quits working.
Far more common is for a computer to get all screwed up from software issues. I am not very good at fixing this but if I keep going, I eventually get it restored to original start point and then have to reload everything and of course lose some things for good.
I only have one lap top and it is still working after around 10 years. It actually got messed up the worst of everything but after maybe six months of trying, installed a Windows 7 upgrade and erased everything. Now still mechanically and software fine.
re: “This is why I am a huge fan of Japanese products and also Apple”
” and ALSO APPLE”?
This guy has never heard of Louis Rossmann ...
“The horrible truth about Apple’s repeated engineering failures.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
I used a Gateway both at home and a work. I was deeply disappointed that they sold out to Lenovo and ceased operations in Sioux Falls, SD. I had my Gateways for about 8 years and they just wore out from use.
re: “I suspect that it is planned obsolescence.”
I have never once in my life attended a meeting where we planned obsolescence.
For the most part, it just happens for reasons like material (poor choices in the plastic, or, the manufacturer of the plastic failed to constitute the right blend of materials for a long-lived plastic).
We have (or group) have a variety of ‘gear’ still operating from the mid 1960’s, and yes, there are SOME things that fail (like electrolytic capacitors and fans) BUT the semiconductors and tubes (a few transmitting style tubes) STILL WORK!!!
Like anything, it depends. They all have different product lines for different markets. Take Lenovo for instance. Their E series is their economy line but their T series and W series are their business line and are very well made.
That’s all we run around here. My wife and daughter have Yogas which seem to be fine so far. My son and I have W series and hardly new. 2012-ish.
I hate that IBM sold out to Lenovo, a Chinese company but they didn’t change things too much really. Thing I like best is the Hardware Maintenance Manual which tells you how to replace any part and the parts availability is good because they’ve made so many of them.
There’s an abundance of good used units that come from corporate leases that expired.
I run dual boot win7 pro + linux mint kde version. I rarely use the win7 side and on linux(ubuntu based), I have a 10-15 second start up time and as little as 5 second shut down time. It never stumbles on anything I throw at it. Multiple images open for editing, 30-40 browser tabs open at the same time along with email client and a couple other progs open. Not bad for 2.7GHz/16gb ram at a price of $280.00
Article mentions toughbook/toughpad. I’ve got toughpad. Built to mil specs, will handle 4 foot drop to concrete, outdoor viewable, handles extreme temps and can get rained on. I use it for a vehicle scan tool.
Lenovo is now Chinese owned.
Data from 2009
My HP’s hinges are also broken. This was my first and last HP product. Now I’ve got an ASUS “gaming” laptop on the way. Gaming hardware is built for hard use, right? I’m not that demanding, so I expect this new laptop to survive for many years to come. But no more HP junk.
My experience with HP differs from yours.
I bought my HP laptop in 2013 and it has performed flawlessly ever since. I use the heck out of it, too.
Panasonic Toughbooks are the only way to go IF you have the money and need an ultrareliable laptop that you use all day every day and/or travel continuously ... still made in Japan as far as i know, and comes with three year warranty and outstanding support out of Heartland,KS and New Jersey.
these things generally last well beyond the software and hardware technology improvements in subsequent generations.
i find their finding strange, because in my decades of PC support, HP laptops have been BY FAR the worst of the worst, even their so-called business laptops ... i consider HP’s to be absolute junk.
Dell Latitudes (their 5000 series business-class machines) have been excellent ...