Categories
Uncategorized

Apple’s hardware lasts a long time

Perhaps what I appreciate most about Apple's products is how long they last. My daily driver is a mid-2011 13-inch Macbook Air which I bought shortly after it was available and have used nearly every day since.

It shipped with OS X Snow Leopard and will support at least macOS High Sierra. That means, including Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra in between, it has supported eight OS X/macOS releases over 6 years (7 when the next macOS is released).

The machine's been good as gold; I haven't had to replace or repair a single part on the actual machine, and have only needed to replace the Magsafe head and cable on the charger after the wires had frayed. It's fast enough and more to serve my needs.

I also own an iPad 3 (the first with a retina screen), now used almost daily as an entertainment machine by a close family member, and also bought shortly after its availability in early/mid 2012. That makes it over five years old and nowhere close to being retired.

It shipped with iOS 5, the one that introduced the notification center and iMessage. It was updated all the way to iOS 9.3 in Aug 2016, shortly before iOS 10. iOS 9 is recent enough to run streaming apps and VLC.

It's built like a tank and has great battery life even today. I bought a leather Smart Cover along with it and it's aged rather well. I see this being used easily for a couple of years more. I had gifted another iPad 3 to a family member back in 2012; it still remains their main computer. They use it mainly for email, the web and Facebook and the machine is perfectly capable of this.

In passing, I received my previous iPhone, the 5S, as a hand-me-down in 2014 (bought earlier in the year), which now is another family member's main phone. My previous iPhone 5 (also received as a hand-me-down) is from early 2013 and is my backup phone in semi-active use.

(iPhone 4S from early 2012 as bonus. Runs iOS 9.3 like a champ)

Add to all this the fact that Apple hardware ages well. The aluminium wears beautifully over time, and their design is, well, classic. I can see me using my iPhone SE and 9.7" iPad Pro for years to come.