What is the average life span of a laptop?
I have Inspiron Dell N5010. I bought it 4 years ago. I replaced my hard-drive 2 years ago. I am using it without battery for more than 2 years. Now it has stopped working. Is it a better idea to repair it or has it completed its life?
I had a laptop that lasted for only 1 exact year and one that lasted for 6 years and current one will be celebrating it's 3rd problem less birthday this November. My friends had issues in the 1st month of the new thinkpad laptop as well while my boss still uses a 10 year old thinkpad. So the simple answer is - it depends varies from person to person and laptop to laptop.
Now the long answer...
Let me give you a simple analogy - consider an eraser, the one which is used to erase the pencil use. The more you use it the earlier it is finished. If you don't use it at all for years, dust accumulates on it making it useless or the rubber hardens to tearing up the paper still making it useless.
Every electronic item has something I call as Life Period, which is same as that of a human, some have a life period of a mere 5 years and some beyond 80. For electronic example, consider the AI device used in Anti-lock braking system of auto-mobiles. The manufactures of these devices scientifically and technically give the age for them - number of applications etc. etc. After those number of applications the probability of the system breakdown increases to almost 11 (not exact 11).
This is the same case for the laptops, batteries start wearing after 20-25 discharging cycles or even earlier if you use wrong current and voltages to charge them (for ex. outlets in India Railway carriages), the processor starts degrading after a certain number of uses, the sensors/rubbers of the keys/track-pad starts degrading after certain number of clicks or types etc. etc. Besides these there are third party culprits as well - ants, dust, liquids and humans. There are various factors that influence the Life Period of your electronic device or in particular, a laptop.
From my understanding of electronics and from my education in that field, given that we don't consider any technological advancements here, considering the manufactures want to sell more of their stuff, a perfect (without any manufacturing defects) laptop should work without any issues or very very limited wear for the first two years and should extend up to a decade more before it dies out, and hence the average would be around 6-7 years.
Source: QUORA
