Vssmonitoring.com and its partners may earn a commission if you purchase a product through one of our links.

How Long Should A Laptop Last? | How To Extend the Lifespan Explained!

When you desire to buy a mobile computer, you may have a question of how long should a laptop last, right? Of course, having a good insight into this field is really important. A good product will be proven at its durability and battery.

In order to help you get a suitable product, we will give you all the information about a laptop’s lifespan. In addition, you can also learn how to make your computer more durable. Sounds good? Then let’s get started right now!

How Long Should A Laptop Last?

Various new laptops with many extra features are released every day. As a sequence, knowing how long should a laptop last becomes more and more necessary. The durability of a laptop is determined based on many factors. To give you the general overview, we will list all those factors to you. Scroll down to see!

Purposes of Use

What you use the laptop for decides the lifespan of it. Of course, it is understandable to explain why some people have a laptop for gaming and a laptop for working.

On the other hand, how much time you spend using your laptop also shows its durability. To put in an example, if you enjoy games for 9 - 10 hours with a business laptop or a student's laptop every day, the graphics card and RAM will run out over time, which decreases the quality of it quickly. Therefore, it is vital to get the right product for appropriate purposes.

a girl on the bed with her laptop

Hot temperature

Do you know that the hot temperature can create bad effects on your mobile computer? The truth is that heat can increase every laptop's speed of wearing out and make it runs slower. This heat may come from both inside and outside factors. One of the most common external cause is the direct contact of the laptop with sunlight, while the popular internal reason is the overheating of it due to overworking.

Material

A laptop that is made of plastic can not be solid as a product made of metal. However, the more solid the laptop is, the heavier it gets.

If you don’t care about the laptop’s weight, we recommend you to choose a sturdy product that is created of metal or aluminum.

Personal Care

Overall, the durability of a laptop depends mostly on how you care and protect it. You can not keep the product long if you often download and use harmful applications. On another side, your laptop can be easily broken if you don't cover it carefully while traveling.

cleaning a laptop

Allowance for upgrading

Not all laptops allow you to upgrade them. Some laptops only have limited versions with special designs that you can not replace their parts with any other product’s parts. Therefore, check carefully if the machine permits you to improve it in the future before buying it.

Laptop Warranty

The more warranty you have, the longer you can use your laptop. Every time your laptop gets slower, you can bring it to the manufacturer to fix or replace the old parts. But remember one thing that every product’s warranty has its conditions. So read all of them carefully to know your rights.

How Long Do Gaming Laptops Last?

A mobile computer for playing games usually has a different ability to last longer in comparison to others. In case you are looking for this type of product, you can find out how long should a laptop last here.

Systematically, gaming computers are designed to have special features. However, that also means that the lifespan of laptops for gaming is shorter than other normal machines.

game on a laptop

Day by day, many new games with high graphics and features are released that require the computer to have a high configuration and flexible processor. In order to meet these criteria, gamers usually have to upgrade and replace their laptop's parts with better alternative ones.

Taking a close look, you can see that a gaming laptop can only run for 3 - 4 years. And then you have to upgrade it or buy a new one. At the same time, laptops for working can still work great and be able to last for 2 -3 years more. 

As for what gaming laptop to look for to suit all your needs, check out these extracts from our top reviews:

Gaming Laptops

Budget Gaming Laptops

For a low budget, we guarantee that you can find the laptop that suits your gaming needs in the best way. If you intend to buy a budget gaming laptop, it's best to choose a mid-high-end laptop to make sure that you can use it for a couple of years. Most games depend on GPUs, though you should pay attention to the CPU and RAM, as well. 

Laptops for Sims 4

Not everyone can enjoy this game to the fullest due to the fact that they do not have the laptops for Sims 4. So, if you are choosing your own laptop, then keep in mind these factors: try to get a laptop with a monitor refresh rate that is at least 60Hz, optimal  with 256GB or even 512GB, at least 4GB of RAM, and lastly, to ensure you can play comfortably, go for laptops with at least 2.1Ghz CPU.

4K Laptops

Since being introduced and put in applications, 4k screen resolution has enchanted us with its superior image and video quality. However, purchasing a 4K laptop can be a huge decision that may cost you a fortune, hence having a brief understanding about 4K and its characteristics will fully support you in choosing the correct laptop for your needs.

17 Inch Laptops

If you love the size and features of a 17 inch laptop, just get it! With that large size, gaming could be easier and more satisfying, but you should pay attention to the specs of your laptop. Our review gives you many main parts that need taking into account - when you want steady performance, go for an 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, a 1080p full HD screen, and Core i5 CPU.

Laptops for VR

Gaming enthusiasts who demand the best results from their hardware even with the newest game titles. If you're in the same boat, have a look at the overclocking and upgrade potential in each gaming laptop before making any purchase. This is the best way to make sure your VR-Ready laptop can keep up with the new games in upcoming years. 

How Long Should A Laptop’s Battery Last?

We are quite sure that you want to know not only how long should a laptop last but also what the limitation of the battery is and how long should laptop batteries last? right? Alright, we will talk about the laptop’s energy source now.

The amount of time for a laptop charger is usually based on those two factors, which is the quality of the battery and how you use the laptop.

Quality of battery

Battery quality depends on the price you pay for them. In addition, it is based on adaptability to laptops. For example, if your computer is very expensive but you use cheap batteries, it will make the battery quality decrease and become weak. Therefore, choosing a battery to suit the quality of your laptop and your budget is very important.

Typically, the battery of a laptop will last for about 5 to 6 years.

This is also a note to help you know how to look up information and select before deciding to buy a laptop. You can view reviews, feedbacks on the Internet, or ask salespeople for advice and support.

Three stages of battery


How you use a laptop

As you probably know, laptop batteries are fully charged within 8 hours at a time. However, some types of low battery or the aged battery may only last for 3 to 4 hours on a single charge. These are figures that show you what you are doing with your laptop.

On the other hand, there will be a few tasks that drain your battery when used. If you are using graphics-intensive software for creating digital art, photo editing, video editing, or gaming, you will need a battery-powered laptop because they are quite battery-draining. For these tasks, it will take you about 3 hours on a single charge.

However, if you use a laptop for office purposes such as sending mail, surfing the net, typing, these jobs only take you 5 hours to charge once. Of course, the more expensive your computer, the more time you'll need to charge.

man using a hp laptop

How to extend your laptop’s lifespan

Now you know how long should a laptop last already. But it will be much better if you can increase your machine’s lifespan. Below are some useful tips to make your mobile computer more durable that you can refer to.

Unplug right after the laptop is fully charged

When you complete charging the laptop, you should unplug the charging cable right away. Otherwise, the battery will receive some systematic error.

Clean the laptop usually

Dust and debris may make your keyboard stuck. If the dust gets inside the laptop, it may break many important parts of your machine. Therefore, you should wipe your laptop regularly with a damp towel.

gaming laptop

Buy a cooler pad

You can find and buy a cooling pad for your computer. This type of pad is sold widely on the market at a reasonable price. Applying this item, the laptop can avoid overheating and work stably.

Use anti-virus applications

You can download some Anti-virus applications to remove all the harmful factors that may create bad effects on your computer. Some good applications that we can recommend are Panda Cloud, Avira Free Antivirus, Avast Free Antivirus, and so on.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have explained to you how long should a laptop last and give you some tips to increase the laptop’s lifespan. Hopefully, you can choose and buy the most suitable product for your own. For further questions, please place them at the comment below. We will contact you and solve all your problems in a jiffy! 

About Dusan Stanar

I'm the founder of VSS Monitoring. I have been both writing and working in technology in a number of roles for dozens of years and wanted to bring my experience online to make it publicly available. Visit https://www.vssmonitoring.com/about-us/ to read more about myself and the rest of the team.

Leave a Comment