The fact that every piece of IT gear needs to be replaced every five years is something I find increasingly annoying. It’s as if I’m on a five-year subscription.

Recently, Biljana and I had to replace phones – not only because the battery was on its last legs, but also because the 12th-gen iPhones have weak batteries by default and it was kind of a problem since we bought them, so merely changing the battery wouldn’t do anything useful. Also, the new operating system is designed to strain the battery more. Also, the radio transceiver (wifi/bluetooth) is slow and we had issues connecting to it via hotspot mode. It all kind of accumulated to the point where we had to do something about it.

Also, the first-gen Apple Silicon gear that we bought in 2021 is now five years old. My M1 iPad pro has a cracked screen in the corner, because I put it on something unstable when I was working, and it fell corner first on the concrete floor. Yeah, not great. However, that was when it was less than a year old, and I refused to do anything about it, seeing it as a punishment for not paying attention, so it’s still cracked. Also, the touchscreen is acting up lately, and there’s yellowing in the edges of the amoled screen – 2-3 cm. I’d replace if it were important, but I use it as a secondary device, for reading books, playing silly mobile games and occasionally surfing the web and taking handwritten notes. The M1 air is also banged up – I destroyed the tab key, probably by pressing it too violently when something wasn’t working, and I had to remap tab to caps lock in software. Also, the battery started showing signs of age in the new OS, which is probably running all kinds of useless garbage in the background, but I solved that by turning on the low power mode. This helped the battery life significantly, and I don’t see any bad side effects. The machine has only 8GB of RAM, which was always its weak point, and it gets worse as they fill the OS with all kinds of slop. I bought the 15″ M4 air a year ago so it’s been “replaced”, but the thing is, I never throw away the “replaced” gear, at least until it’s worn out and broken to the point of being completely useless. I just repurpose it for some secondary task. The M1 air is in the bedroom, and I use it for checking the mail and text messages in the morning, and for writing things down when I have ideas while in bed. It’s actually useful. People use phones for that, but I find phones almost completely useless, since they don’t have a keyboard, and if I have ideas, I need to write them down quickly, and my patience for technological innovations that limit me is non-existent. To me, computer is something with a keyboard and an OS that’s designed for switching between applications quickly and getting things done. It’s interesting how both the M1 tablet and the M1 laptop are essentially the same computer, but the lack of a keyboard on the tablet makes it significantly less useful to me.

I also noticed that the laptop form factor matters a lot. The 13-14″ laptops fit in my lap better, leading to a better hand position which makes typing easier. The 15-16″ models on the other hand are much better when I have to do anything photography-related, or view some web sites where javascript misbehaves on smaller screens. Yes, unfortunately that’s a thing. I have all sorts of laptops, mostly old and obsolete, and one would ask why do I have that many. The answer is, I often have to do things quickly, for instance unload a complex article from my head. I need to have a computer available the second I have to do that, and I don’t have time for messing around. Sometimes, I need two computers, side by side, because I’m running chat on one screen, writing text on the other, and the Mac OS seamlessly connects them both into a single working unit. Being able to do things more effectively because the computers actually help is very beneficial. But it’s sometimes not even that – sometimes, I need a cheap/obsolete/easily repairable laptop when I go out and sit under a pine tree that can drip resin on the keyboard or the screen. That’s what the T14 gen1 Thinkpad is for. If something messes it up, screens and keyboards are cheaply available on ebay and I can install them myself. With a Macbook, it would be a total loss of an expensive device. So, a cheap Thinkpad gives me a peace of mind when I want to have the laptop outside because I want to finish some line of thought without being always at home. Also, the Thinkpad has the advantage of not feeling like I’m on a 5 year lease cycle – the battery is cheap and easy to replace. The SSD is easy to replace. The RAM is socketed and easy to replace. The keyboard, screen and touchpad are easy to replace. All parts can be sourced from ebay. The machine is significantly less pleasant to use when I’m pouring thoughts into the computer compared to the Macbooks, but it feels like it’s going to last forever and it’s repairable.

But here’s the thing: yes, the Apple stuff is on a 5-year renewal cycle, but after 5 years the technology usually advances enough for me to actually consider upgrading not just because the old device is on its last legs, but also because you do actually get something for the money. The iPhone 17 is significantly faster and battery lasts for multiple days, which is a serious upgrade from iPhone 12. The new generation of laptops is amazing, but the M1 Air is also good enough that the only real reason for replacing it would be the accumulation of wear and the lack of RAM. The tablets, on the other hand, all do the same thing and I’d replace that one only when it literally stops working, because otherwise it would feel like a terrible waste of money. Basically, my iPad pro M1 is fast and good, it does everything well; it’s just somewhat broken and the battery is worn out, so it won’t be a replacement because technology got better, it would be replacement because of the unfortunate 5-year cycle.

I feel like complaining about it and saying that technology should last longer than that, but honestly, it doesn’t actually come up as a problem as often as one would think, because I tend to use my devices hard, and my keyboards and mice tend to look like they went through a war after five years. Monitors accumulate quite a bit of working hours too. The SSD drives accumulate wear. Sure, the LiIon batteries artificially limit the life cycle, but I had several situations where I replaced the battery, trying to prolong the life of a phone or a laptop, but I had to replace the device anyway because of other reasons – either wear or the fact that new computers got much faster.

So, what am I saying here? Mostly complaining because it’s been five years since 2021 when I bought most of the gear, and replacements cost money. I hate spending money on gear, but I like having new gear. 🙂

Compared to computers, photography is much more reasonable. I still have lenses from the 1980s and 1990s. I have all the lenses I bought with the Canon 5d in 2006, except the one I sold. They all work on the new gear just fine. The lenses I bought recently, the new and optically superb stuff, are also expected to last forever. My camera replacement cycle is 9-10 years, and that’s because of technology development, not stuff breaking. Cameras have removable batteries and storage, so when that wears out I just buy new batteries and memory cards, not the camera. It’s all modular, quite repairable, and very durable, and I think it’s the example of how things can be done.