It depends on how you use your computer and how well you maintain it. I have a number of computers that are still going on strong after more than 10 years doing things (now they're mostly file servers or audio streamers but still fully functional). Except for checking for patches and ensuring a monthly reboot (Windows) they're still going on strong.

The 2015 (and 2017) MacBook Air has an undocumented feature, it supports standard NVMe SSDs by way of a little adapter. I know are few people hanging on to 2015 models because they were able to very economically install enormous and fast SSDs.

A 2015 also still has a good number of years of software support as Apple will provide updates for any given version of macOS for a minimum of three years and the 2015 is still supported in Monterey.

My 2015 MacBook needed a new battery recently, and when I picked it up from the Apple Store, there was a comment on the receipt: "Large quantities of fur (cat?) were vacuumed out. Recommend not allowing cat on the keyboard."

Clearly whoever wrote that didn't know much about the drifting properties of cat fur.

To the OP: I'm on my 5th Mac, dating back to a 1984 educational model (which still works). I use 'em until there are no longer any viable software updates available. Never had one die of hardware issues.

My 2015 Macbook AIr is going strong with daily work and personal use. The battery does not hold its charge quite as long but I do not see other reductions in quality. I have every expectation of another few years - especially with a new battery.

Thank you everyone

We had a 2011 MBP that went bad after 3 years. The 2011 did work another 2 years, but it was so frustrating and we couldn’t afford to repair it. Someone gave us their old 2009 and it worked great.. In 2018 we decided to buy a refurbished 2017 rather than pay to fix the 2011. The 2017 MBP does have looseUSB C ports that we plan to get repaired.

I had a 2012 MBA that I used extensively for work travel and photo editing until 2019 when I replaced it with a MBP.

I sold it to someone else and when i did it still ran just as well as when I bought it. The only issue it had was that the battery was down to about 70% max capacity.

Macbooks last ages and run quite nicely. The two main problems you will face are:

1. Battery degradation. The battery won't last as long anymore... which may not be an issue.
2. Lack of software support at some point. My son's ancient Macbook air is now stuck at MacOS 12.5.4? I think... but it still runs great.

Thank you

2013 is working fine for me. It may need a battery replacement soon, but in no hurry to replace it.

Conversely, My work issue 2019 MBP has an awful battery life. I haven�t traveled with it yet, but not looking forward to it. It weighs a ton.

My old 2011 Air still works though it’s current user (gave it to my sister a few years back) reports it is now quite slow. I’m guessing a degree of SSD rot.

I'm still getting good enough use out of a late 2010 MBA model that it hasn't become part of a de facto Apple computer museum. Battery life on it is probably not good for even more than an hour of use -- if even that -- but for some non-grunt, purely light entertainment purposes, it works well enough that I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being in use for a few more years. The MBA-chargers have had to be replaced quite a bit over the years, but the laptop itself has been beyond needing servicing or dumping at this point still.

I did rather recently make sure that the browser had tons of windows left open and running. Even as that can really slow things down at times, nothing that a quick reboot and restart wouldn't fix on that laptop now in its second decade of service.

I could only wish that some of the old Windows netbooks and laptops were as resilient and useful for this long.

Prior to my MacBooks, my work laptop was an Alienware M15x. It weighed about 11 pounds which I carried around the world and yes, that got to be quite heavy (I was done carrying it around about an hour into my first trip with it). By comparison, the 2013 13" MBA weighed in at 2.96 lbs (1.35 kg), while the 2019 15" MBP weighs in at 4.02 pounds (1.83 kg) and the 13" at 3.02 pounds (1.37 kg). My Air was a late 2011 11" MBA that weighed in at 2.38 pounds (1.08 kg).

People (the usuals) made the usual comments about "the cult of Mac" and "fanbois" and such but that is what they have to do to justify replacing a laptop every couple years because it becomes so horribly out of date, or just falls apart because it's made cheaply. I averaged a new Windows laptop about every 2 years, myself, while I've owned 2 Macs in the last 11 years, a 2011 MBA and a 2019 MBP, the MBA is still in use elsewhere in my family, albeit on it's second battery, and the MBP will probably viable untl after 2030 at least.

That said, I'll probably replace it next year when the M2 MBPs come out because the M1s are quite a performance improvement over the Intel MBPs and I could justify an early replacement for that much of a performance bump.

What's the point of ditching a well working, proven machine and handing over 1-2k to Apple?

The problem is there is a lot of cheap, garbage hardware out there in the PC universe. Especially on the consumer side. Pretty much everything that goes on sale for Black Friday or the rest of the holiday season is crap. 95% of what you can buy off the shelf at Best Buy is crap.

Buy crap hardware and then yeah you�re gonna have to replace it in short order. There are plenty of other examples of PCs with lives as long as or even longer than Macs. Primarily business laptops� with ThinkPads being a prime example. I still have Dells, HPs, and ThinkPads from the late 2000�s and all are running great with some RAM and SSD. All the consumer-grade Dells, HPs, Toshibas, and Sonys physically fell apart or had fatal hardware failures. Units from these lines, particularly ones with upgradeable storage and memory, can offer superior longevity compared to Macs with increasingly soldered components.

I will also concede that Windows laptops tend to require a reformat/reinstall of the OS more frequently than Macs. For me that�s no big deal because I separate OS from storage, so I can reformat in an afternoon every couple years. But that�s beyond a lot of people, and they confuse a computer needing an OS reinstall with needing a new machine when really the hardware has a lot of mileage left.