EDIT: Getting a ton of great responses thanks everyone <3 Once this is up for 24 hours or so I’ll make another edit summarizing everyone’s recs for future reference. Keep ‘em coming!

TL;DR Have any recs for non-Apple phones/laptops that have lifespans of at least 5+ years?

Wanted to get everyone’s opinion on want brands/products have worked for them. I’m lightly techy and not afraid to put some effort in, but also don’t want to build everything from scratch. I think Apple’s products are often anti-consumer, anti-privacy, anti-yadda yadda yadda.

At the same time, with both phones and laptops, I’ve found my Apple products to have double or even triple the lifespan of any other brand. I did my research and bought a $1000+ HP laptop with Ryzen7 a little over two years ago, and due to a flaw in the hinge which is now subject to a class action lawsuit, the screen has cracked and it’s mostly unusable. Other purchase haven’t failed quite that dramatically but don’t tend to last as long. On the other hand, my or my partner’s old Macbooks and iPhones are easily seeing 5+ years of use in addition to software updates.

So let me know what’s worked for you!

  • I am a source. Over the last few decades, most computers and phones around here worked fine throughout their service lives and either are still in service or were replaced because they became obsolete, but about half of the Apples suffered hardware failure of some kind—two Macs died, one MacBook’s video cuts out if the lid is opened more than a couple of inches and its keyboard is very glitchy, and one iPhone’s battery life has become terrible despite reporting 90% battery health. Seriously not impressed with Apple hardware.