Up until around 2010, both consumers and businesses could be counted on to upgrade their laptops every three years on average, because technology changed so quickly that anything older than that felt like a dinosaur. Since then, however, that upgrade cycle has gotten longer and longer, and many users now have notebooks that are old enough to enter grade school.
You can blame the economy or competing devices such as tablets, but in recent years, many consumers just haven’t noticed a big enough difference between their five-year-old laptop and the shiny new ones on the shelf at Best Buy. Who wants to spend $700 to get something that’s just a little bit faster than what they have now?
However, in 2017, if you replace a laptop that’s at least three years old, you will see huge benefits that go way beyond minor performance gains. From sharper, more colorful screens to longer battery life, USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports and 7th Gen CPUs, here are the key features you can get on a new notebook that your old system just can’t match.
1. USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3 Ports
Everyone loves USB, the ubiquitous connector that charges your phone and tablet, writes data to your flash drive and even connects you to helpful docking stations. Your old laptop probably has a few standard USB Type-A ports, but many 2017 systems come with USB Type-C ports which offer a whole new world of functionality. USB Type-C ports can carry data and electricity over a single wire, allowing you to power your laptop, output video to external monitors and copy files with just one standard cable. Better still, all USB Type-C cables are reversible, which means that you never have to worry about plugging them in upside down.
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