u/Exotic-Relation74

Hi guys,

2.5 years ago I bought a Lenovo Yoga 7 14ARP8 for around 1000€. Unfortunately, I already had to send it in once because of keyboard issues, and now it suddenly won’t start anymore. Lenovo says the motherboard would need to be replaced.

I’m honestly frustrated because I spent a lot of time researching back then and specifically wanted a laptop that would last me 8–10 years.

I think part of why I’m struggling so much with this decision is that 2.5 years ago I already tried to “invest properly”. I deliberately spent more money because I thought buying a ~1000€ laptop from a well-known brand would give me something reliable for many years. Instead, I already had keyboard issues after about a year and now potentially a motherboard failure after only 2.5 years.

So now I honestly don’t know anymore whether spending a lot on a laptop actually translates into longevity/reliability — or whether I should think about this completely differently.

Now I’m trying to decide between:

- repairing the Lenovo,
- buying another Windows laptop,
- or switching to macOS.

My use cases:

For the next 6–12 months (while finishing my doctoral thesis):

- lots of browser tabs/research
- Word
- SPSS
- Citavi
- mails
- streaming/surfing

After the thesis:

- mainly mails, streaming, surfing, everyday use

A MacBook Neo would probably be enough performance-wise for my everyday use, and I really like:

- Apple’s reputation for reliability,
- battery life,
- and the integration with my iPhone (and possibly an iPad in the future).

My uncertainty is mainly whether it would also be sufficient during this current thesis phase, especially considering Citavi and potentially running Windows/Parallels.

However, my biggest issue is Citavi. I’ve tried Zotero and other tools, but Citavi works best for my workflow because I can:

- annotate PDFs,
- organize statements by topic/chapter,
- and immediately see all relevant quotes and notes while writing.

Citavi Web unfortunately feels much less smooth/productive to me.

I also looked into running Windows via Parallels on a MacBook, but I’m worried that 8 GB RAM wouldn’t be enough long term.

Another important factor is budget.

At the moment I’m relatively low on budget because I’m still finishing my thesis and not working full-time yet. So naturally, the cheapest reasonable option is very tempting right now.

At the same time, I care a lot about long-term value and reliability. I don’t necessarily want to buy the cheapest possible laptop if that means having similar issues again in a few years.

I’ve also considered refurbished devices, but I’m unsure whether that makes sense if my goal is to invest into something that ideally lasts for many years.

Repairing the Lenovo would probably cost around 300–500€.

If I buy a completely new laptop instead, I would additionally need to pay around 120€ for professional data recovery/transfer because some files related to my doctoral thesis contain patient data and therefore are only stored locally, not in the cloud.

I’m hoping to start working soon after finishing my thesis, so financially things will probably look very different in the near future. That’s partly why I’m struggling with the decision right now.

What would you do in my situation?

- Repair the Lenovo?
- Stay with Windows?
- Switch to Mac and adapt my workflow?
- Or maybe get a Windows laptop now and reconsider later?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who switched from Windows to Mac during academic/research work.