How Much Are Old Laptops Actually Costing Your Business?

Most business owners know their old laptops are slow. What they don't realise is quite how much that slowness is costing them.

It's not just about frustration (though that's real). It's about lost time, increased security risk, and the hidden drag that aging hardware puts on your whole operation. Let's put some numbers to it.

The productivity cost you're probably ignoring

Here's a simple calculation. If a slow laptop costs an employee just 20 minutes of productivity a day (through slow boot times, lagging applications, and waiting for files to load) that's over 80 hours a year. For a team of 10, that's 800 hours.

At an average UK SME salary of around £30,000, that's roughly £11,500 in lost productive time. Every year. From slow laptops.

Now consider that most SMEs run devices for five, six, even seven years. The maths gets uncomfortable quickly.

The security cost is even scarier

Old devices don't just underperform. They create security vulnerabilities. Machines running outdated operating systems or software that can no longer be patched become easy targets for cybercriminals.

And the stats back this up. Around 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses, yet many SMEs unknowingly increase their exposure simply by running hardware past its useful life.

A ransomware attack or data breach doesn't just cost money to resolve. It damages client trust, triggers regulatory scrutiny, and can derail a business entirely.

The support cost nobody talks about

Older devices break down more often. They need more IT support, more patches, more workarounds. Your team starts developing unofficial fixes - "just restart it twice and it'll be fine" - which are funny until they aren't.

If you're paying for IT support by the hour, or even if you have someone internal spending time on it, old hardware is quietly inflating your support costs.

So when should you refresh?

As a general rule, devices should be refreshed every three to four years. At that point, hardware is still reliable, resale value is at its highest, and you're ahead of the performance cliff, rather than reacting to it.

A planned refresh cycle costs less than emergency replacements and means your team is never stuck waiting for a new machine while their old one sits in for repair.

At Equipped, we help UK SMEs plan device refresh cycles that make financial sense and keep teams productive. If you're not sure when your fleet is due for a refresh, we can help you work that out. Get in touch for a free conversation.