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If you only ever use your notebook/laptop as a desktop replacement and the power cable is never moved, it will last many many years, but if you use your notebook/laptop as a mobile device, packing and unpacking the thing when commuting between home and work, it will likely break after about one year. It mostly breaks in the area 1-5 cm from the plug because that is where it bends the most. You can protect the cable somewhat by making that part stiffer so it doesn't bend as much. This can easily be done by sliding heat shrinkable tubing over it and heat shrink it to a tight fit. However, you need to make sure that this won't cause the next 1-5 cm after the heat shrinked area to then bend and break.

In an ideal world, there would be a prohibitively high unsustainable-design tax on any power supply sold that does not have a replaceable power cable to connect the power supply with the device (as opposed to the other end connecting to the wall outlet). This tax should be so high that it would completely price non-compliant power supplies out of the market. Say 500 USD tax per non-compliant power supply. Unfortunately, we have corrupt politicians and fraudulent manufacturers owned by rent seeking speculants who neither care about their customers nor about the environmental impact of their rent seeking activities.

Unfortunately, you can't even vote with your wallet because this is done by all manufacturers. The only thing you can do is to mechanically strengthen the cable so it will bend less and when it ultimately breaks, never buy a replacement from the manufacturer of the device but buy a replacement from a noname manufacturer so as to deny the device manufacturer the windfall they hoped to earn on you by selling you a power supply with a cable with a design fault.

Re: [tlug] Laptop and Macbook related query