How to find a tablet that lasts more than 3 years!

[Deleted User]

TELLIT01 said:

Apple have been (in)famous for building obsolescence into their kit so I wouldn't look in that direction if you want long life out of anything.  I have a Samsung S2 which was launched in 2015 and still serves my needs.  It's running Android v7.0 so I don't know how much longer apps will work with it.  Until I have problems I'll continue to use it.

Absolute poppycock! If you want longevity out of a tablet/phone then apple knocks everything else out of the water. 
Good luck with any security with android 7!

BIH

Thanks all for your contributions and warm welcome.

First my apology to omit that I realise that to downgrade to a lower spec machine means I will lose performance, I can accept that, after all, the old tablet was good enough for me!

My i5 is  --

2.4 GHz

RAM 4.00 GB

HDD 297 GB (of which 230 used)

WIN10  64bit Version 1909

It’s a Lenovo T410. In my experience the IBM origins of the marque ensure that it’s a rugged reliable machine. In fact the second I have owned in 10 years.

Its getting temperamental, and from previous experience I can spend as much on its ‘improvement’  very nearly as much as a new Win tablet machine.

I also find that so called ‘IT repairs’ people rarely touch internal mechanicals or electronic components these days. Even I have done my own cooling fan and keyboard replacement procedures. I find PC World good at repairs but even they now decline to go too deeply into repair. Preferring to compare replacement cost to that of direct labour and parts. £200 is soon blown away.

So let’s forget  enhancing my very old  ‘old faithful’.

I don’t want to get into an apple vs android argument either.  I am a pensioner with very limited resources and am at the lower end of the price spectrum.

I get the point about phones, but I often find that my phone does not show a web page’s data the same as my laptop screen – or even on my old tablet. A phone with a large screen is also well above the price of many tablet formats. Often my wife and I look at the same item and she has a totally different screenful  to that showing on my laptop from the identical address.

As for loss of favourite apps. I may have mislead you here – sorry. I am not a kid or geek so my apps are more WordPro, mapping software for my GPS, and apps to identify plants from a picture of a leaf. I am happy not to load a full lump of software into my memory for this, but to have the convenience of a web based system as I have been using on the android. (I realise that chromebook does just this but ‘more-so’ according to some folk).

Similarly with the FIRE tablet offered by the Daily Mail, though it was of a screen quality to enable reading of the newspaper’s online headlines and little more, apart from additional tasty morsels offered by Amazon. But maybe I am being hard on it here!

What about the Lenovo ideapad  with detachable keyboard running Win?  There is one supplier offering the WIN version at the same price as the chromebook version. But I will consider anything  below £300. TIA.

Jenni_D

A 320GB (or 500GB) SSD and another 4GB of RAM (with a fresh install of Windows) would breathe new life into that machine, but the Intel Core i5-520M is an old CPU so perhaps it'd still be "putting lipstick on a pig"  

BIH

That is more or less my point.

[Deleted User]

TELLIT01 said:

Apple have been (in)famous for building obsolescence into their kit so I wouldn't look in that direction if you want long life out of anything.  I have a Samsung S2 which was launched in 2015 and still serves my needs.  It's running Android v7.0 so I don't know how much longer apps will work with it.  Until I have problems I'll continue to use it.

@TELLIT01

Really?

Apple launched the iPad mini 4 2015 and it still runs the latest supported iOS 15. The iPad Air 2 launched in Oct 2014 also runs the latest iOS 15.

I'm not sure which 2015 Samsung tablet you are referring to but Android 7 reached end of life in Aug 2016.

Apple have the longest supported products. Typically Samsung have about 3 years, many other Andriod devices have 2 years support.

So what is this Apple built in obsolescence that you are referring to?

I think you need to check you facts before making statements like that.

BIH

OK chaps, please take your argument elsewhere and don't get people confused with my original question, thank you.

GDB2222

Your original question was effectively  where to get an Android tablet that will get upgrades for more than 3 years. The unfortunate answer is nowhere. 

Ibrahim5

Does the tablet not work? There are hundreds of people still on Windows XP despite all the warnings of doom.

Neil49

Many of the latest Chromebooks (if not all) have the ability to run android apps. They also have longer support dates - you can find these dates for each Chromebook from Google. 

An 11.6 inch flip model would provide tablet flexibility plus the ability to use a keyboard if required. There are also some 2 in 1 models where the keyboard attaches magnetically. 

Sandtree

Ibrahim5 said:

Does the tablet not work? There are hundreds of people still on Windows XP despite all the warnings of doom.

And there are many people running Windows XP machines that are now part of bot networks etc because security flaws are no longer patched etc. It really depends if you care that others potentially have access to your machine and/or may be using it for DDoS attacks on other parties. 

As to @TELLIT01's comment... not sure which publications you've been reading but my guess is they recommend wearing tin foil hats to stop the government reading your mind. Never had an Apple computer that didnt last at least 8 years and was running well until the day it died (3 years is my record for a PC, maybe get another year or two out of it by switching to Linux). For mobile devices, things that are 6 years old run the latest OS hence all the press recently that the latest WhatsApp was going to be able to run on the 2012 iPhone but not on a 2017 Android phone - ultimately changes were made and before any accusations of Facebook/Meta being pro-Apple and it was all a PR stunt just watch the latest results announcements from Facebook where they directly blame Apple for their drop in revenues.

The only thing close to "planned obsolesce" was when iOS was changed to throttle the processor when battery performance has decayed to prevent kernel panics/crashes... arguably this gives better user experience (stable device thats a bit slow -v- faster device that crashes often) however was criticised and so became a user setting if people would rather live with more crashes in exchange for faster speeds.