How Long Should Electronics Last These Days (mostly portable ones, phones, tablets, laptops)

[TwiceHorn 32,073]

Seems like I have been going through devices at a faster rate than I used to.

Just today, my cheapass but entirely satisfactory Moto G7 cracked open with a swollen battery after 18 months.

I had a Lenovo tablet that I used as a reader mostly quit charging (probably micro USB problems) after 3.5 years.  It replaced a tablet that had various problems at right around 3 years.  These were cheapos, so probably lasting around the expected life.

A Samsung S8 took a dump after 2.5 years.

A cheapass chromebook quit working after 18 months and a very gentle, 18" drop onto carpet.

I have had one self-inflicted problem (liquid damage) that killed a two year old Macbook Air, and then keyboard problems with its replacement MBP that's still going strong at coming up on 4 years, but after upper case replacement and relieved of a lot of daily duty by the chromebook.  The MBA replaced a Toshiba ultrabook that took a dump after a couple of years.

I generally am not hard on my gear, either in terms of damage or forcing obsolescence by "hard use" (gaming, video/photo editing, etc.).  

With a few exceptions, I just get the sense that things aren't lasting as long as they used to.  Granted, I am in a mode of buying cheaper versions of many things (phones, tablets, the one chromebook) and a couple of these things have expired prematurely do to user error, but it seems things used to last longer.  I used to routinely keep a phone for four years, at least.  Same with laptops.

Typically, wife loses a phone before anything happens to it, so they windup lasting about 2 years for her.  Her laptops get light duty use and have held up for about 4 years or more.

 

[Apep 645]

Not that I've noticed. Can't think of the last time I had something die. Let's see. My son killed an iphone 6 or 7 via accidental exposure to water four or five years ago. A year or two before that, he had a B&N Nook die. I've given away four laptops in the last year, ranging in age from five to seven years. All worked perfectly. They were all low-end, three cheap Asus laptops and a budget Lenovo edge thinkpad.

 

 

[XYZ 2,154]

Whatever the manufacturer’s warranty coverage period is, add one day to that. That’s what they are shooting for, anyway.

[conVINCEd 21,477]

I’ve had pretty good luck with Apple.  An iPad that I gave to my niece a few years ago is probably going on 7-8 years old is still working fine for kid shit.  Had my last iphone for something like 5 years before upgrading.  Samsung as well if you remove refrigerators from the equation, but I’m not sure anyone makes a good fridge anymore unless you get into the subzero price range.

[elfenix 34,746]

you dropped a laptop and don't think you're a hard user because you don't game?

[ztejas 44,224]

Assuming you're buying good shit and not used, crapperware, I'd say expected life before it becomes obsolete (not necessarily before it quits working completely) might be:

Laptop - 5 years

Tablet - 4 years

Phone - 3 years 

[TwiceHorn 32,073]

1 hour ago, elfenix said:

you dropped a laptop and don't think you're a hard user because you don't game?

It slid off my lap, while sitting on a stool, about 18" onto thick carpet.  Very slowly. I was trying to help FIL configure a router and we were sort of crouched down around it near a cable jack. Not a drop, drop.

Most of the shit that gave up is in pristine physical shape.  And I made a distinction between wear and tear type use and the kind of use that renders hardware obsolete.  As a general proposition, I do neither.

Most of this stuff is not Apple quality, or top-line Dell or anything like it.  I'm not ever paying more than a couple hundred bucks for a phone, but most of my past experience is with top of the line things before they got really expensive and providers quit subsidizing.  Pretty much all android tablets are pretty shitty, and a lot of cheap chromebooks are pretty shitty as well.  On a cost/days of use basis, these are probably pretty effective, but it just seems like I'm having a lot of device turnover.

Edited April 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[elfenix 34,746]

the only things i've bought recently that seem like it was intentionally made shitty or obsolete have been fire devices.  the tv sticks seem to get loaded with new OS versions that kill performance after a couple years.  the 7" tab i got was shitty in a hurry (though side loading play store didn't help).  the 10" i got a year or so ago still seems quick.

the laptop i've had for 4 years now is fine.  it's a dual core skylake, and intel only recently started making compute cores faster than skylake.  and it was a $250 dell outlet special.  my phone could probably use a factory reset but other than charging the battery twice a day, performance seems fine. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by elfenix

[TwiceHorn 32,073]

After having written it down, it doesn't seem like I'm way outside expected life for most of these things.  But in the past few months, I have had kind of a convergence of device failures in the chromebook, the tablet, and the phone.  The chromebook was slightly assisted by my drop (hell the drop may have had nothing to do with it, it worked fine for several days after), all three devices were cheap and low-end, I was just caught by surprise by the 18-month failures, and the tablet, at 3.5 years, probably outlasted reasonable expectations.

I had to look up how old each device was, too.  I had overestimated the age of the phone and chromebook, and underestimated the age of the tablet.  Because they were all cheap, the failures weren't traumatic like the damned MBA and replacement by the MBP.  The cheapies cost about 10/month to own or less and it would take a pretty long life for expensive devices to attain that metric.

Edited April 18, 2021 by TwiceHorn