Black Friday plans?

#21

Most tablets die from the battery or from lack of support, as tablets are exposed to the risks of movement a lot less than phones. A phone often dies from drop / water.

So whatever you buy in the tablet world, wait for a teardown and look for repairability of the battery so you can reasonably expect a replacement battery 2 years hence. If its popular, particularly if its Android with an unlockable bootloader, then the quantity is your defense with custom ROMs and kernels going strong 1-2 years after the manufacturers stopped supporting. I paid $5 for a replacement battery in my 2013 Nexus 4 phone and its got more modern software in it than most modern devices.

The next most common cause of tablets not keeping useful is RAM size, software tends to get bigger, so I focus on larger memory devices. It matters more than storage as a device can be end its last years as a media streaming device or with a USB storage device in it.

So I try in the case of tablets ignore my opinion, but wait and look in XDA for count of posts.

My 2013 Nexus 7 is still going strong, it will die, probably before end of this year, and I have a candidate in mindā€¦

The oldest laptop in this house has a dead non-replaceable battery and bust keyboard, it is a Linux server with a big harddrive on it, I have to plug in a keyboard to reboot it, but its got a useful life yet. I still have a laptop from 1999 which is a backup if the Raspberry Pi dies.

#22

I think he was talking about laptops, not tabletsā€¦ But what do you plan on buying when your Nexus 7 dies. Iā€™d recommend an iPad. There is one for $329 that seems very solid.

#23

Laptops often exceed what Anker products and other similar can usefully benefit from.

I have a Toshiba Chromebook 2, its a 19V input and huge battery and does not overlap Anker. I have a Google Pixel C which is my travel device and it does overlap Anker, off in a week for 2 overnights and I think its my Powercore 26800 + PixelC on that trip.

Laptops coming out with USB PD are where Iā€™m seeing in the future Anker and laptops intersect. I use my Chromebook at home so any damage from usual accidents go to it and preserve my PixelC for travel to make it last as long as possible as the higher-end devices are expensive.

I have owned laptops since 1995. I much prefer either a PC with a removable USB keyboard and I keep PC away from the usual culprits, or tablets with swappable keyboards. Becauseā€¦ of liquid spills. A typical laptop as the most expensive non-repairable components beneath the keyboard, but a tablet with a keyboard has usually a $20-$100 keyboard at surface level and the $300-$600 expensive part up higher.

So laptops = risky, often too power hungry to be portable. Tablets+keyboard = lower risk and often more portable.

And of course it comes down what you mean by laptop, is a tablet+keyboard = laptop or no?

Is a Chromebook a laptop?

Is any from Apple an laptop?

Is the Surface devices a laptop?

#24

Tablet and keyboard is not a laptop
Chromebook isnā€™t either.
Most Surfaces are.
MacBooks are.

#25

Why are most surfaces a laptop? Why are MacBooks laptops?

Are you defining a laptop as powerful cpu? Or you define it must be Windoze or iOS?

#26

Surface Pro - tablet, not a laptop
Some people argue that this can replace your laptop. Personally, I donā€™t think this solution is the perfect case for very many people, but if it is, itā€™s still a tablet.
Surface Book - laptop
Surface Laptop - laptop
None of the devices that run iOS (iPads) are laptops. The platform simply is not powerful enough. For example, in the case of the iPad Pro, itā€™s basically running the same software as a phone. iPads are great if you have a use for them. That use shouldnā€™t be for work, though.
MacBooks, on the other hand, are laptops. macOS is made predominantly for work. iOS is not.
Personally, I draw the line between a tablet and a laptop whether or not it has a detachable keyboard. There can be exceptions (ex. Chromebook).

#27

So by your definition a laptop is just where you spent a lot of money on something whoā€™s battery goes flat quickly?

I use a server with VirtualBox and a Windows 7 VM to which I RDP, that gives me Windoze the server is drawing mains wall socket power, but my local in my hand device can last a long time on its battery as its just running the RDP client display and if its destroyed I just connect from another device.

Nearly everything you need to do can be done by a small tablet / phone or a bigger tablet, there are few exceptions, MS Visio is my most common example.

You know where the name laptop comes from - it is on top of your lap. So anything on top of your lap, by definition is a laptop.

#28

Apple are always (especially recently) behind the curve on hardware specs vs cost. Not expecting any major updates just perhaps better specs (in-conjunction with my education discount :wink:) for the price point they are wantingā€¦will keep an open mind for the moment.

As for the surface, donā€™t overly mind them but as I primarily have Apple hardware (iMac, iPhone and iPad) Iā€™m resisting the urge to go back to Windows at presentā€¦

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#29

Give Chromebook a try. My work official apps moved to o365 which basically makes it work on everything. 3 years ago I was tied to Lotus Notes and Office 2010 which tied me to Windows, it I used Linux and Wine.

Chromebook gives the large screen, keyboard, track pad, but lower cost and excellent battery life.

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#30

Occasionally use a Chromebook on loan from work, covers most of my basic stuff (Word processing, Internet) but a lot of the specialist stuff I use is mainly on MacOSā€¦my desktop is my main source of use but given the right specs vs price I might add a ā€˜proper laptopā€™ to the mix

#31

If you do decide to get a MacBook, I would highly recommend getting it through their refurbished store. I think it is cheaper than their education prices. For example, right now, they have the MacBook Pro that came out last year for $1269. Currently, I have a MacBook Air 11". What do you have?

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#32

Great suggestion! A lot of the products in Appleā€™s official refurbished store come with a new battery and sometimes a new exterior casing.

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#33

All options are open :grin:

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#34

So Iā€™ve read. Might have gone the refurb route with my iMac but they didnā€™t have the custom spec I was after at the timeā€¦

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