[Closed] How old is your tablet, does it still work?

It's the damn updates. My Ipad2 has been killed by one of the IOS updates (9, I think), rendering it unusable. (Clever marketing: it worked, I bought a Pro).
Dug my old iPad1 out, no idea how old, but it works perfectly cos it's stuck on iOS 5.1.
So, I reckon iPads have longevity as long as you don't update them! Shame you can't wipe and back date the o/s. (There might be a way somewhere on the net, I guess)

My wife's iPad 2 stopped working to a tolerant level at the end of last year, it is 5 years old.

ipad 3 (2012), stopped updating it a version 8.1.2*, so that it didn't turn into a useless pile of horsepoop. T'is very steady now, especially on ad heavy sites and I've fancied replacing it for a while but not gotten to it, as it still works

*Dezb's spot on, I'm wondering whether to continue upgrading my 5se or stop now.

How do you know when to stop updating?

Linx 8", running Windows 8, about 18 months old. Same now as it was new. Why wouldn't it be?

Lenovo s6000 or something had it for 4 years and it's still great

Its had a couple of updates since then, but still running as new

Got a 32g SD card full of music and kids TV on it, used a lot for ceebeebies games etc as well as general browsing, so memory isn't too full

Sounds like paying the apple premium requires regular upgrades, almost as if they do it on purpose....

I've got an iPad mini 2 thats about 3 years old, running the latest iOS, and it's fine.

We got an iPad mini when they first came out - it's still going.

I won't get another when it breaks - I much prefer to use a laptop.

Surface RT. Bought when they came out, still works perfectly. Brilliant operating system (for a very limited number of use cases - e.g. me, who uses it for work emails, editing simple office documents and giving training presentations)

I've got an original Motorola xoom from about 8 years ago or something, still works fine apart from the power button is a bit temperamental!!
We generally use a Samsung galaxy tab now though.

Got a surface RT as well, still worked until it got dropped a few months ago. Was a perfect machine for loads of things 🙁

Also still got an iPad1. Useless for browsing now but there is still one piece of software that works on it

I got a iPad mini when it first came out - still works fine - I stopped updating the OS at 9 - battery is still good - it's been used heavily for the last 5 years

iPad 2 that the apple store was happy to sell me as a replacement by and update FUBARed the camera .... about 3 years ago. Un-usable for about a year. Tried to use it this week and it crashes in everything ... even iPlayer which used to be the only thing it was good for ...

My Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is jogging along nicely - has been used every day since 2012.

My Nexus 7 2013 is still going strong, but I've only had it ~16 months! It's great for a quick BT hotspot interweb surf and the GPS is pretty good for Strava, but carrying an 8" tablet securely while cycling (even on the road) is a bit inconvenient.

My iPad2 is very close to the end of its life. It's spent the last 2 years just for making notes of Evernote but even that's really laggy now. I've now taken everything non essential off it, given it a factory reset and it now use it just for GCN turne trainer vids. It's OK for that but it'll be done by the end of the year I think

Blackberry PlayBook bought off here last year. Good at what I bought it for. Internet is rubbish! Keyboard still light years in front of any apple or Android device.

5 year old iPad 3 here still going along ok. Not as zippy as my iPhone 6 but a lot better than my 12ish month old Samsung tablet.

Galaxy note 10.1 , 4yrs old this month . Have to leave it switched on and not let the battery get bellow 50% - still works ok .

An iPad 2 I bought 2nd hand a couple of years ago - have updated it to the latest OS whenever it's become available and it now happily crashes in most apps and is pretty laggy the rest of the time. A real shame as it's still nice to use if you discount those issues. Battery life certainly still great. I know in this disposable world that it's just the way of things and that planned obsolescence is a marketing ploy but it's a particularly objectionable practice.

Can't you re-install the original OS on Apple devices ?

My Nexus 7 2013 is still going strong

Same here. Daily use since Jan 2015 for notes, reading, excel and still going strong.

cranberry - Member
Can't you re-install the original OS on Apple devices ?

It's an utterly opaque process that's managed internally by Apple. I'm assuming there's no way back.

My Sinclair Scientific from 1973 still works fine.

Am currently using my Sony Xperia z tablet bought brand new about 4 years ago now. I have used it every day since new and continue to do so. Only thing that had to be fixed was the charge port and that only cost £25 to do from a phone shop.

iPad 3 (the first Retina one) so about 5 years old.
On latest iOS - still works fine.

Those complaining about failures. Make sure it still has plenty of space left. At least a gig is good. Like most operating systems iOS doesn't do well with running out of space.

It's not just OS updates, the apps get updated too and will often get larger and slower, and there's not much you can do to avoid them as often old versions stop working properly...

My first smartphone, a Sony something, never got an OS update but at the end of it's useful life it had no space for apps left and it was really slow, even after a factory reset to clear it out a bit.

LG GPad 8.3 - 2 of them in our house.
They are almost 3 years old.

Mine runs fine.

My Wife's is a bit sluggish but mainly because she's installed loads of nonsense apps and has done nothing to control what they're doing....

I have an Asus tablet with a broken USB socket, so it won't charge, probably about 3 years old. I have bought a replacement socket, just need to get around to fixing it.

Other than that, it was quite usable. Though some apps took a while to load, and some bloated websites could be slow.

Found a website with loads of downloads for old iOS versions.
Might try a revert on my 2 if I can be bothered.
http://www.iphonehacks.com/download-ipad-ios-firmware

I pad mini about 4 yrs old software is upto date. Runs just fine maybe yours is broke or over filled with appsand crap.

Samsung Tab 2 from ages ago, it's 4-5 years old I think, it's glacial to use, but it was never quick - a scaled down budget model, but it'll still show video in 1080 and has an SD slot so great for long car journeys.

[i]maybe yours is broke or over filled with appsand crap.[/i]

Irrelevant what it's filled with when it's working fine until an os update makes it slow.

Dell Venue 11 Pro, about 3 years old, now running Windows 10 Enterprise nice and fine. It's not lightning fast being a quad core Atom, but it's full Windows and perfectly usable.

Limited storage, but just stuff everything in the cloud and don't load it with too much bloat (I had Visual Studio on it for a while, but just takes too much space). Does have a micro SD slot of course, and fine for document and picture storage but SD is very slow (even fast ones) compared to internal storage.

Sony z3 tablet here,

2 years old.

Still works beautifully.

Ipad 2 too. Stopped updating it years ago so Apple couldn't junk it.

iPad 2 as above. When I bought it there was no mention of the shelf life of the thing. Has really put me off Apple stuff but unfortunately they are still the best of breed in the tablet world.

Asus tablet about 18 months old. As it's Android I can only dream of OS updates (particularly now that Cyanogen seems to be dead) but app updates have slowed it to a crawl, it crashes on a regular basis and it eats the battery in no time so it'll be replaced by an iPad shortly.

4th Gen iPad - 5 years old. It was the first one that came with a lightning cable. Still works fine, although it seems that some apps are released requiring technology that this iPad doesn't have.

With regards to shelf life, I'm sure Apple just aren't sure when they release something when it might be obsolete. I would imagine new iPads/tablets contain tech now that hadn't even been thought of when I bought this one.

If anyone has a slow tablet it might be worth backing it up, restoring to factory settings, then reinstalling from the back up. I did this with a iPhone a few years back. Made a huge difference.

2012 Nexus 10 here. It started to progressively slow down when Google stopped releasing the latest version of Android for it which I think would be around Ice Cream Sandwich. I'm sure they deliberately cripple legacy version updates. It got to the point of being so slow it was unusable despite system resets etc. so I rooted it and installed Cyanogenmod which got it back to its old performance. Its been fine for a year but its just now slowing a bit so I'll probably try installing the latest Cyanogen build and se how that goes.

iPad mini 3 retina 32gb so I guess late 2013 early 2014, still works fine but there's practically no apps on it and I only really use it for web browsing, no need to change it which is just as well as there's **** all £ to do so, same as my iPhone 5s 64gb which I bought when it came out, no apps apart from viewranger/navigon and soundcloud mostly used as a phone and podcast/music player

Old HP touchpad, 6 years old I think, battery swelled up, pretty much dead, can't be bothered to change the battery.

iPad 3, around 5 years old, works great even if it doesn't run the latest iOs, still works well for youtube, hearthstone, etc.

I do have cheap android tablet from 2015, but the screen is pretty terrible so I don't really use it unless the battery on the iPad is flat.

iPad 3 (the first Retina one) so about 5 years old.
On latest iOS - still works fine.

Same experience here. Mine is still bombproof.

We also have an iPad1 though, and that's useless for web browsing when it comes to super heavy (badly made) sites, and none of the latest apps run on it. Still, how old is that?

Google says 7 years… so, great build quality, but left behind. Shame. Still, how many other tablets from 2010 are still going?

How do you know when to stop updating?

When you purchase the apple device 🙂

I'm on an iPad 2 which is about 5 years old. Most apps still work it has iOS 6 or 7 but I remember the 7 update wiped everything and apple had to fix it so I decided to never update again.

As long as I don't update the old apps or want new ones it is fine for me. Does web stuff and videos

iPad 2 here, bought just before 2012 Olympics.

Killed after update about 9 months ago. Not falling for that trick again so bought a cheap (read disposable) Kindle Fire for £40.

iPad 2, running the latest software. It struggles a little at times but we mostly just use the browser.

Not sure what we'll replace it with when the time comes?

Apple generally stop providing updates for old devices at the point where they think performance is compromised too badly.

Do all the usual stuff: backup+factory reset. Make sure you have at least 1GB free space, turn off motion, reduce visual effects, make sure you only allow essential apps to run in the background, turn off all notifications you don't care about.

When people say back up and restore, I've just done that and it installed the latest update.
Is it possible to back up and restore without update?
I always click restore as my iPad. Should I? Surely it puts everything back as it was or does some sort of magic take place?
My memory is not even half full so do I need to go on an app cull or not?
Having said all that it doesn't seem so bad today. When I type a word all the letters come up immediately without any lag.
I have a galaxy s4 phone which just works. It's years old an apart from moving stuff to the sd card requires no looking after at all.
Would a Samsung tablet be as reliable?

My iPad 2 owned since release still works for internet without issue

Most modern apps won't run on it . Can't do internet banking on it via app...

So i just do it on their websites....

Its a 64gb so I'll probably turn it into a media player for the garage eventually and so long as it still works on the internet it'll be good for checking technical issues on the hoof as it's nearly useless for what i wanted it for - using while traveling and at work (with a VPN which this can no longer run)

iPad 2 about 6 years old which the lad uses for watching those gaming you tube vids. Runs better than my 2 year old galaxy and the battery still lasts about 5 or more hours.

iPad 1 now purely used as a reader for digital singletrack and other mags via goodreader

iPad 4 now over 4yrs old running 10.3.1 no problems.

The simple fact is that over time operating systems and applications undergo development, have new features/functions added, which inevitably require more memory and processing power in order to actually work, but the device is fixed in time - it only has so much RAM available and the processor can only run so fast, so anyone who expects a five yo machine to run like new after five years worth of OS and app development is deluding themselves!
I have personally seen skip-loads of PC's thrown out after only two or three years use, I've thrown out a five year old monitor that cost £2500 because the manufacturer no longer kept spares!
An average Android device is obsolete after only a year, because the manufacturer can't be arsed to send out OS updates, Apple are almost unique in updating OS as long as they do, but it has to be recognised that technology marches on, and there is always a limit beyond which updates are going to work; you just cannot expect an OS designed to work with 2-4Gb of RAM to function on a device with 512Mb - 1Gb!
I'm amazed my now exactly five year old iPad 3 still works, it's got loads of apps on, no music though, loads of ebooks, and it will suddenly freeze up.
I could back it up and reset to factory, but I'm expecting to upgrade it some time soon, I want one I can use the Pencil on for sketching and note-taking.
It'll then get reset, a few apps reinstalled, like Viewranger, and used mostly for browsing.

There again I'm glad that somethings can't be updated. We use an iphone 4 as an ipod in the shop. It us so easy to use.
The 4s we have is more interested in us telling people what we are listening to rather than us being able to shuffle a play list.

My iPad1 I stopped using after 4 years, still works. My iPad Air 2 is 2.5 years old now I think, still going strong.

iPad 1 now purely used as a reader for digital singletrack and other mags via goodreader

Very interesting, thanks !

OP it's almost certainly ads that are making yours unusable, there are free solutions worth a try 😉 PM me if you wish

My aspire notebook is the same age as my iPad 2 and it's performance is infinitely better.

My kid still uses my 2012 Nexus, which became unusable with its final updates to android 5.xsomething but rolled it back to 4.x and it was back to its old self and been like that for six months

Nexus 7 (2012) tablet here, has lived in a drawer for over a year now as it's so slow to do anything. Haven't got around to seeing if there's a reliable fix or whether it's not worth bothering with.

2013 Nexus 10.
Still in use for web browsing and iplayer.

Blackberry Playbook. It works fine thanks. No OS10 updates, of course.

I also have an iPad Mini 4 for bike duties

First gen iPad Air (bought soon after release so a bit over 3 years old). Still fine for everything I do (web, email, Twitch and games mostly). Can't say I've noticed it slowing down with iOS updates either (left it running the latest update this morning so fingers-crossed I haven't jinxed it).
My parents have an iPad 2 (must be at least 5 years old) and that's noticeably more sluggish than mine but still usable.

CountZero - Member
An average Android device is obsolete after only a year, because the manufacturer can't be arsed to send out OS updates

Rubbish.

My first 'smart phone' an HTC Desire was 4 years old when I swapped it to a new Xperia T. That's now over 4 years old and when I bought it, it had already been out for about 12 months old. I might replace it this year as it is admittedly starting to get a bit clunky.

As I mentioned above somewhere; we've got 2 Android tablets that work fine and are 3 years old.

My Wife is only on her second Android phone in about 6 or 7 years and the current one (Galaxy S4 Mini) works very well.

iPad 2 which is about five or six years old. Still works fine though I'm avoiding installing the latest version (or several) of iOS as apparently it makes it run like a dog.

Main problem is I can't find a smart cover to fit and mine's on it's last legs - my fault for using it as a handle in portrait mode.

4th generation iPad, which is still OK at 4 1/2 years old. Still runs the latest iOS10 OK although I'm guessing may not get the next one. It did get a bit slow last year, did a full factory reset and just reloaded the apps that get used - decent improvement but can still feel a bit sluggish at times, and it doesn't support the new things like split-screen.

Apple are probably the best of the bunch as far as support via software updates go. If I'd bought a Nexus 10 at the time (late 2012) that would be stuck on Android 5.1.

I am eyeing a new iPad, but mainly so the old one can be locked down for toddler use so I don't need to keep putting it in guided access every time.

When they deploy a new OS version to older hardware, they are basically giving you a "demo" of a new tablet / phone.

You like all the shiny new features, but its a bit slow, so you toddle off and buy a new one.

Best to avoid the major version OS update and it will likely run and run. Unless you get some malware...

I am eyeing a new iPad, but mainly so the old one can be locked down for toddler use

Get a hudl 2 (+a bumper case). My two have happily left the iPad alone after we gave them hudls at Xmas.

When they deploy a new OS version to older hardware, they are basically giving you a "demo" of a new tablet / phone.

Not really true on Apple at least, because the biggest features of the new OS will usually be disabled on the oldest hardware for "performance reasons".

Unless you get some malware...

Again not really a problem on Apple.

I was thinking Apple when I wrote that.

I had Iphone 2G, Iphone 3G Iphone 4 and and Ipad2, and all became unusable shortly after a new generation device came on sale and the new OS was updated on my device,

I'm still using an iPhone 4S as my daily phone on the latest iOS available to it (9.3.5) and the settings tweaked down.

It's not blisteringly fast granted, but pretty usable.

Apple (and others) get slated either way. Don't think your latest software will run well on an old device? It's been abandoned! They're making me buy a new device! Allow it to be installed with all the whizzy new features that run well on current hardware? Nasty Apple, they're making my device unusable!

You either need to never update (like the [s]good[/s]bad old days before anything could be) so that it's always the same, or accept that running current software means buying new hardware once in a while.

GrahamS - Member 
Not really true on Apple at least, because the biggest features of the new OS will usually be disabled on the oldest hardware for "performance reasons".

True, but it's then an incentive to buy the latest hardware by disabling new features or even existing features.

Again not really a problem on Apple.

http://fortune.com/2017/04/08/apple-malware-adware-mcafee/
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/think-apple-computers-are-still-malware-immune-this-new-attack-proves-otherwise/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34338362

Amongst many others on this subject.

Small scale compared to Android, but it's not "not really a problem".

Just to be clear, talking malware here, not viruses, but viruses are a bit dead now as malware is easier to produce and exploit people.

Small scale compared to Android, but it's not "not really a problem".

Okay - "incredibly rare" then.
(Note the first two stories relate to macOS not iOS)