Buy now or wait?

[Drogyn]

So I'm now having to seriously look at getting a new tablet (which would be a nexus obviously) after I managed to kill my 1st gen kindle fire (rooted running JB 4.2) but it comes at an awkward time.

Why, because I am sat reading all this stuff from CES and can't help but wonder... How long after I go ahead an commit would Google announce a new 7" tablet with a tegra 4 chip in it...

I know it's not an answerable question (unless you're on the inside perhaps) just getting my thoughts out there

 

[whs37]

Tegra3 or tegra4 is not the problem. The tegra3 has plenty of power. The more interesting question would be whether they add a micro SD card port and also change those terrible on/off and volume rocker switches. Those switches are useless.

But whatever you buy now, will be 'old technology' in 3 months from now. And in 3 months it will go the same way. If you want to wait for the newest and most up-to-date, you'll never get a tablet.

 

[Drogyn]

This of course is always true, I'm just debating if I CAN wait or not really...

It's amazing you don't realize how much you actually use a thing, until the thing is gone, it's driving me crazy

 

[Rxpert83]

Google hasnt had an SD card slot on a nexus device in a very long time. I doubt they'd make the switch now. They are pushing to get away from expandable storage altogether (which I believe is a mistake)

I say buy now. Enjoy it now and if you always keep our eyes on whats coming over the horizon you're always going to be waiting for the next best thing.

 

[Drogyn]

Is there still this screen lift issue or have they finally fixed that?

 

[Frisco]

Weird isn't it; no matter how long we wait to get "the newest/greatest" etc, a newer/greater is just around the corner.

I've become more of an impulse buyer now when it comes to smartphones and tabs. To heck with logic.

 

[jhawkkw]

Yeah, Nexus devices will not have expandable storage in the near future moving forward, and they haven't had expandable storage going all the way back to the Nexus S, which launched roughly 2 years ago. I wouldn't have a problem with this is they actually provided a good amount of internal storage. At least you have the option to buy the 32gb Nexus 7. Back when I bought mine around launch, I had to pay 250 for the 16gb model. A little bit of buyer's remorse to say the least, but I don't love the tab any less.

 

[Rxpert83]

Is there still this screen lift issue or have they finally fixed that?

I haven't seen this brought up in a while. I would say its been taken care of and only affected the first few production batches.

Mine had it, but a dab of superglue was a whole lot faster and easier than getting a replacement

 

[mojosodope]

I have an iPad 4 and just bought my nexus 7 and I love my nexus 7

 

[dan330]

i see you like to ROOT...

if you root the nexus7... you can use OTG cable to connect flashdrives for more storage. or go Cloud access.

 

[MartinS]

The life of a Nexus device is normally one year...

 

[Drogyn]

Yeah... I rooted my phone to lose the bloat, and I rooted my kindle because I got tired of the old app from amazon's app store and how locked down everything was. Now my kindle had an accident and I am lost without it. Time for an upgrade.

 

[Rxpert83]

The life of a Nexus device is normally one year...

How do you conclude that? Google supports it longer than 1 year

 

[dan330]

The life of a Nexus device is normally one year...

How do you conclude that? Google supports it longer than 1 year

i think he is talking about .. product reliability
he does not think a nexus device .. would live past 1 year of use.

 

[whs37]

That is ridiculous. Electronic devices have a much longer lifecycle. I expect my N7 to live for 10 years (short of an accident). Maybe I won't use it then any more, but why should it die.

 

[Drogyn]

That is ridiculous. Electronic devices have a much longer lifecycle. I expect my N7 to live for 10 years (short of an accident). Maybe I won't use it then any more, but why should it die.

I don't know that I would expect 10 years, given how battery life of any device degrades over time, but I would expect to be able to use a device for a good 3 or 4 years maybe. If a device had a limited lifetime of just 1 year, I certainly wouldn't be buying it.

 

[jhawkkw]

Generally a new nexus comes out each year to replace the previews years model, just like everything else in electronics. Google has shown that they tend to support a device software wise for at least two years, but you might be able to go further if the dev community lasts as well as the hardware is capable. The biggest issue you'll find hardware wise is the battery. Batteries really start to degrade after the first year, and continue to do so as they age. My laptop that is 5 years old is basically desktop because the battery doesn't last more than 15 minutes. I don't really use it anymore, so I haven't bothered to replace the battery on it.

 

[whs37]

We had this battery discussion in another thread. The consensus was that the battery can be easily replaced.

Installing Nexus 7 Battery - iFixit

Google Nexus 7 Battery

 

[Teknologic]

Yeah... I rooted my phone to lose the bloat, and I rooted my kindle because I got tired of the old app from amazon's app store and how locked down everything was. Now my kindle had an accident and I am lost without it. Time for an upgrade.

How do you conclude that? Google supports it longer than 1 year

i think he is talking about .. product reliability
he does not think a nexus device .. would live past 1 year of use.

I'm still using my 3 year old Nexus One as my every day phone. It's been used intensively during that whole time and still use it as gps multiple times a week, it's very reliable. My only bother is the battery life has shortened significantly from the heavy use. But I'm soon getting a new and slightly higher capacity battery for about $20.
So in conclusion, I think the lifetime of these devices depends mainly on what you want as a user.
If you get your device and it works absolutely great, it won't get any worse. But if you're always keeping up with every latest advancement in technology, your standards go up and chances are your devices won't last you much over a year.

 

[val88]

typical question for just about any gadget. My answer is always buy what you need when you need it. If you don't need it, wait. Because gadgets have such a short life whatever you buy you will feel sad when its quickly replaced in 12 months time. But if you buy it when you need it then at least it feels good to have made some good use of it.

Part of the problem is not the evolution of technology. Part of the problem is ourselves, our pride and our need to have the newest thing that the person next to us don't have. Get over that notion and having your gadget become outdated is not such a big deal.

If you choose to wait because you're tempted by a new thing that may or may never come out then you will end up spending your life always waiting and never doing.

 

[Drogyn]

I don't feel the need to have the newest thing, but I do get mildly irked ( see: pissed off) when I go and buy something and within weeks the brand new one is out.

Yes I kinda do need to replace my dead tablet, which is why I am looking now.