When do you think you'll replace your current tech?

Community General Discussion
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I’m curious where everyone’s at: basically gearing up to replace your current tech, or expecting to be satisfied for a year or more?

For me:

  • Laptop Studio: expecting to keep for at least another year, I like the form factor, and it’s fast enough.
  • iPad Pro M1 2021: keeping at least till Fall 2023. Still plenty fast, no 11" OLED or mini/microLED iPad on the horizon.
  • Galaxy Book 2 WOA: I’ll keep it around until I see a similarly portable Windows or iOS AMOLED or miniLED product. Meaning I’ll have to wait at least one more MS & Apple release cycle.
  • iPhone 12 mini: I can’t believe I’m saying this, bit I’m thinking one more year. Camera is good enough, battery life sucks, but mini 13 is too similar, and iPhone 14 256GB is crazy expensive.
  • 2022 Kindle Paperwhite: probably good for a few more years. Sure I am Scribe-curious, but my Kindle is for reading, not scribin’. :slight_smile:
  • Apple Watch 5: shockingly still fine, despite tons of deep scratches. The newer models don’t really offer anything extra that I need. Kind of eyeing the Ultra, but otherwise this AW5 might last another release cycle.

Looks like I’m good for another year on all fronts! :open_mouth: How about you guys/gals?

Edit: careful, this thread may not be safe for users sensitive to tech purchase enablers.

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I have:

  • Samsung Galaxy Book 12 — I despair of replacing this, and have rolled back to Windows 1703 twice now, and am constantly struggling w/ MS trying to update the machine
  • Galaxy Note 10+ — unfortunately couldn’t wait for 5G to somewhat future-proof it, but I hope to never have to replace this — when it stops working, I hope I can go back to not having a cell phone
  • Apple MacBook w/ Touchbar (last Intel version) — while it would be nice to get an M1 MacBook, I kind of like the Touchbar (just wish more apps used it) and can’t see the need to replace it until Apple stops updating the OS, or OS updates push it to the point where the fan runs constantly
  • Kindle Paperwhite — this is getting supplemented, or possibly replaced by a Kindle Scribe
  • Samsung UR55 monitor and Compact Trackpoint USB keyboard and Logitech G600 w/ a Thunderbolt dock as a desktop setup — while I keep thinking how nice it would be to have a second monitor, that’s probably not happening.

The one purchase which might happen sooner rather than later is to get a Wacom One as a desk setup — if the Kindle Scribe stylus is compatible w/ the Wacom digitizers on the two Samsung devices, it’s a done deal, then if that works out well, I’ll eventually get a Wacom Cintiq Pro and just give up on portability (save for the Kindle Scribe) and Windows (save for having a machine around for work/testing).

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Let’s just list in the order of my current signature:

  • Apple Watch SE - Good for now, unless switching ecosystems (see: Surface Duo)

  • iPhone 13 Pro - Good till they bring on a decent telephoto and/or liquid lens, unless I switch ecosystems (see: Surface Duo)

  • M2 iPad Pro 12.9 - it hasn’t even arrived yet!

  • M1 Mac mini - This was supposed to be an interim device while awaiting the M2 Mac mini…

  • Surface Duo Uno - A surprise delight after two years of refinement. Sub-$400 for an unlocked 256GB version was an easy gamble. I shall be looking forward to Duo3 with the possibility of switching ecosystem, at least for my smartwatch & smartphone. I have found that smartphone size is unimportant if you have a cellular smartwatch. This probably guarantees that Microsoft will kill the Duo.

  • Surface Go 2 & Galaxy Book 12 - still nice to have but already superseded by iPad Pro, I just don’t feel like retiring them yet.

  • Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X - My Windows gaming device and as such is doing exceptionally well at its job. Will replace when it can no longer play newer games that I want to play (as is the norm with gaming laptops).

  • Kindle Paperwhite 7.8" - Almost forgot this. Its existence is precarious—I had traded it in along with my 2018 Paperwhite for credits toward the Surface Duo, but Amazon’s trade-in system rejected it as not being the correct device and returned it to me. There’s nothing wrong with it, at all, and it’s the correct Paperwhite. Not worth fighting them about it for a pathetic $30. Currently unused since I like 2-page reading on the Duo better.

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Now that would be impressive! I get the desire though, it would be so healthy to not always have this little distraction machine on me. Maybe when Apple adds a good camera to the Apple Watch! :slight_smile:

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Surface Pro 8 In the pole position for now, but nothing is ever safe in the dstraussing universe.

M1 iPad Pro 1tb Gathering dust of late except when I want to watch family videos or photos - then it’s screen mops the floor of the SP8.

iPhone 13 Pro In a pretty solid and safe space - awaiting news of REAL zoom lens on the iPhone 15 Pro (not TOTAL ZOON RANGE of all the various cameras but legit minimum 5x optical zoom) - unless MS or Sammy blows it out next year.

Apple Watch 7 Ambivalent. Use it mostly for tracking my walks and quick check the weather.

One thing I am still missing (a lot) is the ecosystem across all devices - seedless connecting of my Beats earphones to Watch, iPhone, iPad, and MBP14; FaceTime and iMessage everywhere; wireless Sidecar.

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So I guess in principle all devices you mention are doing the job, none of them need replacing because of something better on the horizon. It’s more the never ending search for the perfect mix of devices. So in principle this could be a quiet year with limited dstraussing. In principle. :vb-grin:

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If only I had any principles…

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Not having a cell phone is not a big deal for me — I barely use it, and folks usually have to call the home phone to reach me — the Galaxy Note 10+ was my first ever cell phone, and I really hope my last.

I may replace the Kindle Paperwhite w/ a current Paperwhite for increased performance and USB-C though.

Similarly, I’d love an e-ink tablet the size of a phone — it’s been decades now, and I still don’t have a replacement for my Newton — the cell phone is sort of there, until the sun comes out.

Hopefully the Kindle Scribe will replace the Paperwhite en toto, we’ll see.

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M3 LTE Surface Go2. Still my primary device. Upgrade is long overdue. Pen caddy-charger in keyboard is a necessity.

Galaxy Note 10. Replacement due this year. Seriously considered a fold but will likely go with an S series ultra.

Boox Nova 3. Great reader and casual note taker. No plan for replacing anytime soon.

I have been tempted by the OG Duo but I have no time to play with it

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Yeah that’s right! I take it you’re skipping the 3rd gen with the 10100Y Core i3. Have there been any rumors of a 4th gen? Maybe Spring 2023? Either way, definitely time for an upgrade. :+1:t2:

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My (most recent) devices:

  • Samsung Tab S7 FE: main drawing tablet for both portable and Super Display. It current serve all my drawing needs and I will keep it as long as I can, or until I see used Tab S8 Ultra go down to a price I can’t resist, then I might sell it to fund that. Tab S8 Ultra is the only device I would consider as an upgrade from this one.

  • Lenovo Gaming 3 laptop: will keep it until it breaks. With easy repairability, swappable SSD, RAM, Ryzen 5 and iGPU, it will last me a long time. Even if battery die, it would still run better than some desktop PC.

  • Samsung Note 10 5G: will keep it until it break, again. The battery is less than desired, but it the screen is still good and if battery can be swapped for cheap then I will still keep it. Newest phone with S-pen had insane pricing for more features and processors power than I will ever need in a phone.

  • Raytrektab 8: will keep until there’s another 8 inch higher resolution Windows tablet with Wacom for sub 300$ come out. Which might as well be never.

Seem like I’m in a satisfied state when it come to gadget, which is quite a blessing for my wallet. ( until the tab S8 Ultra become a too-hard-to-resist deal anyway…)

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SP8 16/256/LTE. My BYOD for work. Going strong. No thoughts of replacing for now, at least until SP10 or 11.

15" SB2 16/512/DGPU. My home workstation and gaming device (for the only one game that I play). Still in mint condition, and I prefer the form factor to the SLS

Fold 3. Primary phone. No plans at least until Sammy makes a F5 Ultra.

OG Duo. Secondary device. Love PlayBooks and Kindle on it. Will be in service until Duo 4 or Fold 5 Ultra.

Oppo watch 2. Still going strong (still gets 2 days of use on each charge) and is quite fashionable. Love square smartwatches, don’t like round faces.

Bottom line, not looking to get any new device anytime soon. But never say never on these Enablers United forums.

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So far the replacement devices can be divided into

Real game changers:

  • M1 Macbook
  • Kindle Scribe

Existing devices that are too expensive:

  • Tab S8 Ultra
  • iPhone 14 (or Pro)

Devices that don’t have a release date or aren’t even rumored:

  • iPhone with better zoom camera
  • Surface Go 4
  • A new Surface with the Surface Book form factor
  • a later gen Fold or Duo

General advice for the tech industry: get innovatin’, and drop those prices!

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Wow. You guys have a lot more gear than me.

I’ve only got three devices, and one of them is an e-reader (which barely counts.)

Dell Canvas 27. I won’t be upgrading until it dies, which will hopefully (fingers crossed) be never. I hope to give it to my grand kids. It’s very well engineered, top shelf parts, etc. The only reason I’d change would be if one of those new 4K Wacoms (with good touch) fell into my lap. And even then, I’d hang on to the Dell.

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 15. That one I’ll put aside only when it breaks; it’s that good, covers all my portable needs. However, dying young is more likely to happen than with the Dell. It gets near daily use, and even with care, basic material integrity is being challenged. The power port in particular is not well designed for extended life in the wastelands. Every time I accidentally jank the power cord, I wince, thinking, “Take a one fifth hit point worth of damage. It’s not a lot, but sleeping doesn’t heal and there are no clerics in the party.”

When it’s time to replace it, I might look for another of a close-to-same model and year. I want something which isn’t Windows 11…

Kobo Libra This is a sweet little e-reader. Good backlight which I actually use. Fast page turn. Good screen size. Ergonomics which don’t annoy, actually feels good to read. No need to replace it any time soon. You can’t draw on it, but that’s not what it’s for.

Hmm…

I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab… 8, (I think?) I use it as an alarm clock. It’s good for that. For drawing, it’s good spec-wise, but the apps are all trash and Android annoys the carp out of me. I’d rather draw with sidewalk chalk and keep my files in a metal drawer.

Oh… And my desktop engine (where the Dell is plugged in), is the last of the Dell Latitude line which plugged into those ugly old standard docking stations you can get for $15 on eBay (those docks are rock solid with excellent ports). A Latitude E5470 with 24 Gb of memory and a quad core 6th gen 14 nm processor which can handle video editing and such. Also runs Windows 10 without a hitch. Great laptop. I’d get another one just like it or a tower before I let Microsoft shove me into the Matrix.

Here’s the problem…

The Russo-China alliance is rising and the West is falling. The days are coming where U.S. dollars will be worth isht, and we don’t make anything, so it’s smart to pick up your tomorrow’s tech today while dollars still hold value. -Seriously; I’ve got used Sony mirrorless cameras (for video) which were minted in 2014 and are still going up in resale value on eBay. I idly look at eBay with a mind to getting another Samsung portable as a backup machine, but I never seem to be able to convince myself to spend a big lump of cash on spare gear which will just sit in a closet.

Ah well. Hopefully dire predictions will come to naught. I suspect I’ll be able to find stuff on the used market when necessary. I think people like us have cultivated those skills well enough.

Cheers!

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With at least 2% “Russo”. :smirk: I don’t think the situation will get dire enough that we won’t be getting our annual tech high for another decade. There’s too much money to be made by all involved. :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Moreover, Taiwan and South Korea make a lot of chips and are firmly looking West for on-going revenues.

It will be interesting to see how chip manufacturing develops going forward and how successful other companies/countries will be at setting up fabs.

I’ve always regretted not getting a Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 15 — I hope that Samsung gets back to making devices like it and my Galaxy Book 12 before all of them expire.

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Coupled with judicious dstraussing, the possibilities are unlimited…

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Careful now, Samsung is running some crazy trade in promotions for two more days. I just traded my 2 year old Tab S6 lite that I paid $320 for for $350 off an already reduced by $150 Tab S8. You might find the FE > S8 Ultra to be similarly tempting. First time I’ve ever tried a mail in trade in so I hope it all works out okay.

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Okay, now for my main list:
Laptop is not going anywhere.
Got the new Tab S8 today, so that should hopefully be here for a while.
Phone survived the Fold 4 hype, so that’ll stick around until at least the 5.
Max Lumi is actively used in performance and does the job, so no reason to upgrade.

We just replaced all of the kids’ aging 32GB 7th gen iPads with Samsung S6 lites and one S7 FE. No more lightning cables! No more pen charging! No more fighting the lack of storage! Hopefully those hold out for a long time. I got 128GB on everything since running out of storage was the biggest issue beyond keeping everything charged.

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Wow you guys are scaring me into getting a Tab S8 Ultra early.

We don’t have that many good trade in deal, but shopping for lightly used Samsung devices is easy here. I have seen quite a few S8 Ultra with keyboard for 750-800$ in the big store’s returned devices section. It’s already hard to resist.

I also have an iPad gen 7 32GB that is collecting dust. I’m just keeping it for the occasion where I need iOS exclusive app. The Pencil doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore and needed charge every couple hours.

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