Longevity of your computer, digital camera, etc.

[shootingstar]

My desktop computer is only 5 years ago. it's a Windows based. However I might have to replace it next year. And I've already paid for fix, complete software reload, etc. No, I don't need a personal laptop computer at this time in my life.

My previous home desktop computers lasted approx. 8-12 yrs. In totoal owned and used nearly daily, 3 home desktop computers over the past 20 yrs.

My pocket digital cameras...I just bought a new one to replace one that I've only had and used (heavily) for the past 2 yrs.


I have resigned myself that I have to build in cost of replacing technology every few yrs. when I retire (won't be for a few years). So I have to budget for this...

Sigh.

And I don't even own/use a iPhone. How old is your personal /home technology/digital devices?

[Pax]

My old Dell laptop made it eight years, then I switched to a Mac but only got 4.5 years out of that one. Now, since I don't really use any "work" features, I stick to chromebooks, at under $300 I don't care if they don't last forever. I was pretty ticked when my Mac went bad... at $1400 it cost me around $310 a year to own it, that seems extreme to me.

When my old HP camera died after almost 10 years I just switched to whatever camera is on my phone-of-the-moment.

[smilingcat]

have an old Asus net book eeePC. I've loaded with puppyLinux a varient of Ubuntu with very small footprint. It's about 12 years old. Have to rebuild the battery pack as it stopped holding charge about 7 years ago. It's very low on my priority.

have Toshiba laptop after my father died 5?years ago. He had it for about 3 years. Screen is crystal clear sharp but the touch pad and WiFi are dead. Not sure if I want to add external mouse and USB based WiFi. Besides its XP and sure I could reload it with another Linux. but another laptop?

have dell b120 laptop it's about 8? years old. It used to have Mandriva distro of Linux but Mandriva is no longer so switched over to Ubuntu Linux. I need to reload the software. I've upgraded the HDD inside from 40G to 120G. Everything in it is working.

my desktop is 5 years old and runs win 7.

My desktop supercomputer is 4 years old and runs CAELinux. It does not go on the internet!! supercomputer?? It has a thing called disk array, 96G of fastest of DDR3 main memory, boot drive is 120G. thinking of switching over to 240G SSD. It runs a thing called CUDA. I think it has over 1000 numerical processors inside so it runs over billion calculations per second. I need to go and look it up.

WiFi network died after 4 years so took it apart and replaced a bad component and its working. Got very lucky with the bad part. One of few components that can be replaced.

And we've had things that went bad in a year or two and just had to throw it away.

But most thing should last 5 years or more. The other thing to keep in mind is that something mundane as 240G SSD (solid state drives) have over 1000 billion transistors. Just think about it what's the chance of something going bad? 1000 billion parts!! Can you even comprehend such a big number? It boggles my mind.

[emily_in_nc]

My "big laptop" (HP DV6T) is 6.5 years old. It still runs okay but battery is dead, so I have to leave it plugged in if I want to use it. It served me very well, but now I just keep it under the bed at my mom's house in NC for when we pass through there and use it for backups.

Last October I bought a little Asus Transformerbook T100. It's a hybrid tablet/notebook and the perfect size for trave6l. It has very little disk space, though, so I had to put most of my older photos on a memory card, and I have to be careful with space, deleting stuff frequently, not downloading a bunch of junk. I love this little computer, though, since I don't have a Smartphone. It serves as an e-reader as well as my main computer now.

In the past my various desktops and laptops lasted around 6 years or so before they got so slow and unwieldy I decided to buy new. And always at that time, the technology had gotten so much better, my new system was both cheaper and WAY more powerful/faster/more storage than the previous, so I never minded changing.

Cameras, I had my last digital for a loooooong time, maybe 7-8 years, but I finally ended its life by dropping it hard on concrete. So I bought a new one last year, and it is already showing signs of wear. Doubt I'll get 7 years out of it. Once again, they have gotten cheap. I was happy to get a new one as I love the 12x optical zoom. That used to sound impossibly expensive, but now it's certainly not anywhere near top of the line.

Planned obsolescence is alive and well in tech gear. I never feel that I have to have the latest and greatest, though. I'm too frugal!

[Crankin]

My first computer, about 1999, (that was all mine) was a Mac clone that lasted about 4 years. Then I got an I Mac desktop. It was fine, but I got a laptop in 2008 or so, after 5-6 years. Gave the desktop to my son, who watches movies on it. I got a MacBook Air in 2011, I guess after 3 years. It's fine.

[Helene2013]

My laptop is a Asus N53. Very nice features, etc...but I don't use it as much as I used to. Bought it mainly to do my trip videos and work on pictures. Am not doing any of it anymore. But I love this laptop as it is big and my keyboard is great (hate typing on tablets). I do use it for work stuff sometimes so it has to have the full windows software (which we got from work for 10$). Who can ask for better. I just purchased Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 for 11$ only (again through work), but have not installed it yet. Still am on Pro 2010 and it works just fine. Got it about 6 years ago and still working well. Had a few drops on the floor...and still ticking.

I have a Notes 10.1 Tablet that I use mostly in bed or while camping. I use it to surf quickly the web (not as much as on my laptop) read Next issues (now called Texture) magazines, books or play "mental" games on it. I hate typing on it. I've had it for 3 year this coming xmas and still working very well.

I have my old ipod 4 ... working like a charm after almost 10 years. Use it for my training in the basement now.
I have my hubby's iphone 4S and it works daily for music ang games in the bus. Not using it much for phone (I have a prepaid card in it and I carry it for emergencies only. It's 4 years old and no plan to change it. Does the job I need it for.

We do have a iphone 6 which is our main phone. It works overtime and still doing good after a year. No plan to change it either.

At work, for my lunch time, I have a Samsung 7'' tablet. Good for getting wi-fi at food court, listening to music (like Songza) during lunch or just play a little mind game. Have it for a good 5 years and still working great.

Oh..hubby has his iPad air since last Xmas. We had bought the year before the iPad 4 3G and we gave it to a friend as a gift. She still uses it and hubby loves his iPad Air.

We do have 2 other laptops that are older and not using them much.

So many computer-related toys I realize typing this...but we all use them for different things and they are all working great. No plan to change any of those anytime soon. But hey! We love technology so we never know if we'll fall for the latest toy coming out.

Ah... I do have a Nikon D50 camera as I used to take a lot of pictures. I was crazy about photography and working out with photoshop...in my younger days. The camera now sits in the bag in the basement and has not been out for 2 years (except for our last trip which we took pictures only twice with it).

I was also a maniac of producing my own little videos (of my pets of course) and I have this nice Sony HD cam....in the same bag in the same basement. No longer using it. A good 4-5 years and not used lately. What a waste of money! deuh.

We are just too lazy now and take pictures/videos with the tablets or phones now. Quality is far from what I can get from my Nikon or Sony...but it is the price to pay to not want to carry bigger equipment around my neck.

[emily_in_nc]

Helene, you mention the difficulty of typing on a tablet...I agree! That's why I love my ASUS Transformer book. It's a tablet that plugs into its own dedicated Bluetooth keyboard (which is surprisingly user-friendly, at least for this woman's hands) so can be used in laptop mode (90% of the time for me) or unplug it from the keyboard and use it as a tablet (10% of the time for me, and only when using it to read books). It's certainly not as good as a dedicated e-reader, but for someone who is traveling full-time and traveling light, it really fits the bill!

Here it is in laptop mode, but the keyboard snaps off:

Attachment 17833

[shootingstar]

Wow smilingcat, your choices sound exotic, but probably practical for your needs. We ought to go to you for geek advice. on computer technology.

Yes, I dislike tablets that lack a proper keyboard. For home ergonomic reasons, I prefer to have a desktop. For a block of photos I have a small portable hard drive (something for you Emily) that I transport back and forth between 2 cities to store new photos. For the past few years, I probably average um...over 5,000+ personal digital photos that I take annually. I try to discipline myself by deleting crappy photos after each new set is downloaded from memory card.

So there is a compelling reason why I blog....I make good use of favourite photos on favourite subjects that I write. Plus I dip into his personal photo collection too. I know....blogging seems like a time-intensive activity...but no more than knitting a sweater. That's how I see it.

I still want a quality desktop computer at home since I might choose to occasionally work from home in a few years. Right now, I don't because..I actually live close to workplace. I don't have a difficult commute. No, my employer will not use funds to buy us a work-related desktop computer for home. I work for govn't.

I do like having a slightly bigger screen since that's what I'm accustomed at work (at work, I actually have 2 computer screens hooked to 1 computer). Bigger screen allows me to deal with photo adjustments quickly at home. (Believe me, I spend 5 min. per photo selected for my blog. I'm pretty practical and fast about photo editing. Helps to know your colour wheel, etc.)

At work I actually do have a laptop as my primary computer but don't use the laptop's screen nor its keyboard.

[Catrin]

Helene, you mention the difficulty of typing on a tablet...I agree! That's why I love my ASUS Transformer book. It's a tablet that plugs into its own dedicated Bluetooth keyboard (which is surprisingly user-friendly, at least for this woman's hands) so can be used in laptop mode (90% of the time for me) or unplug it from the keyboard and use it as a tablet (10% of the time for me, and only when using it to read books). It's certainly not as good as a dedicated e-reader, but for someone who is traveling full-time and traveling light, it really fits the bill!

Here it is in laptop mode, but the keyboard snaps off:

Attachment 17833

Very interesting! I'm considering my options for when my monster all-in-one 27-inch Sony desktop dies. It's about 8 years old and I've not been able to even get updated drivers on it for years now. They don't make them :-( Considering whether I will get a laptop or an upscale tablet with a bluetooth keyboard (perhaps a Surface). Hopefully I won't need to make that choice for at least a couple more years. 8 years ago it was the top of the line as far as hardware was concerned, so it still does pretty good - but I can't really update anything. It's also a beast since it is an all-in-one. I didn't consider at the time just how difficult it is to change/update hardware.

[Helene2013]

Emily,
I did purchase a separate keyboard for my tablet. But I was never able to get the QWERTY French accents on it. It was great for typing in English, but useless when I needed French. Bummer. So I gave up trying to get the keyboard with the tablet.

[Crankin]

You guys have a lot more tech than I do. In fact, I am not sure what you are talking about, with half of this stuff.
Since you all mentioned phones, I have an I Phone 5S. I got it when DH upgraded to the 6. I use it a lot more than I ever intended...
I don't have a tablet, as I don't see the point. I use my phone while at work (for personal stuff, like TE!), and my MacBook Air at home. DH has an I Pad. He does everything on line, so I guess he needs it? He already has 2 Mac Books, one really tiny, that he uses when we travel and at work, as well as some crappy work issued PC laptop. When it's freezing cold out, and I don't want to walk down my hilly, 800 foot driveway to get the paper, I read the newspaper on the I Pad, but I really hate reading the paper on line. I cannot read the Sunday paper on the I Pad... it just seems wrong. Coffee in one hand, trun the pages with the other...
We get our Peloton subscription on the I Pad. It is truly bike porn and I wish it was on paper, so I could "feel" it. I know this is old fashioned, but I actually feel different when I read on a screen. I get Momentum, too, and last issue, they said they are going totally on line. Waaaaaa.

[rebeccaC]

I’ve only had apple products for tech stuff. I started college with a 12” powerbook and switched to a 15” when I was a junior….that was 6 years with the 15 and i gave both of those away. Never had a failure or problems (not counting my stupidity twice) which gives me reason to be my kind of loyal I guess…..and knowing no problems is just a blessing I also have backups of everything important to me. I’ve gone to a new macbook or ipad only when advances really favor what I use one for. Right now I have a macbook pro and an ipad air/13 mac air both for photography reasons and sometimes travel convenience. For camera things I put my money into quality manual lenses that will be here and usable long after I’m gone. Digital bodies will change though.

I wait until I have the money to buy something. That also helps with thinking more about my savings, goals and emergencies

[emily_in_nc]

W For a block of photos I have a small portable hard drive (something for you Emily) that I transport back and forth between 2 cities to store new photos.

Yes, we have a couple of these too. We do our computer backups on 'em, so all our photos are actually stored in several places for redundancy. The micro-SD card I mentioned, though, plugs right into a slot in my tablet and stays there all the time. This enables me to access older photos really quickly, since I don't have room for them all on my tablet's storage itself. External hard drives are great for travelers like us as they are really small nowadays.

[ny biker]

Well I've complained elsewhere about the Kindle Fire HDX that died slightly more than a year after I got it, and the fact that Amazon considers these $400 products to be disposable. Since I find tablets to be useful I was going to replace it with a less expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab, but at the last minute I decided to go for the expensive Tab S2 so I could have a great screen for looking at the photos and videos I'm taking with my new Nikon camera. But I'm starting to wonder if I should have saved a couple hundred and gone with a less expensive model.

The Nikon camera is fantastic. I bought it a few months ago. I originally was going to get something inexpensive but decided it would be useful to have a camera with a really good zoom feature, so I think that increased the price by about $100. The zoom really is amazing -- I took it to a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden and got some incredible shots when the band was at the far end of the arena, despite the fact that they were not standing still and the light was far from ideal. I'm also blown away by some of the photos I took with it on a nighttime tour of the monuments in DC, and I was able to take a video at my nephew's graduation and then pause it and create still shots at key moments. Really it's a great camera, and I hope it lasts a long time. Prior to the Nikon I had a Canon digital point and shoot that was very old. It still worked but was very slow between shots, which was annoying enough to make me not use it anymore. I do feel that it's worthwhile to have a good camera -- most smartphone cameras are okay for daytime shots of everyday things but for special occasions and low light, a real camera is better.

My smartphone, a Motorola Droid phone, is several years old. The battery is still great and the phone works fine with a big exception -- it is slowing down. I think this might be because Verizon no longer pushes out operating system updates for it, but the apps keep getting updated for new OSs, so they no longer work great on my phone. If anyone knows a way to speed things up, I'd love to hear it.

As for computers, I like to keep them as long as possible, too. My very old laptop, which runs on Vista because I got it a couple of weeks before Windows 7 came out and never updated it, is at my office. I need it to connect remotely to my official work pc which is in another location. The screen has started to develop large black spots so I have to use a separate monitor with it, and I can no longer download updates to it because a recent one made it unable to connect to the internet. It's extremely slow but I don't want to spend the money to replace it. There is a slim chance that my official work pc will be moved to the office where I work, in which case I wouldn't need my own pc there anymore. My newer laptop which I use at home is a few months old -- I bought it when the screen started to fail on the old one.

I hate having to replace technology because (as I've whined about elsewhere) it seems to get harder and harder to set up new devices or to even get one that hasn't been damaged in transit. And I don't know where people get the money to replace these things so often just so they can have the latest toy. They are all so expensive.

Oh by the way I also like to keep cars for a long time. My first car, a Camry, was 9 years old with 97,000 miles on it when I traded it in for my Prius. That was in 2007, and the Prius is now about 500 miles shy of 100,000 miles. And it still runs well and feels solid, so I hope to keep it for a few more years at least.

[BikeDutchess]

The Nikon camera is fantastic.

Reminded me of this:

https://youtu.be/pLsDxvAErTU?t=56s

I may have missed it somewhere, which Nikon do you have? I have a 5-year old Nikon DSLR (D5000) which I've loved. Since taking a landscape photography workshop this spring, I've toyed with the idea of upgrading the body to a D7200. But the D5000 is still working well, and I'm not out there using it enough to really justify the upgrade.

For the times when I want more than my smartphone but not lug around the Nikon, I recently bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 (really, how do they come up with these unwieldy model names/numbers?). Fabulous little camera! Not quite the zoom range I would have preferred, but that was a more than acceptable trade-off to get the fantastic photo quality and the other features I wanted.

As far as computers go, my DH complains that his PCs seem to have such a short life span. Of course he rarely turns the thing off, that must impact the durability too, doesn't it? He seems to get about 3-5 years out of them when they crash. And repairing seems to cost almost as much as replacement these days.