Currently all of my PCs, laptop and DSLR are over 5 years old and running strong. I am still using my HTC evo 4g I got 5 years ago...I replaced the battery once but that is all.
It is a shame we live in this world where things are thrown out every couple years...cars become "too expensive to fix" after a couple years (or totalled by insurance companies due to minor accidents).
I wish there was an easy solution...but I don't see anything changing when the major corporations encourage this type of planned expiration date.
Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek, however it does remind me of the famous "I need a new car, the tank is empty" (or, in earlier times "the ashtray is full") quote of senseless consumption. Hardware-wise those devices should be able to last much longer than this, were it not for the planned obsolescence of limited memory space, OS-update mandated slowdowns and eventual abandonment.
Hardware can last a long time if it is made to last. It can remain useful for many more years than the 2- or 3-year update cycle. My phone is 6 years old, I'm typing this on a 13 year old laptop, both still work fine for daily use. Both have user-replaceable parts, both can be upgraded.
Why five years? I have plenty of consumer electronics including phones, tablets, laptops, and computers that keep on trucking well past five years. Why should anything be turned into junk until it's absolutely necessary?
The point is, I OWN the device. It's mine. If I can find someone with the expertise to keep it running past its intended life, that should be looked at favorably. But Apple, Samsung, and many other companies are actively preventing feasible repairs based on unreasonable and arbitrary cooked-up "company policies." Attaching serial numbers to parts and making them inoperable until they're blessed by the manufacturer is a racket and everyone knows it.
If I can manage to keep my iPad working as a photo frame for another 40 years, how does that hurt anyone?
Because they don't want devices to be repaired, they want devices to become obsolete or irreparable within 5 years so that consumers can buy a new device.
There used to be an expectation of longevity in the electronics we purchase. Even while Moore's law was in full effect, you could find good uses for a 6 year old computer. Today's computer hardware can easily remain fully usable for a decade. The notion of buying a laptop or phone, let alone headphones, every year is ludicrous and actively harmful to the environment.
What would make you think that 4.5 years of service of an electronic device is unnecessary? I have multiple devices that old or older and I hope very much that they will last way longer.
Stop trying to make hardware last forever. Who here would like to use hardware from 2017? iPhone x anyone? The lifetime of these devices is defined by the reasonable update schedule of the consumer, which is based on moores law. 5 years is a reasonable update schedule. Then put one in a museum and live in the now. You get this much time forget the nostalgia https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/months.html
I expect mainly because in the world of tech, things only have a life of maybe 2 years before they're considered 'old'/'obsolete'/'stupid looking' etc.
Memory, megapixels, storage, screen, speed etc are all advancing so quickly that it doesn't make any sense to bother making something that'll last beyond a few years.
It would however be cool and responsible to make these devices more environmentally friendly, but that's a hard sell to some.
I'm sort of glad I didn't spend the extra on my first MP3 player - 32mb of wonderment.
This is called planned obsolescence, and it's not just electronics. Practically every product nowadays are designed with a death date to perpetuate a repeating buying cycle from consumers. It's very real.
The only lens I care about these days is the impending climate disaster. Technology like this, that embodies a lot of carbon and has a built-in expiration date, is getting more and more upsetting to me.
I don't need a faster computer, I need air that will still be breathable in 20 years. My next computer will likely be whatever 5-10 year old laptop I can snatch up on it's way to the landfill. It definitely won't be an M1.
That is the point I was making. The devices last (as we both have experienced), but today it is "fashionable" to dispose of them and buy new ones on a schedule much shorter than their lifespans (because of some new gimmick that provides an inconsequential improvement in the usability of the newer model).
I love when people say that and apparently think it's admirable/amazing that a device would still work 6 years after its release.
But most devices used to work a lifetime. My motorcycle was made in 2009 (14 years ago) and is in pristine condition. The previous one was over 25 years old when it got stolen (by someone, presumably, who thought it was worth the risk). Blenders from the 40s still work. Not to mention non-electrical tools like hammers and such, which last for generations.
Parts of my home desktop computer are over 15 years old; the case itself was made in the 1990s.
It's one thing to get newer devices that do new things, and quite another to have to throw away old ones that should still be working fine.
Phones have no moving parts, there's no good reason they should become obsolete.
I don’t really. Hardware generally doesn’t get less useful with age, just less efficient than new/current hardware. Handing that inefficiency off to someone else doesn’t do well for our overall carbon footprint.
Instead, buy things that last, use them until you can’t, then recycle them: https://www.techdump.org/
Planned obsolescence is why I will never invest more than 100 euros into a phone. I will always wait to buy low-priced, fast enough for me hardware.
I still remember how my macbook pro started to be slow and unusable after OSX updates.
My real wish is that one day, computer or smartphone hardware might last at least 5 or even 10 years. I know software is evolving quickly, but there comes a point where I don't think you need to upgrade your hardware, the hardware is just fast enough to do certain things with today's software. At one point, software should stop changing so often. Then maybe we won't need to toss hardware anymore.
I don't like Apple products, but it surely is funny that they realized they were making durable products and started to see it as a problem.
I feel we need the manufacturers to provide a design lifespan for each device, and that should mean that at least half the devices sold must reach or exceed that age without significant degradation -> like a half-life.
Nobody wants to buy a laptop that will only last 2 years, so the manufacturers would either have answer some tough questions, or design things to last, and to be repairable (because that's one way of making them last).
Obviously careful through is needed towards the fine print - one should allow some parts to be replaced, like batteries, but not accept that a device lasts 10 years if you spend more on repairs than the device has cost in the first place.
> All electronics makers should be required by law to supply security updates and spare parts for devices for at least 10 years after the point of sale (not after the release date).
Let's start by requiring then that chip vendors sell and support their chips for at least that long?
To stick to "10 years since introduction to market" which is a much easier requirement: 2009 was the year of AMD Phenom II (EOL 2012) and Intel Nehalem (EOL around 2012), and Qualcomm MSM7227 (couldn't find EOL date, but its direct successor came out 2011).
How much stock should they keep around for the 10 extra years after 3 years on the market? (and what happens if they underprovision, will they be sued, or overprovision, throw it all in the bin? they can't sell it, or the 10 year clock starts again)
> to have a user accessible method for replacing the battery. This used to be standard with all consumer electronics until very recently.
... and then vendors sold thinner and thinner devices, and customers preferred them over the others. The only way to get the same mileage out of a thinner device is to put batteries in every nook you can find, which doesn't work so well if the battery is supposed to be a single replaceable part. Also, there are two layers of plastic (chassis, battery container) that take away space that could be better used to store energy.
I really don’t think anyone, including tech people, expects devices to last 30 years. Maybe hardcore collectors do for their media, but not for devices.
Though I will say my 14 year old Palm TX is still alive and kicking...
It is a shame we live in this world where things are thrown out every couple years...cars become "too expensive to fix" after a couple years (or totalled by insurance companies due to minor accidents).
I wish there was an easy solution...but I don't see anything changing when the major corporations encourage this type of planned expiration date.
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