Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
Faterson is right of course, we're a bit off topic here.
But let me comment this last one:
I have a simple calculation for my personal ROI model:
a.) As it's a tool for work, it should be tax-deductible. Meaning, at the end you pay maybe 65% of it.
b.) The resell-value of such gadgets is enormously high. I've had an offer in Amazon for my 5 months old Surface Pro Gen1, only 20% below it's original buying price. A friend of mine sold his iPad 1 a year ago for still € 400 = 50% of the buying price.
Meaning:
If you aim for it, you can have such gadgets and pay only about 1/3rd yourself.
And re. the battery:
From what I've read and experienced so far, batteries nowadays are predicted to live through 1.000 charges.
We don't have any long-term experiences with Surface yet. But battery of my iPad 1 still keeps up surprisingly well after 3,5 years of frequent usage.
Battery on Surface Pro 2 keeps up for about 10 hours. So I assume maybe 200 to 250 charges per year.
This would make for a lifespan of >4 years.
But that's assuming 100% on battery alone. Personally, I'm only on battery on the train and sometimes at home. About 50% I'm using my Surface Pro while plugged in.
So this would make for a theoretical lifespan of maybe 6 to 8 years.
Personally, I don't bother.
In 1 year there will be the next best thing anyway.
And after 3 to 4 years, depending on the gadget, it's out of the tax-deduction anyway.
Each one is different of course.
But I don't think, lifespan of the battery really is an issue.
Some may worry about warranty: What if the battery doesn't loose capacity, but dies for whatever reason and can't be replaced?
But here I simply rely on my user experience so far:
Of all my >100 tablets and readers (counting the ones I bought for friends), only a handful did have problems so far.
iRex 1000 had a defective screen from the beginning which was replaced via warranty.
iRex iLiad, after years without any usage, didn't work anymore a few months ago, when I wanted to give it to a friend. Sad because of nostalgic reasons. But not having used it for maybe 3 years, realistically I won't really miss it.
Meaning:
So far, none of those gadgets died on me while still in use.
Either they're defective from the start ("Monday unit") or they loose capacity because the battery discharges over months.
But about a gadget in frequent use I wouldn't worry.
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Battery university has a pretty good article on lithium ion battery life.
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a...ased_batteries
In short, the lifespan of your battery will vary dramatically depending on how you take care of it. For instance, all things being equal, if you completely drain the battery every time before recharging you will get 300-500 discharge cycles until battery only has 70% of its original capacity. If you charge after 50% drain, you get 1200-1500 discharge cycles