# Android Tablet Life Expectancy



## SunWers (Sep 9, 2017)

Hi,


I'm looking for suggestions on selecting a tablet that will be used daily between 9 1/2 to 10 hours per day and 4 to 5 days a week. From what I can find the average lifespan for tablets are about 6 1/2 years with normal use. These tablets will be used in a factory and will be used actively to scan QR codes. So I'm thinking the lifespan will be around 3 to 4 years... Does anyone have any experience with tablet lifespan for enterprise use? As in my other thread, we have decided to use a MDM to manage all tablets. So all updates, policies, restrictions, etc. will be managed centrally. I was thinking we could go with older tablets but this means the life expectancy isn't going to be as long, correct? 



Thanks,
Lynn


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

IMO there is no answer. Electronic (I know it's battery operated) devices could last 15 years or go in one day. If the average life is such and such, that doesn't mean yours will fall within that parameter. With mechanical devices, the less moving parts, the better the durability (a generalization). I had a Casio B.O.S.S. that lasted 22 years with daily use, all 64kb of it.


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Lynn, what is the rationale behind going with older tablets ?

If it's about compatibility, you should be able to run the apps on the latest tabs as well.

If you're talking price, the price is for the hardware and not for the Android OS. So 2 tablets created with the same h/w specs with different versions of Android running on them should cost the same.

Depending on the App workload, decide what the specs are going to be, minimal load, a 1GB RAM and standard Quad core should be more than sufficient.

Regarding life expectancy, I echo Corday's thoughts, there is no magic number there, it can work for 5 days or 5 years, some factors that contribute would be usage, maintenance etc..


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## SunWers (Sep 9, 2017)

tristar said:


> Lynn, what is the rationale behind going with older tablets ?
> 
> If it's about compatibility, you should be able to run the apps on the latest tabs as well.
> 
> ...



Hi Tristar,


Price and hardware is what we are looking for. We have decided to go with 8 inch tablets running Android version 7 or 8 (preferably 8) and trying to stay under $100. Since we are purchasing around 800... thinking we may be able to get a discount on the price as well. 



Does anyone have any suggestions where we could purchase these tablets? We are looking into CDW right now but I would like to get a few other options too.


Thanks,
Lynn


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## Corday (Mar 3, 2010)

With an order that large, I would try negotiating with a manufacturer rather than a distributor.


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## SunWers (Sep 9, 2017)

Corday said:


> With an order that large, I would try negotiating with a manufacturer rather than a distributor.



Ok that was what I was thinking. I'm checking Dell and Acer now.


Thanks Again,
Lynn


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## tristar (Aug 12, 2008)

Try Samsung, Asus & Lenovo as well, use the deal from 1 manufacturer to deal with the others.

First get the specs decided, based on the App's requirement (current and possible future requirements if it needs to scale up), once you have the hardware specs of your minimum requirement then get what the manufacturers have to offer, then match them to your specific hardware specs.

You should get a good deal, I'd start off saying my upper slab is $75 and then based on what is provided to offer, I'd up the cost.


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## [email protected] (Nov 16, 2004)

Nearly all manufacturers can give you a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) for a product. There are industry standards for rigorous testing to get a rating for a product and for an order that large, you can demand it of any product you're looking at. You are in the drivers seat and the manufacturers will be begging for your business. Make sure every manufacturer you contact is aware you are checking with others.

I would start at AliExpress and or Chinavasion (misspelling is normal) for a general idea of product's features and costs.

BTW, Androids are up to ver 9 now.


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