It’s not only with Black Friday. The Android tablets market is flooded with absolute expensive stinkers for devices. You will notice this in any physical electronic store.
Not to mention fakes. I bought and Android 12 tablet on Amazon as new not long ago, the version string said 12, but the actual API level was 24 (Android 7) and the UI wasn’t android 12.
If you don’t think that’s a big deal on a cheap tablet then you’re not considering what else could have been done to it that you can’t see. They’re already lying after all.
And even apparently from name brands.
My sister bought a low-end Samsung tablet (some years ago admittedly), and it NEVER received a software update in the 3 years she owned it. Not a major update, not a security patch, nothing.
I’d hope they’ve gotten better about that, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Probably that was before Samsung offered 5 years of updates. And if the tablet was a bit outdated, it would have easily been outside of the software EOL date.
That’s why you should always go for phones/tablets that have been released this year and not take an outdated one. Not for the specs, but for the software support duration.
Over here there is a food discounter that also has a tiny electronics corner, where they have “great” deals. You can often get phones and tablets for less than half of the MSRP. The issue is, that all of them are either out of software support or close to it. A while ago they sold a cheap iPhone that had one month of software support left. And on iPhone, most apps only run on the currently newest iOS version. So a month after buying that iPhone, the user would lose access to most of their apps.
Isn’t not buying anything on Black Friday generally a good advice?
Some of the crap being pushed out cheap is made just for Black Friday. Weird TVs with one HDMI port, or the guts of it are leftovers from three years ago, stuff like that.
I mean sure, buy a PS5 or whatever because there’s no cheapo version of that with a PS4 Pro in it, but for things like TVs, tablets, or things with a million different model numbers? Buyer beware.
They’ve already been shamelessly doing the exact same thing with outlet malls for ages: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/outlet-stores-quality-1.3392279 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8cyvpJYZlk
So we really shouldn’t be surprised, unfortunately.
I bought two 4TB USB SSDs half price, they seem well built and were brand new. I think I did pretty well.
Broke my phone 2 days ago. Samsung S23 has a black Friday promotion on its official website, the 256gb model is cheaper priced than the 128gb model. I think it’s a good deal. Buy things you really need, and you might save some money. But of course don’t buy stuff you don’t need just for the sake of discount.
Online? Because I’ve been looking for some good external data storage solutions today if you’ve got a link lol.
I’m also considering springing for a Synology NAS if I can find a good deal, but I’ve already dropped a lot on a laptop.
I got it from Amazon, but I’m not in USA so for some reason the discount seems much larger on my Amazon which is the complete opposite of how sales usually work here. It’s the Samsung T7 Shield 4TB, it seems pretty nice.
I’m not sure if there is a “good time” to buy - not as a blanket timeframe for all things. If you want to save money, use camel camel camel and patience.
However - it all depends on how much you’re talking about trying to save, how substantial that amount is to you, and how much your time is worth - because if you make $20/hour and you spend 16 hours in order to save $5, that’s not a great investment.
Black Friday is almost always a scam. Maybe once upon a time it wasn’t, but, capitalists gotta capitalize.
Even better tip : Don’t waste your money on an awful Android tablet on Black Friday
It gets worse. Visiting a friend recently, they tried to give me an old Kindle, (which I politely declined). They have a drawer of about 6 old ones because they can’t help buying the latest every sale. They don’t even read that much!!
That’s so wasteful. And I dragged my old Sony reader for like 7 years and then even handed it down until the battery just wouldn’t hold a charge anymore. In 14 years I’m my second reader and feel the Kobo I’ve got is perfectly fine.
Battery replacement on the old Sony readers is trivial.
I relatively recently checked out some other ebook readers, mainly as the Sony isn’t too responsive with a big library on it, and I prefer just having everything on there - but turns out neither Kindle nor Kobo perform that well with a big library either. The UI of the old Sony reader is still way better than any of the other ebook readers I’ve tried.
I’m currently carrying a kindle in flight mode, filled via calibre - in the night the backlight is nicer than the clip on light I’ve been using with the Sony, but I still keep the Sony charged and use now and then.
If only more people realised this or could spare the 30 minutes it takes to educate themselves. I recently replaced the battery and charging port on an “old” Samsung phone (three years or so) and it’s as good as new. While I did use my 3D printer to soften the glue, I’ve been able to do the same with a hairdryer in the past. All you need is a couple of guitar picks or a set you can buy for next to nothing.
Ha, didn’t think the battery would be easily changed, good to know. I don’t have it anymore, sold it cheap second-hand.
I’ve been using old kindles for homeassistant interfaces for across the house.
That’s a good idea, but you can buy e-ink screens made specifically for that purpose, they use them in retail stores. Buying Kindles for that is expensive.
I would have personally accepted. More devices for modding and tinkering with! 🔥
When it comes to tablets, if it is not an iPad, Galaxy Tab S, or Pixel tablet don’t waste the money period. Everything else is pushed out the door and forgotten about by the OEM before the delivery truck leaves the warehouse.
This is literally terrible advice and incorrect. Lenovo and Xiaomi are at just 2 examples of brands whose midrange and high end tablets get supported with updates for years.
Pixel
After getting burnt by both the Google endorsed Xoom and the Google branded Nexus 10, I don’t trust them at all when it comes to tablets.
With both, Google released good products, and then proceeded to ruin them with abhorrent changes to the software. They made the Nexus 10 dump it’s tablet interface in favor of a big phone UI ffs.
No matter how much Lemmy hates Apple, iPads are by and large the best tablets out there for the money, especially for art. The fact that I can use “Apple” and “best for the money” in the same sentence is funny. I don’t hate apple, I love iOS, but ya usually really do pay for it.
