Disposable Tablet

 

My Beneve 8 inch tablet served me well.  I don't quite recall when I bought it, maybe five years ago.  It cost just under $100, likely my first electronics purchase from amazon.com. I don't know when I bought it but I know why.  I had an iPod, of blessed memory, $275 that did everything.  It was about the size of a smart phone but lacked telephone capacity.  The screen cracked but did not shatter.  At about the same time Google decided to get into the device business with a brand they called Nexus.  It cost about $150, had a 7 inch glass screen, and did more than I could hope it would do.  Top notch quality, what I would expect from Google.  Not only did the glass break but fragments separated from the screen.  It would cost more to fix than to replace so I went to amazon intending a direct replacement.  This may have not been Google's best growth strategy. New Nexus was no more.  Shopping part by feature, part by price, I selected another tablet, this my Beneve.  By now I had an android smart phone with internet access, more than enough camera, and telephone capacity.  But I also travelled more and wanted a bigger screen without needing the telephone service.  What I really wanted was portability.  For $100 I couldn't go wrong, though from time to time went a little wrong.

At the  airport waiting for travel to Boston for an Endocrine Society meeting, lacking my laptop, this device malfunctioned.  I tried to get it going, or at least secure a telephone number for assistance.  Eventually I found and called the number, got through with difficulty, and before boarding was taught how to reset this tablet, which I had to do a few times during its lifetime.  The next misadventure came some time later, a permanent discoloration of the screen leaving a pattern suggesting part of an electrical circuit.  It still performed adequately but then stopped accepting a charge.  I could only use it with the cord and transformer at my side, which made it no longer portable.  Finally the cord no longer turned it on, attempts to access reset never succeeded.  Technology had advanced to where my smart phone could do everything this could do and more, though it cost several times what I spent for my Beneve tablet.  I liked the bigger screen, just right for eBooks where portability matters,  I have read Old Testament and Willa Cather's O Pioneers on my smart phone, but reading on the larger tablet was better.  My Beneve had cost about $20 for each year I had it.  Can't go wrong with a replacement.  Yet the Beneve was of far lesser quality than the iPod and the Nexus so I would select a different brand.

That decision would be forced on me, as others must have found the experience less favorable.  The brand is now gone, replaced by several other generics and by reliable low priced options from Lenovo and Samsung.  In past five years options have proliferated, though prices largely static.  Amazon had more than a thousand options with their filtering system still cumbersome.  Walmart online, which gave me an outstanding experience with big screen TV and less good experience with $20 desk lamp, had hundreds.  When sorted by price it got hard to navigate and diverted me.  Figured B&H Photo where my good friend used to work would have a more civilized online purchasing system.  It did, but priced much higher.  Only 6 in the range of $75-100 that I was willing to spend, and none approaching what might be available on Amazon or Walmart.  I picked one from Amazon, $100 which said free shipping until  I went to check out.  Free shipping if I agreed to join their Prime class, which I don't.  But since I already picked one, I then did a web search for that model.  Sure enough, for that $100 I could get one from a company called Newegg.  Checked the company, seems reputable.  I'm just buying a product, not service once I receive it.  Visa data submitted, purchase confirmed.  A little larger 10 inch screen.  Doesn't really answer the question of whether I really need a new tablet, but it's not the first or most expensive thing that I have purchased that I don't really need.  It should arrive soon.