Stone tablets. You think of stone tablets.

But seriously. Either you do something seriously wrong or tablets just aren’t for you. All iPads I have used so far have been tough and have easily outlived their designed product life to the point where after many years they have taken on other uses such as second monitors, weather stations, permanent GPS map screens in vehicles etc…

Go get one, stick it in a robust case from day one, make sure to get a warranty extension from day one that also covers accidental damage and use it like a human. If beyond that it doesn’t work for you then these devices simply are not for you.

And no, tablets cannot be BIFL by design. They are designed to become obsolete just like any other electronics gadget eventually.

Yes I still use the exact same HewlettPackard scientific calculator I used since school 30 years ago … sure … maybe an iPad with proper care and some DIY battery replacements down the road will be usable like that too but who wants to be using 30 year old electronics gadgets?

I'm guessing there are one of two explanations:

1. I'm extrapolating from two cases that happened in quick succession (a Samsung Galaxy tablet that didn't survive a trip in a backpack). And a portable monitor that had about two uses and was sitting on my bookshelf for the past two years. I checked it yesterday to discover that the screen had been cracked. This could be just bad luck.
2. Another credible explanation is that cheap tablets (the Samsung was < $150 and the portable monitor was a budget one also) ... truly have inferior screens that break more easily.

Otherwise both these gadgets had the same treatment more or less: within cases and within the laptop sleeve of a not overly stuffed backpack. I thought (I accept that I may be mistaken) that that was within the parameters of proper handling/care.

ETA:

I'm discovering the world of ruggedized tablets. They cost a lot more but between the shockproofing and the (apparently) gorilla glass screens ... I'm wondering if this might be the kind of product I was looking for.

I've never cracked my naked screen Galaxy Tab A but I also put it in a kid's EVA foam case with a handle straight away. Of course the gorram battery needs to be replaced before I can boot it up again & I'm going to have to pay a pro to have a chance at the screen not getting cracked when it's disassembled & reassembled.

I think what I was basically conceiving of here was a tablet that has the foam case "built in" (ie, it's non-removable, part of the product, so one never has to worry about whether the case is on or not). And some tougher glass that's part of the natural display too (if gorilla glass isn't a gimmick that looks like what I need). Both these features seem pretty standard in ruggedized / industrial tablets (the type you sometimes see surveyors using in the 'field'). So I guess that's probably where I need to be looking. Unfortunately .... they cost a pretty penny!

Flexible screens are improving but no, there aren’t any great ones in mainstream products.

Samsung and similar bendy phones are the closest I think’s out there and they sure have their flaws and are in most usage cases, more breakable than their brittle counterparts.

One day though, wibbly wobbly fabric-like displays will be a thing. People have been working on it for decades, saw it on ‘Tomorrow’s World’ when I was a kid more than 20yrs ago.

Just not ready to compete with the best of brittle as a display and/or not durable enough just yet. But soon….

The cases I use that look like this NEVER let the tablet out unless you pry it out. https://www.amazon.com/BMOUO-Kids-Case-Samsung-Galaxy/dp/B01EML8W34/

The industrial tablet selling point for me would be the user-serviceable/removable battery compartment, but paying hundreds more just for that?

I think the IP68-ing / waterproofing (or at very least water-resistance-ing) is an enormous part of their selling point and why they're used by the military / first responders / surveyors.

But yes ... for your average consumer I think this wouldn't be a significant value-add!

Modern MacBooks seem to be not brittle plastic. The aluminum seems to be quite strong.

I have been using smartphones since they 1990s and iPads ever since they came to market. In all these years with all these different devices I only cracked screens twice.

Both devices at the time were already well out of their extended warranty period. I cracked an iPhone screen when it slipped out of my hand while leaving my car - it didn’t have a case, the screen cracked, the phone worked without issues, I had the screen replaced the next day. The iPad was a large iPad Pro and Someone threw it. It was expected to be broken by the impact.

If you treat iPhones and iPads in a reasonable manner they are tougher then anyone could expect them to be, particularly iPhones. I am always amazed by how tough they are when I see sone people who have dropped them dozens of times.

I am sure comparable Samsung devices are similar.

If you are worried about breaking them, don’t get the large screen variants and definitely keep them in a sturdy case.

Wait can you tell me more about using old devices as weather stations?

Nothing complicated or creative about it I am afraid. In my old apartment I simply 3D printed a bezel that held an iPad mini with attached charger cable, held in in place with the cable hidden.

Essentially I “immobilized” the tablet and had it it in the cable 24/7.

It was still attached to my apple account and ran WeatherPro. It was really very simple.

Once these devices get old and get replaced one has to make a judgement call if selling them for nothing or handing them to someone for whom they are not really helpful (dead battery) or using them for something else.

Ah thanks. I was thinking you connected it to a weather monitoring station outside for real time hyper local weather haha