ASUS ZenPad S 8 Z580CA-C1-BK 8" 64 GB Tablet

[danmitch1]

My battery is starting to die over night, and lasts maybe an hour depending on what im doing. Do you guys think its worth replacing the battery on it? Ive got marshmallow running on it.
Looks like it would cost ~40$ plus tax and shipping.. Im just not sure how long it will be useful as some apps are already not compatible with it...

 

[Izerous]

As a developer I try to support API 16 whenever possible but more often than not i'm forced to jump to a minimum supported version of 21 anymore to get anything to work as expected.

Usually a lot of other developers will do similar things because they don't want to alienate such a large portion of users so for the time being. Like setting minimum supported API to version 24 (Nougat / 7.0) means i'd alienate more than 25% of global android users.

Edit: This breakdown image was generated this morning directly from android studio, not sure how frequently the data that drives the image is updated. When google used to publish this right in their developer website it was only updated monthly, but it takes FOREVER for API levels to completely drop off.

 

[moocow]

Time for recycling. Did a quick search on XDA Developers and it seems there are no custom roms for this device. So even if you replace the battery, you still can't update to 9.0. All your apps will need to be side loaded via APK Mirror if you still want to use it.

 

[danmitch1]

As a developer I try to support API 16 whenever possible but more often than not i'm forced to jump to a minimum supported version of 21 anymore to get anything to work as expected.

Usually a lot of other developers will do similar things because they don't want to alienate such a large portion of users so for the time being. Like setting minimum supported API to version 24 (Nougat / 7.0) means i'd alienate more than 25% of global android users.

Edit: This breakdown image was generated this morning directly from android studio, not sure how frequently the data that drives the image is updated. When google used to publish this right in their developer website it was only updated monthly, but it takes FOREVER for API levels to completely drop off.

So in other words, its still not dead, its second to last at marshmallow right? Based on the trends, how long do you think till marshmallow is no longer a concern to developers?

@moocow Did I misunderstand Izerous?

 

[Izerous]

So what i was getting at is a lot of developers are still trying to publish software that would be supported on that device where feasible so it isn't outright garbage.

However if the software YOU want to use isn't supported it is kinda junk to you for your own usage.

 

[moocow]

I think you misunderstood izerous. If you look at the attached picture, API 16 is the first version of Jelly Bean. What izerous is saying is that while he wants to support something that old, he's forced not to. The bare minimum he is forced to support API 24 which is Nougat. From my personal experience playing with Android X86, even Nougat have iffy support for apps that I want. APK Mirror should have older version of the apps but searching thru it is a bit of a pain because I haven't figured out how to filter by min supported Android version.

 

[Izerous]

The bare minimum he is forced to support API 24 which is Nougat

I'm usually forced to 21 as absolute minimum. The line about 24+ was more of an example of WHY i try to target as low as i can.

Most advertising network SDK's are actually what is driving the minimum 21+... you want ads in your app then you HAVE to set minimum to 21+. If they jump to 24+ as a minimum then all "freeware" will jump to 24+ etc. Non-ad apps having high minimums is often honestly just lazyness. (not wanting to use support libraries and such)

 

[danmitch1]

ohh damn, I was looking at that pic backwards, so Im one behind dead last lol...

Basically, I spend 99.9% of my time using the chrome web browser app.. I guess the question should be how long till chrome takes 10 minutes to load a webpage? I just ONLY retired my samsung galaxy tab 3 because pages just took wayyyy too long to open...

 

[danmitch1]

So here's the 64 million dollar question, can I get a better tablet used for under 150 bucks?

 

[Izerous]

something like a kindle 8 and sideload google on it if that is still possible and buy it brand new at that point.