I don't know if this applies to anyone else but I am seriously calling into question whether having the snappiest device on the market completely up to date with all the latest bells and whistles really is the way to go. Or do we get blinded into these things by the glossy rhetoric.
Like many others, I have a Nexus 7 [2012] which I loved but again like many others it must have the latest version of Android I can possibly get while the going is good and it becomes obsolete by not getting the latest x.x.1 update!!!
The result is, I now have a Nexus 7, updated to 5.1 which admittedly is better that 5.0.2. However, it still is no longer as snappy as it first was. Yes, I've cleared the cache and factory reset etc. as recommended on all the various forums.
Then at the weekend my OH asked me what exactly was wrong with my now 3 year old Motorola 10" Xoom sitting in the box in the cupboard. I had to admit rather red faced that I had stopped using it as Google had taken it off the OTA updates after 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update and that was just not good enough for me despite the excellent 10" screen.
I'm trying to keep this short. We got the Xoom out, charged it and started it up. I had factory reset it before putting it away but soon had it up and running with all the same apps as on my Nexus 7. Google Now works a treat and all the material design apps such as calendar etc. are zipping along. I use OneNote a lot and that actually seems to work better than on the Nexus. I also have to admit I just love the space on the 10" screen. I will try to be balanced and say if there is a downside to all this, it's probably the weight. The Xoom never was the lightest tablet on the market, even for three years ago but we are talking about 75g heavier I think.
Other advantages are it's 32Gb on board memory and 32Gb microSD slot [not available on the iPad of the time]. I can't even genuinely say I miss Lollipop [still have it anyway on my Nexus 5, which seems to swim along with anything chucked at it!]
So after this long diatribe I think what I've learned since the weekend is this: Do we really need the latest gizmo with the latest OS? Finally, the battery life on the Xoom even after all this time is unbelievable.