Giving Android Tablets/Phones a New Life?

I confess I'm a die-hard skeptic and curmudgeon when it comes to tablets. Bah, humbug! However, years ago an appreciative client gave me a Samsung 10" tablet. It's now 7 years old.

Specs:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 GT-P5210
Android 4.4.2
Intel Atom Z2560 CPU Dual-core 1.6 GHz
16 GB storage

The manufacturer has long since stopped providing updates, and it's painfully slow on the Web (not to mention insecure) with every browser I've tried. RAM etc. can't be upgraded.

However, the hardware is still good. Everything works and the battery is solid. And that gnaws at my hardcore recycling soul.

I guess I could still use it as an offline music player, or donate it to kids.

But perhaps there's a better option: I have heard of rooting (unlocking) the tablet and installing custom Android builds that play nice with old hardware.

Anybody done this?

FWIW: Playing around, I found several browsers that will at least run on old Android builds.

Apus - like it, allows DuckDuckGo as default browser, good controls, but forces you to view ads before continuing

Puffin - seems capable, but it hung on a media rich newspaper site

Opera Mini and Lightning are possibly the best candidates. (Opera forces Google as the search engine -- grr.)

Unfortunately, FireFox Lite and DuckDuckGo Browser for Android are not compatible with my dinosaur OS.