iPad: Thinking of buying an iPad 1, 16GB

[prvt.donut]

Not really a bank breaker of a question, but just saw a cheap ipad pop up on Craigslist near my office and was thinking that at that price, I don't have much to lose.

But I just want to understand the limitations of the ipad 1 and what I can expect to not be able to do.

Firstly, I would like to point out that my intended usage for it would be pdf text book reading (mcitp, Cisco press etc) probably ePub and junk novels also.

Web browsing and maybe some photo viewing or iMovie editing with photos/video from camera and iPhone 5.

[Saberon]

Don't even consider it. Awful screen, HORRIBLY slow.

[CNeufeld]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Not really a bank breaker of a question, but just saw a cheap ipad pop up on Craigslist near my office and was thinking that at that price, I don't have much to lose.

But I just want to understand the limitations of the ipad 1 and what I can expect to not be able to do.

Firstly, I would like to point out that my intended usage for it would be pdf text book reading (mcitp, Cisco press etc) probably ePub and junk novels also.

Web browsing and maybe some photo viewing or iMovie editing with photos/video from camera and iPhone 5.

How much?

The problem I'd see is that the original iPad is no longer really supported for iOS updates, which will also affect which apps you can run.

Clint

[LanEvo]

How much are we talking about?

[prvt.donut]

¥12,000

Which is the same as the kindle fire (no way would I get another android device though), also, Kindle is being released mid December in Japan, which is too late for me as I am going to Hawaii in 3 weeks and wanted something with a bigger screen than the iPhones.

I don't care too much about iOS updates, just as long as it handles web pages well and can read books and playback video. Maybe play some bad piggies.

[LanEvo]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

¥12,000

Which is the same as the kindle fire (no way would I get another android device though), also, Kindle is being released mid December in Japan, which is too late for me as I am going to Hawaii in 3 weeks and wanted something with a bigger screen than the iPhones.

I don't care too much about iOS updates, just as long as it handles web pages well and can read books and playback video. Maybe play some bad piggies.

It can do the books and the video I would say, not sure too much about the web browsing...it's not really the processor that is slow, it is now, but it is mainly the limiting RAM in it.

[Jessica Lares]

You won't be able to use iMovie on it due to it now requiring iOS 6. You might be able to find some other apps to edit with.

The biggest problem though is that you'll soon find that iOS 5 is not very usable due to the very little RAM and most have left iOS 4 on it for that reason.

Reading e-books should be fine, but again, it all depends on actually finding the apps that still work with iOS 4.

[tthip]

We still have a 1 and use it all the time. (along with our others)
No streaming to Apple TV - um, that is about the only real limitation we face.
Works great - runs fast (not as fast as 3rd gen of course but not noticeable)
I never upgraded the ios so I do miss the tabs in Safari.
We surf, play games, watch videos, youtube, etc....
It works great
If I saw a cheap one I would buy it for sure - it is still a great machine.

[klover]

Originally Posted by Saberon

Don't even consider it. Awful screen, HORRIBLY slow.

mini?

[prvt.donut]

Originally Posted by ChrisCC

Totally not worth it. Make the investment in a later generation iPad and youl will not regret it

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

[stuaz]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

Even if it has the same processor as the four surely it has to work harder due to the bigger screen?

I find mine is bad when it comes to loading webpages - it can be quite slow... and crashes, especially with multiple tabs.

To me the moment to upgrade it was made when Apple stopped supporting it.

Now a proud owner of a four

[klover]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

Asks for advice and get pissed at responses.

[lighthouse_man]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

You won't be able to use iMovie on it due to it now requiring iOS 6.

iMovie never ran on the iPad 1. The reasoning was because of the lack of a camera on it.

[noisycats]

For your intended use, especially as a PDF reader, you'll be fine if the price is right ... just don't overpay.

Ok, no movie editing. And don't pay ~$150USD.

[PrayForDeath]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

Don't compare it to the iPhone 4, because the iPhone has double the RAM (512mb), so it's less prone to crashing (especially while browsing busy pages.) hell the iPad 1 can crash while scrolling through your Facebook feed.

Pay $50 more and get yourself an iPad 2. It's far better at everything.

[braddick]

A member here (not me, and I don't know him) just listed a MINT iPad1 32GB with cases over in the Market Place for $200. (plus postage). That's a screaming deal.

[leonw]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

You won't be able to use iMovie on it due to it now requiring iOS 6. You might be able to find some other apps to edit with.

The biggest problem though is that you'll soon find that iOS 5 is not very usable due to the very little RAM and most have left iOS 4 on it for that reason.

Reading e-books should be fine, but again, it all depends on actually finding the apps that still work with iOS 4.

Forget iMovie. The ipad1 doesn't have a camera so you can't even download the app. I used Avid and it works but very sloooooooow and crashing all the time. No fun. I bought mine secondhand for almost 2 years ago and I'm still pleased with it. It was worth the money but I wouldn't buy one now anymore. Using iOS5, works but slow and quite some apps crash every now and than. It's still ok for reading, music, web, email, pictures but mostly consuming, no producing

[prvt.donut]

Originally Posted by klover

Asks for advice and get pissed at responses.

Not pissed, just trying to get objective answers for my needs as based in my initial post. The "investment argument is a pet peeve of mine which is why I singled it out.

The iMovie not working at all could be a pain, as it would be cool on the ipad (I think, although I never used it much on the iPhone)

I hear your concerns at the lack of RAM and web browser performance.

My other concern about it that no one mentioned is the battery performance of a 2 year old ipad. I work on iPhones a lot, so am sure I could replace the battery if needed.

I have never had the motivation to buy an ipad, they seem nice, but so far, I have never been able to justify the cost to benefit. But now, ipad 1 is cheap enough to test the waters so to speak.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and opinions. They are all well noted and have not fallen on deaf ears. I just wanted honest, first hand owners experience with iPad 1 to see if it will do what I want and not be a sluggish beast.

As I said previously, PDF books, light web browsing and a few TV shows/movies is all I really need. I read my Microsoft pdf study books on my iPhone, read 5 MS books so far, and it works well, but the screen size is so small, a big screen would make life a lot more fun.

[Ladybug]

I still have my old iPad 1 that gets used sometimes. The browser crashes once in awhile, if I've been surfing for awhile or have too many tabs open. However it's been upgraded to iOS 5 and that is when the crashes started. Tabs will reload every time I switch tabs. It only has 256mb of ram so it's a memory thing. If I close down all apps I'm not using, turn off gestures, and iCloud it's really not that bad. For general use of browsing, YouTube,watching Netflix, playing casual games, reading ebooks its useable. Of course it has no camera so no FaceTime. It is pretty heavy but makes for a good enough backup device or perhaps to give it to a small child for games. Smallish PDF's might be ok. I don't know how it handles those really. Battery life is still going strong on mine, but then it's rarely used now.

[bbeagle]

I still use my original iPad 1 every day.

I use it for streaming Pandora, reading email, surfing the web, watching YouTube videos, netflix, hulu plus, reading books, and games.

If you can find it for like $100-150 it's a good deal. Would I pay closer to $250 for it? No. An iPad mini or an iPad 3 would be a better deal at that point.

The memory is an issue, but you can cope. For many applications, you need to make sure that all other applications are removed from memory or they will not start. It's a minor inconvenience for me to keep this iPad instead of buying a new one. I can use like Pandora while surfing the web, but if I then try to play a game, the game will crash on start. I must remove Pandora and Safari from memory, and then restart the game. No problem, takes a few seconds, but worth it instead of spending more money.

It doesn't have front or back cameras, but I've got my iPhone for that. You can't upgrade to the latest iOS 6 either.

I'll keep my iPad 1 for another year, and probably upgrade to an iPad 5.

I use mine at least 8 hours a day. I use it at work to stream the radio or Pandora, and I use it at home at night to surf the web, read and play games. The battery lasts about 6 hours now.

[Hallivand]

I owned the original for a most of last year (before a long hiatus and got the 4th gen on launch day) and believe me, especially in a world of iOS 6 an iPad 2 is the minimum you'd want. As other forum members have pointed out, web crashing is a common occurance and when you look at the crash logs, nearly all the time it is attributed to low memory. My girlfriend has an iPad 2 and the difference between my original experience and even that is phenomenal.

My advice is just go iPad 2 or higher. I promise you certainly won't regret spending the little extra.

[WeegieMac]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

The iPhone 4 has twice the RAM though. 256mb vs 512mb.

[PBG4 Dude]

My son still uses my iPad 1 daily. He watches Netflix and plays games (Bad Piggies, Pocket God, some others I can't remember). No issues, battery still lasts and lasts. As mentioned, it is stuck on iOS 5.1.1 forever, but probably couldn't handle iOS6 RAM-wise anyway.

[raremage]

Originally Posted by prvt.donut

Investment?

It always seems ridiculous when people refer to buying stuff as "an investment"

I think the only way to answer this is to check it out myself and see if it the browser is as horrific as everyone says.

It has the same A4 chip as my old iPhone 4, and I was actually very happy with the performance of that.

It's not, it works fine. For the use cases you laid out here, and iPad 1 will serve you fine, so long as the battery still holds a charge. That's the only concern I might have, as long as its in good shape.

----------

Originally Posted by Saberon

Don't even consider it. Awful screen, HORRIBLY slow.

Ridiculous assertions. The screen is fine, just not as good as a retina screen. The performance is acceptable, just not on par with the more recent versions.

[Judas1]

The ipad 2 was a big upgrade over the ipad 1. And now we're already at the ipad 4. So I don't think its a good idea at any price. And you should be able to find a good deal on an ipad 2, so I'd go with that instead.