iPad iPad 3 owners: are you waiting?

I'm waiting. There's nothing you can do with the Air that you can't do with the 3. The weight is really impressive, having played with it in the store, but at the end of the day mine never leaves the house and I mainly use it to read at the kitchen table. The Air doesn't "change everything." It improves a few use cases. If I used mine all day then I would probably upgrade. If the 3 serves your needs, it's okay to know that there's a better product out there and let it lie. 3 is still amazing.

3 user here. I am either going to wait or downsize to the rMini. My 3 runs everything I want just fine . . .

I had the 3 and went with the Air. I had the minimum memory and went with a larger capacity iPad. I have the 3 to my college student daughter. We both win.

I had an iPad 3 and sold it for a Retina mini - the mini is going back mainly because it's too small, but also because color is not very good on it at all.

I wonder if I should have sold my iPad 3 though, because I don't think I want an Air. The skinny bezels on the side of the mini made it awkward to hold, and the Air has them as well.

Being 64-bit, the new iPads have less effective memory than the older models as well. The iPad 3/4 have 1GB and the Retina mini/Air effectively have 20-30% less.

Even though it's heavy, I might see if I can get an iPad 4 instead.

Beta Particle said:

The skinny bezels on the side of the mini made it awkward to hold, and the Air has them as well.

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The Air's bezels are skinnier than iPads 1-4, but wider than the one on the mini. IMO, whether you felt the mini was awkward to hold has no relation to how you would feel about holding an Air.

I've got a 3 that works just fine for me and so I see no reason to upgrade yet. I may be more tempted next year if the 2014 update includes touch ID and some camera improvements.

Italianblend said:

I was originally going to sell my ipad 3 and get an air, but I think I've decided to wait until the next model. I still use this ipad everyday on ios 6 and its very fine for me. I also couldn't find anyone to buy it off of me.

Do you feel the same?

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The topic should be something like that: Ipad 3 owners: What are you waiting??

I have an iPad 3 on iOS 7 and I don't see any reason to upgrade. It still runs like it did when I first bought it. I'm hoping to get at least 2 more years out of it.

I got a 4 and I thought about upgrading to an air but the 4 does everything I need well and besides the resale value is pretty low. Have a retina mini as we'll.

Yes, I'm keeping my 3, it does everything the air can do, even if it is a bit slower, so what .... and the screen is still excellent.

Considering the mini but maybe wait for screen issues to be resolved, not sure yet.

It's a massive difference going from a 3 to the Air. Weight wise, being the most significant. Then speed. It's worth it upgrading.

I sold my iPad 3 to ultimately upgrade to the Air. My goal was to upgrade to a Retina Mini, but the washed out screen and great BF deals on the Air made it a no-brainer.

My biggest complaint with the 3 was the weight. I think the Air will mitigate that issue quite well

Yea, I waited until the ipad air was released then sold my ipad 3

Hopefully will keep the air for 2 years.

I have an iPad 3 and bought an rMini, donating the 3 to my wife and son and using the rMini as my sole device. The rMini goes with me everywhere, and the 3 stays at home pretty much.

Not sure I would have jumped on the Air; it still didn't solve my desire for a take-with-me-everywhere device, although the weight and bezel reduction were a big plus in that column.

went from 3 to rMini. Great upgrade for my needs. 3 went to daughter

Also had a 3 and went with riPad Mini. Strange change at first. Screen is not as rich in color and sound volume is definitely lower. However, the portability and weight offset those short comings a tad and make it a welcome change.

BTW..had the air before I went with mini and the air is really nice. Worth the upgrade from 3.

I had an iPad 3 and although it worked fine for me, I could not pass up the BF deals for the air. I ended up selling my 16GB iPad 3 for $300 so it wasn't so much more for a faster and lighter ipad.

I sold my ipad 3 a week before the announcement and ordered a retina mini day one.

As far as performance goes, I don't notice much of a difference, if any. I'm a very light user though - netflix, Hulu, YouTube, gmail, and web browsing are the only things I use my ipad for.

The weight savings are more than worth it to me though - this thing weighs basically half of what the ipad 3 did. After spending a year with the iPad 3, the weight was becoming more and more annoying, and I never really got used to it like I hoped I would. It was very hard to use it for extended periods of time in any way other than two handed with my arms braced on something.

I DID purchase a Toast wood veneer cover for my new mini both for scratch protection and grip - it's so thin and slick it can be hard to hold without some sort of grippy skin, but that's the case with most devices nowadays. I had a best skins ever skin on the iPad 3 for the same reason.

I'm definitely waiting.

I only ever use my iPad at home, and I just lay it down on a table or other surface (or on a stand I have for it) when I want to read, watch, or play something. I also have just a thin silicone cover on the back, so the weight doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I'm only an occasional gamer, and mostly use it for watching videos, YouTube, checking e-mail, viewing the occasional PDF for work, etc., and the iPad 3 holds up pretty well for these purposes.

What would really have sold me on the Air is more RAM. I would have bought one the first day it came out if it had 2 GB. An engineer friend of mine once told me that you never want to buy a computer outfitted with just enough RAM to get by, unless you're willing to upgrade in a year. I know computers and iPads use memory very differently, but 1 GB is 1 GB. The next iPad upgrade I make will be when I can switch between several different apps (not even memory intensive ones) and the state of those apps will remain exactly the same, no matter how long I let it sit, just like my desktop PC. People are irritated by different things, and having to wait for tabs in my browser to reload irritates me. Pages would reload faster on the Air, sure, but that's not the ideal solution for me.

What else could they add to the Air to make me want one? I would have liked 801.11 ac Wifi. Apple could have been an industry pioneer here if they had included it, but they'll probably end up ceding that honor to Android in the coming months. I also want 32 GB to be the minimum configuration available so I can get a 128 GB or 256 GB iPad for less. It would also be nice to have USB 3.0 speeds from the lightning port, but I realize that's not going to happen anytime soon.

For people like doctors and nurses (I imagine), a lighter, thinner iPad was just what was needed. I, however, wanted bigger advances in areas that Apple apparently didn't prioritize.

However, thanks to their craftsmanship, my iPad 3 will hold out until these features are available in a future model.

Here's my preferred wants:

- 32GB capacity minimum config
- 2GB or more RAM
- WiFi AC
- Touch ID

Sold my iPad 3 and bought an Retina mini, otherwise I'd get a new iPad sooner or later and the 3 would just sit there gathering dust. Sell it before it's too late!

Beta Particle said:

I had an iPad 3 and sold it for a Retina mini - the mini is going back mainly because it's too small, but also because color is not very good on it at all.

I wonder if I should have sold my iPad 3 though, because I don't think I want an Air. The skinny bezels on the side of the mini made it awkward to hold, and the Air has them as well.

Being 64-bit, the new iPads have less effective memory than the older models as well. The iPad 3/4 have 1GB and the Retina mini/Air effectively have 20-30% less.

Even though it's heavy, I might see if I can get an iPad 4 instead.

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You sir, have no idea how 64-bit addressing works, stop spreading misconceptions. The amount of memory, available and effective, is the same as it was under 32-bit. Also more RAM isn't the solution to everything. More RAM will not solve memory leaks. More RAM will use up your battery faster.

Keeping my 3 until the Air has 2GB memory, not paying retail for the "great refresh machine".

I traded in my iPad 3 for the new Air. My iPad 3 was fine with no problems. I really do like the lighter weight of the iPad Air but am really disappointed with the buggy crashes. As I can't go back now, if the bugginess isn't fixed with software upgrades, I'll be trading up again when the next model comes out with more RAM.

After owning a gang of iDevices for 7 years, I finally shattered one in an attempt to make a quick move while outside. I have decided that while the case suffered some cosmetic damage, the shattered screen will be replaced and it will be retired to the kitchen as planned. The Air is amazing and I think if my situation were a bit different I would be looking for a way to get one fast but I'm not. I do have a mini coming to me but it is a gift.