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iPad Air2 or Pro9.7

K

kaydot

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 15, 2011
194
13
Hello,

I am soon going to be on the market for a new iPad, and am wondering what the community thinks would be the best for me. I am currently using the 32gb iPad 3 ("new iPad") from March 2012. The iPad still runs, although its web surfing is a little slower than I would like, but entirely usable. The reason I'm in the market for an upgrade is that the battery does not last as long as it used to (down to about half of its capacity), and I am also out of storage space to rent movies for plane trips having to constantly manage apps to download new ones.

I primarily use my iPad for:
- Surfing, News, Flipboard
- Games (primarily Hearthstone, and Lara Craft Go/Hitman Go)
- Netflix, HBO, ESPN, movies on planes
- Skype
- Apps: Yahoo Fantasy, Weather, Yelp and TripAdvisor

I have no interest in taking photos with the Pro, and I don't usually use the speakers on my mobile devices making two of the Pro advantages non-issues.

Would you recommend the iPad Air2 or the new Pro9.7?

The air2 with 64gb is $499, and the Pro9.7 with 128gb is $749.

I'm fairly certain that I could get by with the 64gb for the next 3-4 years. I guess it comes down to if the $250 + tax is worth the speed increase? Any other opinions?
 
If you can get by with 32gb currently (and for 4 years) why do you need more than 32gb? Are you maxed out on storage?

Then you're only talking a $100 difference.

I agree with the above if you plan to keep it 3-4 years buying an already 1.5 year old device makes little sense. If anything the new Pro will be supported longer. Dont buy into the RAM mongers around here.
 
If you are planning to use for the next 3-4 years I would opt for the iPad Pro.

The $250 premium will be close to 25c per day and you will get:
- faster web browsing
- better FaceTime camera for skyping
- better screen (coor, brightness, lessreflective) for all your apps, internet, reading and games

But I would also be cool with upgrading from an iPad 3 to the Air 2. You will feel a lot of difference, performance and weight wise they are almost in different categories.
 
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stulaw11 said:
If you can get by with 32gb currently (and for 4 years) why do you need more than 32gb? Are you maxed out on storage?

Then you're only talking a $100 difference.

I agree with the above if you plan to keep it 3-4 years buying an already 1.5 year old device makes little sense. If anything the new Pro will be supported longer. Dont buy into the RAM mongers around here.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's an interesting opinion regarding the air2 being old already. I am out of storage space. I have had to delete apps recently to make room for movies.
 
iPAD pro 32GB is $800 in Canada and Ipad air2 64GB is around $500 now.

It is almost double the price.I think we have an easier call here.
 
If you're going for the iPad Air 2 64gb, I would go refurbished from Apple for $419.
 
Jeff R said:
If you're going for the iPad Air 2 64gb, I would go refurbished from Apple for $419.
Click to expand...

Theyve had the same 1 gold 64gb for nearly 2 weeks. There simply are none available if you want anything but a 16gb WIFI
 
I'm in a similar situation, except I'm coming from a hand-me-down iPad 2, which barely runs iBooks these days. I'm wary about spending the extra money for features I don't really need, but I'm also wary about spending a chunk of change on something that's already two years old.

I also have a MacBook Air from work (which I would like to limit to using for work), and a mid-2010 MacBook Pro. I'm trying to decide whether instead of buying a new iPad and a new MacBook, I can swing an iPad Pro 9.7 and upgrade the guts in my MacBook Pro for when I really need a true laptop.
 
JohnnyGo said:
If you are planning to use for the next 3-4 years I would opt for the iPad Pro.

The $250 premium will be close to 25c per day and you will get:
- faster web browsing
- better FaceTime camera for skyping
- better screen (coor, brightness, lessreflective) for all your apps, internet, reading and games

But I would also be cool with upgrading from an iPad 3 to the Air 2. You will feel a lot of difference, performance and weight wise they are almost in different categories.
Click to expand...
+1. Also, the difference between CPU/GPU of iPad Pro 9.7 and iPad Air 2 is similar to the difference between iPad 4 and iPad 3.

As much as people like to bemoan Apple's stinginess when it comes to RAM, the real problem with the iPad 3 is the too weak CPU/GPU which can barely support the retina display. RAM shortage tends to manifest itself as app crashes, Safari refreshes, etc. If your device is just feeling slow, that's most likely CPU/GPU related.
 
I went from an iPad 3 to an Air 2 and let me tell you it's an entirely different animal. You'll be happy no matter what. the difference between an Air 2 and a Pro will be minimal (if you don't care about the pencil).

Also, you'll hear a lot of RAM talk around here which is mostly nonsense. However it's worth noting the Air 2 is the first iPad to get 2GB RAM, and a year later it's being offered as the entry level device. I would expect the Air 2 to have a very long life.
 
Considering that the "current" iPad mini 4 is still getting beat by its older sibling in every metric of performance other than size means the air 2 is the next iPad 2 when it comes to longevity. It's also still faster than the latest iPhone 6s too. If storage is a big deal (and price important too!), you can't beat a 64gb air2 refurb at $419
 
jcc1215 said:
I'm in a similar situation, except I'm coming from a hand-me-down iPad 2, which barely runs iBooks these days. I'm wary about spending the extra money for features I don't really need, but I'm also wary about spending a chunk of change on something that's already two years old.

I also have a MacBook Air from work (which I would like to limit to using for work), and a mid-2010 MacBook Pro. I'm trying to decide whether instead of buying a new iPad and a new MacBook, I can swing an iPad Pro 9.7 and upgrade the guts in my MacBook Pro for when I really need a true laptop.
Click to expand...
In your case, maybe you should save and buy the $419 Air 2 refurb, saving to upgrade your 2010 MBP in the next refresh (or buyinythe current at discount this year).

$ and sense you can't beat Apple refurbs. And the $100 price drop for the iPad Air just made all the refurbs that much cheaper
 
If you are upgrading an old slow machine, upgrading to an already leapfrogged model will mean you will again be upgrading an old slow machine sooner than later. Go for the latest and greatest. Your experience will be that much better in the here and now, and your resale value will be that much higher when it comes time to upgrade again.
 
In 4 years you will recoup only $50 of the $250 price difference between the two models. The iPP 9.7 will not have much more longevity than the Air 2. Besides as I mentioned above, whatever version of iOS obsoletes the Air 2 will be the same iOS version that obsoletes the iPhone 6S & Mini 4 which are Apple's latest respective models...
 
magbarn said:
In 4 years you will recoup only $50 of the $250 price difference between the two models. The iPP 9.7 will not have much more longevity than the Air 2. Besides as I mentioned above, whatever version of iOS obsoletes the Air 2 will be the same iOS version that obsoletes the iPhone 6S & Mini 4 which are Apple's latest respective models...
Click to expand...

Well said, my thoughts exactly.

But... But... Resale value! Non sense when its absolete its absolete and wont be worth much more then the box apple ships it in.
 
As much as I love my new Pro, your uses seem like they'd be sufficiently met by the Air 2. The Pro is a bit faster (and feels a bit faster), but once your apps load (after maybe 1 extra second) you're good to go. There aren't any apps out there that over tax or even really push the Air 2 to it's limits so the A8X is still a beast.

Unless you need/sorely want Apple Pencil support, I'd just get the Air 2.
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rui no onna said:
If your device is just feeling slow, that's most likely CPU/GPU related.
Click to expand...

I agree. RAM won't make your device slow per se, it just means that apps will have to reload more often (which may slow down the experience, but not the device the device itself). Excessive graphical lag, slow app launches, and laggy browsing stem from GPU/CPU limits more so than any cache losses from RAM.

My iPad 3 could keep a few apps and tabs open, it just open them, scrolled through them, closed them, and rendered them incredibly slow. It is more infuriating than one would think when you scroll with our finger but the screen does move for about a second and then jerks upward to try and keep up with your movement.
 
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Traverse said:
As much as I love my new Pro, your uses seem like they'd be sufficiently met by the Air 2. The Pro is a bit faster (and feels a bit faster), but once your apps load (after maybe 1 extra second) you're good to go. There aren't any apps out there that over tax or even really push the Air 2 to it's limits so the A8X is still a beast.

Unless you need/sorely want Apple Pencil support, I'd just get the Air 2.
Click to expand...
For current needs, sure. The next 4 years? Who knows? Maybe if you never update iOS.

I have an iPad 3, 4 and Air. I stopped using the iPad 3 for web browsing when iOS 7 was released because it was just too slow (pretty much only used it for Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Plex after the update). Same with iOS 8. Thankfully, iOS 9 made it more tolerable for web browsing. In comparison, as RAM starved as the original Air may be (it reloads tabs more frequently than the 4), it's still significantly faster than both iPad 3 and 4 particularly when rendering JavaScript and graphic heavy webpages. I thought RAM on the Air would be a bigger issue but I find the slower CPU/GPU on the iPad 4 to be a bigger annoyance. A8X is fast now but it's already been 1.5 years since its release. I'm not sure how reasonable it is to expect it to still perform tolerably after 4 more years.

Sure, the cost savings between Air 2 and Pro 9.7 are significant (particularly if considering refurbs). However, I'd only get the Air 2 if I'm prepared to upgrade again after 2 years or so. At the most, 3 years.
 
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