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All iPads Do iPads live for ever?

My 2014 iPad Air 2 is still kicking though the battery is worn out (trading it in next week for iPad Pro 11). If the battery wasn't on the way out I'd probably just keep it another year its still pretty good for video and browsing.
 
I have orig iPad, IPad Air and iPad pro
The orig runs but most apps do not work anymore.
iPad Air works fine but is painfully slow on internet apps.
The pro is amazing and made me realize how slow the air is.
None have ever been repaired.
 
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OG iPad 2 still serves my family on occasion. I’d say it runs better than iPad 3 we also have. Doesn’t seem they plan to retire any time soon.
 
JPSaltzman said:
My iPad Air (generation 1, refurbished) is still going. I don't find much use for it anymore; I paid for the AT&T Cellular connection, only because it gives me an additional 2GB Data Usage with my iPhone account (4GB total). If I cancel that Cellular connection, AT&T switches me to a whole other plan that is even more expensive than having the 2 devices; plus my data usage drops to 2.

It's extremely slow to upload movies to the iPad.... I mean, sloooooooowwwwwwwwwww.

Oh, First World Problems..... (sigh)
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You mean you still pay for that 4GB only plan rn? 😮
 
Ceed said:
The two iPad Airs I owned in the past both randomly died on me, one where the screen stopped accepting input, and one that wouldn't even turn on at all. Both of these were sudden and unexpected; I woke up one day and it was just like that. The Air 3 I have now has lines randomly showing up in the screen, but still functions well besides.

I've also had a 2013 MBP just one day expand the battery into a "spicy pillow" that destroyed the machine, and a 2017 MBP that started frying eveything I plugged into the left side USB ports. Again, unprompted, just suddenly happened. Well cared-for machines.
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I would suggest you get a ups to plug your devices into to charge. I recently moved into an older house and a lot of the wiring in here has issues, I had one speaker fail plugging it directly into the wall here which I had for years and since then everything has been plugged into a ups
 
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Until such time its battery swell and destroys everything on its path.

Our iPad 4 did just that two years ago. Battery became swollen, and since the device was being kept in a thick child-proof case, it broke the screen along the way.
 
adib said:
Until such time its battery swell and destroys everything on its path.

Our iPad 4 did just that two years ago. Battery became swollen, and since the device was being kept in a thick child-proof case, it broke the screen along the way.
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Maybe the thick case caused it to heat up more than normal when charging?

I traded in our 2x iPad 4 last year and both were in perfect condition. Standby battery life on iOS 10 was actually better than any of our newer iPads on later firmware.
 
I think it depends on your usage. The older they get, the less they do. My mom has the IPad 5th gen and she uses it as her main computer, it’s starting to slow down and show it’s age with that dual core A9 in it. Still totally usable but there’s a clear difference between that and my kids Air 3’s.
 
Hunter5117 said:
I have a 4th generation "iPad Retina" that I bought back in 2014. It was my main iPad for a number of years, for work and personal use. It eventually got retired pretty late in its life so I kept it instead of trying to sell it on since it was worth very little.

I keep it at my weekend place and mostly use it at night to watch YT or videos while I fall asleep. Otherwise it stays on charge for 1, 2 even 3 weeks at a time.

The thing never quits. Last night I feel asleep and YT kept playing all night. I woke up to some random video and the battery was still over 70%.

I just wanted to post this in my amazement of how well made and robust these little computers are.
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Alas, they don't. I have an iPad 2 that I purchased in 2011. Still functions, but won't take any updates and virtually every website will crash the browser. I intended to use it as a kitchen cookbook/weather station, but it just ain't cutting' it. Maybe time to upgrade?
 
Short answer is YES, iPads do live “forever”.

I have an original iPad and, although it’s not actually used anymore, it charges, keeps the charge like a champ and works flawlessly.

A nice experience it’s not, but for tasks like reading books or even watching YouTube it works just fine.
 
Hunter5117 said:
I have a 4th generation "iPad Retina" that I bought back in 2014. It was my main iPad for a number of years, for work and personal use. It eventually got retired pretty late in its life so I kept it instead of trying to sell it on since it was worth very little.

I keep it at my weekend place and mostly use it at night to watch YT or videos while I fall asleep. Otherwise it stays on charge for 1, 2 even 3 weeks at a time.

The thing never quits. Last night I feel asleep and YT kept playing all night. I woke up to some random video and the battery was still over 70%.

I just wanted to post this in my amazement of how well made and robust these little computers are.
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iPad Air 2 was the only iPad I ever had. Unbelievable battery life. I believe they have always had amazing battery life.

However, they aren’t magical manifestations from outer space. Software still has A LOOOONG WAY to go.

For example, why don’t we have a floating calculator yet on iOS, when clearly that would be immensely helpful. It is also ironic that Cook, being a bean counter, doesn’t yet give a calculator on the iPad by default. There are serious software quirks.

But yes, battery life is phenomenal and brings joy.

Enjoy your device.
 
My granddaughter has my original 9.7 iPad Pro and it still works great. My grandson still uses my old 2009 MacBook Pro (a little slow but still going).
 
I still used an iPad2 for props and displays. It's slow but fine for playing videos on repeat so still has value.

IMG_2388.jpeg



This was for Halloween last year. The book from hocus pocus. There is a video playing of an eye moving and blinking.
 
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I've never actually had one die. Not even the original ipad 2 my first one completely died, it just got very sluggish. The Air 2 and OG 12.9 inch Pro are still kicking around my family and I expect to have my M1 Pro and Mini for years as well.
 
I had an old iPad 2 I sold about 5 years ago to a coworker who still uses it for kitchen recipes. I had a Mini 4 I sold to another coworker who is still using it.
 
Nothing lasts forever. In a modern computing device your two major consumables are batteries and storage since solid state storage degrades with "writes". I think that's one reason iOS lacks swap is to help minimize wear on the solid state storage, but that's just a guess on my part and no data to suggests it actually results on lower solid state wear.

You can counter the risk of solid state storage wear by having a larger drive. You can swap batteries as the timing get weak. But you'll eventually see iOS/iPadOS stop getting new features an apps dropping support for older OS versions prodding you to upgrade as well.

Will it last as long as you hope? That depends on your needs and usage.
 
About 5-6 years appears to be an average useable service life for an iPad, but it’s not unusual to find folks still using their iPad for something up to 10 years on even if they can no longer update the OS and apps.

Samsung Galaxys are not in the same league for the most part.
 
I’ve actually found that the cables to the chargers wear out long before anything else. The outer coating frays and splits, but luckily Apple still sells the original USB-to-lightning cables I need.
 
Bodhitree said:
I’ve actually found that the cables to the chargers wear out long before anything else. The outer coating frays and splits, but luckily Apple still sells the original USB-to-lightning cables I need.
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We're pretty hard on cables and the original Apple cables only last us about 1-2 months before fraying. The Anker MFi certified cables last us much longer (2+ years) plus they're cheaper than Apple cables.

Alas, don't have any working ones of the old 30-pin cables so can't charge the OG iPhone, 4, 4S and iPod touch 4th gen.
 
My grandfather is still using the iPad 3 I bought for him in 2012. Won’t load Netflix anymore, but for FreeCell, YouTube, and VLC, it still works fine.
It’s a 16GB one though - so I’m planning on upgrading him to a modern iPad early next year...
 
iPads have always been pretty durable and gifted with longevity for me. I know I usually gift old iPads to family to justify buying new ones so I don't keep mine for more than a few years. I know some iPads I gave away 3-4 years ago still being used heavily today. I've seen teachers with 10.5 pros being used daily as projectors....

I now use my iPads pretty heavily putting on tons of charge cycles on it - the batteries tend to handle this better than iPhones over the years (my own experience).

My wife is still heavily using her 2018 iPad Pro 11. I... of course... had to try an M1 iPad Pro - and hope to use it for 3-5 years (I always plan for this and ... the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak).
 
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