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iPad How long will the M1 pro and new mini last?
- Thread starter alyssap22
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Apple keeps supporting the iPad line for a long time (2014 iPad Air 2 is still supported) so there’s no problem on that side.
At the moment the hardware is way ahead of the software so the M1 will be able to handle whatever you throw at it for many years to come. I’d say 3-5 years should be no problem at all.
same story for the mini. The chip is less powerful than the M1 but it’s use cases are different. It’s more a consumption device. It’ll last 3-5 years as well.
At the moment the hardware is way ahead of the software so the M1 will be able to handle whatever you throw at it for many years to come. I’d say 3-5 years should be no problem at all.
same story for the mini. The chip is less powerful than the M1 but it’s use cases are different. It’s more a consumption device. It’ll last 3-5 years as well.
1rottenapple
macrumors 603
My 2018 iPad is 4 years old and there are no signs of degradation performance wise. Easy 8 years. I bet my 2018 will make it to 2030. For sure M1 will beat that and more.
one more
macrumors 603
My iPad Air 2 runs iPadOS 15 reasonably well and still has the original battery at about 80% of its capacity left. They are really built to last.
Username-already-in-use
macrumors 6502a
Apple are still supporting a number of devices with 2GB RAM from up to 7 years ago. The Mini 6 (4GB RAM) and M1 Pro (8 or 16GB RAM) have much more memory and far more powerful CPUs.
Your Pro and Mini should be fine for at least 5 years. Maybe they will seem slow by the time you get to 7-8 years.
Your Pro and Mini should be fine for at least 5 years. Maybe they will seem slow by the time you get to 7-8 years.
ericwn
macrumors G5
You should expect more than 5 years of use based on what users report here all the time.
spiderman0616
Suspended
I agree with all of the above. I JUST retired my iPad mini 3 when I got the mini 6. It was slow and clunky and not receiving iOS updates anymore, but even that device could still handle some movie watching and e-reading. When I took it to Apple to recycle, they even gave me $75 for it because it was in relatively good shape and still powered on.
rui no onna
Contributor
The M1 iPad Pro 11 should still work well for 3-5 years and will probably keep receiving firmware updates for 7 years minimum. The CPU is overpowered and it has plenty of RAM so it has lots of headroom even with future iOS and app bloating.
The iPad mini 6, I don't know your definition of well. As it is, I get a lot of reloads on the mini 6 already. However, it's fairly tolerable since I don't use it for productivity. If you're mostly using the mini 6 for single focus tasks then it should be fine. As far as firmware updates, I expect it will be supported for a long time. Probably 5 years minimum. Likely longer.
MarkC426
macrumors 601
My 1st gen iPadPro (2015) is STILL fantastic, after 6 years.
Running iPadOS 15 perfectly.
Like I have said in other threads, if you buy the Pro iPad you will get a much longer life, due to the much higher spec.
Running iPadOS 15 perfectly.
Like I have said in other threads, if you buy the Pro iPad you will get a much longer life, due to the much higher spec.
rui no onna
Contributor
Both Air and Air 2 feel very laggy to me. Personally wouldn't want to use either for web browsing nowadays. OK for simple HTML but not for dynamic websites.
macintoshmac
Suspended
Try to get a hold on the anxiety. Your investment is safe for a good many years, including the years that the software, including the app ecosystem, will be supported when no new upgrades are being offered for the devices.
Your devices will not lose their steam that easily. You will be able to get battery replaced few years down the line, and the battery life including system performance will not degrade.
Enjoy your super-fast hardware for whatever you are doing with it!
BanjoDudeAhoy
macrumors 6502a
I think you’re more likely to want a new device before they start degrading in performance, what with Apple bringing shiny new toys to the market regularly xD
Danfango
macrumors 65816
That's a fair point.
For me, I usually buy the latest device and get AppleCare. That runs for 2 years, then I sell it. Someone else can own it for the risky tail end of the lifespan. That has the lowest risk associated with it, the best performance period and a monthly figure known fairly well up front.
For me, I usually buy the latest device and get AppleCare. That runs for 2 years, then I sell it. Someone else can own it for the risky tail end of the lifespan. That has the lowest risk associated with it, the best performance period and a monthly figure known fairly well up front.
rui no onna
Contributor
The improvements have slowed down quite a bit though. Before, 2 years used to get you a decent upgrade. Nowadays, not so much unless you're on entry level.
For example, if one had bought something like the 2018 iPad Pro 1TB LTE ($1899) upon release, the equivalent 2020 iPad Pro model is kind of a worthless upgrade for $1649. If one is very risk averse, it's better to just renew AC+ monthly for $5.99 rather than upgrading.
AppleFanatic10
macrumors 68030
In my experience with iPads in the past, they last pretty long. I remember my mother had the original iPad for YEARS until it wasn’t able to be supported on any apps. I’ve also had a few myself and the ones that I had would still be supported to this day. Battery life really never got bad for me with iPads. I would say at the 4 year mark is when I started to see a decline in battery life.
macintoshmac
Suspended
It does not on the iPhone, I do not know if it does that on the iPad! There is no tangible reason it should take an entire device replacement to replace the battery!
rui no onna
Contributor
Yes, it does.
Repairability on iPads suck. Everything's glued. It's likely cheaper to just have iPads refurbished in China than to pay for the time for a US-based technician (with SS and benefits) to do it. Probably greater risk that something goes wrong, too.
If am lucky my 2021 M1 pro's will last 6 to 8 years 😀 if am really lucky then 8 to 10 years 👍
Have an ipad mini 4 in the family which was released in 2015 which still works great and has the latest ISO software 🙂
The Kids PC computer has a i7-4770k cpu which was released in 2013 and is still pretty fast and runs everything really well apart from the newer high demanding AAA games
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LogicalApex
macrumors 68000
Might as well ask people to start telling us what specs the iPad Pro M3 will have or when we'll have flying cars...
Based on historical patterns they should last at least 5 years, but who knows what Apple does in the future. Maybe they artificially cut them short. Maybe they make them last a decade with updates. Anything is possible...
Even if they are perfectly usable on iPadOS 10 years in the future... Perhaps Apple added some feature users really feel elevates the experience... Maybe Apple degrades future releases such that the 2021 M1 IPP becomes the GOAT. Who knows!
All unknowns. Buy what you need when you need it and you'll be better off.
Based on historical patterns they should last at least 5 years, but who knows what Apple does in the future. Maybe they artificially cut them short. Maybe they make them last a decade with updates. Anything is possible...
Even if they are perfectly usable on iPadOS 10 years in the future... Perhaps Apple added some feature users really feel elevates the experience... Maybe Apple degrades future releases such that the 2021 M1 IPP becomes the GOAT. Who knows!
All unknowns. Buy what you need when you need it and you'll be better off.
Oh wow I didn’t know that. So if I wanted to pay for a battery replacement would it need to be under that 80% mark for them to give me a new unit?
rui no onna
Contributor
Yep. They relaxed the limits for iPhones due to batterygate (as long as you pay the $39-49 fee). Alas, it seems Apple's pretty strict about that 80% for iPad.
Caveat, iPad Settings - Battery doesn't show battery health like on iPhones. The third party apps (Coconut for Mac & iMazing for Mac/Windows) usually report lower % than Apple's in-house battery diagnostics. There's just no transparency on iPads which is quite annoying.
With that said, because iPads have relatively large batteries, they generally don't degrade as quickly as the iPhone's. I pretty much need to charge my iPhone SE 2020 twice a day even when it's on standby all the time. Meanwhile, my iPad Air 3 (2019) can still do 10 hours onscreen time easy with my usual settings.
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