iPad Is refurbished iPad Air 1 worth it now?

[JerTheGeek]

Hello all.
I am curious if the iPad Air 1 refurbished is worth it. I need a new iPad cause my mini 1 is getting really slow. I mainly want my iPad to be faster, continue to get iOS updates for a few years, and have a larger retina display. I don't mind not having touch Id on my iPad. So I don't really think I will kind not having the few upgrades of the Air 2.
So, is it worth it to get the iPad Air 1 refurb now? Or should I wait a few months to get a refurb Air 2? If I get a new iPad now, I'll probably wait until end of 2016 to uograde again, meaning I just need the iPad Air to be able to run iOS 9 well, and hopefully with all the new features. Will the Air1 be a good choice that would last at least 2 years and be a solid upgrade from the mini 1?

 

[crjackson2134]

If the price is right, and it meets your needs, the Air 1 is a very nice device. However, if your going to buy tech. you should always get the best Tech. of the day. I have both models.

The Air 2 has a much faster processor (especially graphics) and twice the memory. I have the 2,3,4, Air, Air 2. If you can swing an Air 2, that would be the way to go.

 

[aneftp]

Just wait for sales on new iPad Air 2.

You can wait and get a brand new iPad Air 2 on sale for about the same price as a refubrished iPad air one.

right now Apple is selling refurbished ipad air 1 64gb wifi for $439 on it's store. I got a brand new iPad Air 2 64GB wifi from target for $599 (plus $140 gift card) which made it almost the same price as a refurbished 1 year old model.

 

[ron7624]

meh... it depends on what you are going to use it for. I have one. I love it and it is very fast. I've not upgraded to the Air 2 because I'm a mini fan and am waiting for the mini to catch up.
But, to your question, I think that the Air 1 could suit your needs for a few years to come, but if you hold off to get a refurbished Air 2, it will give you much longer service.
Again, it depends on you and what you do with it.
If you are watching your money closely, then the Air 1 will be a good buy.

 

[JerTheGeek]

meh... it depends on what you are going to use it for. I have one. I love it and it is very fast. I've not upgraded to the Air 2 because I'm a mini fan and am waiting for the mini to catch up.
But, to your question, I think that the Air 1 could suit your needs for a few years to come, but if you hold off to get a refurbished Air 2, it will give you much longer service.
Again, it depends on you and what you do with it.
If you are watching your money closely, then the Air 1 will be a good buy.

I definitely am leaning towards the Air 1. It will still be a huge upgrade from my mini 1, and I think it will last a good two years, since I really only use it for YouTube, web browsing, and some casual gaming. And since the mini got all of its features on it's second iOS upgrade, certainly the Air will get all iOS 9 features.

 

[ron7624]

I definitely am leaning towards the Air 1. It will still be a huge upgrade from my mini 1, and I think it will last a good two years, since I really only use it for YouTube, web browsing, and some casual gaming. And since the mini got all of its features on it's second iOS upgrade, certainly the Air will get all iOS 9 features.

IMO, you cant go wrong with the Air 1. And it's A really great value at this point. Go with your instincts. I plan to use mine for at least 2 more years. It is one sweet piece of tech.

 

[upnorth85]

I have used every single iPad including Air 1. My experience so far with Air 2, is that it has the weakest antenna reception. Often my Wi-Fi disconnects in the far each of my home. When I try to connect, the air can't even "see" the network. This is all while iPhone has no problem and iPad Air 1 not had a problem.

Hello all.
I am curious if the iPad Air 1 refurbished is worth it. I need a new iPad cause my mini 1 is getting really slow. I mainly want my iPad to be faster, continue to get iOS updates for a few years, and have a larger retina display. I don't mind not having touch Id on my iPad. So I don't really think I will kind not having the few upgrades of the Air 2.
So, is it worth it to get the iPad Air 1 refurb now? Or should I wait a few months to get a refurb Air 2? If I get a new iPad now, I'll probably wait until end of 2016 to uograde again, meaning I just need the iPad Air to be able to run iOS 9 well, and hopefully with all the new features. Will the Air1 be a good choice that would last at least 2 years and be a solid upgrade from the mini 1?

 

[matraco]

I have used every single iPad including Air 1. My experience so far with Air 2, is that it has the weakest antenna reception. Often my Wi-Fi disconnects in the far each of my home. When I try to connect, the air can't even "see" the network. This is all while iPhone has no problem and iPad Air 1 not had a problem.

Thats my experience with my mini 2 as well. Although it doesnt disconnects that often with weak signals.

Im not sure it is a hardware problem. I would wish apple allowed some sort of wifi analyzer in the app store.

 

[Defender2010]

Just wait for sales on new iPad Air 2.

You can wait and get a brand new iPad Air 2 on sale for about the same price as a refubrished iPad air one.

right now Apple is selling refurbished ipad air 1 64gb wifi for $439 on it's store. I got a brand new iPad Air 2 64GB wifi from target for $599 (plus $140 gift card) which made it almost the same price as a refurbished 1 year old model.

That's only a bargain if you want a $140 gift card. Plus you are paying $599 up front. The gift card does not make it a bargain if you are on a budget.

 

[Deliro]

From what you described as your use case the Air 1 is fine. I have the Air 1 and it is plenty fast. The only thing that I wish it had was a touch ID as I use 1password often and it works so well with touch ID.

Unless there is something significant (like the rumored pro) I don't see a reason to upgrade for at least a couple years.

 

[s2mikey]

IMO, you cant go wrong with the Air 1. And it's A really great value at this point. Go with your instincts. I plan to use mine for at least 2 more years. It is one sweet piece of tech.

Correct. The Air 1 still has a darned good processor and hardware. Plenty of horsepower to run whatever iOS updates come along for a while. Heck, the ipad 2 is still in heavy use out there and it's just fine.

Get the refurb Air and save money while still getting a great device.

 

[mrex]

Is refurbished iPad Air 1 worth it now?

i had air1, sold it and never looked back. now having air2 i dont have same problems that i had on air1. i know many people dont have any problem with their air1 and their devices are working just fine... but atleast you should check some posts from apples support site before making any decision, e.g.:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5532206?start=0&tstart=0

i didnt use air1 with ios8 because i sold it before ios8 came so my own experience is based on ios7 so have no own experience how it is working now with ios8, but what i have read, some issues are still there...

 

[aneftp]

That's only a bargain if you want a $140 gift card. Plus you are paying $599 up front. The gift card does not make it a bargain if you are on a budget.

If you are on a budget you have no business buying any ipad.

Target will match local competitor pricing including Walmart grocery prices. So unless you live with mommy and daddy who pay the bills. Eventually that $140 gift card can be spent on bare essentials like food and even toilet paper.

 

[Meister]

The original iPad has the ad- free youtube app

 

[aneftp]

The original iPad has the ad- free youtube app

The original YouTube also doesn't work. (At least it doesn't work with iPhone 3G YouTube app on iPhone os 3 version anymore.

 

[Meister]

The original YouTube also doesn't work. (At least it doesn't work with iPhone 3G YouTube app on iPhone os 3 version anymore.

Works fine on my original iPad.

 

[matraco]

The original YouTube also doesn't work. (At least it doesn't work with iPhone 3G YouTube app on iPhone os 3 version anymore.

It still works on my first gen ipod touch

 

[sanke1]

iPad Air 1 will never be worth it even if offered for free. After using 2 GB RAM Air 2, I have realized how miserably crippled 1 GB RAM devices are.

Beg-borrow-steal, but add few hundred dollars and get Air 2 with 64 GB storage at least.

 

[RebornProphet]

iPad Air 1 will never be worth it even if offered for free. After using 2 GB RAM Air 2, I have realized how miserably crippled 1 GB RAM devices are.

Beg-borrow-steal, but add few hundred dollars and get Air 2 with 64 GB storage at least.

People need to stop this, it's embarrassing.

It's ONE gig. The only thing you see that one big doing is allowing more tabs to be open in Safari and more apps staying open in the background longer. In terms of actual app performance, right now both iPad Air models are the same. Gaming in particular is identical and both models support Metal via iOS 8, outwith Oceanhorn which has been updated for A8 and A8X but that's down to the GPU, and not the RAM.

But when taking sheer specs (and yes, even though iOS manages RAM brilliantly) watching people glorying one mighty gig of RAM is hilariously embarrassing. My 2007 iMac is packing 4GB and its ancient.

RAM isn't THE thing that makes a machine tick. The way people like you go on and on you'd have people believing you could stick 4GB in an iPhone 3GS and it'd conquer the world.

God forbid Apple up the RAM again next year so we can read the same annoying comments from the same people, "Yo duuude, Air 2 is soooo crippled with its 2GB of RAM, don't be spending money on that old tech man. Even though last year I told everyone it's the 'longevity model'."

Please ...

 

[mrex]

Is refurbished iPad Air 1 worth it now?

People need to stop this, it's embarrassing.

It's ONE gig. The only thing you see that one big doing is allowing more tabs to be open in Safari and more apps staying open in the background longer. In terms of actual app performance, right now both iPad Air models are the same. Gaming in particular is identical and both models support Metal via iOS 8, outwith Oceanhorn which has been updated for A8 and A8X but that's down to the GPU, and not the RAM.

But when taking sheer specs (and yes, even though iOS manages RAM brilliantly) watching people glorying one mighty gig of RAM is hilariously embarrassing. My 2007 iMac is packing 4GB and its ancient.

RAM isn't THE thing that makes a machine tick. The way people like you go on and on you'd have people believing you could stick 4GB in an iPhone 3GS and it'd conquer the world.

God forbid Apple up the RAM again next year so we can read the same annoying comments from the same people, "Yo duuude, Air 2 is soooo crippled with its 2GB of RAM, don't be spending money on that old tech man. Even though last year I told everyone it's the 'longevity model'."

Please ...

firstly ipad is running ios, your mac is running osx. your mac is fine with 4gigs ram. that is a huge difference between ios and osx.

secondly how long will you wait until apple miracuously fixes safari, optimizes ios etc etc.? i keep hearing this all the time, "it is not yet optimized", well, when is it? i keep hearing this **** all the time. there is always exuses, but when it is optimized and fixed that end user can enjoy it?

i give a **** what is the problem with ios, safari etc., but my air2 is working much better than air1 did ever, so if the 2 gigs ram solved most of the problems im happy and happy that im not still waiting this miraculous fix and optimization.

only embarrassing is that people bought a year ago the latest device (speaking about air1) and were waiting months for fixes after fixes and it is still a year later suffering some issues because "it is not yet optimized". that is embarrasing.

 

[Meister]

iPad Air 1 will never be worth it even if offered for free. After using 2 GB RAM Air 2, I have realized how miserably crippled 1 GB RAM devices are.

The iPad one has 256mb RAM.

(I just realized that this is about the iPad Air. I thought the OP is thinking about the original iPad. )

 

[sanke1]

People need to stop this, it's embarrassing.

It's ONE gig. The only thing you see that one big doing is allowing more tabs to be open in Safari and more apps staying open in the background longer. In terms of actual app performance, right now both iPad Air models are the same. Gaming in particular is identical and both models support Metal via iOS 8, outwith Oceanhorn which has been updated for A8 and A8X but that's down to the GPU, and not the RAM.

But when taking sheer specs (and yes, even though iOS manages RAM brilliantly) watching people glorying one mighty gig of RAM is hilariously embarrassing. My 2007 iMac is packing 4GB and its ancient.

RAM isn't THE thing that makes a machine tick. The way people like you go on and on you'd have people believing you could stick 4GB in an iPhone 3GS and it'd conquer the world.

God forbid Apple up the RAM again next year so we can read the same annoying comments from the same people, "Yo duuude, Air 2 is soooo crippled with its 2GB of RAM, don't be spending money on that old tech man. Even though last year I told everyone it's the 'longevity model'."

Please ...

Then why don't you buy iPad 2 with 512 MB RAM and stay happy?

Day by day, websites are getting heavier in terms of images, content, javascript, etc. Soon you are going to realize that the Air 1 is the perfect aesthetic paperweight ever created. Nothing is going to be optimized for it. I fear Apple may have already abandoned it.

 

[Meister]

Then why don't you buy iPad 2 with 512 MB RAM and stay happy?

Day by day, websites are getting heavier in terms of images, content, javascript, etc. Soon you are going to realize that the Air 1 is the perfect aesthetic paperweight ever created. Nothing is going to be optimized for it. I fear Apple may have already abandoned it.

We have 3 iPads with 512mb RAM at home and they all work perfectly.
In fact my original iPad with 256mb works just fine.

 

[sanke1]

We have 3 iPads with 512mb RAM at home and they all work perfectly.
In fact my original iPad with 256mb works just fine.

iPad Air 2 is not for people like you

 

[RebornProphet]

Then why don't you buy iPad 2 with 512 MB RAM and stay happy?

Day by day, websites are getting heavier in terms of images, content, javascript, etc. Soon you are going to realize that the Air 1 is the perfect aesthetic paperweight ever created. Nothing is going to be optimized for it. I fear Apple may have already abandoned it.

Why didn't I buy an iPad 2? Because my first iPad was the iPad 3rd Gen and I buy the latest iPad every year, via my employer, at a reduced rate paid monthly from my salary. Business perk. I'm sensible, I'm also mature enough not to come onto a forum and bash a device because I own a newer one.

You really, REALLY come off as one of these guys who likes the sound of his own voice too much. You're one of these people who actually thinks that what they post on a forum is fact. You really believe your own hyperbole.

"Nothing is going to be optimised for it". What like the Metal updates for games with iOS 8 bringing Metal to A7 devices?

"Apple have abandoned it". Really? Despite their iPad site stating, "Both versions of iPad Air are incredibly capable, with desktop-class 64‑bit architecture, gorgeous 9.7-inch Retina displays, and all-day battery life".

Stop making sweeping generalisations and statements as if you know what's going on in Cupertino. And judging by the performance I've seen in iOS 8.2 it's night and day compared to iOS 8.0.x ... so yes, Apple are truly "abandoning" the iPad Air eh? I suppose the iPad mini 2 and 3, the iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are being abandoned too then eh?

My iPad 3 is now with my mother in law, as it had previously been with my wife who now has my old iPad 4. She'll get this so-called "paperweight" iPad Air in June when I get my Air 2 which means we need to find a new home for the iPad 4 ... all the people who get our older iPads enjoy using them are doing so to this day.

Seriously, go and speak to yourself in the mirror because the only person who believes your rubbish is you.