My mom uses her ipad 1 mainly for email, facebook, web browsing, words with friends type stuff with no problems at all. One of my buddies uses his ipad 1 for messaging, maps, email, facebook, and games without any problems. I'd say its still totally useable and worth getting (at the right price of course). Unless your nephew is a giant Apple fanboy who posts on apple forums all the time then he might complain about it. 😀