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iPad Pro Received new, sealed older gen M2 iPad Pro with depleted battery

Mity

Mity

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I've been having issues with the OLED screen of my M5 iPad Pro so I've been trying to find the older M2 12.9" iPad Pro in new condition. I found a merchant in Europe that had it brand new. I've never heard of the merchant but his eBay page has a 99.7% rating, including from someone that bought another unit last month. Supposedly he's Apple Authorized.

I purchased the M2 iPad Pro cellular from him and it arrived sealed but it wouldn't power on. I had to take it to the Apple Store and they used what seemed to be either an Apple USB camera adapter or A/V adapter hooked up to a Macbook Air to "jump start" the iPad. They ran diagnostics that showed that the iPad was manufactured in September 2022! Diagnostics showed that everything except for the software being out of date (iPadOS 16...) passed, meaning the serial number on the box matched the unit and the logic board and FaceID, etc. The only issue it seems was the battery being completely dead. Oddly, the results also showed battery health of 100%. The iPad is still under warranty as it shows a sale date of January 2026, meaning he likely bought it from a distributor to resell earlier this year.

I was lucky to also come across a 1TB M2 iPP cellular in the official Apple refrub store. I had been looking all year for a silver one but they only had space gray.

I'm trying to determine which of these to keep. Meaning, if an iPad was not used since September 2022 but the official release date was (October 2022), then the one purchased from the 3rd party is one of the first units produced. But it's new... Apple's check coverage website shows that it was never activated.

Between these two iPads, which one is least likely to cause issues for me? Which one should I return? My main concern is the iPad failing.
 
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Agree, it's not that unusual that a "new" device that's sat in a box for 3-4 years, comes with a depleted battery, that's hard to jump start.

If you got the refurb from the Apple Refurb Store, those are rock solid. Basically like-new (sometimes better than new), as they almost always put in a new battery. Well known here on the forums and Mac enthusiasts that official Apple Refurb devices are great value devices. I agree if you have the choice between the two, and cost is basically the same, I'd keep the Apple refurb.
 
Christopher Kim said:
Agree, it's not that unusual that a "new" device that's sat in a box for 3-4 years, comes with a depleted battery, that's hard to jump start.

If you got the refurb from the Apple Refurb Store, those are rock solid. Basically like-new (sometimes better than new), as they almost always put in a new battery. Well known here on the forums and Mac enthusiasts that official Apple Refurb devices are great value devices. I agree if you have the choice between the two, and cost is basically the same, I'd keep the Apple refurb.
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Apple puts new batteries in refurb iPhones, but not in refurb iPads. Regardless, I agree go with the Apple refurb. (Check the battery health % remaining before the return period expires)
 
wilberforce said:
Apple puts new batteries in refurb iPhones, but not in refurb iPads. Regardless, I agree go with the Apple refurb. (Check the battery health % remaining before the return period expires)
Click to expand...
My understanding was, they don't "automatically" do it every time with iPads (like they do with iPhones, I agree), but I thought that most of the time, they would. Especially if it's <100% battery health, more than a few cycles.

If it was returned as essentially a brand new device (eg. a return of a new device in the 2 week window), I could see them leaving the existing battery and not replacing, while refurbing. But if it's at all reasonably used (eg. the original device was 1yr old / 50+ cycles), I would think they'd replace it with a new battery as part of the refurb process. I've never seen a situation where someone bought an Apple Refurb iPad, and it came with a battery that showed, eg. 97% Battery Health / 65 cycles).
 
I talked to a couple of different Apple Store employees and they told me the same thing: Most of the refurb units are customer returns for either change of mind or minor faults. But sometimes a CTO product that has been returned also makes its way there despite being brand new and unused. But I kept the new-old stock model that I got from the authorized reseller.

I tested both the iPads by draining the batteries by watching YouTube and the non-refurbished unit was only 2% behind the refurbished one from the Apple Store. Because of this and the cost of shipping the non-refurbished unit to a different country, I kept it, despite my original experience with the DOA battery. Also, the non-refurb model is a 2TB model whereas the Apple Certified Refurb was 1TB. And the non-refurb model still has the official 1-yr warranty through Apple.

If I didn't have to ship the non-refurb unit back to a different country, I would've kept the Apple Certified Refurb unit. So, my experience with the Apple Certified Refurbished was actually positive, as you all stated.
 
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Mity said:
I tested both the iPads by draining the batteries by watching YouTube and the non-refurbished unit was only 2% behind the refurbished one from the Apple Store ... And the non-refurb model still has the official 1-yr warranty through Apple.
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Given that battery readings are only approximations, I wouldn't think a 2% difference was necessarily a meaningful statistic anyway. And the fact that Apple reported the battery health of the "new" device as 100% further suggests its capacity is about as good as it ever was. The years of disuse seem not to have materially degraded the sealed iPad's ability to hold a charge. Interesting.

Was the Apple Store able to reset the warranty on the basis of your date of purchase from an authorized reseller?
 
Old stock from an unknown eBay seller or Apple refurb? That’s not a question that needs to exist.
 
Apathist said:
Given that battery readings are only approximations, I wouldn't think a 2% difference was necessarily a meaningful statistic anyway. And the fact that Apple reported the battery health of the "new" device as 100% further suggests its capacity is about as good as it ever was. The years of disuse seem not to have materially degraded the sealed iPad's ability to hold a charge. Interesting.

Was the Apple Store able to reset the warranty on the basis of your date of purchase from an authorized reseller?
Click to expand...

I was also surprised to find that the diagnostic showed it as 100%. I suppose I won't know the true health until I use it for a bit but with 1 weeks use, it's worked perfectly. I have to call Apple to update the purchase date by emailing them the official receipt.
 
Ray2 said:
Old stock from an unknown eBay seller or Apple refurb? That’s not a question that needs to exist.
Click to expand...

Normally, I would not recommend eBay either but it turned out that this seller is a corporate seller, who also has an eBay page. I checked the product page on their corporate page before purchasing.
 
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