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 Diagnostics showed that everything except for the software being out of date (iPadOS 16...)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.
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 Diagnostics showed that everything except for the software being out of date (iPadOS 16...)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.
Last edited: