Currently the iPad Air 2 refurb is $319 for a 16GB gold version. I can buy a new 2017 iPad with 32GB for $329... when will the iPad Air refurbs make financial sense?
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When will iPad Air 2 refurb make sense?
- Thread starter monkmartinez
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Personally, I would go for the new iPad 9.7. It has a faster processor and for the price point, it's literally the same thing as Air 2 without the laminate display. To me, I Would rather have new over refurbished.
And that's not to say that Apple refurbished products are not good, because they are. I just prefer a new out-of-the-box.
Once I saw a review with the two displays side-by-side I couldn't get over how reflective and washed out the 2017 iPad looks compared to the iPad Air 2 (or worse... the iPad Pro 9.7). IMO the anti-reflective coating and laminate display make a pretty big difference. Go to the 1:30 mark to see:
I haven't tested it side-by-side or heard too many negative complaints. Was the brightness up and was this in-store you had a side-by-side comparison? I'm still looking at purchasing the 9.7 inch iPad, so I find this interesting. I do believe the reflectivity would be an issue without the laminate display on the new 9.7 iPad.
It depends on how long you intend to keep and use it. If you want it to last and be supported longer, then I would get the new one as the iPad Air 2 came out during the Fall of 2014. It will become an Apple "Legacy" product long before the new iPad that just came out.
Get the newer (and bigger) iPad. 16GB is not enough nowadays, 32GB is still usable.
In short, the Air 2 refurb is not viable anymore
In short, the Air 2 refurb is not viable anymore
I wanted to chime in. Picked up the new iPad and have been comparing it to my mom's iPad Air 2. Its fatter and definitely feels cheaper.
Performance is the same. I know some reviewers have said the new one is slightly faster, but I don't see it. It's the same tablet but in a different body.
Not a fan of the display. It just feels blurry if that makes any sense, coming from an iPad Air 2. The gamut of colors is way more pronounced on the iPad Air 2.
To be perfectly honest, is the screen horrible? No it isn't. But with the iPad Air 2 at the same price point, I'd go with that. Don't listen to the reviewers, the new iPad and the Air 2 are the same tablet basically, just the latter has a better build.
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Performance is the same. I know some reviewers have said the new one is slightly faster, but I don't see it. It's the same tablet but in a different body.
Not a fan of the display. It just feels blurry if that makes any sense, coming from an iPad Air 2. The gamut of colors is way more pronounced on the iPad Air 2.
To be perfectly honest, is the screen horrible? No it isn't. But with the iPad Air 2 at the same price point, I'd go with that. Don't listen to the reviewers, the new iPad and the Air 2 are the same tablet basically, just the latter has a better build.
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The new iPad has a much lower color gamut. It's not horrible and is on par with my old iPad mini 2, but it's very apparent when next to an air 2.
Excellent points you made in your post. This helps for those looking for user based experience. Thanks.
Heck, I'm getting ready to sell my 64GB iPad Air 2, simply because I don't use it as often as I did last year when I was using it for school work and photo processing. I could probably sell it for it's average price on Swappa which seems to be roughly $300-320 and it's got much more storage than the refurb or new iPad and the better display.
In my experience the A8X is still a very good chip, even while side by side multitasking. The 2GB RAM and extra core made a huge difference back in 2014 and it still shows today. I've had it on iOS 8-10.3 and the performance hasn't dropped at all from what I can tell. Quite unusual compared to all the older devices. A main factor is probably that the GPU finally caught up with the screen resolution so it doesn't drop frames like the Air 1 or iPad 3/4 did.
I'd almost go with the 2017 if I were buying new simply because it may get later versions of iOS, but I don't know if there would really be any good technical reason to do so. But this is Apple we're talking about... Sometimes identical hardware but from different years or classes (iPod touch 3G vs iPhone 3GS - Same CPU/RAM etc) won't even get the same amount of software updates (iOS 5 vs iOS 6).
In my experience the A8X is still a very good chip, even while side by side multitasking. The 2GB RAM and extra core made a huge difference back in 2014 and it still shows today. I've had it on iOS 8-10.3 and the performance hasn't dropped at all from what I can tell. Quite unusual compared to all the older devices. A main factor is probably that the GPU finally caught up with the screen resolution so it doesn't drop frames like the Air 1 or iPad 3/4 did.
I'd almost go with the 2017 if I were buying new simply because it may get later versions of iOS, but I don't know if there would really be any good technical reason to do so. But this is Apple we're talking about... Sometimes identical hardware but from different years or classes (iPod touch 3G vs iPhone 3GS - Same CPU/RAM etc) won't even get the same amount of software updates (iOS 5 vs iOS 6).
Sure. I think this analogy will help as well:
So think of your average hung sliding window in a house. You can either have it in the closed position, where there is just a single piece of glass between you and outside. But if you want to get some fresh air, you open your window and slide the bottom panel upwards. At that point, when you're looking out through the top of your window, there are 2 panels between you and the outside. The clarity of your view is slightly worse than with just 1 glass panel, but just subtly. Colors are slightly less intense and your view is a little less clear. Not a huge amount, but subtly.
The iPad display situation is like that. The non laminated displays have what feels like an extra layer between you and the display. Colors are slightly less vibrant, sharpness is a little less defined, etc. but the key is that it's a subtle difference, something you might not notice unless you've been using the better display for a while before going to the inferior display.
So if you're OCD like me, then the air 2 is a must have. But for the average person, it's really a personal preference between less storage and better build quality or vice versa.
Edit: when did they take the mute button out? It was useful on my iPad mini 2 for when I wanted to shut my iPad the heck up in the middle of the night.
When a device is released does not dictate how long it'll get updates. Just because the new iPad came out two and a half years after the iPad Air 2 doesn't mean it'll get updates two and a half years after the iPad Air 2 stops getting them. The original iPad stopped getting updates after iOS 5, but the iPad 2 got updated all the way to iOS 9, which is three years longer than the original iPad got. The third gen iPad also only got up to iOS 9, so it stopped getting updates at the same time as the iPad 2 even though it came out a year later.
If the iPad Air 2 is capable of running future updates, Apple will update it. I would be very surprised if the new iPad got more than just the next update after the iPad Air 2 stops getting updated.
Your points are very valid. The iPad Air 2 is a great tablet and is very powerful.
Unfortunately, there are reasons other than just being "capable" that dictate how long devices get updates. It's one more device for Apple to test, update drivers for, the need to push customers to buy a new device, etc. My iPad 3 stopped getting updates after only 4 years. It still had a great screen and battery. It was getting slow, but still worked fine. It could have received IOS 10 with some functionality disabled, but a decision was made to stop updating it at IOS 9.
I found a document that talks to how the end of support counter starts when Macs are no longer manufactured, but doesn't get into much detail on the iPads. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
That said, aren't we getting to the point where the CPUs are powerful enough that theyll be able to handle whatever UI you throw at it?
Tablets and phones now are as powerful as the lower midrange of consumer PC'S. They're as powerful as MacBook released 3-4 years ago.
My point is that for desktop PC'S the need to get a computer every couple years or you will be lagged to hell is all but gone. I can see Apple supporting tablets indefinitely because with 64 bit hardware and great performance they'll take anything you throw at it. At the same time, I can totally see apple not supporting models that are old but still powerful to try and force people to upgrade.
It seems that Apple discontinues support for iOS devices based on what generation chipset they are using. Your iPad 3rd gen used an A5X chipset and stopped receiving updates when all of the other A5 series devices (iPad 2nd gen, iPad mini, iPhone 4s, iPod touch 5th gen) did, at iOS 9. Apple doesn't have to drop a chipset at every iOS update, but I would imagine that any A9 series device outlives an A8 series device on the update timeline.
I wouldn't buy the iPad Air 2 16GB unless it's around $229.
You're taking a big hit in storage capacity. By the time you want to resell it a couple years later, 16GB will be very awkward to sell.
Future iOS updates will obviously end sooner for the iPad Air 2.
The significantly improved Wi-Fi range and battery capacity on the iPad (2017) affect everyday use more than the nominal difference in display quality.
From a strictly financial point of view, the pricing is really silly to
I agree with everything you wrote... the issue is that you can't find an Air 2 16GB for $229. In my mind, it should be even less expensive. I wonder how many people are simply passing on buying an iPad because the pricing doesn't make sense. That is, if I already have an iPad and want an upgrade, it is difficult to swallow refurbs that cost almost as much as the new devices. Speaking personally, I don't need an iPad upgrade... so I will wait until the prices make sense.
I agree with everything you wrote... the issue is that you can't find an Air 2 16GB for $229. In my mind, it should be even less expensive. I wonder how many people are simply passing on buying an iPad because the pricing doesn't make sense. That is, if I already have an iPad and want an upgrade, it is difficult to swallow refurbs that cost almost as much as the new devices. Speaking personally, I don't need an iPad upgrade... so I will wait until the prices make sense.
The iPad 3 shouldn't have even gone all the way to iOS 9. I bought the iPad Air 2 because I couldn't stand how crappy my iPad 3 performed on iOS 8. I can't imagine how bad it would be on iOS 10.
Just because a device can be updated doesn't mean it should. There hasn't been an iOS device yet that stopped receiving OS updates and still ran buttery smooth. They stop getting updates because they can't keep up anymore.
Unless all you do is stream stuff and you barely install any apps, do yourself a favor and get at least 32GB.
After the OS, 16GB is actually more like 11GB. Might have been fine back when 50MB apps were considered big but now the apps have gotten much more bloated. Facebook is 241MB and Facebook Messenger is 155MB. Even stuff like Yelp, etc. are 100MB. That's for the app itself. App data and cache use storage, too. Each of the preinstalled Apple apps are like 300+ MB a piece. Thank goodness you can delete them.
Really, the biggest bottleneck in most computers is the HDD or use of crappy SSDs.
After the OS, 16GB is actually more like 11GB. Might have been fine back when 50MB apps were considered big but now the apps have gotten much more bloated. Facebook is 241MB and Facebook Messenger is 155MB. Even stuff like Yelp, etc. are 100MB. That's for the app itself. App data and cache use storage, too. Each of the preinstalled Apple apps are like 300+ MB a piece. Thank goodness you can delete them.
Iirc, the A8X was comparable to the Intel Atom. Pretty impressive performance in a tablet while maintaining excellent battery life. The A9X, however, that matched up to low end Intel Core. I reckon we'll get there eventually but I don't think the Air 2 is quite it (although I expect it to enjoy much longer useful life compared to its predecessors).
Really, the biggest bottleneck in most computers is the HDD or use of crappy SSDs.
I found the battery in the new iPad to be a lot better than the air 2. My air 2 had to be recharged every 2-3 days out of the box but the new one I can go 3-5 days with moderate use. Just my observations though.
The Anti-Reflective coating comes in very handy when you're traveling. Especially on plane and road trips, where there's a lot of light reflections hitting the tablet screen from different angles. The purple coating IMO is YUGELY better! Big League! 