iPad Which iPad?

[ckc]

We are a small charity working with street kids in Thailand. We are using an iPad 2 which since updating the ios to 8.1 has become sluggish to the point of being almost unusable.
We are not in a financial position to purchase a brand new iPad as 100% of our funds are used for the kids.

We would appreciate your advice as to a suitable iPad used model to purchase. We really only use the iPad for emails, our Facebook pages and photos. It is only the sluggish performance of the iPad 2 that we are using that is making it unsuitable for purpose. We wish to maintain a large screen format so not looking to the mini.
We wish to stick with the iPad as our phones photos apps are also linked to this.
Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

 

[mtneer]

We are a small charity working with street kids in Thailand. We are using an iPad 2 which since updating the ios to 8.1 has become sluggish to the point of being almost unusable.
We are not in a financial position to purchase a brand new iPad as 100% of our funds are used for the kids.

We would appreciate your advice as to a suitable iPad used model to purchase. We really only use the iPad for emails, our Facebook pages and photos. It is only the sluggish performance of the iPad 2 that we are using that is making it unsuitable for purpose. We wish to maintain a large screen format so not looking to the mini.
We wish to stick with the iPad as our phones photos apps are also linked to this.
Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

Well, you could look at used iPad 4 or iPad Air 1. But, with Apple's clumsy track record with O/S's on older machines, you will be back in the same boat with a slow as molasses iOS 10 or 11 in a year or two. Maybe you should get an iPad 4 and not upgrade to future iOS's; that way you can keep going on for many years until something in the hardware fails first.

 

[powerbook911]

The first iPad air would be a great option. If you were in the US, these can even be found new at a low price. I know in the rest of the world, things are more expensive.

Now, the Air 2 would provide you more future protection because it has more RAM that is always a plus. But used Air 2 May be out of budget.

If budget is the most concern, the first Air would be great. I don't recommend the fourth gen because it's often barely cheaper than Air, if any, much heavier and is at this point a bit more dated technology wise.

 

[s2mikey]

The first iPad air would be a great option. If you were in the US, these can even be found new at a low price. I know in the rest of the world, things are more expensive.

Now, the Air 2 would provide you more future protection because it has more RAM that is always a plus. But used Air 2 May be out of budget.

If budget is the most concern, the first Air would be great. I don't recommend the fourth gen because it's often barely cheaper than Air, if any, much heavier and is at this point a bit more dated technology wise.

I agree. A refurbished Air is a great choice and is a strong device. It will the future OSes just fine for a while.

 

[zhenya]

Have you done a full reset of the iPad without restoring from backup?

Might be worth trying if you haven't. It might make the performance acceptable again.