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JXulo

macrumors member
Nov 9, 2018
31
19
ipad Air 2. Just a rant because I need to.
The screen is so unresponsive. 3/4 of the time you have to tap it once to get it’s attention and then tap it a second time to get it to do what you wanted the first time around. Often it takes three, even four times. Often you sit there thinking it ‘took it’ and sit waiting for a response, only to find it didn’t recognize multiple prior taps.
AND SLOW...you click on a link (for the umpteeth time usually) to load a webpage and it is so slow to load you have to sit and wait before it’s all done before scrolling, or the page jumps all over continuing to load if I was stupid enough to have carried on before it finally caught up.
It is not my network. My Macbook and iPhone work fine. The last update made an incredible difference but it is still a slug. Is the processor simply that bad? Why would anyone ever buy one of these pieces of junk a second time, or did I get a dud?
Oh, another thing. About four times per hour it simply decides to drop my network. It often takes a minute or so to re-connect. Once again, my phone remains online and so does my Mac. I never drop streaming Netflix, ever, so it’s this POS.
Anyone with any idea what I could do to improve things?

I will never, ever buy an ipad again. I’d smash this POS if it wouldn’t force me to drop the $$$ on some sort of replacement. I’ve been thinking it’s almost time to replace my 2008 Macbook so maybe I’ll do that, run it fulltime and get some joy from trashing this abortion. Rant over. S
Yeah i understand you perfectly. I spent 95% of the time with my iPad mini 4, which is similar to Air 2, doing only one thing...browsing...and since IOS 11 +/- it’s never been the same. In the last year or so opening pages is really slow and sometimes it just freeze or crash.

I think is natural due to the old age of the device. Some people want to believe that Apple products never become slower with updates and old age but it is not true of course. If the pages are more demanding each year the device will suffer. IOS it’s no difference than any other S.O. And don’t do miracles despite what some people want to believe.

So i solve my problem just buying a newer and of course more powerful iPad. I think is natural and this new device in 4/5 years will suffer from the same problem as well.

Edit: No, you can do hard reset by iTunes and everything but you will not see any major improvement.
 
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Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,725
13,245
UK
I think your iPad is faulty. I had the air 2 up until last July before I upgraded to the 10.5 pro and it was flawless and by that point it was already 2.5 years old. I have an iPad mini 4 which has a slower chipset than the air 2 and it it still runs very well. No issues.
 

uknation87

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2016
249
191
Although I don’t have direct experience with Air 2, I have the 2nd and 4th Generation Ipads and if not for the OS being extremely outdated on the 2nd generation, I would say it still functions rather well.

The 4th generation still performs very well also so I agree with a previous post that it may be a hardware issue. That said, I just picked the 6th generation IPad at Bestbuy for $275 which is an absolute steal in my opinion.

I also picked up the Apple Pencil (1st generation) but quickly realized that for what use my iPad for, it wasn’t needed and actually returned it today.

Unless you’re a “power user” I would recommend picking the new 9.7 inch iPad. It’s a fantastic buy at this price point.
 

coachingguy

macrumors 6502a
Yeah i understand you perfectly. I spent 95% of the time with my iPad mini 4, which is similar to Air 2, doing only one thing...browsing...and since IOS 11 +/- it’s never been the same. In the last year or so opening pages is really slow and sometimes it just freeze or crash.

I think is natural due to the old age of the device. Some people want to believe that Apple products never become slower with updates and old age but it is not true of course. If the pages are more demanding each year the device will suffer. IOS it’s no difference than any other S.O. And don’t do miracles despite what some people want to believe.

So i solve my problem just buying a newer and of course more powerful iPad. I think is natural and this new device in 4/5 years will suffer from the same problem as well.

Edit: No, you can do hard reset by iTunes and everything but you will not see any major improvement.

I've got an iPad mini 4 as well... still my favorite iPad... And I got back to the first one... iOS slowed it down a bit, iOS 12 sped it back up... My mom still uses my old iPad 1 for games... The only iPad I haven't had is the new Pro releases... It's it's true that Apple is coming out with a new iPad mini (Pro? #FingersCrossed), then I'll be set. My wife uses our iPad mini 2 as a daily web surfer/game player... It however has slowed down, quite a bit...

So, if you haven't updated to iOS 12... Give it a go, I wasn't happy with iOS 11...

Coachingguy
 

dogslobber

macrumors 601
Oct 19, 2014
4,670
7,809
Apple Campus, Cupertino CA
Love my Air 2 but with most recent SW upgrade I've noticed that it sometimes ignores the flick to scroll and requires you to wait a sec or two before trying again. I think that's a SW bug.

Another rant is that in MacRumors when I select text in the reply box it won't let me use drag to select text and always jumps to the bottom of the page. Very annoying but wondering if anybody else sees that on MR?
 

puma1552

Suspended
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
1,947
Although I don’t have direct experience with Air 2, I have the 2nd and 4th Generation Ipads and if not for the OS being extremely outdated on the 2nd generation, I would say it still functions rather well.

The 4th generation still performs very well also so I agree with a previous post that it may be a hardware issue. That said, I just picked the 6th generation IPad at Bestbuy for $275 which is an absolute steal in my opinion.

I also picked up the Apple Pencil (1st generation) but quickly realized that for what use my iPad for, it wasn’t needed and actually returned it today.

Unless you’re a “power user” I would recommend picking the new 9.7 inch iPad. It’s a fantastic buy at this price point.

The new 9.7" iPad isn't really an upgrade over an Air 2, sad for a device four years newer. Apple still can't include a flash on that? Not that an iPad is the ideal picture taking device, but countless times I've been relaxing in the basement with only my Air 2 (also without a flash) and the lights down low and wanted to take a pic of my dog only to find that the picture quality is garbage with no flash available.
 

uknation87

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2016
249
191
The new 9.7" iPad isn't really an upgrade over an Air 2, sad for a device four years newer. Apple still can't include a flash on that? Not that an iPad is the ideal picture taking device, but countless times I've been relaxing in the basement with only my Air 2 (also without a flash) and the lights down low and wanted to take a pic of my dog only to find that the picture quality is garbage with no flash available.

Obviously, it’s the “budget” option but when comparing the two from an actual performance perspective, the 6th generation iPad does very well.

Also, I have zero plans to ever take a picture or video with any of my iPads because I’m typically never too far away from XS Max but to each their own.
 

Shanghaichica

macrumors G5
Apr 8, 2013
14,725
13,245
UK
Obviously, it’s the “budget” option but when comparing the two from an actual performance perspective, the 6th generation iPad does very well.

Also, I have zero plans to ever take a picture or video with any of my iPads because I’m typically never too far away from XS Max but to each their own.
The 2018 iPad has a faster chip and will be supported for longer. However the screen is inferior to the air 2 and the build quality isn’t as good.
 
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charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
I will never, ever buy an ipad again. I’d smash this POS if it wouldn’t force me to drop the $$$ on some sort of replacement. I’ve been thinking it’s almost time to replace my 2008 Macbook so maybe I’ll do that, run it fulltime and get some joy from trashing this abortion. Rant over. S

Thanks for the laugh. Yeah you’ll never buy another iPad and yet you don’t want to spend money to replace the one you have when you ‘smash’ it to pieces. If you really hated your iPad you wouldn’t want to keep it so any repair costs wouldn’t matter to you.

But please ditch the iPad and do yourself a favor, ditch the MacBook for anything non Apple. I doubt they will miss you
 

JXulo

macrumors member
Nov 9, 2018
31
19
I've got an iPad mini 4 as well... still my favorite iPad... And I got back to the first one... iOS slowed it down a bit, iOS 12 sped it back up... My mom still uses my old iPad 1 for games... The only iPad I haven't had is the new Pro releases... It's it's true that Apple is coming out with a new iPad mini (Pro? #FingersCrossed), then I'll be set. My wife uses our iPad mini 2 as a daily web surfer/game player... It however has slowed down, quite a bit...

So, if you haven't updated to iOS 12... Give it a go, I wasn't happy with iOS 11...

Coachingguy
I updated on day one and do a reset etc etc. It's better than IOS 11 of course but not dramatically better like night and day.

It's not hardware problem, well...except if you considered A8 and 2GB Ram a hardware problem :).

I didn't think that the mini 4 was slow but now that i'm using an iPad pro 10.5' i can confirm that mini 4 are really showing is age, which is natural. I repeat, iOS don't do miracles, the hardware are getting old and underpowered compared to the new devices.
 
Last edited:

puma1552

Suspended
Nov 20, 2008
5,559
1,947
I dumped my Air 2 for a $120 Apple gift card yesterday while it was still worth soenthing and I have no regrets. That iPad had a curve to it from day 1 when looking down the long side at a slight angle and so did the other 3-4 I bought before just keeping the original one I bought. Battery life also never got the 10 hours, more like 7. Good riddance I say.
 

Tsepz

macrumors 601
Jan 24, 2013
4,888
4,698
Johannesburg, South Africa
My iPad Air 2 has been good so far especially on iOS 12.1.1, it’s running pretty fast and smooth, but there is a tad bit of stutter here and there once you have a lot of apps and web tabs open, ive noticed some tabs dropping every now and then.
 

DougDolde

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2018
32
32
Yucca Valley, CA
I tried buying several iPads and always wound up returning them. I just don't like the form factor they are too big and heavy to hold for long. And pretty useless for anything besides consumption.. Big iPhone much better (12 Pro Max)
 
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sparksd

macrumors G4
Jun 7, 2015
10,019
34,395
Seattle WA
I tried buying several iPads and always wound up returning them. I just don't like the form factor they are too big and heavy to hold for long. And pretty useless for anything besides consumption.. Big iPhone much better (12 Pro Max).
"And pretty useless for anything besides consumption." - true for you maybe but not a universal truth. Not sure why you would resurrect an old thread to just say this.
 

TenthDoctor

macrumors member
May 23, 2020
96
27
ipad Air 2. Just a rant because I need to.
The screen is so unresponsive. 3/4 of the time you have to tap it once to get it’s attention and then tap it a second time to get it to do what you wanted the first time around. Often it takes three, even four times. Often you sit there thinking it ‘took it’ and sit waiting for a response, only to find it didn’t recognize multiple prior taps.
AND SLOW...you click on a link (for the umpteeth time usually) to load a webpage and it is so slow to load you have to sit and wait before it’s all done before scrolling, or the page jumps all over continuing to load if I was stupid enough to have carried on before it finally caught up.
It is not my network. My Macbook and iPhone work fine. The last update made an incredible difference but it is still a slug. Is the processor simply that bad? Why would anyone ever buy one of these pieces of junk a second time, or did I get a dud?
Oh, another thing. About four times per hour it simply decides to drop my network. It often takes a minute or so to re-connect. Once again, my phone remains online and so does my Mac. I never drop streaming Netflix, ever, so it’s this POS.
Anyone with any idea what I could do to improve things?

I will never, ever buy an ipad again. I’d smash this POS if it wouldn’t force me to drop the $$$ on some sort of replacement. I’ve been thinking it’s almost time to replace my 2008 Macbook so maybe I’ll do that, run it fulltime and get some joy from trashing this abortion. Rant over. S
I have an iPad Air 2, and I still use it. It has an extremely slow charging issue, so I bought an iPad Air 4 that I use unplugged. The Air2 works perfectly fine for me other than the charging issue. It’s a tad slower than the Air4, but I definitely do not experience the sluggishness that you wrote about.

Might yours have gotten some kind of virus or have some app that is slowing it down?

I don’t have the tapping issue that you described either. It does what I want it to in one tap Usually. On one game (elves vs. dwarves) it occasionally seems slow, and I shut it off and restart it, and that fixes the problem. This might happen about once a month? If that.
 

sparksd

macrumors G4
Jun 7, 2015
10,019
34,395
Seattle WA
I have an iPad Air 2, and I still use it. It has an extremely slow charging issue, so I bought an iPad Air 4 that I use unplugged. The Air2 works perfectly fine for me other than the charging issue. It’s a tad slower than the Air4, but I definitely do not experience the sluggishness that you wrote about.

Might yours have gotten some kind of virus or have some app that is slowing it down?

I don’t have the tapping issue that you described either. It does what I want it to in one tap Usually. On one game (elves vs. dwarves) it occasionally seems slow, and I shut it off and restart it, and that fixes the problem. This might happen about once a month? If that.

That was 2+ years ago ...
 
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