iPad How long will the M1 pro and new mini last?

[alyssap22]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

 

[Isengardtom]

Apple keeps supporting the iPad line for a long time (2014 iPad Air 2 is still supported) so there’s no problem on that side.

At the moment the hardware is way ahead of the software so the M1 will be able to handle whatever you throw at it for many years to come. I’d say 3-5 years should be no problem at all.

same story for the mini. The chip is less powerful than the M1 but it’s use cases are different. It’s more a consumption device. It’ll last 3-5 years as well.

 

[1rottenapple]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

My 2018 iPad is 4 years old and there are no signs of degradation performance wise. Easy 8 years. I bet my 2018 will make it to 2030. For sure M1 will beat that and more.

 

[Adarna]

It all depends on the end user. If they misuse it then you'll need to replace earlier.

 

[cupcakes2000]

My iPad Pro 12.9 2018 is still as good as the day I got it performance wise. It will be 4 at the end of this year and it still gets used daily for intensive photo and graphics tasks. And sidecar - which it should remain good at for longer even than the iPad part is waning.

 

[one more]

My iPad Air 2 runs iPadOS 15 reasonably well and still has the original battery at about 80% of its capacity left. They are really built to last.

 

[Username-already-in-use]

Apple are still supporting a number of devices with 2GB RAM from up to 7 years ago. The Mini 6 (4GB RAM) and M1 Pro (8 or 16GB RAM) have much more memory and far more powerful CPUs.

Your Pro and Mini should be fine for at least 5 years. Maybe they will seem slow by the time you get to 7-8 years.

 

[ericwn]

You should expect more than 5 years of use based on what users report here all the time.

 

[spiderman0616]

I agree with all of the above. I JUST retired my iPad mini 3 when I got the mini 6. It was slow and clunky and not receiving iOS updates anymore, but even that device could still handle some movie watching and e-reading. When I took it to Apple to recycle, they even gave me $75 for it because it was in relatively good shape and still powered on.

 

[rui no onna]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

The M1 iPad Pro 11 should still work well for 3-5 years and will probably keep receiving firmware updates for 7 years minimum. The CPU is overpowered and it has plenty of RAM so it has lots of headroom even with future iOS and app bloating.

The iPad mini 6, I don't know your definition of well. As it is, I get a lot of reloads on the mini 6 already. However, it's fairly tolerable since I don't use it for productivity. If you're mostly using the mini 6 for single focus tasks then it should be fine. As far as firmware updates, I expect it will be supported for a long time. Probably 5 years minimum. Likely longer.

 

[Danfango]

I’ve got two iPad Air (original) here still. Absolutely still work fine. Even the batteries are fairly good. 8 years down the line!

Shockingly they’re stuck on iOS 12 but that got an update still in September 2021!

 

[MarkC426]

My 1st gen iPadPro (2015) is STILL fantastic, after 6 years.
Running iPadOS 15 perfectly.

Like I have said in other threads, if you buy the Pro iPad you will get a much longer life, due to the much higher spec.

 

[rui no onna]

I’ve got two iPad Air (original) here still. Absolutely still work fine. Even the batteries are fairly good. 8 years down the line!

Shockingly they’re stuck on iOS 12 but that got an update still in September 2021!

Both Air and Air 2 feel very laggy to me. Personally wouldn't want to use either for web browsing nowadays. OK for simple HTML but not for dynamic websites.

 

[macintoshmac]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

Try to get a hold on the anxiety. Your investment is safe for a good many years, including the years that the software, including the app ecosystem, will be supported when no new upgrades are being offered for the devices.

Your devices will not lose their steam that easily. You will be able to get battery replaced few years down the line, and the battery life including system performance will not degrade.

Enjoy your super-fast hardware for whatever you are doing with it!

 

[davidbf1]

……You will be able to get battery replaced few years down the line, and the battery life including system performance will not degrade.

Doesn’t a battery replacement on an iPad just swap the device entirely?

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I think you’re more likely to want a new device before they start degrading in performance, what with Apple bringing shiny new toys to the market regularly xD

 

[Danfango]

That's a fair point.

For me, I usually buy the latest device and get AppleCare. That runs for 2 years, then I sell it. Someone else can own it for the risky tail end of the lifespan. That has the lowest risk associated with it, the best performance period and a monthly figure known fairly well up front.

 

[rui no onna]

For me, I usually buy the latest device and get AppleCare. That runs for 2 years, then I sell it. Someone else can own it for the risky tail end of the lifespan. That has the lowest risk associated with it, the best performance period and a monthly figure known fairly well up front.

The improvements have slowed down quite a bit though. Before, 2 years used to get you a decent upgrade. Nowadays, not so much unless you're on entry level.

For example, if one had bought something like the 2018 iPad Pro 1TB LTE ($1899) upon release, the equivalent 2020 iPad Pro model is kind of a worthless upgrade for $1649. If one is very risk averse, it's better to just renew AC+ monthly for $5.99 rather than upgrading.

 

[AppleFanatic10]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

In my experience with iPads in the past, they last pretty long. I remember my mother had the original iPad for YEARS until it wasn’t able to be supported on any apps. I’ve also had a few myself and the ones that I had would still be supported to this day. Battery life really never got bad for me with iPads. I would say at the 4 year mark is when I started to see a decline in battery life.

 

[macintoshmac]

Doesn’t a battery replacement on an iPad just swap the device entirely?

It does not on the iPhone, I do not know if it does that on the iPad! There is no tangible reason it should take an entire device replacement to replace the battery!

 

[rui no onna]

Doesn’t a battery replacement on an iPad just swap the device entirely?

Yes, it does.

It does not on the iPhone, I do not know if it does that on the iPad! There is no tangible reason it should take an entire device replacement to replace the battery!

Repairability on iPads suck. Everything's glued. It's likely cheaper to just have iPads refurbished in China than to pay for the time for a US-based technician (with SS and benefits) to do it. Probably greater risk that something goes wrong, too.

 

[Chaparral02]

Will the M1 iPad Pro 11 and the iPad mini 6 work well for 3-5 years? I’m assuming yes as the base iPad now has the a13 chip. With a battery replacement in 2 years will these iPads still be snappy and a good experience to use?
Thank you!

If am lucky my 2021 M1 pro's will last 6 to 8 years if am really lucky then 8 to 10 years ?

Have an ipad mini 4 in the family which was released in 2015 which still works great and has the latest ISO software

The Kids PC computer has a i7-4770k cpu which was released in 2013 and is still pretty fast and runs everything really well apart from the newer high demanding AAA games

 

[LogicalApex]

Might as well ask people to start telling us what specs the iPad Pro M3 will have or when we'll have flying cars...

Based on historical patterns they should last at least 5 years, but who knows what Apple does in the future. Maybe they artificially cut them short. Maybe they make them last a decade with updates. Anything is possible...

Even if they are perfectly usable on iPadOS 10 years in the future... Perhaps Apple added some feature users really feel elevates the experience... Maybe Apple degrades future releases such that the 2021 M1 IPP becomes the GOAT. Who knows!

All unknowns. Buy what you need when you need it and you'll be better off.

 

[alyssap22]

Yes, it does.




Repairability on iPads suck. Everything's glued. It's likely cheaper to just have iPads refurbished in China than to pay for the time for a US-based technician (with SS and benefits) to do it. Probably greater risk that something goes wrong, too.

Oh wow I didn’t know that. So if I wanted to pay for a battery replacement would it need to be under that 80% mark for them to give me a new unit?

 

[rui no onna]

Oh wow I didn’t know that. So if I wanted to pay for a battery replacement would it need to be under that 80% mark for them to give me a new unit?

Yep. They relaxed the limits for iPhones due to batterygate (as long as you pay the $39-49 fee). Alas, it seems Apple's pretty strict about that 80% for iPad.

Caveat, iPad Settings - Battery doesn't show battery health like on iPhones. The third party apps (Coconut for Mac & iMazing for Mac/Windows) usually report lower % than Apple's in-house battery diagnostics. There's just no transparency on iPads which is quite annoying.

With that said, because iPads have relatively large batteries, they generally don't degrade as quickly as the iPhone's. I pretty much need to charge my iPhone SE 2020 twice a day even when it's on standby all the time. Meanwhile, my iPad Air 3 (2019) can still do 10 hours onscreen time easy with my usual settings.