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How to determine iPad's build date?

TheWheelMan

TheWheelMan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
982
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I just received the iPad 3 I bought through an Amazon 3rd party. While I have no intentions of going through the iPad carousel of returns I'm as cursed as some of you seem to have been with very bad luck with faulty devices. I am curious enough to check the build date to see if I have an older or newer one, since I didn't get it right from Apple directly.

How do I determine the build date? Is it on the box somewhere?

Thanks in advance.
 
Thank you for such a quick response. Mine has a production date of March 9th, so not so bad age-wise.
 
Name: iPad 3
Group1: iPad
Group2: WiFi-4G
Generation: 3
Machine Model: iPad3,2
Model introduced: 2012
Production year: 2012
Production week: 5 (February)
introduced test: GOED
CPU speed: 1.0GHz
Family name: A1430
Screen size: 9 inch
Screen resolution: 2048x1536 pixels
Colour: Black
Capacity: 64GB
 
Wow, my IPad Air 2 128gb wifi was made in Aug 2015. No wonder it has that fresh new smell.
The IPad Air 2 64gb wifi I purchased the same time for my wife was made in Sept 2015.
Purchased at Best Buy State College Pennsylvania yesterday. It's a college town (Penn State) so they would go through a lot of iPads with the University traffic.


interfreak said:
Put the serial number in here:

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
Click to expand...
 
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Mivo said:
Still good info, especially with people just having pounced that Staples deal. :)
Click to expand...

Very good info. I'm one of those that jumped on the Staples deal and was worried it had sat in some warehouse for the past year. Built in July of this year. Boo yah!
 
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Just tried to enter my new iPad Air 2's serial number and it didn't give me any info....

Any ideas why that might be?
 
BMox said:
Just tried to enter my new iPad Air 2's serial number and it didn't give me any info....

Any ideas why that might be?
Click to expand...

Doesn't work for me either. iPad Pro 9.7".

It came with 10.3.1 installed, which I found odd.
 
I myself have been following this link from last so many years and using it religiously whenever I want to find the manufacturing date of the iPad. But I wonder a lot of time how reliable is this info ? How does this link and these guys have access to such critical information ? So is it real in the.first place ?
 
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augustya said:
I myself have been following this link from last so many years and using it religiously whenever I want to find the manufacturing date of the iPad. But I wonder a lot of time how reliable is this info ? How does this link and these guys have access to such critical information ? So is it real in the.first place ?
Click to expand...

I don't know how real it is, but how can they tell the capacity of my iPad from the serial number. Apple's check coverage website doesn't show any information like this and yet this site seems to know. I don't know for sure sure, but it is at least a sign in a positive direction.
 
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Yeah it knows everything about my iPad, even what color it is. Indicates that the site is correct with all other info although yeah I don’t know how they’d get that info. It gave week 50 2016 as production week, crazy. Right down to the week.
 
AE_stc said:
Yeah it knows everything about my iPad, even what color it is. Indicates that the site is correct with all other info although yeah I don’t know how they’d get that info. It gave week 50 2016 as production week, crazy. Right down to the week.
Click to expand...

I noticed the detail as well, bought a refurb'd 2018 iPP 2 weeks ago & discovered it was born Nov. of 2019, perhaps it got a new date after the refurb process?
 
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I found plugging into the computer and checking with coconut battery helps as well!
 
This is interesting... Just had my iPad Pro 10.5 replaced by the APPLE store because of white spot and screen responsiveness issues with a new one (it was in a generic-looking box, not the usual APPLE style box). Looked up the manufacturing date, and said June 22, 2020! That's just a couple of months ago. Are they actually still making these new a couple of years after the production change to the 11in model?
 
elmarjazz said:
This is interesting... Just had my iPad Pro 10.5 replaced by the APPLE store because of white spot and screen responsiveness issues with a new one (it was in a generic-looking box, not the usual APPLE style box). Looked up the manufacturing date, and said June 22, 2020! That's just a couple of months ago. Are they actually still making these new a couple of years after the production change to the 11in model?
Click to expand...

It’s a refurbished model. There’s tons still in use and are in warranty so they still have to make a certain number to keep up with replacements.

thats one likely explanation
 
TrevorR90 said:
It’s a refurbished model. There’s tons still in use and are in warranty so they still have to make a certain number to keep up with replacements.

thats one likely explanation
Click to expand...
It sounds like it's a replacement unit, not refurbished. There's a difference. Replacement units haven't been previously sold to a customer and then returned to Apple to be refurbished. Replacements come in the type of box the OP described; reburbs come in a white Apple box clearly marked as a refurbished device.

One of the best explanations about the difference is from this Apple discussion:

Apple sells refurbished units online in their refurbished store. They have information there on what their OEM refurbishment process entails. Refurbished devices bought from Apple have a standard one year warranty and are eligible for extended warranty.

A replacement unit is just that - a service unit used to replace a device. Every company sets aside some proportion of production as service units right from the factory, to provide stock for warranty replacements. Service units may be factory new, or they may have failed some factory inspection that required repair and so were pulled from the standard shipping line and end up (once fixed) in the service unit allotment.
Click to expand...
 
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