iPad iPad Air 2 lifecycle question

[BrianLy]

Hi

My mother lives in the UK and relies on her iPad Air 2 quite a bit. I bought her this iPad in August 2015. I can only visit once a year or so on average. Should I bring her iPad on this trip, or wait a year?

"Of course I should bring her one" is the only right answer, but I have some other expensive things on this trip. So, I'm asking based on general reliability of this model, likelihood of iOS updates, battery life expectancy etc. Is the consensus that these models would work through to early 2020?

If her iPad broke I could begrudgingly buy her one at UK prices, but I'm asking now because I set it up nicely for her and make sure she is happy with it.

Thanks!

 

[willentrekin]

I've been using an iPad Air 2 for nearly four years now, and I'm confident it would last me through next year if I needed it to. I still get pretty good battery life, and it's zippy enough for everything I throw at it (games, streaming, writing, internet, etc.). I'm thinking about updating, for sure, but only for ProMotion (and might go with a 10.5 pro). I'd say the iOS updates are fairly likely at least next year and probably one or two beyond, especially considering the mini 4 is still getting them.

So I'd say it's up to her. Is she reporting frustration with it? Is she complaining that it's not as fast as it used to be, or doesn't last as long? If she's happy with what she has, not sure there's a real need to upgrade. Has she requested an upgrade?

 

[EugW]

I would expect the iPad Air 2 to be fine for another couple of years. No, I wouldn't upgrade her until 2020.

By that time, I think the iPad line will get a significant upgrade too, as I predict here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-2019-or-2020-10-ipad.2164986/

I don't recommend buying her a new iPad with the old A10 Fusion. It's an OK chip, but it's already almost 2.5 years old, from 2016. Remember, the Air 2 has an A8X which is a triple-core chip so it performs better than its 2014 birthdate might suggest. To get a real boost, I'd suggest A11 or better, which isn't out in the mainstream non-Pro iPad line yet.

 

[BrianLy]

So I'd say it's up to her. Is she reporting frustration with it? Is she complaining that it's not as fast as it used to be, or doesn't last as long? If she's happy with what she has, not sure there's a real need to upgrade. Has she requested an upgrade?

There are no complaints! It was more a function of my anxiety when running through my check list of things that I take/do on my next trip which is coming up. It's one of the easier things to bring in my hand luggage.
[doublepost=1547484545][/doublepost]

I would expect the iPad Air 2 to be fine for another couple of years. No, I wouldn't upgrade her until 2020.

By that time, I think the iPad line will get a significant upgrade too, as I predict here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-2019-or-2020-10-ipad.2164986/

I don't recommend buying her a new iPad with the old A10 Fusion. It's an OK chip, but it's already almost 2.5 years old, from 2016. Remember, the Air 2 has an A8X which is a triple-core chip so it performs better than its 2014 birthdate might suggest. To get a real boost, I'd suggest A11 or better, which isn't out in the mainstream non-Pro iPad line yet.

This is insightful. There are no performance complaints so I think it's best to wait it out.

Personally, I could do with a perf boost over my mid-2015 rMBP13, but I've sworn myself to getting 4 years out of it so only ~6 months until that happens. We're feeling quite attached now, just like my battle scarred MBA11 that I had before

 

[newellj]

I would expect the iPad Air 2 to be fine for another couple of years. No, I wouldn't upgrade her until 2020.

By that time, I think the iPad line will get a significant upgrade too, as I predict here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-2019-or-2020-10-ipad.2164986/

I don't recommend buying her a new iPad with the old A10 Fusion. It's an OK chip, but it's already almost 2.5 years old, from 2016. Remember, the Air 2 has an A8X which is a triple-core chip so it performs better than its 2014 birthdate might suggest. To get a real boost, I'd suggest A11 or better, which isn't out in the mainstream non-Pro iPad line yet.

I agree with this. Unless the pencil is a must-have, there is little reason to replace it a working Air 2 right now.

 

[Smoovejayy]

I would expect the iPad Air 2 to be fine for another couple of years. No, I wouldn't upgrade her until 2020.

By that time, I think the iPad line will get a significant upgrade too, as I predict here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-2019-or-2020-10-ipad.2164986/

I don't recommend buying her a new iPad with the old A10 Fusion. It's an OK chip, but it's already almost 2.5 years old, from 2016. Remember, the Air 2 has an A8X which is a triple-core chip so it performs better than its 2014 birthdate might suggest. To get a real boost, I'd suggest A11 or better, which isn't out in the mainstream non-Pro iPad line yet.

This 100%. I have an air 2 and it's still kicking along well since 2014. I tested 2018 12.9" iPP for a few weeks and love the tablet but it is really expensive and if she doesn't do anything outside of streaming, reading - things like that - it's not worth it. I think maybe around 2020 would be good to upgrade if you really wanted to.

 

[cola79]

My mother uses an iPad Air 2 too. I tried it on christmas, and compared with my ipad 2017 it’s a little slower when starting apps, but so little that i would not upgrade it if that was my own iPad. It should at least run fine another year or two. I think on average you can use iPads for 5 years minimum if you can live with apps starting a little slower, and expand this time about two to three years. Before the keyboard doesn’t get slowed down they are fine in my experience.

 

[EugW]

My mother uses an iPad Air 2 too. I tried it on christmas, and compared with my ipad 2017 it’s a little slower when starting apps, but so little that i would not upgrade it if that was my own iPad. It should at least run fine another year or two. I think on average you can use iPads for 5 years minimum if you can live with apps starting a little slower, and expand this time about two to three years. Before the keyboard doesn’t get slowed down they are fine in my experience.

Mostly relatively true, but there are exceptions:

Original iPad
iPad (3rd generation)

I personally timed my purchases based mostly on memory in the iPad, but also on CPU speed. I skipped the iPad with 256 MB RAM and 1 GHz single-core CPU and got the iPad 2 with 512 MB RAM and 1 GHz dual-core CPU. I skipped the iPad Air with 1 GB RAM and 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU and got the iPad Air 2 with 2 GB RAM and 1.5 GHz triple-core CPU.

My next iPad purchase must have a minimum of 3 GB RAM. The current iPad only has 2 GB RAM... just like the 2014 iPad Air 2. Lame.

 

[willentrekin]

My next iPad purchase must have a minimum of 3 GB RAM. The current iPad only has 2 GB RAM... just like the 2014 iPad Air 2. Lame.

So you want a Pro, then. The new Pro has 4GB RAM, doesn't it? Also, ProMotion makes a huge difference.

 

[joeblow7777]

Mostly relatively true, but there are exceptions:

Original iPad
iPad (3rd generation)

I personally timed my purchases based mostly on memory in the iPad, but also on CPU speed. I skipped the iPad with 256 MB RAM and 1 GHz single-core CPU and got the iPad 2 with 512 MB RAM and 1 GHz dual-core CPU. I skipped the iPad Air with 1 GB RAM and 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU and got the iPad Air 2 with 2 GB RAM and 1.5 GHz triple-core CPU.

My next iPad purchase must have a minimum of 3 GB RAM. The current iPad only has 2 GB RAM... just like the 2014 iPad Air 2. Lame.

I haven’t found the RAM on the 6th Gen iPad to be at all limiting.

 

[gsmornot]

Hi

My mother lives in the UK and relies on her iPad Air 2 quite a bit. I bought her this iPad in August 2015. I can only visit once a year or so on average. Should I bring her iPad on this trip, or wait a year?

"Of course I should bring her one" is the only right answer, but I have some other expensive things on this trip. So, I'm asking based on general reliability of this model, likelihood of iOS updates, battery life expectancy etc. Is the consensus that these models would work through to early 2020?

If her iPad broke I could begrudgingly buy her one at UK prices, but I'm asking now because I set it up nicely for her and make sure she is happy with it.

Thanks!

Wait to fix broken. If she has no complaints she still has what she needs. We knew to move forward when apps would crash for no good reason. We knew it was age and time to go.

 

[EugW]

I haven’t found the RAM on the 6th Gen iPad to be at all limiting.

2 GB RAM is OK for now, but it says something when even Apple’s mid-priced phones are 3 GB. iOS will be targeting 3 GB or more going forward.

So you want a Pro, then. The new Pro has 4GB RAM, doesn't it?

No, I’m not interested in the Pro. I want a non-Pro with 3-4 GB. And I am pretty sure the next iteration will get it. I correctly predicted the RAM upgrades for the iPad 2 and iPad Air 2. Lets see if I can make it 3 for 3.

 

[joeblow7777]

2 GB RAM is OK for now, but it says something when even Apple’s mid-priced phones are 3 GB. iOS will be targeting 3 GB or more going forward.

1GB devices are still supported and running pretty well on the latest iOS version. I think that 2GB devices will be okay for a couple of years longer unless you're the type who like to have dozens of browser tabs open at once.

 

[EugW]

1GB devices are still supported and running pretty well on the latest iOS version. I think that 2GB devices will be okay for a couple of years longer unless you're the type who like to have dozens of browser tabs open at once.

I started noticing the limitations of 1 GB RAM in my iPhone 5S back in 2015. Constant Safari tab reloads. 3 GB in my iPhone 7 Plus was a big, big improvement.

I agree though that 2 GB now isn’t as bad as 1 GB was in 2015. Nonetheless, I won’t buy an iPad in 2019 or 2020 with only 2 GB RAM. Moreover, I would be surprised if Apple release a new iPad in 2019 or 2020 with only 2 GB RAM.