All iPads Refurb Air 2 for $159. Good deal?

[lambertjohn]

The Micro Center here in Dallas just posted an Apple refurbished iPad Air 2 for $159 with 90 day warranty. They actually have eight of them in stock. Was thinking of picking one of these up for my six-year-old son (vs. something like an iPad 6 or 7 for more money.) Curious what your thoughts are on this deal. Is it a decent iPad for a kid even in 2020? Or should I get something a little more recent, like an iPad 6 or 7? Micro Center has the iPad 7 on sale for $259, brand new, etc. etc. Should I spend $100 more for that? Just going to install learning apps on it and YouTube for kids, that's pretty much it.

Thanks!

 

[ericwn]

It’s okay I guess but for not much more one can get a new iPad that has pencil capabilities- I’d go for that.

 

[nicho]

The Micro Center here in Dallas just posted an Apple refurbished iPad Air 2 for $159 with 90 day warranty. They actually have eight of them in stock. Was thinking of picking one of these up for my six-year-old son (vs. something like an iPad 6 or 7 for more money.) Curious what your thoughts are on this deal. Is it a decent iPad for a kid even in 2020? Or should I get something a little more recent, like an iPad 6 or 7? Micro Center has the iPad 7 on sale for $259, brand new, etc. etc. Should I spend $100 more for that? Just going to install learning apps on it and YouTube for kids, that's pretty much it.

Thanks!

At that price for the Air 2... is it the 16GB model?

There are some advantages to the Air 2 over the iPad 7... but the iPad 7 will receive support for much longer. Air 2 probably has one iPadOS version left before it is cast aside.

 

[lambertjohn]

It's the 64gb model. Here's the link.

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics - Thousands of products to buy: desktops, laptops, monitors, build your own PC parts, upgrades, digital imaging, printing supplies, portable devices, audio equipment, software, video games, movies, tech books, plus repair service, store hours, directions...

www.microcenter.com

 

[Digitalguy]

at 64gb it's a decent deal.... i have seen a lot of people trying to sell the much worse air 1 for more than that (although I doubt it would be an easy sale...)

 

[nicho]

It's the 64gb model. Here's the link.

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics

Micro Center - Computers and Electronics - Thousands of products to buy: desktops, laptops, monitors, build your own PC parts, upgrades, digital imaging, printing supplies, portable devices, audio equipment, software, video games, movies, tech books, plus repair service, store hours, directions...

www.microcenter.com

Not bad at all then.

The only question mark left is, what level of "refurbishment" have these devices gone through?

No new battery? Steer clear.

 

[Tekguy0]

Consider that support for the A8(x)-series will probably end soon. My iPhone 6 w/ A8 can't run iOS 13, I think only the iPad Mini 4, Air 2, and iPod touch can.

 

[EugW]

Get the iPad 7 for $259 if the 32 storage is sufficient. Mostly a better deal IMO than an old lower spec machine refurbed by a third party.

The iPad 7 is not laminated but has a slightly bigger screen with much faster A10 and 3 GB RAM, which I consider recommended entry level for 2020. I wouldn’t recommend an A8X with 2 GB in 2020.

Note, we own 2 x iPad Air 2 (64 GB), iPad 7 LTE (128 GB), and iPad Pro 10.5 (64 GB), and feel the iPad Air 2 is sometimes laggy now. Side by side the iPad 7 feels a bit slower than the iPad Pro 10.5, but overall the iPad 7 seems quite peppy, and feels much closer to the iPad Pro than it does to the iPad Air 2.

Note, truthfully our two iPad Air 2s are sufficient for our 5 and 7 year olds, but the lag when running some educational software and websites can be noticeable, and I get the impression there are more app/site crashes. I suspect this could mainly be related to the lower amount of RAM. Basically they are using our hand me down iPad Air 2s from 2014 and 2015, but based on my experiences with them vs newer iPads, if I was buying new today I’d get them each an iPad 7.

 

[AutomaticApple]

The Micro Center here in Dallas just posted an Apple refurbished iPad Air 2 for $159 with 90 day warranty. They actually have eight of them in stock. Was thinking of picking one of these up for my six-year-old son (vs. something like an iPad 6 or 7 for more money.) Curious what your thoughts are on this deal. Is it a decent iPad for a kid even in 2020? Or should I get something a little more recent, like an iPad 6 or 7? Micro Center has the iPad 7 on sale for $259, brand new, etc. etc. Should I spend $100 more for that? Just going to install learning apps on it and YouTube for kids, that's pretty much it.

Thanks!

Definitely get the iPad 7 over the iPad Air 2. The battery in the iPad 7 will last much longer.

 

[lambertjohn]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. Gonna go ahead and get the iPad 7 for sure!!

 

[EugW]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone. Gonna go ahead and get the iPad 7 for sure!!

Good choice.

For reference, here are some Geekbench 5 scores:

A8X single-core: 378
A10 single-core: 759 (+100%)

A8X multi-core: 1049
A10 multi-core: 1405 (+34%)

A8X GPU score: 774
A10 GPU score: 2793 (+260%)

Given the above, it's no wonder the iPad 7 feels significantly faster than the iPad Air 2, and that's not even considering the fact that the iPad 7 has 50% more RAM.

 

[ACG12]

Put that $159 towards a new iPad with 3gb of RAM like the 7th gen 10.2 iPad. They usually go on sale for as low as $249. The A8x is very old and starting to show its age and imo not worth buying at this point.

 

[s2mikey]

It really does get to be about the RAM and then the better processor at some point. I’m still on my 6th gen unit and I can get by for longer since I’m not a power user but I always buy the latest I can when I do upgrade.