Should I wait for a new iPad or go ahead and pick one up now?

[cmiller4642]

First off:

I'm not going to get an iPad pro

I just use my iPad in the bedroom before I go to sleep to surf the internet, watch videos, or maybe listen to some music at the same time.

I've had an iPad 2 actually for 6 years, but it's starting to crash a lot (pretty surprised it lasted this long). Would a rumored redesign of the iPad that's $349 right now be worth it? Or should I just go for the one on the market currently?

 

[Glmnet1]

Wait, the last rumour for the iPad is IMO very reliable. Nobody expects a major redesign but an updated internals and possibly another price drop are very likely. So if you wait 2-4 weeks you might be able to save a few bucks and/or get a better device.

 

[MMakoto]

Wait, the last rumour for the iPad is IMO very reliable. Nobody expects a major redesign but an updated internals and possibly another price drop are very likely. So if you wait 2-4 weeks you might be able to save a few bucks and/or get a better device.

+1. The standard cheaper version is due for a refresh next month, and the current one has been down as low as $250 on Walmart. Just hang in there for a little longer.

 

[Greenmeenie]

Wait. Rumor has it the regular ipad might be updated next month. Worth waiting a few weeks i think.

 

[cmiller4642]

+1. The standard cheaper version is due for a refresh next month, and the current one has been down as low as $250 on Walmart. Just hang in there for a little longer.

Right on. The iPad is one of my favorite devices, but the iPhone is the one that I update all the time. Rather than buy a Pro, I'm going to buy a standard new iPad and an Apple Watch (a device I still don't have)

 

[Hubcapjw]

Right on. The iPad is one of my favorite devices, but the iPhone is the one that I update all the time. Rather than buy a Pro, I'm going to buy a standard new iPad and an Apple Watch (a device I still don't have)

Very good thinking. The Watch is awesome, you will not regret that decision. With that in mind I bought my mom a 2017 Lte iPad and she loves it. If you can find for the$250 as others have said then I say go for it. 250 is a great price for a great device.

 

[cmiller4642]

Very good thinking. The Watch is awesome, you will not regret that decision. With that in mind I bought my mom a 2017 Lte iPad and she loves it. If you can find for the$250 as others have said then I say go for it. 250 is a great price for a great device.

I don't really need LTE honestly. I have an iPhone X on Verizon, and I get enough use with that outside of the house. My iPad is in the bedroom exclusively, and I probably use it for about an hour or 2 a day when I'm in bed relaxing.

 

[Hubcapjw]

I don't really need LTE honestly. I have an iPhone X on Verizon, and I get enough use with that outside of the house. My iPad is in the bedroom exclusively, and I probably use it for about an hour or 2 a day when I'm in bed relaxing.

Yea I was just stating the model I had not that u should go for lte. If you can get a WiFi version for 250 that is a great deal.

 

[onepoint]

First off:

I'm not going to get an iPad pro

I just use my iPad in the bedroom before I go to sleep to surf the internet, watch videos, or maybe listen to some music at the same time.

I've had an iPad 2 actually for 6 years, but it's starting to crash a lot (pretty surprised it lasted this long). Would a rumored redesign of the iPad that's $349 right now be worth it? Or should I just go for the one on the market currently?

If you don't 'need' one, and it's more a matter of convenience, I suggest waiting. Even if you don't acquire a new model, any updates should send the prices of current models for a dive.

Given your use case(s), you might want to reconsider a used/refurbished Pro model - the speakers are a major upgrade over non-Pro models.

 

[Apple_Robert]

For the intended usage, the current models available are more than capable of meeting your needs for several years. There is no logical point in waiting, unless you want to be able to brag for a few months, that you have the latest.

 

[ducatisteve]

For web surfing/video/music? Just get one now. A new model isn't going to be life changing for those tasks.

 

[bensisko]

For web surfing/video/music? Just get one now. A new model isn't going to be life changing for those tasks.

+1 for this.

If the iPad is just an appliance to you, a refresh isn’t going to make a lot of differences. You might miss out on a few updated specs, but getting one now isn’t going to hurt.

 

[ACST]

For the intended usage, the current models available are more than capable of meeting your needs for several years. There is no logical point in waiting, unless you want to be able to brag for a few months, that you have the latest.

What a weird reply, with the latest rumors pointing to a refresh within weeks why wouldn't you wait? Nothing to do with bragging rights but more with getting a free upgrade by waiting a few weeks, what person wouldn't do that? Do you also say no when a hotel wants to give you a free upgrade to a bigger room?

Again very weird response you're giving.

 

[ducatisteve]

What a weird reply, with the latest rumors pointing to a refresh within weeks why wouldn't you wait? Nothing to do with bragging rights but more with getting a free upgrade by waiting a few weeks, what person wouldn't do that? Do you also say no when a hotel wants to give you a free upgrade to a bigger room?

Again very weird response you're giving.

I'm saying for such light usage there's going to be no practical difference between the two besides going weeks without one. Why postpone pleasure? It's not like they're ever going to be hampered by the performance of the web browsing, music playing, and video watching at all for the lifetime of either the old or new one. The only thing they're giving up is weeks of not having an iPad.

If you're only going to drive 30mph, what's the difference between 100 horsepower and 110 horsepower? If the extra bump I'd never use meant waiting, I'd take the "slower" car now.

 

[Glmnet1]

I'm saying for such light usage there's going to be no practical difference between the two besides going weeks without one. Why postpone pleasure? It's not like they're ever going to be hampered by the performance of the web browsing, music playing, and video watching at all for the lifetime of either the old or new one. The only thing they're giving up is weeks of not having an iPad.

If you're only going to drive 30mph, what's the difference between 100 horsepower and 110 horsepower? If the extra bump I'd never use meant waiting, I'd take the "slower" car now.

The car analogy doesn't apply in this case because of software updates. Even if right now a user doesn't use the full power of the device, at some point the software will catch up and then either the iPad will start running slower or it simply won't be supported for the latest iOS. Their usage could also change over time and require more power.

In this case it doesn't make a huge difference, but being able to "postpone pleasure", or delay gratification, is usually a very good thing as it often leads to a greater reward. I also find that it often leads to a better purchase decision when you let some time pass by.

 

[bensisko]

What a weird reply, with the latest rumors pointing to a refresh within weeks why wouldn't you wait? Nothing to do with bragging rights but more with getting a free upgrade by waiting a few weeks, what person wouldn't do that? Do you also say no when a hotel wants to give you a free upgrade to a bigger room?

Again very weird response you're giving.

Would you hold off on buying a new washer and dryer or refrigerator because a new one is rumored to be coming out in a couple weeks? Unless you’re REALLY into getting the latest and greatest technology in everything... probably not.

That is what the iPad is for some people - it’s an appliance. That’s not a bad thing! There are a lot of us in the community who would say “No! You have to have the latest and greatest to get the maximum experience possible!” That’s not the case with the world at large - they buy a device like an iPad when they want it.

ducatisteve is absolutely correct in that the refresh is not going to change the experience for the OP in a dramatic way - they could buy the iPad today and use it for the next five years without giving another thought to getting a new one until the expeperience becomes so detrimental. The OP is coming off an iPad 2 - this, along with the stated use case, tells me they’re more interested in the iPad as an appliance, not a technology hobby.

 

[afir93]

Would you hold off on buying a new washer and dryer or refrigerator because a new one is rumored to be coming out in a couple weeks? Unless you’re REALLY into getting the latest and greatest technology in everything... probably not.

That is what the iPad is for some people - it’s an appliance. That’s not a bad thing! There are a lot of us in the community who would say “No! You have to have the latest and greatest to get the maximum experience possible!” That’s not the case with the world at large - they buy a device like an iPad when they want it.

ducatisteve is absolutely correct in that the refresh is not going to change the experience for the OP in a dramatic way - they could buy the iPad today and use it for the next five years without giving another thought to getting a new one until the expeperience becomes so detrimental. The OP is coming off an iPad 2 - this, along with the stated use case, tells me they’re more interested in the iPad as an appliance, not a technology hobby.

But if he doesn’t need a new one urgently right now, then why not wait a few more weeks? The user experience likely won‘t change much for him with the new model, but that absolutely doesn‘t mean that there won‘t be long-term benefits.

In a year or two it won‘t matter for him if he held out on the device 3 weeks longer, but what will matter over time is the faster and better hardware. The new iPad which will likely come with a faster processor and other improvements will hold up much better a few years down the road, the performance difference won‘t matter right now but it can absolutely become noticeable a few years later. Just look at how many people experience lags and slowdowns all over the place on the iPhone 6 whereas the 6s with a faster processor and an additional gig of RAM holds up mostly fine performance-wise. Even if you‘re not big into technology, chances are you still don‘t like waiting for apps to load or looking at lagging animations.

Remember, OP was on an iPad 2 for 6 years, it‘s likely that he intends to get a similarly long usage time out of the new device, so why not choose the device that‘s more futureproof for (likely) about the same price? By not waiting the additional three weeks, he would be giving up an entire year of future-proofing, that might be one year less that he‘s able to use the new device. This additional year would definitely win for me over these three weeks.

(Three weeks is just an estimate here, we don’t know the exact release but the rumors strongly suggest that we‘ll see new iPads in less than a month. It would be different if we didn‘t have such a concrete and soon release window.)

And yes, if I knew that I‘ll get a better and more future-proof model of a hairdryer or refrigerator I‘m looking to buy for the exact amount of money and „only“ three weeks of delay, then I would most likely wait as long as my old one is still usable until then.

 

[ducatisteve]

It's almost like there's more than one philosophy when it comes to buying now vs waiting, and neither are right or wrong.

 

[bensisko]

But if he doesn’t need a new one urgently right now, then why not wait a few more weeks? The user experience likely won‘t change much for him with the new model, but that absolutely doesn‘t mean that there won‘t be long-term benefits.

In a year or two it won‘t matter for him if he held out on the device 3 weeks longer, but what will matter over time is the faster and better hardware. The new iPad which will likely come with a faster processor and other improvements will hold up much better a few years down the road, the performance difference won‘t matter right now but it can absolutely become noticeable a few years later. Just look at how many people experience lags and slowdowns all over the place on the iPhone 6 whereas the 6s with a faster processor and an additional gig of RAM holds up mostly fine performance-wise. Even if you‘re not big into technology, chances are you still don‘t like waiting for apps to load or looking at lagging animations.

Remember, OP was on an iPad 2 for 6 years, it‘s likely that he intends to get a similarly long usage time out of the new device, so why not choose the device that‘s more futureproof for (likely) about the same price? By not waiting the additional three weeks, he would be giving up an entire year of future-proofing, that might be one year less that he‘s able to use the new device. This additional year would definitely win for me over these three weeks.

(Three weeks is just an estimate here, we don’t know the exact release but the rumors strongly suggest that we‘ll see new iPads in less than a month. It would be different if we didn‘t have such a concrete and soon release window.)

And yes, if I knew that I‘ll get a better and more future-proof model of a hairdryer or refrigerator I‘m looking to buy for the exact amount of money and „only“ three weeks of delay, then I would most likely wait as long as my old one is still usable until then.

Personally, I think the whole concept of "future proofing" is silly. Most people who care about "future proofing" aren't going to hold on to their devices long enough for it to be an issue. Secondly, you never know what will or will not cause a device to misbehave in the future - so getting those upgraded specs doesn't mean it's anymore or less "future proof".

Not only that, but (1) We don't know for sure there is going to be a refresh of the iPad in March (the rumored iPad could be the so-called "Modern iPad" with the iPhone X treatment - IF there even is an iPad announcement in March), (2) nor do we know WHAT the upgrade is. That's a LOT of "ifs" with very little details for someone that may not care about a minor processor bump.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not opposed to waiting - IF it makes sense. If the OP doesn't feel like waiting a month is a super big deal, then fine, but, in this case, there's still a lot of "ifs" out there on a new iPad and not a lot of hints of a worthwhile payback.

 

[Ffosse]

I'd say it's worth waiting a few weeks; if not, then no big deal.

 

[afir93]

Personally, I think the whole concept of "future proofing" is silly. Most people who care about "future proofing" aren't going to hold on to their devices long enough for it to be an issue. Secondly, you never know what will or will not cause a device to misbehave in the future - so getting those upgraded specs doesn't mean it's anymore or less "future proof".

Not only that, but (1) We don't know for sure there is going to be a refresh of the iPad in March (the rumored iPad could be the so-called "Modern iPad" with the iPhone X treatment - IF there even is an iPad announcement in March), (2) nor do we know WHAT the upgrade is. That's a LOT of "ifs" with very little details for someone that may not care about a minor processor bump.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not opposed to waiting - IF it makes sense. If the OP doesn't feel like waiting a month is a super big deal, then fine, but, in this case, there's still a lot of "ifs" out there on a new iPad and not a lot of hints of a worthwhile payback.

Well I do disagree about your sentiment about future-proofing being silly – not only has it pretty much always been beneficial from a performance point of view to wait for the next speed-bump, but the current iPad line has an A9 chip inside and we already know that the jump from the A9 to A10 is huge (about 40% speed increase, and even more in the graphics department). And the A10 is the least the new iPad is going to get. If we were talking about a 5-10% speed increase like with the Intel chips in the MBPs over the last couple of years then I‘d agree that‘s usually not worth holding out for, but ≥40% speed increase is huge and might easily make the device more useable/bearable for 1-2 years longer, maybe even more than that.

Also OP has used his iPad 2 for 6 years, it‘s a fair assumption that he‘s looking to get a similarly large lifespan out of his new product and futureproofing can absolutely matter in that timespan. To get back to my previous example, the iPhone 6 with an A8 is „only“ 3-3.5 years old but doesn‘t hold up very well performance- and speed-wise with iOS 11. So much that even many people who don‘t care about the „latest and greatest“ take the plunge and upgrade, even if they are not interested in most of the new features.

That said, this seems to be an agree-to-disagree discussion. Nobody should bang his head against a wall because he got a device that might hold up a bit worse than the current model 3+ years down the road, but at the same time future-proofing is a factor that should be considered in a purchase-question like the one posed by OP.

About the release date... you‘re right in that there are multiple ifs remaining, but the release windows of the previous iPads and the fact that multiple independent sources reported about an update to the line in March, I‘d say there‘s a very high chance of seeing new iPads within the next month. No certainty, but IMO it would be better right now to be safe and wait out the next 3-4 weeks than to be sorry and miss out on what might be a huge performance update.

Also the iPad Pro lineup will most certainly not get an update in March, especially not with a Face ID iPhone X-ish redesign incoming. The earliest for that would be WWDC but there have been rumors that it might not happen until in the 2nd half of this year.

 

[UbuntuFu]

I would wait to see what Apple announces. If your iPad 2 still works now you could probably put up with the random crash for a couple of months or even try to reset/reinstall the iPad to fix those crashes.

The thing is, what if your favorite color was purple and the 2018 iPad was available in purple? You see how many people went crazy for gold, and then rose gold? Then you'd be glad you waited. That and a processor bump, maybe price drop, storage increase and you know you're going to get a fresh stock battery.

 

[Glmnet1]

The thing is, what if your favorite color was purple and the 2018 iPad was available in purple? You see how many people went crazy for gold, and then rose gold? Then you'd be glad you waited. That and a processor bump, maybe price drop, storage increase and you know you're going to get a fresh stock battery.

 

[bensisko]

And the A10 is the least the new iPad is going to get.

That’s pure supposition. Given this is the “low cost” iPad, Apple may choose to stick an A9x, or not give it a processor upgrade at all! There’s history for Apple coming out with a “new”iPad that either had very minor spec updates or NO spec updates. Now, I hope has learned their lesson with the Mini 3, but given Apple’s aim for this iPad, bumping up specs might not be a huge priority.

We could speculate all day about what may, or may not, be in a potential upgrade, but at the end of the day, no matter what the OP does, they are going to be able to enjoy their iPad for a very long time (in terms of tablets anyway). If they keep it for five years or six, iPads will be different when they even start to think about buying a new one (or buying something else).

Or, it’s possible that iOS will drastically change in the next couple years and it won’t matter if they buy a 2017 or a 2018 because neither will be compatible.

Point is, you can try and play it safe, but drastic shifts in the market can cause new devices to become obsolete very quickly.

 

[afir93]

That’s pure supposition.

Ok let me rephrase: given Apple‘s history about iPad updates and the strong rumors about Apple‘s other low-end iOS device, the iPhone SE, getting a spec bump to an A10 processor soon, it seems very likely that this is also the chip the new low-end iPad will get. Yes there is the chance that it might be less than that in terms of specs, but we‘re talking about the low-end iPad here, what will Apple refresh it for at all if not for a spec update.

To get back to what I previously said, this is an agree-to-disagree kinda topic and we are most likely not going to convince each other of what we think. For how long OP is probably intending to use the new device, waiting out another 3-4 weeks seems negligible to me when he has already „waited“ with getting a new device for 6 years and might want to get 6 years out of the new one aswell. Yes we don‘t know for certain if it‘s gonna be more future-proof, but with there being a good chance that it is, it seems like a no-brainer for me to wait another few weeks to see what comes up. If nothing else then the current iPads will most certainly get cheaper with the release of new ones, so it seems like the financially more reasonable decision to hold off for slightly longer.