Yup, no argument here, but grandma is happy with what she has, hence no need to action.
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Which iPad to Buy My Grandma Who Currently Has iPad 3rd Generation?
- Thread starter HappyDude20
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Yup, no argument here, but grandma is happy with what she has, hence no need to action.
I thought A5X and Retina was ok, and surprisingly usable on iOS7. iOS9 was much more laggy and had a lot of apps not needed iOS8 at the time, I never would have updated. I sometimes wonder how iOS8 would have run on it. Knowing that it was a bodged release, I resisted any upgrade past iOS 6.x as long as possible.
If one wants any real choice of apps, iOS9 is the minimum required at this moment, regardless of how the device runs. In my case, it was buy a new iPad straight away to get the apps back or upgrade the 3 to iOS9 and try it. That at least served its purpose long enough for Apple to release a device that ticked pretty much all of my boxes.
Perhaps the best device for the OP’s grandma would be the next 9.7”, which, if released, might get a laminated display given that the 6th Gen is the only iPad left in the lineup without one. The question is whether the 9.7” will be updated this year/next year or whether standard size is now moving up to 10.5”, and whether YouTube will drop support for iOS9 before then.
If one wants any real choice of apps, iOS9 is the minimum required at this moment, regardless of how the device runs. In my case, it was buy a new iPad straight away to get the apps back or upgrade the 3 to iOS9 and try it. That at least served its purpose long enough for Apple to release a device that ticked pretty much all of my boxes.
Perhaps the best device for the OP’s grandma would be the next 9.7”, which, if released, might get a laminated display given that the 6th Gen is the only iPad left in the lineup without one. The question is whether the 9.7” will be updated this year/next year or whether standard size is now moving up to 10.5”, and whether YouTube will drop support for iOS9 before then.
iOS 8 is too old. Too many apps require iOS 9.x or later. In fact, it's not just 9.x, but 9.3 for some apps. Furthermore, a lot of the productivity apps require 10.x or even 11.x.
I had the opportunity check out some old iPhone 5 phones and they had OSes ranging from iOS 8.4.1 to 9.2 to 9.2.1 to 10.3.3. I was contemplating keeping one with iOS 9 (as a backup/travel SIM phone), as there is some increased lag going from 8.4 to 9.2 to 10.3, but in the end I just thought 10.3 was the best. It turns out 9.2 isn't good enough, as some apps on iOS 9 require 9.3 anyway as mentioned above, and these 9.2.1 phones can't upgrade to that. Although a bit more laggy, 10.3.3 on those old iPhones is acceptable and much more compatible, so it's best to go with that.
Meanwhile, an iPad Air 2 on iOS 12.2 is way, way faster than those old iPhones on iOS 8.4.1.
Same here with my ipad air, resisted on ios 7 but ended up updating it to IOS 10. IOS 9 was the big turning point in IOS updates, it made 512 RAM devices unusable and 1GB RAM devices laggy, particularly the older ones. There was no way back from IOS 9. And to be honest we are at the same level of resource usage on IOS 12 (problems with IOS 11 were corrected on IOS 12, IOS 11 was poorly implemented but was nowhere near as heavy as IOS 9 in terms or ressource usage, and IOS 12 proves it, but keeping all the new features and being on a similar level as ios 10 and 9). The big question is, will there be another big IOS update like IOS 9 (e.g. IOS 13), that is one that cannot be made better with subsequent IOS update? Or will it only be moderate increase in resource usage as IOS 8 was. Or a temporary big increase as IOS 11 was but that can be corrected with the following upgrade? Nobody knows.
My feeling is that IOS 9 was the exception, probably because of multitasking.. And that things like file system or mouse support etc. do not require a lot of resources. So 3/4 GB devices will still be fast for quite a few years. Question is 2GB devices. The mini 4 is the slowest 2GB device. The pro 9.7 and ipad 2018 are the fastest. Ipad air 2 and ipad 2017 are in-between. I have or have had almost all of them. The mini 4 is not great but still usable, the pro 9.7 is still very fast. So on IOS 12 2GB do not cause any slowdown and speed is only a matter of CPU. Rumors say mini 4 and air 2 will not get IOS 13. If IOS 13 is not RAM intensive the pro 9.7 and ipad 2018 should not slow down much or at all. Guess it's safe to wait for comparisons... It will probably be a trade-off between desirable features and giving up some speed.... (how important the features and how much speed...)
My mother in law had the same ipad. I would barely hold charge. She got a new iPad Air 3, which is a fine choice! It should last another good long time.
Have you bought her a new iPad yet?
I’d love to see how this thread goes, and ends.
You’ve got a lot of excellent options.
iPad 6th Gen $329.99, Affordable and fast for Grandma! I would avoid the 5th gen, like eugW said. The A10 is going to be a huge boost.
Honestly she’s gonna keep it a while from now, and the 5th gen is hindering that.
I’d love to see how this thread goes, and ends.
You’ve got a lot of excellent options.
iPad 6th Gen $329.99, Affordable and fast for Grandma! I would avoid the 5th gen, like eugW said. The A10 is going to be a huge boost.
Honestly she’s gonna keep it a while from now, and the 5th gen is hindering that.
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While,I agree the 6th gen is the better buy obviously, if he can score a really good deal on a 5th gen I wouldn’t hesitate to jump on it for the right price. The a9 has aged very well so far. My old 6s Plus still runs awesome and my mom loves her fifth gen, but I wouldn’t trade it for my 6th gen lol
A9 and A8X are roughly the same speed. A10 is a pretty big increase in speed over both of them.
Yes but I think the same could be said for the 6th gen. Maybe $250 online?
For a smooth iPad experience, a 6th gen is kinda the standard. I think a lot of people will agree with this too. She’s gonna be keeping it another 5-7 years probably.
I bought my 6 year old son a new 6th gen, he freaking loves it lol.
It’s the gold standard! Lol.
Well, my 6 year-old daughter loves her iPad Air 2, as does her 4 year-old little brother. (They each have one, after I passed down mine after buying the iPad Pro.) I bought my first iPad Air 2 in 2014 (at full price), and my second in 2015 for ($100 less). Despite those iPads being 4-5 years old, I suspect they'll be using them for several more years.
At that age, usually their requirements are not very high.
BTW, family sharing works really well with the iOS devices. I was less enamoured with Google's Family Link but I hear a lot of people like it.
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Ha, I’m happy my kids are happy with the cheaper android tablets. Canada doesn’t have such great deals out there, base model 6th gen is $420. So having 3 kids at home, not willing to drop that kind of cash when they love their lg g pads for less than $100 a piece off Craigslist lol
Trust me, I love the 6th gen and the a10. Every time I look at these new models coming out, like the air and the pros, hell I was even tempted by the mini, I keep coming back to keeping my 6th gen. It’s fast and smooth and great consumption device
I love this topic and can't wait to known the result.
I wish I could buy my 82-year old, somehow technophobic dad an iPad. But each time I visit with a present, he grumbles, "I hope you didn't bring me one of these techno-gizmos of yours. You know I don't like these things."
He owns a PC though (which he uses when needed).
I wish I could buy my 82-year old, somehow technophobic dad an iPad. But each time I visit with a present, he grumbles, "I hope you didn't bring me one of these techno-gizmos of yours. You know I don't like these things."
He owns a PC though (which he uses when needed).
You might be pleasantly surprised.I love this topic and can't wait to known the result.
I wish I could buy my 82-year old, somehow technophobic dad an iPad. But each time I visit with a present, he grumbles, "I hope you didn't bring me one of these techno-gizmos of yours. You know I don't like these things."
Back when I upgraded to iPad 4, my mom got my iPad 3 and my 86yo grandma got my mom's iPad 2. My uncle and cousins helped set it up for her. She used it to view photos on Facebook and to FaceTime/Skype with us grandkids living in different countries. The rest of the time, it was used as a digital picture frame. This is the same grandma who's afraid of technology and has never used a PC even once in her life (she retired long before PCs started becoming commonly used in the workplace).
Multi-threaded CPU or GPU-bound performance, yes. Alas, not all tasks can be perfectly multi-threaded. The 5th gen is noticeably faster than Air 2 at running or loading certain tasks thanks to both faster single core performance and faster storage (e.g. app updates, Excel).
That said, with all the deals available on the iPad 6th gen, imho, the $50 or so savings going with older tech just isn't worth it.
For most stuff in 2019, if speed actually matters, multi-core speed is usually what's important. Not always, but usually.
For App Updates, that's not a big deal, and for Excel, I find that for most mainstream usage the Air 2 is already fast enough. It's not as if people generally crunch ginormous spreadsheets on a 9.7" iPad.
Only if you're planning on running an intensive application - general system fluidity and things like browsing and youtube are still heavily dependent on single core - Using the good old road comparison, the SC would be the speed limit, while the MC is the number of lanes, if you've got a lot of stuff to move at once, you benefit from more lanes, if you're only moving a bit, you benefit more by getting to the end of the road faster.
Nah, that's not really true. iOS is heavily optimized for multi-core already.
What you say may was true a decade ago, but it's no longer 2009.
Furthermore YouTube runs just fine on the iPad Air 2. I don't think I've heard anyone ever say YouTube performance was a problem on the iPad Air 2.
No, but iOS was already out... on single-core iPhones... which was my point actually. The first iPad in 2010 was single-core, but it went dual-core in 2011, over 8 years ago. Furthermore, triple-core iPads have been available since 2014.A decade ago, the first iPad hasn't been released yet.
Scaling to two cores is relatively easy. For the most part, you've got the iOS stuff on one core while the active app can have full use of the other core.
It's beyond that that's not so easy. There's a reason why even on A12, there are fast cores and slow cores instead of all cores being homogeneous.