iPad Worth fixing a 2017 iPad?

[SB1500]

My girlfriends sister got a shiny new iPad Pro for Christmas. I bought her old 2017 iPad for £50 - broken screen but still working despite that. I ordered an iFixit screen and tool kit - first time I didn't use a cheap £15 China part as the last two times I did this for others, the adhesive didn't stick very well.

I've been using it since and I wouldn't say I have a burning need for an iPad, but it is nice to have / for reading MR and other blogs. I noticed yesterday going between Music, Messages and Safari it paused and crashed music meaning it just isn't performing as well as it used to anymore.

How many more years of updates do we guess it will receive?

Perhaps I should flip it once fixed and sell it on on eBay if I don't use it. Anyone got experience of iFixit parts?

 

[Ubele]

I sold my 2017 iPad (5th gen) a year ago because it was getting too slow for my needs. I bought a 12.9" iPad Pro to replace it and couldn't be happier. My wife still uses her 2017 iPad for recipes and occasional web surfing, but she does most things on her iPhone 13 Pro Max. The 5th gen iPad is the oldest iPad that can run iPadOS 16 (the current version), so I'm guessing that it won't run iPadOS 17. Since you already purchased the iFixit kit, I'd fix it and sell it, but don't expect to get much money for it, given its age. I've never used iFixit kits, but I've upgraded several Macs over the years using OWC kits. Some were nail-biters (such as upgrading my first 2012 Mac mini to a Fusion Drive and upgrading the hard drive in my 2008 MBP), but I was slow and careful, and they all went well.

 

[SB1500]

I sold my 2017 iPad (5th gen) a year ago because it was getting too slow for my needs. I bought a 12.9" iPad Pro to replace it and couldn't be happier. My wife still uses her 2017 iPad for recipes and occasional web surfing, but she does most things on her iPhone 13 Pro Max. The 5th gen iPad is the oldest iPad that can run iPadOS 16 (the current version), so I'm guessing that it won't run iPadOS 17. Since you already purchased the iFixit kit, I'd fix it and sell it, but don't expect to get much money for it, given its age. I've never used iFixit kits, but I've upgraded several Macs over the years using OWC kits. Some were nail-biters (such as upgrading my first 2012 Mac mini to a Fusion Drive and upgrading the hard drive in my 2008 MBP), but I was slow and careful, and they all went well.

I often think, imagine I kept it since 2017 ... what insane value that'd have been. With this one, it's on eBay now. No interest so I'll just have to lower the price by about 10 per week maybe until it does.

I had lost track of what and when things were losing support for the latest OS. Good to know it's on its last year. Definitely going to sell it now.

 

[Andeddu]

The performance shouldn’t be terrible as the A9 is still a viable, albeit low-end, chip by today’s standards. It’ll still be fine for web-browsing, music, media streaming apps, podcasts, video conferencing and light gaming.

 

[AL2TEACH]

I basically use my iPad (5th generation) for Apple Books

 

[JPack]

Not worth it. Performance is terrible with A9/2GB. Try browsing Reddit with it. You'll want to pull your hair.

 

[FeliApple]

Not worth it. Performance is terrible with A9/2GB. Try browsing Reddit with it. You'll want to pull your hair.

Performance is great on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12, unlike battery life (I’m the first one to criticise iOS updates, but barring some occasional keyboard lag on iOS 12 which wasn’t present on iOS 9, performance is like-new, and because Apple forced me out of iOS 9 instead of it being a conscious, deliberate choice, I’ve looked at this thing under a microscope for the past 3.5 years). That bad on iPadOS 16? It doesn’t surprise me, I’m just curious.

 

[Digitalguy]

Performance is great on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12, unlike battery life (I’m the first one to criticise iOS updates, but barring some occasional keyboard lag on iOS 12 which wasn’t present on iOS 9, performance is like-new, and because Apple forced me out of iOS 9 instead of it being a conscious, deliberate choice, I’ve looked at this thing under a microscope for the past 3.5 years). That bad on iPadOS 16? It doesn’t surprise me, I’m just curious.

A9X is a relatively big step up over A9. And iPadOS 16 makes things even worse for A9

 

[FeliApple]

A9X is a relatively big step up over A9. And iPadOS 16 makes things even worse for A9

Yeah, I thought it could be worse, but I wouldn’t have thought it was that terrible. Do you know how the 9.7-inch iPad Pro runs on iPadOS 16? I know battery life is abhorrent, but how’s performance?

 

[Digitalguy]

Yeah, I thought it could be worse, but I wouldn’t have thought it was that terrible. Do you know how the 9.7-inch iPad Pro runs on iPadOS 16? I know battery life is abhorrent, but how’s performance?

I don't know since I kept mine and that of my mother on 13.4. But my sister upgraded her iPad 6 (A10), which is similar in power, to 15.7.2 and she is not complaining about speed. She says it's at least as smooth as on 13.4 (she was there too). I advised her to stay on 15 for good. Too many people complain of how A9 is performing on 16...
On my A10X I can't see any performance difference between 16 and 15, but that's a much more capable device with 3 performance cores and double the RAM.

 

[FeliApple]

I don't know since I kept mine and that of my mother on 13.4. But my sister upgraded her iPad 6 (A10), which is similar in power, to 15.7.2 and she is not complaining about speed. She says it's at least as smooth as on 13.4 (she was there too). I advised her to stay on 15 for good. Too many people complain of how A9 is performing on 16...
On my A10X I can't see any performance difference between 16 and 15, but that's a much more capable device with 3 performance cores and double the RAM.

Interesting, maybe iPadOS 16 is the new cutoff for a massive drop in performance, just like iOS 11, iPadOS 13, and every version since have been cutoffs for battery life. Agreed, the A10X should be a lot better.

 

[Digitalguy]

Interesting, maybe iPadOS 16 is the new cutoff for a massive drop in performance, just like iOS 11, iPadOS 13, and every version since have been cutoffs for battery life. Agreed, the A10X should be a lot better.

I didn't see any noticeable degradation in performance between 12 and 13 on the 9.7 pro (11 was worse), and not even on my mini 4 (A8). However iPad 14 almost killed my mini 4. The mini 5 is still very fast but reloads increased quite a bit on 15....
Currently I have 2 2018 12.9, one on 15.7.2 and the other on 16.2. I have been comparing them and 16 seems to have more reloads but it's hard to compare. If I switch them off and on and open tons of tabs and apps nothing reloads unless I really go crazy with dozens of tabs (and the one on 16 reload first but after a huge amount nonetheless). But if I leave them both a couple of days unused both reloads all the safari tabs, even if it's just 3-4...

 

[rui no onna]

I didn't see any noticeable degradation in performance between 12 and 13 on the 9.7 pro (11 was worse), and not even on my mini 4 (A8).

Different experience here. I get a lot more reloads on iPadOS 13 versus iOS 12 on all my iPads (2-4GB RAM).

I get a lot more freezing on 2GB RAM with 13 as well particularly when going back to Safari tabs that have been in the background for some time. Honestly, I found it quicker to just force close Safari and have the tab reload than restoring from background.

 

[Digitalguy]

Different experience here. I get a lot more reloads on iPadOS 13 versus iOS 12 on all my iPads (2-4GB RAM).

I get a lot more freezing on 2GB RAM with 13 as well particularly when going back to Safari tabs that have been in the background for some time. Honestly, I found it quicker to just force close Safari and have the tab reload than restoring from background.

I was mainly referring to slowdowns, yes reloads did increase on 13, but the device was now slow to load, while 14 had a pretty big impact on performance on the mini 4. On the 3GB mini 5, reloads were not a ton on 13, now they are constant. And even on 4GB devices I don't remember as many reloads before iPadOS 15.
As I have said above however, if you empty the memory by turning off the device, you can use a 4GB device for hours with quite a few tabs and apps with basically no reload unless you go crazy. It's when you leave it for a day or 2 (even with very little) that everything starts to reload.

 

[ThrowerGB]

My 2017 9.7" iPad Pro running iPadOS 16.2 runs just fine for me. Admittedly it's actually relatively new. I got it from Apple less than a year ago when the refurbished one they sent me was lousy. So the battery is good and lasts as long as it originally did.
It's has 256GB with 88GB still available. So It's got a lot on it.
Yes, it loads more slowly than I'm used to but I don't know whether I'm accustomed to the faster speeds on my other devices, or whether it has slowed down with the latest OS updates. I think the former because I've never noticed a slowdown whenever I updated the OS, which I've done with each new release.
The display remains excellent. And it's rare to see it not able to handle a task.
I don't do much editing of graphics or video. But when I do, it's fine. It handles large spreadsheets, genealogy tools, MindManager, etc pretty well.
Would I like to have a newer machine? Yes, but I can't justify the expense yet. But if it looks like it won't take the next OS update, I might reconsider. I prefer using the latest OS versions simply because I want the latest security/privacy capabilities.

 

[FeliApple]

My 2017 9.7" iPad Pro running iPadOS 16.2 runs just fine for me. Admittedly it's actually relatively new. I got it from Apple less than a year ago when the refurbished one they sent me was lousy. So the battery is good and lasts as long as it originally did.
It's has 256GB with 88GB still available. So It's got a lot on it.
Yes, it loads more slowly than I'm used to but I don't know whether I'm accustomed to the faster speeds on my other devices, or whether it has slowed down with the latest OS updates. I think the former because I've never noticed a slowdown whenever I updated the OS, which I've done with each new release.
The display remains excellent. And it's rare to see it not able to handle a task.
I don't do much editing of graphics or video. But when I do, it's fine. It handles large spreadsheets, genealogy tools, MindManager, etc pretty well.
Would I like to have a newer machine? Yes, but I can't justify the expense yet. But if it looks like it won't take the next OS update, I might reconsider. I prefer using the latest OS versions simply because I want the latest security/privacy capabilities.

How much screen-on time do you get? Can you upload a screenshot of the last 24 hours screen from settings-battery?

I have the 9.7-inch iPad Pro too (on iOS 12) and performance is like-new, no difference when compared to my iPad Air 5 on iPadOS 15, so I reckon it’s iPadOS 16 and not the device itself (barring some very occasional keyboard lag which appeared after Apple forced it out of iOS 9). Otherwise, it’s great.

It’s my favourite iPad ever, in my opinion, it is the perfect iteration of Apple’s original idea for the iPad: the best 9.7-inch iPad to (probably) ever exist (I doubt Apple will release another one).

 

[SB1500]

I listed it on eBay but I can't seem to get rid of it! Haven't really used it much, mostly because of the performance. Like if I go between something to reply to a message, the other app refreshes when I go back into it. Previous old devices have been a lot worse in the past, sure, but this isn't really usable.

I love that Apple gives that 5 year period, but I'm starting to think maybe Samsung and the likes cut it at 3 because, they could do 4 or 5, but it mightn't be pleasant at all. (Probably more so in their case without such awesome powerful chips)

What will be interesting, is when the iPhone 11 is 5 years old, and still 'faster than the most powerful Android', I wonder will it perform stuttery and poor, whilst on the same performance grade, brand new Android phones come out with similar features and run smoother... hmmm

 

[secretk]

What will be interesting, is when the iPhone 11 is 5 years old, and still 'faster than the most powerful Android', I wonder will it perform stuttery and poor, whilst on the same performance grade, brand new Android phones come out with similar features and run smoother... hmmm

Can’t comment on iPhone 11 but I used to have iPhone 8 (company phone) till last year October. So roughly 4 years old iPhone. I was given this phone 2019. Well let me tell you the 2 GB RAM were never enough. Even in 2019 (as just 2 years old device in general but new for me) it would reload tabs and apps often enough because frankly 2 GB RAM is just not enough. I luckily did not have to use this phone a lot because the experience for me was not enjoyable in general.

On the other hand I have now iPhone 12 Pro that I bought in February 2021, so 2 years already being used, a bit more since it was manufactured. So far it does rather well but is it because of the 6 GB RAM. It will be interesting to see if I will feel the same way next year.

Overall in the last years I do not care about the CPU. I do not do that much that requires that much computing power to care about the CPU for general usage. I care about the RAM because apps and tabs reload are not what I am after. I personally do not game so the only positive of good CPU I have found is currently the camera app.

So I would not care to compare Android to iPhones in terms of CPU as for the most part I do not think it matters. What I would do is look for a phone that does computational photography rather well as this is my usage. And I think that is true for most end users.

And to your question depends how much ram iPhone 11 and how much tolerance someone has for apps/tabs reloads.

 

[FeliApple]

I listed it on eBay but I can't seem to get rid of it! Haven't really used it much, mostly because of the performance. Like if I go between something to reply to a message, the other app refreshes when I go back into it. Previous old devices have been a lot worse in the past, sure, but this isn't really usable.

I love that Apple gives that 5 year period, but I'm starting to think maybe Samsung and the likes cut it at 3 because, they could do 4 or 5, but it mightn't be pleasant at all. (Probably more so in their case without such awesome powerful chips)

What will be interesting, is when the iPhone 11 is 5 years old, and still 'faster than the most powerful Android', I wonder will it perform stuttery and poor, whilst on the same performance grade, brand new Android phones come out with similar features and run smoother... hmmm

@rui no onna has stated that their 2GB RAM iPads decreased in performance on iPadOS 13; I can confirm that iOS 12 is perfectly usable in terms of performance on 2GB RAM iPads.

It’s a shame that Apple has degraded the experience this much: the iPhone 6s was widely praised for the increase to 2GB of RAM: the single GB on the 6 - and especially the 6 Plus - was quite terrible even on the device’s original version (iOS 8). Apple’s decision to include 2GB of RAM on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro instead of 4 like on its larger brother (this being the only iPad Pro with 2GB of RAM) turned out to be a poor decision as it doesn’t have a lot of difference in terms of longevity when compared to the far cheaper 5th Gen iPad. And... the Air 2 having 2GB of RAM was as praised as the iPhone 6s, because the Air 1 already struggled a bit by iOS 8 in that regard, too.

Now, 2GB RAM iPads are deemed subpar (to say the least) due to RAM. All 9.7-inch iPads since the Air 2 (that would make the best 4 iPads with the original design language) fit in that category, unfortunately. The best category of iPads (in my opinion) was undermined heavily by Apple’s software policy. Not good.

 

[floral]

A9 is a pretty "eh" chip by today's standards. You could definitely do some web browsing and video watching, but if you tried to play a 3D game on that thing I would be amazed at your patience.

Considering you went all in on this iPad, use it until it stops getting updates, and then buy the latest baseline iPad, because if that thing is enough to support your needs, an A14 (or better in the future) along with more RAM will be more than enough.

 

[FeliApple]

A9 is a pretty "eh" chip by today's standards. You could definitely do some web browsing and video watching, but if you tried to play a 3D game on that thing I would be amazed at your patience.

Considering you went all in on this iPad, use it until it stops getting updates, and then buy the latest baseline iPad, because if that thing is enough to support your needs, an A14 (or better in the future) along with more RAM will be more than enough.

Funny how the turntables!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/games-that-take-advantage-of-a9.1923111/

 

[floral]

Funny how the turntables!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/games-that-take-advantage-of-a9.1923111/

ah... 2015. That year. Yeah, A9 was pretty good back then before every game decided to blow up in quality around 2019-2020. Now you need at least an A11 to have them be playable

 

[FeliApple]

ah... 2015. That year. Yeah, A9 was pretty good back then before every game decided to blow up in quality around 2019-2020. Now you need at least an A11 to have them be playable

Yeah, it’s a shame. The A9 + 2GB of RAM combo was massively praised in all devices barring the 9.7-inch iPad Pro: Apple should’ve given that one 4GB of RAM, for sheer longevity (its larger brother has 4GB), but the iPhone 6s was widely praised: a massive improvement over the A8 with 1GB of RAM present on the iPhone 6 - and widely considered underspecced.

The iPhone 6s/9.7-inch iPad Pro is my favourite iPhone/iPad combo ever. I have it on iOS 10/12 respectively and it works flawlessly.

 

[floral]

Yeah, it’s a shame. The A9 + 2GB of RAM combo was massively praised in all devices barring the 9.7-inch iPad Pro: Apple should’ve given that one 4GB of RAM, for sheer longevity (its larger brother has 4GB), but the iPhone 6s was widely praised: a massive improvement over the A8 with 1GB of RAM present on the iPhone 6 - and widely considered underspecced.

The iPhone 6s/9.7-inch iPad Pro is my favourite iPhone/iPad combo ever. I have it on iOS 10/12 respectively and it works flawlessly.

Yeah. Sometimes it feels like "how much more powerful could it get, it can already play console-level games" and then the concept of a console-level game is ramped up when the next generation of consoles comes out, thus rendering the device obsolete, or in apple terms, "Vintage".

 

[FeliApple]

Yeah. Sometimes it feels like "how much more powerful could it get, it can already play console-level games" and then the concept of a console-level game is ramped up when the next generation of consoles comes out, thus rendering the device obsolete, or in apple terms, "Vintage".

Yeah, also all devices are eventually bogged down by updates so devices which at release were “astonishingly future-proof” end up being “you want the device to open the notes app and use the keyboard without lag? Nah, the A9 is too old”.

I mention that specific example because of the following reason: my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 has sporadic, minimal keyboard lag. Which is abhorrent, pathetic software: my 6s on iOS 10 has never lagged. Not once. Yes, the lag is negligible, and it happens once every three months, but I notice it. And it shouldn‘t be there. I should know: I used that iPad for three years on iOS 9 until Apple forced it out.