How long will iPad Air be usable for?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › How long will iPad Air be usable for?

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wombus

107 posts

Master Geek

#1169680 6-Nov-2014 07:30

I have the Ipad 2 and Ipad 4, and have been progressively updating as they become available with no issues at all, and now on IOS 8.1. I love the fact that updating it is so easy and performance has always been solid and everything seams to work as it should. Plenty of life left in my old Ipad 2 that's for sure.

tdgeek

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#1169684 6-Nov-2014 07:41

Try turning on Reduce Motion, to reduce load. Settings-General-Accessibility
Keep running apps to a minimum as the extra memory on iOS8 and many running apps may lower the memory too much

Paul1977

5041 posts

Uber Geek

#1170139 6-Nov-2014 15:49

Get the Air 2, it is at the beginning of a release cycle, so buying it now will ensure you get the most usable life out of it. I went from an iPad 3 to an Air 2 and it is noticeably better, so going from an iPad 2 will be huge.

Either the Air or the Air 2 will be a big step up, but if you are worried about longevity I think buying 1 year old technology (iPad Air) would be a mistake.

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Elpie

1304 posts

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#1170167 6-Nov-2014 16:26

FWIW, I went from iPad2 to iPad Air and apart from the weight difference I don't feel the change was justified. I had iPad2 since it was launched and never had any issues with it. It is still going strong and handling iOS 8.1 brilliantly.
However, my opinion of the benefits of the upgrade to iPad Air are rather coloured by the fact that I have just received my third in a year. I haven't set it up yet (only just got it) but if it works without having hardware issues then I might get to spend the last six weeks of the one year warranty period with a working iPad. Apple only replaces with refurbished models when you have a warranty claim. If this one dies in seven weeks I will be stuffed.
I won't be changing up to an Air 2. I regret getting rid of my iPad 2 for the Air model actually.
It's that old saying, "If it aint broke, don't fix it". I would have been better off hanging onto the iPad 2 until it was no longer supported. Given how many years I had my iPod Classic before Apple abandoned it, the iPad 2 could be around for awhile yet.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1170181 6-Nov-2014 16:38

alasta: My 3rd gen was really good, although admittedly I never upgraded it to iOS 8.

It was my understanding that the 4th gen was essentially just a 3rd gen with lightning port.

The 3 was underpowered, as it was the first retina model, and for many it performed worse than the ipad 2, as it was pushing more pixels. Apple replaced it after only about 6 months with the 4. So I would be surprised if it performed better than the ipad 2 after ios8 is installed. Apparently IOS 8.1.1 will have fixes to speed up ipad 2 and iphone 4s users. The ipad 2 is certainly a lot slower with ios8, compared top ios7. Not sre if it is unusable, but it certainly is very laggy and the animations freeze when existing an app. ios7 performed better than ios6 on an ipad 2. Maybe it is something to do with the number of apps installed, so a factory reset may help. The ipad2 is still a pretty decent device, it is really only missing the retina screen which isn't a major issue for many.

JamesL

956 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1177787 18-Nov-2014 09:59

FYI 8.1.1 is out now

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/17/ios-8-1-1/

Paul1977

5041 posts

Uber Geek

#1178308 19-Nov-2014 09:26

JamesL: FYI 8.1.1 is out now

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/17/ios-8-1-1/

And includes "performance improvements for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S"

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Kiwirider007

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1178317 19-Nov-2014 09:33

Thanks for the heads up guys. I downloaded the upgrade last night, but to be honest I can't really see too much improvement when looking on the internet. Im not sure what others have found?

tdgeek

29743 posts

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#1179354 19-Nov-2014 10:45

mattwnz:
alasta: My 3rd gen was really good, although admittedly I never upgraded it to iOS 8.

It was my understanding that the 4th gen was essentially just a 3rd gen with lightning port.

The 3 was underpowered, as it was the first retina model, and for many it performed worse than the ipad 2, as it was pushing more pixels. Apple replaced it after only about 6 months with the 4. So I would be surprised if it performed better than the ipad 2 after ios8 is installed. Apparently IOS 8.1.1 will have fixes to speed up ipad 2 and iphone 4s users. The ipad 2 is certainly a lot slower with ios8, compared top ios7. Not sre if it is unusable, but it certainly is very laggy and the animations freeze when existing an app. ios7 performed better than ios6 on an ipad 2. Maybe it is something to do with the number of apps installed, so a factory reset may help. The ipad2 is still a pretty decent device, it is really only missing the retina screen which isn't a major issue for many.

My 16yo daughter just complained. I will update to see what happens. As I assume iOS8 has a larger memory footprint I would expect it to run into low memory issues sooner when too many apps are running, so best to minimise that. I'll look for CPU intensive settings. Reduce Motion to on will help

Batman

Mad Scientist
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#1179365 19-Nov-2014 11:04

my ipad 2 works fine. probably slower than the ipad air 2, but it's for the occasional entertainment and seems to be ok

khull

1245 posts

Uber Geek

#1179451 19-Nov-2014 12:31

Gosh. Hard to quantify but statistically and to a significant degree - "longer than any Android tablet out in the market with regards to updates".

There are plenty of research is done in this area of the current OS updates between the two platform

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