I have the iPad Air 2, released in 2014 and looks identical to the new iPad released today. It has the latest OS updates and it's never had any performance issues. Why would someone upgrade from this 5 year old device?
To me the answer seemed obvious, and I wanted to reply "it isn't supported anymore in iOS". To my surprise, this 5 year old tablet of yours is still supported in iOS 12.4.1 [1], and it will also be supported in iPadOS 13 [2].
That's impressive. Which Android tablet from 2014 or 2015 is still supported nowadays?
Chromebooks. £500 for a 14" touchscreen Android/Linux/Chrome browser on x86 with a nice lit keyboard... You don't save much getting a decent-ish tablet but without Linux/keyboard etc etc. Tablets - other than £150 or so ones you can throw in a bag and take on holiday - don't really make any sense any more.
Also convertible laptops. I use a Yoga Book [1] as a laptop when traveling, which is basically just a 10" tablet (and thinner than my old iPad!). My daily driver laptop also folds all the way back (and disables the keyboard) if I want a hefty ol' 13" tablet.
As owner of an i5 Pixelbook, I was really surprised at how hot and noisy the thing became after 10 minutes playing Egg Inc. It's an interesting device (with Crostini) but not a very good tablet.
I don't use mine as a tablet (and mine is one of the ones where you can fold the keyboard right around), but it is good to have proper android support so I can use mx player to watch videos (with all codecs supported, unlike the chrome player), play lichess offline etc.
I gave up on the android tablet ecosystem this year and got a Surface Go when I needed to replace my shield tablet K1. Local suppliers sold the same Android 4 Samsung tablets I had skipped over in favour of the K1 or Amazon's limited Kindle Fire devices.
It wasn't my first choice (I'd have rathered a 7-8" device, and windows application touch support is inconsistent), but the only other option was the iPad Mini and wanted a less locked down device.
The market you refer to is dominated by Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and maybe the Google Docs/MS Office apps. None of those require a pressure-sensitive screen and largely look and work the same way on mobile as on tablet.
Some iPad apps like Procreate and Affinity Publisher are designed for the pen, but considering that iPads sell in the tens of millions, I'd wager they make up a pretty small portion of the buying public.
From a price/performance PoV I really liked the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1, but they no longer give it updates. Even LineageOS no longer does. An update with a similar form factor but a better resolution and a little bit more horsepower would be an instant "will probably buy" (I don't really need a tablet, and am trying to not get locked into Nvidia ecosystem, so those are for me two downsides of a new Nvidia Shield Tablet K1).
To be fair to nvidia, the 2014-2018 Android 5-7 support lifecycle for the shield tablet remains the best supported android device I've owned.
I wouldn't hold out for a successor though, Nvidia makes much of the internals of the Switch and I think another Nvidia branded tablet device would be too close to competition for Nintendo to allow.
My Fairphone 2 got 4 (and will get 5) years of support from a small company (Fairphone). Tablet-wise, I agree, although the K1 refresh got less long updates. Also, I don't expect a new tablet from Nvidia for the reason you mentioned. However the setopbox line I expect updates from (don't have one but heard universal praise). Thing is, I use a Steam Link and don't have Nvidia graphics card so no GeForce Now (don't like such vendor lock in either).
Kindle Fire is dead fwiw. There were stats that Kindle line itself has slowed down but I don't know what the trajectory of iPads been like in the last two years.
>That's impressive. Which Android tablet from 2014 or 2015 is still supported nowadays?
Nexus 7 owner here. No support, has always needed a better battery, and the sensors need a power cycle occasionally, but I still don't regret the purchase. I mainly use it for videos and reading.
I'm going to made a broad assumption. This is the only leverage that device manufacturers have to get people to upgrade. The tablet experience doesn't degrade the same way that phones do.
> This is the only leverage that device manufacturers have to get people to upgrade.
Is that compelling enough, though? Most normal users are bothered by updates. That's why we see better cameras, or other user visible features as a reason to upgrade.
The crazy reality is: major carriers like Verizon still sell iPhone 6S devices today, brand new. So there's an expectation that they have to support a brand new iPhone with iOS upgrades for a significant number of years. And Apple can do it because they only sell a handful of models that have a very common hardware set.
The iPhone 6s is still a great phone. I’m using a 6s+ to write this, and with a new battery it still feels new and responsive, especially after the optimizations Apple made in iOS a couple years back. This phone is 5 years old now. With each new iPhone release I look for excuses to spend the money and upgrade, and I still can’t see any reason to do so. I mean, those new cameras and faceid looks great but touchid is fine and I’m not a photographer.
I feel torn on the price of new iPhones - on one hand, spending so much makes it harder to justify the incremental upgrades. And on the other hand, after my experience with the 6s+ I’ll expect my next iphone to last at least 5-6 years as well, so forking out that much money for a smartphone doesn’t seem so crazy any more.
Yeah, part of me says, hey, buy the newest phone, and keep it five or six years. Though the other part says, if iPhone 7 is are free on contract right now. Get that, and in two years get an iphone XR or whatever for free on contract, etc. Because then I get that fresh new battery every couple years, and spend a lot less money on having that shiny new top-of-the-line-ness that wears off shortly anyways.
We're going to buy an iPad for our boat to keep track of systems (they all have bluetooth now, especially the solar power stuff) and gps/navigation/charts ("maps"), plus have a copy of all the manuals in PDF ready to go. Also it interfaces with the onboard navigational sensors via a wifi gateway. It will probably live on the boat for 8-10 years before it's replaced, but since it's expected to have a long lifespan we want one with a new battery. Also also, the newer models are typically IPX-something rated (waterproof/resistant-esque) better than the old models.
Not everyone bought in to the tablet craze in the first few years.
We had an iPad 2 onboard our boat for almost 2 years. I'd get a waterproof case like a Lifeproof. Sea spray can be especially harsh on electronics.
It was one of the best purchases we made. We use Navionics, not only were the charts cheaper for the iPad than our chartplotter. We could also connect to the boats AIS, charging equipment, navigation, and satellite phone. Easily saved us hundreds of dollars on charts. Each component had an optional screen addition (ie. small screen for the AIS) that easily was the cost of an iPad.
For our next boat we're going to drop chartplotters completely and do all our navigation and planning directly on the iPad. Just one 10" chartplotter could buy 4-5 10" iPads.
I have an original iPad I got the first day they came out (April 2010). Still works and the battery still charges. Only bad part is the OS is stuck at 5 and Safari crashes on some websites.
Got one laying around, too. But Safari seems to crash on almost any website these days and there are no updates anymore etc. pp. Wonder what to do with it. Any ideas?
We're currently using my mother-in-law's unused first gen ipad (wifi only) with no issues but 30 pin charging cables are getting hard to find + not compatible with my wife's phone + there is no GPS in the unit which we would like as a backup. Apparently the 3G fist gen models had GPS but this is not one of them. Also the battery life is horrendous.
I have at least one, if not two (when they have two screen sizes in the same generation, or different base bands back when that could be different), of every generation of iPad and not one of them has a bulging battery.
As someone planning on upgrading a kid’s device, better performance: you never have any, we get tons, in particular when multitasking. I confess I am used to the 13” pro so I am more sensible to the glitches perhaps.
Touch ID is a real QOL improvement.
A better camera is actually nice, I don’t understand people making fun of it.
All in all I think there’s a ton to love in this new version. That doesn’t make older ones obsolete, but it’s significantly better I think.
pencil support, better gaming, or 1 yr of tv+ service that I believe comes with all new apple products are some possible reasons. Screen is also slightly bigger. You could always hustle that Air 2 for a decent amount and pick up the new one for a great deal.
My wife has an iPad Air 2. The screen cracked over the years (it's mostly our 3yo's now--the source of the cracks). I went to get the screen repaired and was quoted at $169 (because the screen was "a one-off" for Apple) other devices were quoted closer to $99. The battery life isn't the best anymore, either.
If you're playing videos and using basic apps, it still works great. My wife likes to use Garage Band to jot down ideas and over the years it has gotten a bit sluggish. She also really likes the keyboard case on the newer iPads. If it wasn't for Garage Band she'd probably get a Surface.
If you're happy with what you have, keep on using it.
This is the lowest end iPad for students and people who just want a basic tablet, it's also only $320. It has the CPU out of the iPhone 7 and pencil and keyboard support. I own the previous 2018 one and combined with the pencil it's a pretty great tablet for a good price. Used it a lot for note taking in the past and to control media around the house.
I have the exact same iPad. It's a stretch to say it has no performance issues. It's sluggish, at best. It's not so bad that I'm ready to buy a new one. But it's slow, it's memory constrained.
It is damn impressive though. Many laptops don't have a working life near this long before they become unusably slow.
Same boat here, I got an iPad Air (first gen) refurbished many years ago. Still works great, and I used it this morning. Showing no signs of not working properly, unlike old iPhones seem to do when they're dated. I like the new ones, but I can't imagine spending money on one in my current situation.
I recently inherited a gen1 iPad Pro (9.7in) and did not realize the Pro models were originally released in 2015/2016. I can see it being relevant for quite a while, especially considering I don't use it for anything "Pro" in nature.
I have an even older iPad 4 since 2012; I use it for a single purpose, flying (LSA planes) with a specific app that has no comparable (good enough) version for Android. I will not upgrade until the app will no longer work, I guess you will do the same.
I have an Air 2 as well but my screen is cracked. The glued glass/display is great however the cost to repair is nearly equal to what I paid (on sale). The current ipad does not have a similar display setup.
They gave a number, something like 60% of new iPad owners are buying in at this level. Assuming there's truth to that number then this is meant as an entry-level iPad, not an "upgrade".
I upgraded from the iPad Air 2 to the iPad Air 3. Performance is better (mostly noticeable when upgrading apps), the display is slightly larger, which is nice.
That's impressive. Which Android tablet from 2014 or 2015 is still supported nowadays?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad_Air_2
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPadOS