iPad Air 2 or iPad 2017

[mrochester]

Hi all

Possibly going to buy my dad an iPad and I’ve been looking at 2 refurbished models that are about the same price.

The choice is either an iPad Air 2 64gb or an iPad 2017 32gb.

Which would you pick? One has a slightly faster processor and the other has more storage. The other issue potentially with the Air 2 is the battery may be more heavily degraded. However, many also say the Air 2 screen is better than the iPad.

Many thanks

M.

 

[wedrum]

well the air 2 lcd and digi are one so the repair is very expensive should the screen break. 2017 ipad the lcd and digi are separate and they use the same digi as the old ipad air.

 

[Alpherah]

iPad 2016 or air 2? Air 2 due to screen quality.

iPad 2017 however is just so much more powerful - even the better screen is hard to justify as for sure some future features will be disabled for the air 2

 

[mrochester]

iPad 2016 or air 2? Air 2 due to screen quality.

iPad 2017 however is just so much more powerful - even the better screen is hard to justify as for sure some future features will be disabled for the air 2

There's no iPad 2016... there's an iPad 2017 and iPad 2018.

 

[Alpherah]

There's no iPad 2016... there's an iPad 2017 and iPad 2018.

Sorry! Yes as you said

 

[rIcK]

I’m using an Air 2. Picked up for about £130. Not sure you would get a 2017(8) IPad for anywhere close to that money. Screen is miles better than the newer ones, it’s fast enough and fairly comparable to the 2017 version.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Which ever has the fastest CPU, it will be the one that gets the updates and last the longest in Apple's ecosystem.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

Get the 2018 one -- the biggest factor in how many years it will last is the CPU power. As long as your dad won't be storing gigabytes of photos or downloading enormous games, 32GB should be sufficient -- don't get me wrong, 32GB is annoyingly small, but it should be ok. Until recently, my wife was using an iPad Mini 2 with 16GB and it had about 10 little kids games on it plus her few bits and pieces (iPlayer, Kandy Krush, Facebook). It was just starting to feel slow. Funny that with iOS 12 it will probably feel a fair bit snappier!

 

[Beasty]

My brother is in a similar quandry. Everything except one element screams the more modern device.

The issue for me is the screen not being laminated to the glass. I remember the perspex feeling of the glass on my original air which the 2017/18 iPads are still using as opposed to the much nicer Air 2 iteration.

 

[MagicBoy]

I went for the Air 2 recently, the screen is significantly less reflective in bright conditions. For what I'm using it for that's more important than a bit of extra CPU grunt.

 

[scratch]

I've still got my Air 2, which is almost 4 years old now and used daily. I'm the kind of person who likes to have the latest and greatest, but I've been unable to justify replacing the Air 2 with anything else; it's just such a nice bit of kit.

It's only now that it's starting to slow down a bit, so I might be tempted by whatever Apple release this year.

 

[Captain]

I bought the IPad (2018) and it’s excellent, battery is phenomenal.

I totally forgot about mine while I went away on holiday in April and it was on standby for 21 days with 12 hours use and still had over 20% battery left.

 

[Deleted member 138126]

I've still got my Air 2, which is almost 4 years old now and used daily. I'm the kind of person who likes to have the latest and greatest, but I've been unable to justify replacing the Air 2 with anything else; it's just such a nice bit of kit.

It's only now that it's starting to slow down a bit, so I might be tempted by whatever Apple release this year.

iOS 12 is meant to significantly improve performance on older devices, so it might get quite a bit faster with iOS 12.

 

[scratch]

iOS 12 is meant to significantly improve performance on older devices, so it might get quite a bit faster with iOS 12.

I installed Dev Beta 2 last night on both my 8 Plus and Air 2..had totally missed the iOS12 announcement!

Too early to tell on any performance bump, but it certainly installs quickly.

 

[rIcK]

I wonder if you can retrofit an iPad Air 2 screen on to a 2018 IPad?