It ’s been five years since I bribe a then - blade - new iPad 2 , and — unsurprisingly — the motorcar I buy back then now show every bite of its age : There are cracks in the bezel , scratches on the back , and the 30 - pin syncing / charging cable that it come with has some simple stretch of wire that need some electric tape recording , probably earlier than later .
Yeah , it might make sensation to interchange it , trade it in , and savorless - out retire it — consideringhow many iPad modelsApple has in its memory today . However , this age pad continue one of the most - used piece of electronic hardware in my home .
My Word play his Minecraft games and look out Netflix Kids when we require him out of our hair . When we ’re in the mood for music , we plug it into our stereo and stream the tunes , often from Amazon Prime ’s service . And in a mite , it still serves as a handy e - reader and document tool , unspoilt for catching up on books and signing PDFs . I even regularly use it for my work designation .
Our iPad 2 — a canonical , 16 GB Wi - Fi - only adaptation , purchase new for $ 500 in spring 2011 — has proven so useful for so long , that I ’ve often wondered if Apple did n’t essentially achieve perfection with its 2nd - propagation tablet . Every iteration of the iPad since then has fundamentally been an update — new , debauched electronics — or a edition in size . But we have n’t had the need to buy another full - sized iPad , since our old reliable is still chugging along just ok .
Why the iPad 2?
As it turns out , we ’re not the only family flummox safe economic consumption out of our iPad 2 . As recently as November , analytics firmLocalyticsreported that the 2nd - generation iPad was still — four - and - a - half year after its launch — the most - sweep up model of Apple ’s tablet batting order , command 20 pct of the market .
Why has it proven so undestroyable ? It ’s probably a combination of the way it was work up and the style we ’ve used it . Here ’s a closer look :
It ’s deceptively hardy : The first - propagation iPad suddenly felt like a ton of bricks when the iPad 2 come out — the younger pad of paper was as much as a one-quarter - pound lighter than its herald , making it feel slight . “ It ’s less than half an column inch thick , aluminum and glass,”one Apple content board substance abuser publish in 2012 , admonish another buyer . “ address it carefully . ”
Remember how stalwart this thing was ?
We ’ve had a few eccentric for our iPad 2 over the years , including a Bluetooth keyboard case , but mostly it ’s sat around without protection . impudent ? believably not : Our son was two old age old when we purchased the tablet , and he adored it . I ca n’t count the bit of times I follow appal as my then - tot grabbed the machine , only to immediately drop it , hard , on the flooring . I keep await to pick it up with a spider - webbed touchscreen , but often establish only minor hurt . When cracks started seem in the bezel , it seemed like it might be time to crawl in the iPad 2 .
We bought an iPad miniskirt , then kept on using our iPad 2 .
Maybe we ’re just lucky , but our iPad 2 has taken a lickin ’ and kept on tickin ’ , and I ’m not convince that an Air would have survived this kind of stress . Given its far-flung use , that ’s probably the case for other home as well — you ca n’t apply a tablet you ’ve destroyed , after all .
We ’ve adapted how we utilize it : When we first owned the iPad 2 , I was more of a gamer than I am now . Nothing complicated : I take on NBA games on it , as well as airplane affaire d’honneur and tank hitman games — all of it kinetic , fast - paced , and fun .
That ’s change as game have been build up to higher standards . TakeNBA 2K16 , please : It gobbles up 3.28 GB of storage , and the shaper explicitly say it ’s not compatible with the iPad 2 . Same for other high - end game . OK . So we do n’t use it for NBA games anymore , but there are still plenty of apps — and even a few games , as my boy ’s Minecraft addiction attest — that still accommodate what the iPad 2 can give .
We ’ve had to move back some plot , but not Minecraft .
The interior were built to last , too : Apple has run on from the A5 dual - marrow C.P.U. at the heart of the iPad 2 — the fresh iPad Pro apply an A9X silicon chip — but the A5 has prove long - long-lasting . It pop life in the iOS 4 coevals ; it still supports the current iOS 9 operating organization ( with some exceptions for osmium features , like Siri and AirDrop , that are find on raw tablets ) which mean it has outlive through an amazingsix generationsof operating system . And that helped Apple keep the iPad 2 in its card for three years , until 2014 .
Steady decline, but still holding on
Now : The iPad 2 , if it was “ pure ” when it was created , no longer merits that adjective . away from the plot and missing OS feature , it also go a tiny bit slower than it used to — and slower , of row , than more contemporaneous machines .
But it ’s still somewhat utile , clearly .
That ’s not inevitably slap-up for Apple , which has seentablet sale level off after the early blowup of growth — and even experienced a fall in sale this quarter , as revealed inTuesday ’s quarterly earnings call . The Localytics numbers suggest the company ’s trouble is n’t that people have moved on from the tablet , but that they ’ve simply find no motive to move on to a newer tab in late year . If the option is between spending $ 400 on an iPad Air 2 or waiting out another year with a perfectly - usable iPad 2 that was paid for eld ago , lots of frugal family will err on the side of waiting .
The insolent side , though , is that I ’m , well , fondof my iPad 2 . Most electronics are , ultimately , disposable . This tablet will be someday , I ’m sure . In the meantime , though , it ’s come with us through hospital stay , long plane rides , distant workplace duty assignment , and more . The iPad 2 has n’t quite reached heirloom status in our household , but it ’s always been nice to recognize it ’s there when we take it .
