7 Reasons to hang on to Your Old iPad

7 Reasons to hang on to Your Old iPad

There's a new iPad in town. But that does not mean you need to junk your old iPad — there's life in it yet.

Why you should hang on to your old iPad – and it’s not just about the money

    The question facing many existing iPad users is not just whether they should go out and grab the latest tablet from the Cupertino stable but also whether they need to keep their older iPads around any more. While investing in the new iPad depends on your requirements, love for the latest and depth of your wallet, we advise you against getting rid of your old iPad, be it the original iPad or the iPad 2. There is life yet in them – enough to keep you going, even if you want to wait awhile and save up for the next (fourth generation) iPad.

IT STILL LOOKS GREAT

For all the talk about beauty being skindeep, fact is that appearance makes a big difference to the user. In that department, even the original iPad still looks very good, while the iPad 2 is in fact slimmer and lighter than the new (third generation) iPad. Put the three in cases, switch off the displays (which are exactly the same size, incidentally), and we wager that most people would be hard pressed to distinguish between them. Apple has adhered to the same design principle while making the iPad, with a few minor tweaks here and there. So if looks are what matter, the original iPad and the iPad 2 will still do very well – just make sure you take good care of them, and in case of the original iPad, hide its relative bulk in a good case.

IT HAS THE LATEST OPERATING SYSTEM

Unlike Android tablets which run on a variety of versions of the OS, some of which are out of date, all three versions of the iPad can be upgraded to the latest version of iOS, version 5.1. So, in essence, what you are getting on your older iPads (yes, even the first one) is the same buttery smooth, icon-driven interface that exists on the latest one. Yes, the screen resolution does make iOS look a whole lot better on the new iPad, but in most cases, it will work just as smoothly on the original iPad and the iPad 2. You also can access most of the new features brought in by iOS upgrades, such as multitasking, the notification bar and iBooks. In essence, you will get most of the latest iOS experience on your older iPad or iPad 2.

WEB, MAIL AND SNS ARE STILL SUPERB

If you use your iPad mainly for the Web, social networks and e-mail, frankly, you have no real need of the new iPad. The browser (Safari) remains as good as ever as does the e-mail client, which lets you check emails in split-screen. As for social networks, all the apps work perfectly fine across all the three iPads, although obviously those with tweaks made for retina displays (Facebook, for instance) will look better on the new iPad. In terms of interface and information, there is very little that you will miss even if you are using an older iPad.

MOST OF THE APPS WORK ON ALL IPADS

One of the biggest advantages that the iPad has over its competition is the number of apps that have been specifically developed for it. Most of them still work just fine with earlier versions of the device, unless restricted by hardware (no FaceTime video calling on the camera-less original iPad, for instance). Yes, you will have the odd stutter if you try to get into high-definition gaming on the original iPad or start editing multimedia, but that apart, even the oldest iPad is able to run more apps today than many other Android tablets in town.

AND THE APPS WILL CONTINUE TO WORK

There are currently more owners of the iPad and the iPad 2 than the new iPad. It is therefore highly unlikely that both will be rendered obsolete or be ignored by app developers. Take our word for it — most forthcoming apps will continue to support the original iPad and the iPad 2 for a while, even though some might claim to be 'optimised' for the new iPad. That said, we advise you to start saving for the new iPad if you're still using the original iPad — that's the one that will be shown the door first.

ALL IPADS HAVE GREAT BATTERY LIFE

The new iPad has a better graphics and the display is awesome, but there's one benchmark on which the older iPads still match it — battery life. The new iPad does have a larger battery than its predecessors, but in terms of battery life, it is about the same – around ten hours on a Wi-Fi connection. Which remains extremely impressive for all those who hit the road often and work frequently while on it.

COMPETITION IS STILL LAGGING BEHIND

This is the biggest reason why hanging on to your older iPad makes sense. While the past year has seen a number of tablets hit the market, we have to be brutally blunt and state that most of them do not match up to even the original iPad in terms of ease of use and application availability (even though many of them boast of better specifications). The only tablet that has put a dent in the iPad's dominance worldwide is the Kindle Fire, and that alas, is not available in India. Bottom line is — if you have an iPad — even the original — be rest assured that you have a tablet just as good, and in many cases better, than anything that the competition has to offer.

YOU NEED THE NEW IPAD IF

You actually want to explore the idea of taking photographs with a tablet

You want to mess around with high-definition applications – games, videos, the works.

You want to do a lot of reading (the retina display makes a huge difference)

You want to be relatively futureproof – the new iPad will survive a bit longer than the older iPads

You want to try out every single app that gets released on the App Store – not all of them will work on the older iPads

You pride yourself on owning the latest device

Nimish Dubey ET120507