On May 4, Apple's official website's "obsolete products" list was updated, and two tablets, the iPad mini 2 and iPad Air 2, were added to the list. Although being listed as an "obsolete product" does not mean that the equipment has completely lost its after-sales service, it will become very difficult to repair if the user's two tablets are faulty and the official after-sales service has no spare parts.
However, most iPad mini 2 and iPad Air 2 users did not express dissatisfaction when they saw the news, because these two devices are really old - the iPad mini 2 was launched in 2013, and the iPad Air 2 was released in 2014. Under normal circumstances, they have already lost their official warranty, and the average user will no longer spend money to repair a tablet from 8 or 9 years ago.
Interestingly, many users also said that their iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 2 is still in "service" and have not encountered any problems in daily use. Therefore, many netizens are curious: how many years can a tablet be used?
In fact, the answer to this question varies from person to person, because everyone buys a tablet for different purposes. For example, some netizens buy tablets just to watch videos, then iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 2 can continue to be competent. After all, playing local video or online video does not have too high hardware requirements, and the A8X processor of the iPad Air 2 and the A7 processor of the iPad mini 2 are more than enough in terms of performance.
Of course, if it is too early, the iPad device may be limited to the iOS version and will not be able to install the latest online video APP. Take the more mainstream "iQiyi" as an example, it can only be installed on iOS 10.0 or later iOS devices. That is to say, tablets such as iPad 2 that can only be upgraded to iOS 9 may not really be able to meet the daily use needs of users. The latest iPadOS still supports iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 2 can be upgraded to iOS 13, so these two tablets are not too much of a problem to install mainstream apps.
But if you're going to play games with a tablet, the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 2 may be struggling. Because now many mainstream games have higher and higher requirements for hardware. Taking the more familiar "King" as an example, its picture quality has been upgraded many times, which is very different from the original version, and also requires a higher configuration to run smoothly.
In addition, the battery is also the main factor affecting the service life of the tablet. Because tablets are the same as smartphones, the battery is fixed inside the fuselage and cannot be removed. The general lithium-ion polymer battery has a service life, after 800 to 1000 times of full charge and discharge cycle, the battery life will drop to less than 80%. The longer the tablet is used, the more obvious the endurance shrinkage.
However, due to the large size of the tablet, the battery capacity is 2 to 3 times that of the smartphone, so the battery life is much longer than that of the smartphone. In addition, many netizens do not use the tablet every day, and many people take the tablet out to chase dramas and play games when they have free time on weekends, and they may charge it once or twice a week. This makes the service life of the tablet battery greatly extended, so some old tablets can be used for a long time even now, a charge.
In addition, because the tablet is usually only used at home or in a fixed indoor place, it is generally not carried around, which greatly reduces the chance of the tablet being damaged due to bumps and falls in daily use. Many netizens will also attach a tempered film to it for the purpose of protecting the tablet and wear a thick protective cover. Therefore, tablets are rarely decommissioned like mobile phones because of man-made failures such as broken screens.
In general, because most users buy tablets such as iPads mainly to surf the Internet, read, chase dramas and watch videos, and these usage scenarios do not have too high performance requirements, so even two or three thousand yuan tablets can be used for a long time. Coupled with the large battery capacity and long service life of the tablet, the chance of daily bump damage is even smaller. Under normal circumstances, tablets can be used for more than five years, and it is also possible for users with low demand to use a tablet for ten years.