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Comment by pyrrhotech | Hacker News Reader

I still see no reason to upgrade my iPad 2. I only use it for casual web browsing on the sofa and reading on the airplane. What new features could be useful enough to me to warrant an upgrade? Unless it gets damaged or the battery craps out, I won't be buying a new one for a long time.

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Frankly, you're missing out here. Speed and performance may not sound all that interesting and might be taken for granted, but I'm pretty sure if you ever had the chance to use in iPad Air 2 for half a day, going back to the iPad 2 wouldn't be an option anymore. It's a huge difference.

I hated my iPad 2 once I upgraded it to iOS 8 (IIRC). That thing become slow as a snail. Safari became unusable for tabbed browsing. I sold the thing. Before the upgrade it was a really nice device and I guess most apps would still be ok to use, even after the upgrade to iOS 8.

The iPad 2 was a great machine at the time, but it's saddled with a low-res screen, very little RAM, and a slow processor. A newer iPad would be nicer on your eyes, and would be far less likely to purge non-active browser tabs from memory.

I recently switched my iPad 2 for the latest model. The main reason for the switch was a broken screen on my old iPad. The new iPad is fantasic. I will be upgrading my partners iPad 2 later this year.

The latest iPad is so much better. So much more response, you can have 2 apps open at the same time. Web pages are fast and iOS is really snappy. Also, touch id which I always saw as a gimmick turned out to be the handiest thing ever. I now sigh when my thumb doesn't unlock my phone.

The only thing that niggles me a bit is I feel the life of the iPad2 was cut slightly shorter by Apple and it's iOS updates. iOS7 killed the performance. It shouldn't really have had the update or any update after. I am still not sure if Apple gave delivered iOS updates to avoid fragmentation or to slowly kill of the device to encourage new purchases.

I am not convinced either are valid reasons considering the degradation in performance of an otherwise pretty good device.

I sold my iPad 2 because it was so slow with the latest iOS it was practically unusable.

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