Why you should consider a refurbished iPad

Ashleigh Allsopp looks at the pros and cons of buying a secondhand iPad

Refurbished Apple products are technically pre-owned, but they undergo such a rigorous refurbishing process that it’s unlikely you’ll even notice. In fact pre-owned may mean only used once, perhaps it’s a unit that was loaned to a journalist, or it was returned by a customer who

decided they wanted a different model, or maybe there was a fault with it – a fault that Apple will have rectified as part of its refurbishment when it got it ready for sale.

What do you get?

If you buy a refurbished iPad from Apple, you’ll get the same one-year warranty as if you bought a brand-new iPad, all of the manuals and accessories that come with a new iPad, a brand new battery and outer shell and a new white box for it too.

The new box is not the same as the box you would get if you purchased a new iPad, and we assume that this is to prevent people from buying a refurbished iPad and attempting to sell it on as new. However, we think you’ll struggle to spot anything about the contents of that box that indicates that it is not a new iPad.

Apple promises that all refurbished iPads it sells are in full working condition, and they have each been fully tested to ensure this. Any parts that were defective when the iPad was returned by its previous owner will have been replaced, and the entire iPad will have been cleaned and inspected to make sure it’s in top-notch condition.

If you’d prefer to have a longer warranty than the one-year warranty you’ll get included, you can buy an AppleCare Protection Plan for your refurbished iPad. This will extend your warranty to two years, but it will set you back £79.

Available models

The products in Apple’s Refurbished store can change quite frequently, so you’ll want to check

back regularly if the particular Apple product you’re after isn’t available. (Note: Apple does not currently offer refurbished iPhones.)

At time of writing, Apple has various models of iPad that include the iPad, iPad Air 1, iPad mini and iPad mini 2. To give you an idea of what you can save by opting for a refurbished iPad, a refurbished Wi-Fi and cellular iPad mini 3 with 16GB storage costs £319. Comparatively, the previous generation refurbished Wi-Fi and cellular iPad mini 2 with 16 storage only costs £269. Considering the only difference between these models is the mini 3’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner, the £50 saving is excellent. The internals of the two iPads are exactly the same, so a £50 saving is up for grabs.

The refurbished store is also a way to get hold of models no longer sold by Apple. It no longer sells the iPad mini 3 at all, and only stocks 16GB and 32GB models of the iPad mini 2. You can still pick up (stock depending) 64GB and 128GB iPad mini 2 models refurbished.

A Refurbished iPad Air with Wi-Fi + Cellular and 64GB capacity is available for £389 from Apple’s Refurbished store, which is a saving of £110 on its original RRP. By comparison, that’s actually £60 cheaper than a brand new Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad Air 2 with just 16GB capacity.

Verdict

We think it is absolutely worth considering buying a refurbished iPad. It’ll look as good as new, so you won’t notice the difference anywhere other than in your bank balance and that giveaway packaging as mentioned above.