I have held out until now from buying a tablet but the fact my mum is on her 2nd mini and I spend so much time on my iPhone with its tiny screen has made me see the light. Shame I didn’t see it last year when my mum was in the US as exchange rates would have meant around £100 off.

As its Apple I assume there are next to no deals on new iPads – best I saw was the 16gb WiFi for £369 at Tesco but that deal has passed and I think I would prefer a 32gb in line with my phone at least.

Also why is it that Apple still sell the iPad 2 alongside the Air when there have been versions 3 & 4 inbetween and addition of the retina displays?

Assuming I end up buying in the UK is John Lewis the best place to buy as they offer a 3yr warranty? I assume the JL warranty carries no weight with Apple i.e. if you tried to take it into an Apple Store after 1yr for a fix? But JL have a good rep for electrical warranties.

Cheers
Simon

 

The reason the iPad 2 is still on sale is because of the fact that it is the only non retina full size iPad. With the mini it was the same resolution just a smaller form factor, plus until late last year the mini was not retina. As there is now a retina mini I suspect the iPad 2 will cease being sold at some point.

As for discounts, have a look at the online Apple refurbished store, there may be iPad Air on there. The only other discount I can think of is if you are a student.

 

Apple iPad Air, Apple A7, iOS 7, 9.7”, Wi-Fi, 32GB, Silver

johnlewis.com

3 year guarantee included at no extra cost

£479.00

 

Hmmm I looked into the Student Discount option and a) it seems you really need to be a full time student (my wife is currently training online so I thought I might be able to use that to our advantage) and b) the discount on ipads is almost non existant. Some have wangled £12 off but on older models not the latest Air so seems like a lost cause.

But why do Apple need a non retina full size tablet in their line up? You would be mad to buy one at just £70 less than an Air but each to their own.

 

Yes I mentioned the JL 3yr warranty in my initial post. Seems the logical choice as no extra cost. You can always still take it into an Apple Store if you need help but if they can’t / won’t help for free as its outside the Apple 1yr warranty period then you can fallback on the JL warranty.

 

They're selling the iPad2 alongside the Air to justify the price of the Air, if they lined up the Retina iPad it would obviously have to be cheaper than the Air being an older model, yet just as good, Air sales would plummet.

 

The iPad 2 still has the old style connector, there are a ton of reasons for keeping stock of that.