refurb'd Ipad2 16GB Wifi €350

djr

from apple themselves, with new battery + warranty etc.

on the back of the announcement of the new iPad, the iPad2 wifi price has dropped to €400, and refurb's have dropped to €349.

seems like an ok price.

EDIT (slight price correction from 350 -> 349

Media999

Can anyone with an ipad2 tell me if there good for reading? When zoomed in does it go all pixelated?

dodzy

Media999 wrote: »

Can anyone with an ipad2 tell me if there good for reading? When zoomed in does it go all pixelated?

They're great for reading. Display is very good.

For books (typically black text on white background ) the display can be inverted to white text on black B/G. Much easier on the eye IMO, particularly at night. You can set the display to invert with home button tap x 3 times. Very handy feature

Oafley Jones

Media999 wrote: »

Can anyone with an ipad2 tell me if there good for reading? When zoomed in does it go all pixelated?

I find it a terrible device to read - novels as opposed to pdfs etc - on for numerous issues, weight, battery life, backlit screen and I've always been slightly disappointed with it's resolution - after having owned the iPhone 4 first. It's still a fantastic device and I've friends who'll read happily on one, but for me it's a second rate experience for reading when compared to a kindle.

gerryk

Media999 wrote: »

Can anyone with an ipad2 tell me if there good for reading? When zoomed in does it go all pixelated?

Depends on the source material. If it's a PDF or other scalable format, no, if it's a bitmapped format, like GIF, PNG, JPG... i.e. a photograph of text, it will.

NobodyImportant

Hmmmm, almost looking afordable now...

Tar.Aldarion

still wouldnt want it. for 200 maybe

Raiser

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

still wouldnt want it. for 200 maybe

Thanks for that OP, but I've always thought that Apples tiny discounts on their refurbs was ridiculous........

Jarren

Adverts. ie should be another option to get Ipad2 cheaper.

Africa

Agreed with all said here. iPads too pricey, and ultimately too restrictive. If you know what youre doing with technology, go for a decent Android tab. Save you tons, lets you do more, and you dont subscribe to the hipster evil Apple corporation XD

I dunno, 350 euro is some price still, even for a 2.

aliaslinden

Africa wrote: »

Agreed with all said here. iPads too pricey, and ultimately too restrictive. If you know what youre doing with technology, go for a decent Android tab. Save you tons, lets you do more, and you dont subscribe to the hipster evil Apple corporation XD

I dunno, 350 euro is some price still, even for a 2.

Africa wrote: »

Agreed with all said here. iPads too pricey, and ultimately too restrictive. If you know what youre doing with technology, go for a decent Android tab. Save you tons, lets you do more, and you dont subscribe to the hipster evil Apple corporation XD

I dunno, 350 euro is some price still, even for a 2.

I really disagree with the sentiment that iPads are too pricey. I don't think you can spend less money on an Android Tablet and expect to have anything close to user experience of an iPad. Reasons:

1. UI
iPad interface may be overly simplistic but it's way ahead in terms of responsiveness and ease of use.

2. Hardware
You may be able to find something close to Apple's hardware quality in a 400-500 euro Android tablet but right now there's still nothing more solid out there than the iPad's build (and the new iPad's screen is a new benchmark for screen quality). Apple has the economies of scale and the design acumen to build superior hardware for a reasonable price.

3. Apps
The tablet category is all about apps. You have a straight up massive slab of capacitive real estate and the best way to take advantage of this is quality software. Apple understands this and have cultivated a truly fantastic range in the App Store. Google does not. They consider apps designed for your phone to be suitable for use with your tablet. This really defeats the purpose of a tablet.

Sorry for the spiel. In the industry I work in, I see people purchase cheaper or, even, more expensive Android tablets all the time and become extremely frustrated with the experience.

Freddie59

aliaslinden wrote: »

I really disagree with the sentiment that iPads are too pricey. I don't think you can spend less money on an Android Tablet and expect to have anything close to user experience of an iPad. Reasons:

1. UI
iPad interface may be overly simplistic but it's way ahead in terms of responsiveness and ease of use.

2. Hardware
You may be able to find something close to Apple's hardware quality in a 400-500 euro Android tablet but right now there's still nothing more solid out there than the iPad's build (and the new iPad's screen is a new benchmark for screen quality). Apple has the economies of scale and the design acumen to build superior hardware for a reasonable price.

3. Apps
The tablet category is all about apps. You have a straight up massive slab of capacitive real estate and the best way to take advantage of this is quality software. Apple understands this and have cultivated a truly fantastic range in the App Store. Google does not. They consider apps designed for your phone to be suitable for use with your tablet. This really defeats the purpose of a tablet.

Sorry for the spiel. In the industry I work in, I see people purchase cheaper or, even, more expensive Android tablets all the time and become extremely frustrated with the experience.

+1 to all of that. Same applies to laptops. Our daughter and son got two laptops in 06 and 08 respectively. They literally just slowed down over time and are quite tatty. I know someone who bought a c]macbook (albeit twice the price at the time) and it's like it was the day they bought it. And looks good for another couple of years yet.

Tar.Aldarion

Freddie59 wrote: »

+1 to all of that. Same applies to laptops. Our daughter and son got two laptops in 06 and 08 respectively. They literally just slowed down over time and are quite tatty. I know someone who bought a c]macbook (albeit twice the price at the time) and it's like it was the day they bought it. And looks good for another couple of years yet.

Personally think that although the OS is nice it is not worth near the price they charge for it. The laptops slow down mostly because of what the users do to them. Windows does seem to slow down sometimes, but take an hour to reinstall it or boot into ubuntu. However it never slows on my desktop, think it might be overheating on a lot of laptops, with them being cheap etc.

I got my 15.4 inch windows laptop for 700e, runs fine for the last 5 years. The same laptop components with OSX cost 1400E. If I wanted to upgrade my laptop to 17 inches at the time, get this, it was a free option with windows, and cost 500e for apple, I mean come on. I really like OSX and the look of the laptops when all is said and done, I just think the price is crazy. I recently saw one for 2000 euro...with integrated graphics. Best bet is a hackintosh.

aliaslinden wrote: »

Apple has the economies of scale and the design acumen to build superior hardware for a reasonable price.

Just wondering about apple vs other companies, surely it can't be too different? The cost of their components is less than half of what they charge for the device. With some android tabs would they not be going for less of a profit to have similar performance at a better price? I don't really keep up with tabs at all, so I don't know about range of androids etc, and how it compares with the iPads.

NewHillel

dodzy wrote: »

They're great for reading. Display is very good.

For books (typically black text on white background ) the display can be inverted to white text on black B/G. Much easier on the eye IMO, particularly at night. You can set the display to invert with home button tap x 3 times. Very handy feature

I agree, I rarely use a laptop or PC now. I buy all my newspapers on online subscription and my books in electronic format.

I like the latest gadgets, but couldn't justify replacing my current IPAD 2, yet.

Oafley Jones

Africa wrote: »

Agreed with all said here. iPads too pricey, and ultimately too restrictive. If you know what youre doing with technology, go for a decent Android tab. Save you tons, lets you do more, and you dont subscribe to the hipster evil Apple corporation XD

I dunno, 350 euro is some price still, even for a 2.

Couldn't recommend an Android Tablet to anyone. I like what I've seen of the hardware of the more expensive devices, but Honeycomb and the whole ecosytem is an atrocity. Andy Rubin said they're "doubling down on tablets this year" and I really hope they carry through because Google need a kick up the hole when it comes to tablets. I say this as someone who wouldn't touch an iPhone 4S over a Galaxy Nexus and thinks that iOS on iPad is nowhere near as good as it could be for iPad.

Banshee2003

16gb wifi model is only 399 brand new in harvey norman blanchardstown

Jarren

http://www.fatcheese.ie/cashback/apple-store-ie

Every little helps

Sir Oxman

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Couldn't recommend an Android Tablet to anyone. I like what I've seen of the hardware of the more expensive devices, but Honeycomb and the whole ecosytem is an atrocity. Andy Rubin said they're "doubling down on tablets this year" and I really hope they carry through because Google need a kick up the hole when it comes to tablets. I say this as someone who wouldn't touch an iPhone 4S over a Galaxy Nexus and thinks that iOS on iPad is nowhere near as good as it could be for iPad.

ICS on my HP Touchpad is fantastic. And it's only an alpha port!
This is what a tablet OS on android should be like (compared to Gingerbread and Honeycomb previously)
I owned an Ipad1 and loved it but I couldn't part with my firesale bargain of the century android tab now.
I'd go for a Galaxy2 Galaxy3 or Asus Prime in a flash if I had the money though.

PaulKK

aliaslinden wrote: »

I really disagree with the sentiment that iPads are too pricey. I don't think you can spend less money on an Android Tablet and expect to have anything close to user experience of an iPad.

I think you'll find that they just rip off consumers for the branding and marketing:


http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/06/24/apple_may_make_more_profit_selling_one_mac_than_hp_does_from_7_pcs.html

http://mashable.com/2010/04/07/isuppli-ipad-cost/


You can get a pretty decent android tablet now for the same price or less than an iPad, and the quality will be jsut as good.

For example, here is an acer for 399:
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/11745597/art/acer/iconia-tab-a510-32-gb-tab.html

Plus, you can use it as a storage device, use standard USB cables, extend its memory with external cards, etc etc.

Diarmuid

PaulKK wrote: »

I think you'll find that they just rip off consumers for the branding and marketing:

wtf? If someone willingly pays for a service or goods and are happy with the result, it's not a rip off.

PaulKK

Diarmuid wrote: »

wtf? If someone willingly pays for a service or goods and are happy with the result, it's not a rip off.

I think you need to redefine your understanding of rip off. People pay for things even though they are overpriced, that does not make them less of a rip off.

Just because someone is willing to pay a price for something, does not mean it is good value.

Tar.Aldarion

PaulKK wrote: »

Plus, you can use it as a storage device, use standard USB cables, extend its memory with external cards, etc etc.

I don't think I would buy something without these, what I consider basic, features. It has no card slot?!

PaulKK

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I don't think I would buy something without these, what I consider basic, features. It has no card slot?!

The iPad does not, no.

You also cannot use it as a drag and drop device, you must use iTunes for any media you want to put on it.

jiminho

I dont advise anyone to buy an iPad or even an android for that matter. Windows 8 on a tablet will be the bulldozer OS for tablets come year end......trust me;)

Media999

gerryk wrote: »

Depends on the source material. If it's a PDF or other scalable format, no, if it's a bitmapped format, like GIF, PNG, JPG... i.e. a photograph of text, it will.

mainly magazines. Id spend a lot of times reading magazines if i could simply because theres a lot more

Pain in the ass having to zoom in and out when the resolution is bad

id love to be able to read every word without zooming

ShooterSF

As someone who would never be keen on IOS I do think if the tablets become reasonably priced I'd punt for an ipad solely as a boardgame enthusiast they seem to get all the good ports. If you own an ipad and don't have ticket to ride on it, for shame.

keithclancy

iPad hs a good user experience, much better than Android imo

But I still think dropping 350 on a thing for reading / browsing the web / playing angry birds is a bit much

Diarmuid

PaulKK wrote: »

Just because someone is willing to pay a price for something, does not mean it is good value.

It is to them. Otherwise they would have bought something else or not bought it at all. You probably forgot that concept during the Celtic tiger years.

Johnny_Fontane

I'm an android phone user but picked up an ipad this time last year (a first gen one). It has completely replaced the laptop, utterly. I only use the laptop for downloading, nothing else.

try finding a decent laptop for €350!

rOBeRt frETt

I agree with the windows 8 forecast but I have yet to see how Microsoft will handle porting it and what hardware vendors will be suitable. If you look a windows phone 7 Microsoft had to go with Nokia- last I looked Nokia where trading at junk status after what now seems like 20 years fermenting as the top of the leaderboard in the 'handset' industry. Other vendors don't want Microsoft Windows near the tablet market and they will be coming to market when Samsung and Apple are releasing quadcore versions of thiers. Unlike those Two though MS is a software company and has no vested interest in hardware really so we will see vendors competing for the best windows 8 platform ( USB hdmi card reader biometrics ram cpus graphics etc ) it will beat the snot out of apples 'lock everything and everyone into our services' design ( iTunes is actually malware)

As to the op consider how long you want to use an iPad 2 for its a good price but would you buy an iPhone 3GS today?

adox

Bargain is a bargain really. The merits of Apple etc really is irrelevant to this bargain thread.