Performance wise, does it make sense to upgrade to iPad Air from an iPad 3?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Performance wise, does it make sense to upgrade to iPad Air from an iPad 3?

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a replacement for the iPad 3 (Wifi, 32GB) that my family uses for basic tasks (surfing, netflix, email).

I was thinking of getting an iPad Air Wifi 32GB, which should be much faster. But now I saw that this model only has 1GB of RAM, just like the iPad 3.

Do you still think that the air will be considerably faster than the 3? The 3 is behavin really sluggish now with iOS 9 and not so much fun to use anymore.

It would be great to hear your experiences.

best,

geb

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 9.2.1, null

Posted on Feb 8, 2016 8:45 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

MichelPM

Level 10

80,958 points

Feb 8, 2016 12:12 PM in response to gebseng2

The first gen iPad Air has a faster, more powerful A7 CPU.

More powerful and faster GPU, too, than the iPad 3.

Also it is lighter in weight.

Those a really the only differences in significant features compared to the iPad 3.

Reply

Answer 2

ShagCA

Level 5

6,335 points

Feb 8, 2016 10:20 AM in response to gebseng2

I've used both iPad 3 and 1st gen Air. They both run iOS 8.x.

Netflix crashes a few times on iPad 3 when launched and slower to launch compared to Netflix on iPad Air but when Netflix movie plays, there is no difference. Before spending more money to buy Air, you may want to try a few things to recover iPad 3 usability (speed wise) by disabling things.

Reply

Answer 3

LACAllen

Level 8

43,410 points

Feb 8, 2016 12:13 PM in response to gebseng2

Unlike a PC or Mac, an iPad doesn't rely as heavily on its RAM for speed. It's the processor that gives it its horsepower.

Reply