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The list of supported devices is impressive. The iPad Air 2 came out in 2014. 12.9-inch iPad Pro 11-inch iPad Pro 10.5-inch iPad Pro 9.7-inch iPad Pro

The list of supported devices is impressive. The iPad Air 2 came out in 2014. 12.9-inch iPad Pro 11-inch iPad Pro 10.5-inch iPad Pro 9.7-inch iPad Pro iPad (7th generation) iPad (6th generation) iPad (5th generation) iPad mini (5th generation) iPad mini 4 iPad Air (3rd generation) iPad Air 2

savoytruffle 7y ago
It supports iPads with an A8 series chip, while iOS 13 does not support such iPhones (which would be a 5S). It's presumably because the iPads of the same CPU generation usually have more RAM, more CPU cores, more GPU cores.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  iPad Air 2 has an A8X, and iPhone 5s has an A7.
- simonh 7y ago
  It’s almost certainly memory. All the supported devices have at least 2GB RAM. The iPhone 6 had the A8 with 1GB RAM and is not supported by iOS 13. The iPad Air 2 has the A8X with 2GB RAM and is supported by iPadOS 13. In the past the break on unsupported older devices has been down to hardware. Usually memory, but also on the 64bit transition. I’m not aware of a single break in support that wasn’t determined by hardware requirements.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - close04 7y ago
    The A8X also has a substantially faster CPU than the A8 (3 vs. 2 cores and 1.5GHz vs. 1.1GHz) and a much faster GPU (2-3 times faster). This would make a visible difference in day to day usage even without the RAM limitation. This is probably also what made the difference when implementing the multitasking features.
- Miraste 7y ago
  Those decisions are pretty arbitrary. Way back on iOS 5, the iPod Touch 4 got the update and the original iPad missed it, despite using the exact same processor and RAM.
  - unicornfinder 7y ago
    Keep in mind though that in the iPad it's having to push a lot more pixels.
    - Miraste 7y ago
      Not back then. This was before "Retina" iPads, but the iPod Touch was Retina. You had a 960x640 screen vs a 1024x768 one. More pixels, but not so many more that it should block an OS update.
- dep_b 7y ago
  It looks like the cutoff was 2GB of RAM.
knolan 7y ago
The iPad Air 2 was notable for being a powerhouse. The successor was actually slower. I guess iPadOS was in the oven for a long time.
- gowld 7y ago
  Age doesn't make hardware incompatible with an OS. Architecture changes do.
  - penagwin 7y ago
    Ehh I sorta disagree. Many older windows machines "could" run windows 10 today, but your experience would be miserable for casual desktop use unless you have at least 2GB, etc. So a windows xp machine "could" run windows 10 but you don't really want to. In apple's case you can't downgrade your OS version, and I've seen an iPad 2 go from "smooth and fluent" to "crashes before I can even unlock it" from OS updates.
    - Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
      > In apple's case you can't downgrade your OS version You can if the old version is still being signed by Apple. For example with the iPad Air 2 both iOS 12.4.1 and iPadOS 13.1 are currently being signed by Apple so you can downgrade for the time being. When will stop signing 12.4.1? Who knows.
      - penagwin 7y ago
        They usually stop within a few weeks if I'm not mistaken. Also AFAIK you can only rollback if you're pretty technical too.
        captn3m0 7y ago
        I rolled back my really old iPad 2 to iOS 6 recently. Was fairly easy. As long as Apple is signing it, it just takes 3 clicks on iTunes. I wrote about my experience at https://captnemo.in/blog/2019/08/11/ipad-downgrade-ios-6-8/ https://captnemo.in/blog/2019/08/11/ipad-downgrade-ios-6-8/
dhritzkiv 7y ago
I'm still impressed by my iPad Air 2. I originally bought it for product demos/ as a presentation tool for work, but now use it regularly for personal use. My only regret is getting the 16GB version.
- jacurtis 7y ago
  I too still use an iPad Air 2 (with Lightning/3rd Gen) every single day. It is starting to slow down but is still perfectly usable. Only recently have I even considered upgrading as they now offer the 9.8" iPad Pros. Until recently, I haven't even felt like there was any point in upgrading. Only minor features have been released (most of which affect things like cameras that I don't care about). The body style has barely changed and most people can't tell that I have a 5-year-old iPad. I've been very happy with it. To this point, I wonder how much Apple is struggling with this "problem". There is very little value in upgrading to newer iPads. Even for those of us that have the disposable income to spend on them, we can use a 5 year old iPad which acts almost identically to the newer ones. Yes, Apple has pushed some of the power features that the newer ones can do, but for those of us that just use it for notetaking, internet browsing, social media consumption, etc there has been virtually no need to upgrade. The second hand market is saturated with perfectly good devices for $100-$150 that perform in ways that are nearly indistinguishable from brand new iPads for the 95% of the population that are using these devices for media consumption. Sure if you use the iPad for media creation then you can benefit from a newer one. But for media consumption, the older iPads perform nearly indistinguishably from the new ones.
mcintyre1994 7y ago
iPad Air 2 is still really really good, I bought mine refurbished but it must still be 3-4 years since then and it's never felt slow at all.
paggle 7y ago
That's why Apple devices are much cheaper than Android devices. They're secure and usable for far longer, as long as you don't break them, so the amortized monthly cost is far less.
username3 7y ago
iPad Air 2 users beware. An iPadOS update made my iPad 1 useless and crash all the time.
- mistersquid 7y ago
  > An iPadOS update made my iPad 1 useless and crash all the time. Do you mean mean an iOS update? iPadOS was not released until today, 24 Sep 2019.
  - diffeomorphism 7y ago
    That is a distinction without a difference. "iPadOS (then still called iOS) update".
    - mistersquid 7y ago
      Differences among operating systems as identified by name and version are very important. My original specification was a small, but my response to you makes a larger point. iPadOS did not (publicly) exist prior to yesterday. Before its release, iPadOS was definitively not “then still called iOS”. Up until its release, iPadOS did not exist (publicly). EDIT: add preposition to first sentence.
      - diffeomorphism 7y ago
        > Differences among operating systems as identified by name and version are very important. Version sometimes, names no. iPadOS=iOS 13 for iPad. Or are you going to tell me that Windows 10 is much better than windows 8 because it is called windows 10 and not windows 9?
        mistersquid 7y ago
        Your last comment is confusing given we're discussing, specifically, iOS and iPadOS, not Windows. Further, I have no idea what any of this has to do with "better". I was very specifically focused on OS differences as identified by names and version numbers. To be clear, iPadOS is not the same as "iOS 13 for iPad", whatever that might mean. iPadOS comes chronologically after iOS 12 but that's about it. iPadOS has distinct code, features, and APIs not available on iOS. Period. Saying iPadOS is "iOS 13 for iPad" makes no sense except in the most superficial sense that it comes chronologically after iOS 12. EDIT: scare quote iOS 13 for iPad.
chaboud 7y ago
I noticed that my iPad mini 2 finally falls off the list, but that thing is somewhat ancient. However, my Thinkpad X220 (maybe circa 2011?) still runs Windows 10 and Ubuntu, allowing it to stay up to date on security patches. In a way, Apple's support levels are only impressive because we're inured to quick device expiration in other contexts (e.g. phones).
- Infernal 7y ago
  To be fair, mobile development is a few years behind laptop development, and it makes sense that it would plateau later (thought with the current generation of smartphones we may be reaching that plateau). A 2011 MacBook Pro 13" is comparable to your X220 (dual core i7 available, 8GB supported RAM, Intel HD 3000 graphics) and while it does fall off the supported list for macOS Catalina (mid-2012 MBP is the earliest supported) there's no reason to expect it wouldn't run Windows or Ubuntu comparably to the X220. When comparing (tablet) apples to (tablet) apples, I wonder if any of the tablets mentioned here are still supported in 2019 like your iPad mini 2 was? https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/best-android-tablets-september-2014-edition/ https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/best-android-tablets-septembe... It's a genuine question as I'm not that familiar with the Android ecosystem.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    Most likely none of them. On Android if you are lucky, you would get one OS update and around one or two security updates. This on flagship devices. Even Google's, are only guaranteed to get updates for three years, starting from the year the model was initially put on sale. In any case, at least in most European consumer shops, you will see that the large majority of OEMs are migrating to hybrid laptops, convertibles with Windows 10 on them. The Android tablet section keeps getting smaller.
  - luismedel 7y ago
    I think it's only a matter of sales strategy instead of a technical one. They (be Google, Apple or whoever makes OS and/or phones) have the know-how and the tech to support older devices for a longer time. Even if they limit that support to only publish security updates for older systems (which, IMHO, I think it's the correct thing to do). Come on, see the Windows XP latest updates. A phone it's not different. In it's core, It's a f computer running software. The main difference is that the average Joe is accustomed to replace them even quicker than desktop/laptops. Apple et al are fixing the "errors" they made with the personal computer market: support them for a long period of time, or giving the devices a longer (and secure) life via security updates, so your sales plummet.

savoytruffle 7y ago

It supports iPads with an A8 series chip, while iOS 13 does not support such iPhones (which would be a 5S). It's presumably because the iPads of the same CPU generation usually have more RAM, more CPU cores, more GPU cores.

saagarjha 7y ago
iPad Air 2 has an A8X, and iPhone 5s has an A7.
simonh 7y ago
It’s almost certainly memory. All the supported devices have at least 2GB RAM. The iPhone 6 had the A8 with 1GB RAM and is not supported by iOS 13. The iPad Air 2 has the A8X with 2GB RAM and is supported by iPadOS 13. In the past the break on unsupported older devices has been down to hardware. Usually memory, but also on the 64bit transition. I’m not aware of a single break in support that wasn’t determined by hardware requirements.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- close04 7y ago
  The A8X also has a substantially faster CPU than the A8 (3 vs. 2 cores and 1.5GHz vs. 1.1GHz) and a much faster GPU (2-3 times faster). This would make a visible difference in day to day usage even without the RAM limitation. This is probably also what made the difference when implementing the multitasking features.
Miraste 7y ago
Those decisions are pretty arbitrary. Way back on iOS 5, the iPod Touch 4 got the update and the original iPad missed it, despite using the exact same processor and RAM.
- unicornfinder 7y ago
  Keep in mind though that in the iPad it's having to push a lot more pixels.
  - Miraste 7y ago
    Not back then. This was before "Retina" iPads, but the iPod Touch was Retina. You had a 960x640 screen vs a 1024x768 one. More pixels, but not so many more that it should block an OS update.
dep_b 7y ago
It looks like the cutoff was 2GB of RAM.

knolan 7y ago

The iPad Air 2 was notable for being a powerhouse. The successor was actually slower. I guess iPadOS was in the oven for a long time.

gowld 7y ago
Age doesn't make hardware incompatible with an OS. Architecture changes do.
- penagwin 7y ago
  Ehh I sorta disagree. Many older windows machines "could" run windows 10 today, but your experience would be miserable for casual desktop use unless you have at least 2GB, etc. So a windows xp machine "could" run windows 10 but you don't really want to. In apple's case you can't downgrade your OS version, and I've seen an iPad 2 go from "smooth and fluent" to "crashes before I can even unlock it" from OS updates.
  - Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
    > In apple's case you can't downgrade your OS version You can if the old version is still being signed by Apple. For example with the iPad Air 2 both iOS 12.4.1 and iPadOS 13.1 are currently being signed by Apple so you can downgrade for the time being. When will stop signing 12.4.1? Who knows.
    - penagwin 7y ago
      They usually stop within a few weeks if I'm not mistaken. Also AFAIK you can only rollback if you're pretty technical too.
      - captn3m0 7y ago
        I rolled back my really old iPad 2 to iOS 6 recently. Was fairly easy. As long as Apple is signing it, it just takes 3 clicks on iTunes. I wrote about my experience at https://captnemo.in/blog/2019/08/11/ipad-downgrade-ios-6-8/ https://captnemo.in/blog/2019/08/11/ipad-downgrade-ios-6-8/

dhritzkiv 7y ago

I'm still impressed by my iPad Air 2. I originally bought it for product demos/ as a presentation tool for work, but now use it regularly for personal use. My only regret is getting the 16GB version.

jacurtis 7y ago
I too still use an iPad Air 2 (with Lightning/3rd Gen) every single day. It is starting to slow down but is still perfectly usable. Only recently have I even considered upgrading as they now offer the 9.8" iPad Pros. Until recently, I haven't even felt like there was any point in upgrading. Only minor features have been released (most of which affect things like cameras that I don't care about). The body style has barely changed and most people can't tell that I have a 5-year-old iPad. I've been very happy with it. To this point, I wonder how much Apple is struggling with this "problem". There is very little value in upgrading to newer iPads. Even for those of us that have the disposable income to spend on them, we can use a 5 year old iPad which acts almost identically to the newer ones. Yes, Apple has pushed some of the power features that the newer ones can do, but for those of us that just use it for notetaking, internet browsing, social media consumption, etc there has been virtually no need to upgrade. The second hand market is saturated with perfectly good devices for $100-$150 that perform in ways that are nearly indistinguishable from brand new iPads for the 95% of the population that are using these devices for media consumption. Sure if you use the iPad for media creation then you can benefit from a newer one. But for media consumption, the older iPads perform nearly indistinguishably from the new ones.

mcintyre1994 7y ago

iPad Air 2 is still really really good, I bought mine refurbished but it must still be 3-4 years since then and it's never felt slow at all.

paggle 7y ago

That's why Apple devices are much cheaper than Android devices. They're secure and usable for far longer, as long as you don't break them, so the amortized monthly cost is far less.

username3 7y ago

iPad Air 2 users beware. An iPadOS update made my iPad 1 useless and crash all the time.

mistersquid 7y ago
> An iPadOS update made my iPad 1 useless and crash all the time. Do you mean mean an iOS update? iPadOS was not released until today, 24 Sep 2019.
- diffeomorphism 7y ago
  That is a distinction without a difference. "iPadOS (then still called iOS) update".
  - mistersquid 7y ago
    Differences among operating systems as identified by name and version are very important. My original specification was a small, but my response to you makes a larger point. iPadOS did not (publicly) exist prior to yesterday. Before its release, iPadOS was definitively not “then still called iOS”. Up until its release, iPadOS did not exist (publicly). EDIT: add preposition to first sentence.
    - diffeomorphism 7y ago
      > Differences among operating systems as identified by name and version are very important. Version sometimes, names no. iPadOS=iOS 13 for iPad. Or are you going to tell me that Windows 10 is much better than windows 8 because it is called windows 10 and not windows 9?
      - mistersquid 7y ago
        Your last comment is confusing given we're discussing, specifically, iOS and iPadOS, not Windows. Further, I have no idea what any of this has to do with "better". I was very specifically focused on OS differences as identified by names and version numbers. To be clear, iPadOS is not the same as "iOS 13 for iPad", whatever that might mean. iPadOS comes chronologically after iOS 12 but that's about it. iPadOS has distinct code, features, and APIs not available on iOS. Period. Saying iPadOS is "iOS 13 for iPad" makes no sense except in the most superficial sense that it comes chronologically after iOS 12. EDIT: scare quote iOS 13 for iPad.

chaboud 7y ago

I noticed that my iPad mini 2 finally falls off the list, but that thing is somewhat ancient. However, my Thinkpad X220 (maybe circa 2011?) still runs Windows 10 and Ubuntu, allowing it to stay up to date on security patches. In a way, Apple's support levels are only impressive because we're inured to quick device expiration in other contexts (e.g. phones).

Infernal 7y ago
To be fair, mobile development is a few years behind laptop development, and it makes sense that it would plateau later (thought with the current generation of smartphones we may be reaching that plateau). A 2011 MacBook Pro 13" is comparable to your X220 (dual core i7 available, 8GB supported RAM, Intel HD 3000 graphics) and while it does fall off the supported list for macOS Catalina (mid-2012 MBP is the earliest supported) there's no reason to expect it wouldn't run Windows or Ubuntu comparably to the X220. When comparing (tablet) apples to (tablet) apples, I wonder if any of the tablets mentioned here are still supported in 2019 like your iPad mini 2 was? https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/best-android-tablets-september-2014-edition/ https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/best-android-tablets-septembe... It's a genuine question as I'm not that familiar with the Android ecosystem.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Most likely none of them. On Android if you are lucky, you would get one OS update and around one or two security updates. This on flagship devices. Even Google's, are only guaranteed to get updates for three years, starting from the year the model was initially put on sale. In any case, at least in most European consumer shops, you will see that the large majority of OEMs are migrating to hybrid laptops, convertibles with Windows 10 on them. The Android tablet section keeps getting smaller.
- luismedel 7y ago
  I think it's only a matter of sales strategy instead of a technical one. They (be Google, Apple or whoever makes OS and/or phones) have the know-how and the tech to support older devices for a longer time. Even if they limit that support to only publish security updates for older systems (which, IMHO, I think it's the correct thing to do). Come on, see the Windows XP latest updates. A phone it's not different. In it's core, It's a f computer running software. The main difference is that the average Joe is accustomed to replace them even quicker than desktop/laptops. Apple et al are fixing the "errors" they made with the personal computer market: support them for a long period of time, or giving the devices a longer (and secure) life via security updates, so your sales plummet.