We've purchased renewed iPads on Amazon several times over the last four or so years, and I'm here to share our very honest experience to help you save money and feel informed.
Buying Renewed iPads on Amazon:
When looking to buy an iPad on Amazon, you're instantly bombarded with a lot of refurbished/renewed options. "Renewed" is Amazon's way of saying "refurbished." What this essentially means is that the sellers have taken an old iPad, replaced the screen, battery, and any mechanical issues, and are reselling it at a discounted price compared to buying new.
We have purchased iPads this way four times over the last four years, and it is something that I highly recommend. There are pros and cons, and I'll share our full experience with this process.
Pros to Purchasing Renewed iPads:
The major pro to purchasing a renewed iPad is the cost. You save about 50% compared to the retail value of a new iPad, and it's a very economical way to get an iPad into your home.
I also personally think an iPad is superior to all other tablets you might purchase for your children. They are very intuitive and easy to use. They have tons of parental controls you can set up around screen time and restrictions.
We've had Kindle Fire Tablets, and I think they're awful— not intuitive, limited in the apps and things you can do, and super glitchy. I also feel like if you purchase a Samsung or any other tablet, there isn't continuity between devices, and you don't really know what you're getting into.
In my opinion, a renewed iPad is the only tablet I would purchase for my kids for the price, product, ease of use, and the parental options it comes with.
Cons to Purchasing Renewed iPads:
To be very honest, we have not had any major issues with the iPads we've purchased. The only iPad that malfunctioned was Kinsley's— after 3 years, the battery would not hold a charge anymore, and the cost to replace the battery was more than the renewed iPad itself.
Another issue we ran into was that, because the renewed iPads are older models, one of them became so old it could not do software updates anymore. We then ran into a problem where some apps, like YouTube, stopped working because the software was too old. If you purchase a 7th-generation or newer iPad, you should not have this issue.
Other than that, we have had no issues with the iPads. They've lasted a long time, and we saved money purchasing them.
Why We've Bought 4 iPads in 4 Years:
The first one we bought in 2020 literally just died in October of 2024. It lasted a long time, but my husband accidentally stepped on it months ago, and we couldn't justify the cost of replacing the screen for what we paid for the iPad, so we just used it broken. The home button finally gave up this last week, which is what killed this iPad.
The second one we bought for Kinsley in 2021, and that battery gave up the ghost at the beginning of this last summer (2024). Replacing the battery cost the same as buying another renewed iPad, so we held out and just used one iPad for several months before replacing it.
This week, we just bought two new renewed iPads, which make up iPad numbers 3 and 4 to replace those two iPads. There have been zero issues so far, and they have been great out of the box.
But this means that the two we originally purchased lasted 3 and 4 years respectively, and were GREAT to have with very minimal issues.
How to Know Which Amazon Sellers to Buy From:
Amazon does a great job of labeling vetted sellers and products that have been well-received by past customers. I would only purchase one that had an orange label on it that says "Best Seller" or one with a black label that says "Amazon's Choice."
I think if you stick with those options and see that they have high star reviews and lots of sales, you're in the right territory. We purchased the exact iPads in the screen grab below, and they have been awesome.
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