Apple 12.9" Gold Review

A 2017 iPad Pro with a gorgeous big screen, sold refurbished for about $210. It's shockingly cheap, but it's stuck on old iOS 10 and feels slow. Only worth it as a dedicated media screen on a tight budget. Our score: a C- for most people.

Let's be real up front: this is a 2017 iPad Pro. It's old. But it's also a Geek Squad Certified Refurbished model, which means it's been cleaned up, tested, and sold for a fraction of its original price. For about $210, you're getting a massive 12.9-inch Retina display and a design that still feels premium, even if the tech inside is showing its age.

The A10X chip was a beast in its day, and it can still handle basic tasks and media consumption just fine. But this tablet runs iOS 10, which is ancient in Apple years. You're locked out of a ton of modern apps and features. Think of it as a very nice, very large screen for watching videos or browsing the web, not a modern productivity machine.

Performance is a mixed bag. That A10X chip and 4GB of RAM (the spec sheet is wrong; it's 4GB, not 64GB) are in the mid-40s percentile for CPU and GPU. That translates to a tablet that feels snappy for basic stuff but will definitely chug if you push it with anything complex. The 12.9-inch screen is a standout, sitting in the 88th percentile. It's gorgeous for movies and comics. The battery life is just average, and the connectivity options are limited to older Wi-Fi standards.

At around $210, the value proposition is simple: you're paying for the big, beautiful screen and the solid aluminum unibody. You are not paying for cutting-edge performance. If your budget is super tight and your needs are literally just video streaming, light web browsing, and maybe reading PDFs, it's a hard deal to beat. For anything more, the age-related limitations quickly make it a poor value.

Stacked against modern competitors, it's not really a fair fight. A base model Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE will run circles around it in speed, software support, and features for not much more money. Even compared to other refurbished options, like a newer iPad Air, this 2nd-gen Pro loses on software alone. Its only real advantage is that immediate, low-cost entry to a huge, high-quality display. The Lenovo Idea Tab or a used Surface Pro would offer far more versatility for similar cash.

Skip this if you need a tablet for anything resembling modern work or play. If you want to use current apps, need long-term software support, or plan to do any light gaming or multitasking, this iPad's ancient chip and abandoned OS will frustrate you. Its best-for scores in our database are all below 50/100, which tells you everything.

Buy this only if you have a very specific, limited use case and a very strict budget. It's perfect for someone who wants a big, pretty screen mounted in a kitchen for recipes, or as a dedicated video player for a kid. For anyone who needs a tablet for modern apps, multitasking, or future-proofing, this is not the move. Look for a refurbished model that's at least a few generations newer.