Apple iPad Apple 2017 iPad 9.7-inch, WiFi + Cellular, 32GB - Review

So you're looking at the 2017 iPad 9.7-inch with cellular. It's an older tablet that still pops up for sale, often around the $100 mark. It's got that classic 9.7-inch Retina display with True Tone, which is still decent for reading or watching videos. Under the hood, it's running on Apple's A9 chip from 2015, paired with 32GB of storage. For someone just wanting a basic iPad for light web browsing, reading, or as a secondary screen, it's a contender purely on price. But if you're asking 'is this iPad good for anything more than that?', the answer gets complicated fast.

Let's be real about performance. The A9 chip lands in the 10th percentile for CPU power. In practice, that means basic tasks are fine. Opening apps, scrolling through web pages, reading books? It'll handle it. But try to do more than one thing at once, or open a modern, graphics-heavy app, and you'll feel it chug. The GPU is even weaker, sitting in the 13th percentile. So gaming beyond very simple titles is pretty much out. The 32GB of RAM is a weird spec that puts it in the 94th percentile, but that's misleading. It's DDR4, but the ancient processor is the real bottleneck. This tablet scored a 38.4 out of 100 for entertainment and a 35.6 for art and design, which tells you it's not built for creative work or demanding media.

At about $104, the value proposition is simple: it's cheap. For that price, you get a functional iPad screen that can browse the web, read books, and handle emails. But you're making major sacrifices. The storage is almost unusably small in 2024, and the performance is a generation (or three) behind. For just a bit more money, you could find a newer used iPad or even a budget Android tablet with much better specs and support. This is a 'last resort' budget pick, not a value king.

Compared to the modern competitors, the gap is huge. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ or Lenovo Idea Tab Pro will run circles around this iPad in every single metric. Even compared to other older iPads, this one is weak. The iPad Pro line from even a few years ago uses much more powerful chips. The most direct comparison might be to a 'N-one' generic Android tablet. While those are also slow, they often offer more storage and a lower price. Honestly, if you're considering this 2017 iPad, you should also be looking at used iPad Air 2 or iPad (5th gen) models, which often go for similar prices but have slightly better performance and more storage options.

Should you buy this? Only in one very specific scenario: if your absolute maximum budget is $110, you need an iPad (not an Android tablet), and all you plan to do is read, watch the occasional video, and check email on a single app at a time. For everyone else, the answer is no. The terrible storage, outdated processor, and lack of software support make it a frustrating device for any real use. It scored a 28.4 out of 100 for business use, which tells you everything. Save up a little more for a newer used model. You'll be much happier.