You can save loads of money by opting to buy a refurbished iPad from Apple rather than splashing out on a brand-new iPad. Here, we weigh up the pros and cons of buying a refurbished iPad, so you can work out which option is best for you.

Refurbished Apple products are second-hand, really, but the fact they’ve been refurbished by Apple means you can be a little more confident in the quality and reliability of what you’re getting. It’s a nice halfway house between new and second-hand, in effect, and you can save loads of money by opting to buy a refurbished iPad from Apple rather than splashing out on a brand-new iPad.

Plus, it’s a way to get older models of iPad that are no longer available to buy (such as the iPad Air 1 and the iPad mini 3), directly from Apple – although this will depend on availability.

At time of writing, aside from the Air 1 and mini 3, all the other iPad models you can get refurbished are also available to buy brand new from Apple – the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 4.

Here, we weigh up the pros and cons of buying a refurbished iPad, so you can work out which option is best for you.

What does refurbished mean?

Refurbished Apple products are technically pre-owned, but they undergo such a rigorous refurbishing process that it’s unlikely you’ll even notice. In fact pre-owned may mean only used once, perhaps it’s a unit that was loaned to a journalist, or it was returned by a customer who decided they wanted a different model, or maybe there was a fault with it – a fault that Apple will have rectified as part of its refurbishment when it got it ready for sale. Read on for more information about the differences between the new iPad and a refurbished iPad, and what you can expect if you buy a refurbished iPad from Apple.

What’s the difference between a refurbished iPad and a brand-new iPad?

If you buy a refurbished iPad from Apple, you’ll get the same one-year warranty as if you bought a brand-new iPad, all of the manuals and accessories that come with a new iPad, a brand new battery and outer shell and a new white box for it too.

The new box is not the same as the box you would get if you purchased a new iPad, and we assume that this is to prevent people from buying a refurbished iPad and attempting to sell it on as new. However, we think you’ll struggle to spot anything about the contents of that box that indicates that it is not a new iPad.

Apple promises that all refurbished iPads it sells are in full working condition, and they have each been fully tested to ensure this. Any parts that were defective when the iPad was returned by its previous owner will have been replaced, and the entire iPad will have been cleaned and inspected to make sure it’s in top-notch condition.

If you’d prefer to have a longer warranty than the one-year warranty you’ll get included, you can buy an AppleCare Protection Plan for your refurbished iPad. This will extend your warranty to two years, but it will set you back £79.

So, should I buy a refurbished iPad?

We think it is absolutely worth considering buying a refurbished iPad from Genesis Technologies before purchasing a brand-new one. It’ll look as good as new, so you won’t notice the difference anywhere other than in your bank balance and that giveaway packaging as mentioned above.

Right now, anyone looking for one of Apple’s latest iPads has no choice but to buy brand-new from Apple or a third-party reseller, but if you’d be happy with an older generation of iPad you may find you can get a bigger capacity model or a WiFi + Cellular model for less money than it would cost you for a new model with less impressive specs.