The iPad Lineup, Amortized: What Each Model Costs Per Year of Actual Life

The Premise

It is mid-April, the one season when Americans reliably confront arithmetic. In that spirit, the Editorial Staff has amortized the iPad.

Apple currently sells six iPads relevant to this exercise: the base iPad (11-inch, A16) at $349, the iPad Mini (A17 Pro) at $499, the iPad Air M3 at $599 for the 11-inch and $799 for the 13-inch, and the iPad Pro M5 at $999 for the 11-inch and $1,299 for the 13-inch. Reviews of these devices traditionally discuss how they feel. We will instead discuss what each one costs per year of actual life, which is a number, and therefore something we can defend.

Method

Two calculations per model.

Calculation One: sticker price divided by projected years of software support. Apple publishes no support commitments, so we projected from precedent: recent cutoffs have granted base-tier iPads roughly six years of iPadOS updates, Airs roughly seven, and Pros seven to eight — the 2018 iPad Pro was still receiving updates in its seventh year. These are estimates. We have labeled them estimates. We will not be answering letters about them in year nine.

Calculation Two: the four-year exit. Purchase price minus a realistic resale value at year four, divided by four. Resale figures come from completed-listing prices we logged in March for the corresponding 2021 and 2022 models in good condition. They are hedged accordingly, and should be read with the tildes intact.

Table One: Sticker Divided by Support

| Model | Price | Est. support | Cost per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPad 11" (A16) | $349 | 6 years | $58.17 |
| iPad Mini (A17 Pro) | $499 | 6 years | $83.17 |
| iPad Air M3 11" | $599 | 7 years | $85.57 |
| iPad Air M3 13" | $799 | 7 years | $114.14 |
| iPad Pro M5 11" | $999 | 8 years | $124.88 |
| iPad Pro M5 13" | $1,299 | 8 years | $162.38 |

The $349 iPad costs $58.17 per supported year. The 13-inch iPad Pro costs $162.38 per year before the box is open — 2.8 times as much, for a device that runs the same App Store, streams the same video, and displays the same seventeen browser tabs you will not close.

Table Two: The Four-Year Exit

| Model | Price | Est. resale, year 4 | Net 4-year cost | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPad 11" (A16) | $349 | ~$120 | $229 | $57.25 |
| iPad Mini | $499 | ~$175 | $324 | $81.00 |
| iPad Air 11" | $599 | ~$220 | $379 | $94.75 |
| iPad Air 13" | $799 | ~$290 | $509 | $127.25 |
| iPad Pro 11" | $999 | ~$400 | $599 | $149.75 |
| iPad Pro 13" | $1,299 | ~$520 | $779 | $194.75 |

The ordering does not change. The Pro models retain a somewhat higher percentage of their value — roughly 40%, against the base iPad's 34% — and it does not matter, because percentages are not dollars, and the dollars favor the cheap with a consistency the staff found almost restful.

Notes on the Arithmetic

First: the base iPad's dominance survives every stress test we applied. Suppose you replace it at year six with whatever $349 iPad exists then: twelve years of coverage for $698, still $58.17 per year, still below every other line on either table. Suppose instead you caught it at $299, where we logged it during the late-March sale events: $49.83 per supported year, a figure no other Apple product approaches.

Second: accessories quietly rewrite these tables. A Magic Keyboard adds $299 to an iPad Pro 11-inch, raising the outlay to $1,298, and keyboards retain almost nothing — we logged used ones near $70. A keyboarded Pro lands around $190 per year, at which point several laptops become relevant, including ones Apple sells for $999.

Third: the Mini. It costs 43% more than the base iPad against identical projected support, entirely for being small. We pass no judgment. Smallness has always commanded a premium, in electronics and in produce.

Fourth: none of this measures joy, speed, or the 120Hz display's undeniable smoothness. We measured cost per year. Other publications are available for the feelings.

The Conditions Under Which the iPad Pro Makes Sense

We identified four, after deliberation that outlasted two pots of coffee:

1. The M5, the ProMotion display, or the Thunderbolt port is load-bearing for paid work — video, illustration, audio — such that the device generates income rather than consuming it.

2. Your ownership horizon is genuinely seven or eight years, allowing the longer support tail to actually amortize instead of theoretically amortizing.

3. Someone else is paying.

4. The 13-inch screen is replacing two devices, not supplementing one.

Two or more conditions: the Pro defends itself. Exactly one: buy the Air, which at $85.57 per year does roughly 90% of everything for 69% of the annual cost. Zero: buy the $349 iPad and place the remaining $650 in a savings account, where it will sit quietly until it becomes your next iPad, which is more than the ProMotion display would have done for you.

Conclusion

Purchase price divided by useful life remains the least glamorous number in consumer electronics and the most predictive of regret. The $349 iPad wins both tables without appearing to try. Division favors the cheap; it always has; this is why division is unpopular.

One staff member, who owns the 13-inch Pro with the keyboard, reviewed these tables in silence for some time and then returned to her desk. The tables remain correct.

— The BuyGetRewards Editorial Staff

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