iPad - repair or replace?

[BettyBizzghetti]

I have an iPad Air which is either 2.5 or 3.5 years old. The battery claims to be 100% charged, but then dies after (literally) about three minutes of use. If I plug it in, it claims to be 100% recharged after about ten minutes. I suspect it is a battery problem; I took it to my local Apple place, and they said Apple could replace the battery for about £100.

My question is whether it's better to replace the battery, or whether I would be better buying a new iPad. I really don't want to do either due to lack of funds, but don't have any other device (no phone etc). It would obviously be better to spend £100 rather than £400, but would it be a complete waste of money? My teenagers tell me that Apple stop supporting devices after a certain point...

Apple do eventually stop supporting devices. That means that it will stop getting updates, which will mean that eventually some apps won't work on it. The apps you have will keep on running and many new apps will continue to support older devices, but that flow of new apps that still work will dry up over time.

Apple tend to support iPads for about 4 to 6 years so depending on which model you actually have it might still have a few years left on support. Do you know which one you have? For example "iPad Air 2" or "iPad Mini 3", I believe it will say on the back which it is.

Thank you, @BadgersPaws2! I had thought nobody was going to answer so had given up looking at this thread - but this is really helpful. It gives a serial number on the back - but John Lewis say I bought it in December 2014. I have looked after it really well - it has never even been dropped, and has always lived in a bullet-proof case. JL say it would cost £229 to replace the battery, which shocked me - though there might be local places which would do it more cheaply. I don't have any apps on it to speak of - I just do emails and look up crap important things on the internet. So maybe the lack of support wouldn't matter...

You can get an 18 month old certified refurb iPad from Apple for £299. I've had a couple of refurbs and they're perfect. I'd be inclined to go that route. If it's knocking on for 4 years old I wouldn't spend money on it.

Thank you, Sadie. Very useful for a technophobe to know!!