tl,dr: Apple will replace your ipad battery and maybe send you one in new condition for $112 with a 4 day turnaround.
I've used my Ipad Mini 4 as my main controller for my Mavic2 Zoom for a year now. I bought the ipad new about 3 years ago. I use it for everything else too so it gets a huge amount of use. I noticed recently that the Ipad would suddenly reboot without warning. It only happened occasionally but soon grew to be more frequent. After a particularly scary reboot in the middle of a mission over the ocean in heavy wind conditions I decided I better start looking into purchasing a new ipad. Then I saw the prices of the new units and started searching for refurbs ect.. I stumbled upon the apple repair program.. through chatting online to an apple tech person they were able to run diagnostics on my ipad and discovered that my ipad's battery was only at 60% capacity. Which makes sense for a device that has had thousands of charge cycles put on the battery. I opted to send my ipad into apple for a replacement battery since I live 6 hours away from the nearest Apple store. The next morning a box arrived via fedex. I cleared my device, took out the sim card, packed it in the box and sent it off. Three days later fedex delivered a box with my new ipad in it. If you knew how far out in the middle of nowhere I live, this delivery time is unprecedented. My Ipad was scratched all over including the screen. What I got back looks brand new. No scratches, no wear marks, and a brand new battery. My total cost was $112 after tax. Pretty much got a new device that will hopefully last for several more years. If you've got a rainy week ahead and an extra $100 laying around, I'd highly recommend sending your ipad into apple for a battery replacement and maybe get a much better condition device in return.
I've used my Ipad Mini 4 as my main controller for my Mavic2 Zoom for a year now. I bought the ipad new about 3 years ago. I use it for everything else too so it gets a huge amount of use. I noticed recently that the Ipad would suddenly reboot without warning. It only happened occasionally but soon grew to be more frequent. After a particularly scary reboot in the middle of a mission over the ocean in heavy wind conditions I decided I better start looking into purchasing a new ipad. Then I saw the prices of the new units and started searching for refurbs ect.. I stumbled upon the apple repair program.. through chatting online to an apple tech person they were able to run diagnostics on my ipad and discovered that my ipad's battery was only at 60% capacity. Which makes sense for a device that has had thousands of charge cycles put on the battery. I opted to send my ipad into apple for a replacement battery since I live 6 hours away from the nearest Apple store. The next morning a box arrived via fedex. I cleared my device, took out the sim card, packed it in the box and sent it off. Three days later fedex delivered a box with my new ipad in it. If you knew how far out in the middle of nowhere I live, this delivery time is unprecedented. My Ipad was scratched all over including the screen. What I got back looks brand new. No scratches, no wear marks, and a brand new battery. My total cost was $112 after tax. Pretty much got a new device that will hopefully last for several more years. If you've got a rainy week ahead and an extra $100 laying around, I'd highly recommend sending your ipad into apple for a battery replacement and maybe get a much better condition device in return.
