My family has never really believed in selling old tech devices, so most of the time, they either end up sitting in drawers collecting dust or getting passed around until they finally give up. My very first iPad, an iPad Air 2nd generation, was headed down the same path and is currently tucked away in my drawer.
This summer, I decided to put all my efforts into reviving my reading habit. I currently have a 5th generation iPad Air, but since it’s loaded with all my usual apps, it’s almost impossible to stay focused on reading for long. That’s when I started using an e-reader, and for the first time in years, I actually got back into reading.
Recently, I started wondering — if all I wanted was a dedicated reading device, could my old iPad do the same job? So, I pulled it out of the drawer, charged it up after what felt like ages, and decided to turn it into my very own e-reader. To my surprise, it makes the perfect dedicated reading tablet.
First, I cleared out all the clutter
Starting off with a clean slate
The iPad Air 2 was released toward the end of 2014, and it supports eight versions of iOS and iPadOS. My iPad Air 2 is currently updated to iOS 18.5.2. After plugging it in and letting it fully charge, I instantly got to work.
As I mentioned above, one of the biggest reasons why I ended up using an e-reader for my reading instead of my current iPad Air 5 was because it was full of distractions. I wanted a dedicated reading device free of distractions.
So, the very first thing I did was free up the storage and remove every unnecessary app from my old iPad. I deleted social media, games, and anything else that might tempt me to tap away mid-chapter. By the end of it, all I left were the default Apple apps that couldn’t be uninstalled, along with Apple Books.
Then, I gave the display an e-reader feel
Making it look (almost) like an e-reader
The next step was to make the iPad feel more like an actual e-reader. Though there are plenty of color e-readers out there (my Boox Note Air 4C supports color as well), I’ve always personally associated the reading experience with black-and-white screens.
Thankfully, there’s an option you can enable on iPads (and other Apple devices) to turn the display grayscale. The feature is tucked away under Accessibility settings.
You can turn it on by heading to the iPad’s Settings app and tapping Accessibility from the sidebar. Then, tap Display & Text Size under the Vision header, and hit Color Filters. Now, toggle on the switch next to Color Filters, and simply select Grayscale — your iPad will instantly lose all color. While enabling grayscale will definitely not bring an e-reader’s e-ink matte display to an iPad, turning it on kind of tricks your brain into thinking you’re reading on one.
Besides, without bright app icons or colorful distractions, the iPad starts to feel calmer and more book-like. While it’s obviously not the same as an e-ink display, the grayscale mode does a surprisingly good job of creating that minimal, distraction-free reading environment I was looking for.
Finally, I locked it down with Guided Access
Keeping distractions out for good
A lot of eReaders, like Kindles, run a very limited operating system since they’re designed solely for reading. Though my eReader runs Android 13 and lets me install any app from the Google Play Store, I wanted to turn my iPad into something similar — a dedicated, distraction-free reading device that only does one thing: let me read in peace.
While I had already deleted all the distracting apps as mentioned above, I could still easily swipe up while reading and open Safari to look something up, which kind of defeated the purpose. I could also, of course, install anything from the App Store whenever I wanted, which made it way too easy to fall back into the same cycle of distractions I was trying to avoid.
So, I used another accessibility feature called Guided Access to help me out. The feature essentially keeps you focused on a single app by locking your device into it. When you’re in Guided Access mode, you can’t swipe up to go home, open other apps, or even pull down Control Center, until you end the session.
To enable Guided Access, head to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and toggle on the switch. Then, tap Passcode Settings > Set Guided Access Passcode to create a password. You’ll need this to end your sessions later.
Once it’s all set up, all you need to do is triple-click your iPad’s Home button (or the Power/Side button on newer models) to activate it. Tap Start in the top-right corner to begin your session, and then get on with your reading. When you’re ready to end it, triple-click the same button again, enter your passcode, and Guided Access will turn off.
And just like that, it was time to read
Once everything was set up, I opened Apple Books, dimmed the brightness, activiated Guided Access mode and started reading. I almost felt funny how different the same iPad looked. Without all the clutter and colors, it didn’t feel like a tablet anymore. Just me, my book, a cup of coffee, and silence — exactly what I wanted.
