iPad: Cellular or wifi... That is the question..

[Oridus]

To those who have purchased the cellular version, do you find it worth the extra $130 up front and the monthly cost for it?


To those with just wifi, are you just fine with wifi? Do you tether using hotspot on your phone?

[TJ5921]

Should be a poll, although I'm sure this has been a post before.

[Arcsylver]

$130 not so sure. But I just bought my 16 GB sprint LTE mini for $30 more than the 16 GB wifi model due to the $100 off deal they are running and am loving mine.

Paying $15 a month for 1 GB of data on it since I use it mostly on wifi right now and if I need more it is only $35 for 3GB if I need more.

[ChristianJapan]

Right now I use a mobile wifi router able to connect laptop, iPod, iPad etc at the same time. Gives me more flexibility. GPS I don't need too often. A simple map is enough for me.
Once the contract is out I might change to tethering.

[macdragonfl]

Have AT&T family share so hotspot is part of plan. In South Florida I get average 6mb downloads on HSPA+ on iPhone 4S. LTE would be nice but not necessary. It saves money on the iPad and the monthly bill. I will upgrade to 5s when it's available then have faster speeds.

[HazyCloud]

Originally Posted by Arcsylver

$130 not so sure. But I just bought my 16 GB sprint LTE mini for $30 more than the 16 GB wifi model due to the $100 off deal they are running and am loving mine.

Paying $15 a month for 1 GB of data on it since I use it mostly on wifi right now and if I need more it is only $35 for 3GB if I need more.

Same reason I exchanged my Wi-Fi for an AT&T model. The $100 off sounded good since I plan on keeping it connected anyway. The only difference is I'm paying $10 a month to use it with my 10 GB mobile share plan.

[britneyfan]

Originally Posted by HazyCloud

Same reason I exchanged my Wi-Fi for an AT&T model. The $100 off sounded good since I plan on keeping it connected anyway. The only difference is I'm paying $10 a month to use it with my 10 GB mobile share plan.

How did you guys get $100 off.

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To the OP, if you have tethering, save the money and get the wifi.

[Abazigal]

I got my 1mbps wireless broadband bundled with my home internet plan, so I am technically not paying any extra for it. That was my reason for getting the 3g version.

That said, I do use my ipad primarily at home. The 3g option is handy outside for when I want to check my email, surf the web or sneak in a quick game of shadow era, because my iphone's battery runs out quickly enough as is without me needing to tax it any more via tethering.

[HazyCloud]

Originally Posted by britneyfan

How did you guys get $100 off.

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To the OP, if you have tethering, save the money and get the wifi.

AT&T is offering $100 off if you agree to a 2 year commitment. Since I can add it my mobile share for 10 bucks a month and I plan on keeping it connected, I figured it was a pretty decent deal. Now I never have to worry about it never being without a connection. This may not be good for all, but it works great for me.

[mrkjsn]

I would definitely go cellular. The portability of an iPad and having immediate access to the Internet is a big part of the experience. I am lucky enough to have a mobile hotspot funded by my work so it allows my wifi iPad and my children's wifi iPad minis to connect to at no cost to me. But even at that, sometimes I find it an inconvenience to have to set up the hotspot for me to connect to. Would be nice to just grab the iPad and use without having to mess with another device. Future plan is to get a cellular when the next mini's, if the next mini, comes with retina.

[kodeman53]

Originally Posted by HazyCloud

AT&T is offering $100 off if you agree to a 2 year commitment. Since I can add it my mobile share for 10 bucks a month and I plan on keeping it connected, I figured it was a pretty decent deal. Now I never have to worry about it never being without a connection. This may not be good for all, but it works great for me.

I have an iPad4 and a Mini. Same deal on my share plan. Works great for me as well.

[mobiletech]

The real question everyone should be asking you is; how often do you take your iPad outside?

If it spends majority of time at home go wifi. But if you bring your iPad everywhere, go LTE.

I know of a few people where they bought the LTE version but realized a few weeks later they never leave the house with it. While the other group takes their iPad to show off and in turn, realized they need LTE to use it.

Since I have an IP5, I leave mine at home; since 90% can be done from an other iOS device.

[tymaster50]

These past few days I've taken my iPad with me but I don't actually do any browsing on it outside of home, if I need the internet I will just tether my iPhone 5 to it, I don't need the celluar it would just be a waste of money.

[aneftp]

Originally Posted by HazyCloud

AT&T is offering $100 off if you agree to a 2 year commitment. Since I can add it my mobile share for 10 bucks a month and I plan on keeping it connected, I figured it was a pretty decent deal. Now I never have to worry about it never being without a connection. This may not be good for all, but it works great for me.

Love how AT&T and other carriers fool consumers with gimmicks like $100 "off" with 2 year commitment.

$10 x 24 months equals $240 in guaranteed revenue for AT&T.
Minus $100 credit. So $140 profit for AT&T and waste nothing in terms of giving u any more data since u are "sharing data" you already pay for.

Most people with mobile sharing already have a hotspot enabled smartphone to tether for free to wifi iPad device for free.

I guess it helps people who want to save on their battery life with their phones not to tether.

Carriers count on consumers not being able to do correct math with their promos.

[Arcsylver]

Originally Posted by britneyfan

How did you guys get $100 off.

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To the OP, if you have tethering, save the money and get the wifi.

Same as the previous reply. Sprint is offering the same $100 off with a 2 year commitment to any data plan. I signed up for 1 GB a month for $15 on the mini and got it for $359 before taxes etc.

For things like streaming iTunes etc I use my phone. For occasional surfing and non data intensive uses I use the mini now instead of my phone for the bigger screen. Not about to do Netflix or anything on a tablet data plan as that is just a waste of a very limited pool of data IMHO. If it was unlimited like my phone I would be using it for a lot more but since none really offers an unlimited plan for tablets I will stick to using my phone for the heavy lifting when out and about and use wifi still for the big stuff on the mini when it is available.

I can either up my plan to the 34.99 for 3 GB plan or add wifi hotspot on my phone at 2 GB for 19.99 as an option if I need a bigger pool to play in on the mini.

[Rhyalus]

I have a hotspot enabled 4G phone and a 4G USB modem for my laptop.

I figured if I needed the ipad to be connected on the road and no friendly wifi around, I could just hotspot the phone.

This has worked for me so far.

R

[kodeman53]

Originally Posted by aneftp

Love how AT&T and other carriers fool consumers with gimmicks like $100 "off" with 2 year commitment.

$10 x 24 months equals $240 in guaranteed revenue for AT&T.
Minus $100 credit. So $140 profit for AT&T and waste nothing in terms of giving u any more data since u are "sharing data" you already pay for.

Most people with mobile sharing already have a hotspot enabled smartphone to tether for free to wifi iPad device for free.

I guess it helps people who want to save on their battery life with their phones not to tether.

Carriers count on consumers not being able to do correct math with their promos.

In your rush to be insulting (everyone but you was fooled and you're the only one who can do math), you ignored the fact that someone who was getting a cellular iPad anyway and putting it on their Mobile Share plan saves $100.

[Saberon]

It was a no brainer for me.

Rogers lets you share your existing Data Plan for $12/month with no term commitment/contract. They had a promo where it's only $2/month for $10 months with no $35 activation fee. Since I have a 6GB bucket, I couldn't say no.

[Cowboy1629]

I would have been satisfied with a wifi only model but the family got me the iPad4 with AT&T so now I have the option of adding cellular for 30 days at a time if I need it. That may come in handy since I have the grandfathered unlimited data on my iPhone 5, at least until there is a jail brake for it so I can tether.

[colodane]

In my view, the cellular is definitely worth it, even if you only use it occasionally. I use the Verizon prepaid $20 for 1 GB plan when I'm traveling, and it works fine. If not traveling for a month or more, just suspend the service and not incur any data charge.

And, it is not really $130 extra for the Cellular model. Most of us only keep our iPads for a couple years, and the resale value is pretty good. A cellular model will easily get at least $60 more at resale, making net hardware cost difference between the models closer to $70.

[oaba09]

I use a mifi device so here's really no need for me to get a data plan for the ipad

[Idbvideo]

I started out with a wfi only mini. This was fine as I could tether it to the Iphone 5. However, this drained the battery so quickly that it was pretty low by the end of the day, and this was only with it tethered at work during lunch !! I listen to music on the phone during the day :-)

Also I almost ran out of space on the 16GB mini! Only had it a month. I based my original purchase on price and memory useage on the 16GB phone.

I also really wanted the GPS but lived without it. Now my 64GB Celular mini has arrived I am all set ;-) UK here by the way.....

[mantan]

Originally Posted by aneftp

Love how AT&T and other carriers fool consumers with gimmicks like $100 "off" with 2 year commitment.

$10 x 24 months equals $240 in guaranteed revenue for AT&T.
Minus $100 credit. So $140 profit for AT&T and waste nothing in terms of giving u any more data since u are "sharing data" you already pay for.

Most people with mobile sharing already have a hotspot enabled smartphone to tether for free to wifi iPad device for free.

I guess it helps people who want to save on their battery life with their phones not to tether.

Carriers count on consumers not being able to do correct math with their promos.

I love how this is couched as the 'evil carrier' trying to sneak a fast one by to get their grubby hands on a $140 of profit.

Meanwhile folks cheer and tip their hat when Apple makes near obscene profit margins on every unit they sell.

[cheezeit]

If you wanted to save some money off the lte ipad and put it on your plan I would have just picked up an iphone 5 ($149) sold it for an easy ($500) low estimate there, so you'd net roughly $350. Then go guy the lte ipad mini for $459 and subtract the $350 and you're paying roughly $119. Granted upgrade fees are the same, it's easy to turn the line from voice and data to tablet, just activate it as tablet and do a cross upgrade

[kodeman53]

Originally Posted by mantan

I love how this is couched as the 'evil carrier' trying to sneak a fast one by to get their grubby hands on a $140 of profit.

Meanwhile folks cheer and tip their hat when Apple makes near obscene profit margins on every unit they sell.

There's no such thing as 'near obscene profit margins'. Companies make a profit or they don't. If you don't like the price, don't buy. Very simple concept.