Buying iPad 3 in London

[lamadude]

I happen to be in London this week and since the iPad doesn't launch untill at least 2 weeks from now in my own country (Belgium) I'm considering picking one up over there. I was wondering if any UK Macrumors readers could help me out (based on how the iPad 2 launch went for example)

What store would you recomment to go to on friday morning to be able to buy a "new iPad" without having to spend 5 hours in line? An official apple store, another apple reseller? A specific supermarket chain? Any stores in particular? I'm staying near Earl's Court/Kensington but of course I can go anywhere in the city to try and pick one up.

I know the power adapter will be different but other than that it should be identical, right?

Thanks!

 

[j0nd0e]

I'd like to know if anyone has any recommendations as well. I'm considering buying from John Lewis as I have vouchers for them, but I got in touch and they told me they won't be stocking it until the afternoon, when I'll be at work.

 

[illitrate23]

Regent Street and Covent Garden are the two flagship stores, so they are going to have the biggest stock. But equally, they're the ones that everyone is going to go an queue at.
But previously I've queued at Regent Street (for iPhone releases) and they've always had stock to cover most of the early queuers.

If I was queuing this year, I'd probably go to Covent Garden shop, but mainly cos it's a bit closer to my office, so meaning i'd be a bit less late for work

 

[iBlue]

If you're going to queue outside of an apple store in London I'd recommend Covent Garden because it's located on a pedestrianised street. Regent street seems like it wouldn't be very fun to queue outside of.

And yes, other than the adapter it's the same thing.

 

[tednol]

Regent Street and Covent Garden are the two flagship stores, so they are going to have the biggest stock. But equally, they're the ones that everyone is going to go an queue at.
But previously I've queued at Regent Street (for iPhone releases) and they've always had stock to cover most of the early queuers.

If I was queuing this year, I'd probably go to Covent Garden shop, but mainly cos it's a bit closer to my office, so meaning i'd be a bit less late for work

I queued for the iPhone 4S at the Westfield in White City. It’s a big Apple store and will have significant stock. As an added bonus, the shop is inside a shopping centre so a) people can’t camp out, b) if it’s raining it isn’t a problem and c) you avoid the attention seekers who will descend on the likes of the Covent Garden and Regent Street stores. Give them a call to check opening hours – they opened early for the iPhone 4S release and I imagine they’ll open early for the new iPad too.

 

[RealEvil]

Not sure in Central London, but if you can look slightly further afield I bought my iPad 2 from Comet last year as I could simply ring and reserve one the day before. Easy.

 

[appleextremist]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B179 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would try the Apple store in Westfield (White City)... It's fairly close to Earls Court and unlike the other two stores, you should be able to queue inside.

 

[sarahlizzy]

If you're going to queue outside of an apple store in London I'd recommend Covent Garden because it's located on a pedestrianised street. Regent street seems like it wouldn't be very fun to queue outside of.

And yes, other than the adapter it's the same thing.

…or go to a mall, like Stratford Westfield. There you can queue indoors.

 

[jeopardy2311]

Don't take it for granted but I am 90% sure that Apple will be opening in Harrods on Mar 16, so I guess they will be stocking the new iPad.
As for the rest of the stores, I think covent garden will be better because of its location, and I think they will have more stock than regent street.