Ditching iPhone for iPad only

[nikicampos]

What a great idea, why I never thought of this?

Is this thread for real? Seriously? Walking around with an iPad and a second plastic phone to make calls.

Just get an iPhone 6 Plus.

Is this the look you are going for?

 

[Slix]

While not exactly the same, I've never owned an iPhone, and instead have been using an iPod touch as a phone for the past ~7 years. Nearly all the time I'm someplace with wifi (at home, school, work), so the mobile data thing isn't really an issue for me. iMessage makes this extremely easy, and for those not on iPhones, I can text and call them with the Textfree app, which gives you a free phone number and easy ways to earn or buy minutes, as well as unlimited incoming calls and all texts.

If you're willing to pay some monthly data costs for a cellular iPad mini, by all means that's also a doable replacement for an iPhone or any type of smartphone, for that matter.

What a great idea, why I never thought of this?

Is this thread for real? Seriously? Walking around with an iPad and a second plastic phone to make calls.

-snip-

Just wanted to point out that the last image you posted the guy is using Notes. XD

 

[nikicampos]

Just wanted to point out that the last image you posted the guy is using Notes. XD

I know, I thought that made it funnier..

 

[Cribbing]

While it was true that the iphone access charge was $40, hasn't it dropped to $20 at the major carriers? Tablets at Verizon are $10, so is this all done to save $10 a month?

So I pay $30 a month for my iPad with 3GB of data. AT&T charges $25 for a smartphone line and $50 for the 5gb data package (I need more than 2gb which is the next lowest tier. plus add in all the service fees and taxes and I am saving $45/month. If you are on a shared data plan with a bunch of people then the deal isn't as good since the cost to own an iPhone plan goes down. But then I have to deal with trying to get everyone to pay the bill every month. To each his own. I prefer having a single device that does it all and I'd rather have an iPad with a data connection than an iPhone. For me it is cheaper but if you have a large family all sharing a plan it might not be as good of a deal. But I doubt even then you would be as low as $33 and having a full 3gb of data to yourself.

Also, I should add I never really take my iPad out with me when I am hanging with friends. I am there to be with my friends, not to surf on my phone so I dont think it is a big deal that I don't have my iPad with me all the time. That might not be ok for everyone so ymmv...

 

[tsmyther]

If you're getting rid of the great freebies Google gives away for tracking, you'd probably better take a really close look at your Apple devices and also what you have running there. The ROI for me for Google Voice alone was worth it and also having the security of not losing my phone number to who knows what phone provider that has its own policies (like all the MVNOs you hear about too.) Not disrespecting your decision but you'd be utterly shocked to find out how much Apple knows about you too, especially if you're using all of their integrated services.

What possible profit would it be to Apple to harvest your information? It's not going to help them sell more hardware. Their services business doesn't profit enough to even warrant hiring people to program a system like that. Compare the money Google makes for their ad business to that. Apple actually spends a good bit of money preventing employees loves from gathering personal information. I have friends who were fired for something as simple as taking a photo of someone's computer while in service. Or calling a customer by taking her phone number from her device during service. That's not the attitude of a company that wants to harvest customer data.

 

[timhood]

What a great idea, why I never thought of this?

Is this thread for real? Seriously? Walking around with an iPad and a second plastic phone to make calls.

Just get an iPhone 6 Plus.

Is this the look you are going for?

Four pics. That's like telling a joke and repeating the punchline four times.

 

[nikicampos]

Four pics. That's like telling a joke and repeating the punchline four times.

Yes, don't know OP's gender and race.

 

[iPadCary]

And don't listen to those self-concious, non-thinking-on-their-own dopes that say
it "looks stupid to photograph with an iPad". That statement's non-sensical.
I record still & motion imagery all the time with an iPad Mini 3 & I could give
a flying flagozzle "what people think" when I do it! lol

 

[dyn]

Btw, dialling the emergency service number from a VoIP (or similar) service might not be available. Skype is a good example of that. Usually there are also some other things that are not possible. In other words: be sure to do your homework.

 

[gordonsta]

It's perfectly feasible to go this route. I currently have used Google Voice for about 4 years now just by itself. More recently they integrated Google Voice functionality into Hangouts. This is where things start getting more user friendly, in my opinion. If someone rings my Google Voice #, Hangouts will ring on my Tablet, my iPhone and my MacBook if I have Gmail open in a tab. I also receive texts on all three, including MMS. This might seem chaotic, but I tend to put one of my devices on mute most of the time.

My contacts are all organized with Google (contacts.google.com), on both of my iOS devices contacts are synced from Google in settings. Hangouts has access to my contacts so dialing out is as functional as any other application.

Originally I had thought to myself that the cellular iPad Mini would be a good candidate as a phone replacement. I wrote about it here a lot, actually. It worked out for me for about a year, but I finally just got tired of messing with bluetooth solutions and none of them seemed to play well with Hangouts on iOS. Eventually I bought a brand new unlocked iPhone 4S on the cheap. I don't need the newest technology, I just need it to work, is my thinking. Now I answer my phone like everyone else.

I pay $29.99 a month for unlimited LTE on my iPad with AT&T through a grandfathered solution, but this sim lives out of a hotspot. This is where it gets weird and I may sacrifice simplicity for savings. My phone and tablet are almost always on airplane mode with Wi-Fi enabled. I just use the unlimited LTE sim in a small hotspot device that lasts upwards of 14 hours on a single charge. So in my bag I have my MacBook, my iPad, my Phone and my small hotspot. The only inconvenience to my setup I can think of (or redundancy) is carrying my hotspot and Phone with me when I just want my phone. It seems silly, but really I hardly notice. It's a bit easier to carry around than just the iPad in retrospect. My iPad has a the free 200mb for life from T-Mobile (sim) in it, just in case, but I rarely ever use it.

Sorry if this is long winded, hopefully you can pull out some relevant information from all this.

I have the same sims as you (original iPad deal w/AT&T) and the T-Mobile 200 MB/mo. I'm curious about the make and model of the hotspot you use. I would love to use the unlimited LTE sim in a hotspot; were you able to just take the sim form the iPad and install it in the hotspot. For the T-Mobile sim, did you swap it for the unlimited LTE in your iPad?

 

[Royksöpp]

If you go the prepaid route you'll have to put down a large chunk of change on the phone but your monthly bills will make it worth it. I bought my 64GB Boost iPhone 6 for a little over $700, but I only pay 30 dollars a month for unlimited talk and 4.5 gb of data. It's not bad for the price.

 

[east85]

I have the same sims as you (original iPad deal w/AT&T) and the T-Mobile 200 MB/mo. I'm curious about the make and model of the hotspot you use. I would love to use the unlimited LTE sim in a hotspot; were you able to just take the sim form the iPad and install it in the hotspot. For the T-Mobile sim, did you swap it for the unlimited LTE in your iPad?

Main options are the AT&T Unite Pro/ATT Unite, it's pretty much plug and play since the card is treated like a regular data plan from ATT. You might have to get a sim card nano to micro for the Unite (non pro) though. T-Mobile is on backup with the iPad, correct.

 

[gordonsta]

Main options are the AT&T Unite Pro/ATT Unite, it's pretty much plug and play since the card is treated like a regular data plan from ATT. You might have to get a sim card nano to micro for the Unite (non pro) though. T-Mobile is on backup with the iPad, correct.

Did you have to purchase an unlocked Unite Pro to use the iPad sim?

 

[east85]

Did you have to purchase an unlocked Unite Pro to use the iPad sim?

Nah, in order to use the AT&T iPad Sim in the Unite, the Unite does not need to be carrier unlocked, because it is an AT&T device. I purchased mine used on eBay on the cheap, along with a few extra batteries. I imagine that the hotspot you purchase shouldn't be tied to a contract.

 

[Zaft]

Seems like too much of a hassle. 6 Plus is perfect for this, not too big not too small.

 

[Splitbolt]

Seems like too much of a hassle. 6 Plus is perfect for this, not too big not too small.

It's way too small for me.

IMO, the iPad Mini is the perfect size tablet for everyday use. I tried the 6+ but I just can't do it, plus some of my apps don't work on the iPhone at all.

I would like to do something similar to the OP. I want a really basic cell phone, something small like a flip phone that just does calls and texts. Then I want to use the iPad Mini for everything else.

It seems like such a waste having a $600 smartphone when I have the iPad with me anyway.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

This setup could save you quite some money. The other option is just getting a iPhone plus

 

[Zaft]

This setup could save you quite some money. The other option is just getting a iPhone plus

It's saving money at the cost of convenience. I wouldn't take the ipad with me when hanging out with friends. In this case a feature phone wouldn't be enough. I cant take good pictures on a feature phone. First world problem of course.

 

[rillrill]

I thought about this once. However, like the above post, if yr into taking photos, it'd be too inconvenient.

There is a T-Mobile plan that has phone and text but no data for $30 a month, I think. Or the plan that I have, and have to get rid of unfortunately now that I'm married, for 100 min and 5 gigs of data with an iPhone.

 

[Splitbolt]

I've actually put a lot of thought into this since my last post.

In the old days (like last year, lol) I would pay $200 and get a good phone for 2 years that I could sell and recoup most of that cost. The other portion of the phone's price was put into the phone bill which I had to pay anyway. But now I have to pay full price for the phone (and finance it over the billing period), BUT, I have the option NOT to buy such an expensive phone and save all that money, so I could save that $600 (or whatever price the iPhone actually is) by buying a non-smart phone.

I really don't do ANYTHING with my iPhone other than talk, text, and take the occasional picture. All of those other things that I used to do on the iPhone are now handled by the iPad Mini.

The problem is that I text a lot and use the voice to text feature. So no matter what new phone I get, it would have to be a smart phone with a touch screen. So what to do?!?!

Then I realized that i had a great option left: Just keep my iPhone 5! It could take pictures, do speech to text, and all that little stuff for the price of $0! lol

Sure, I don't have the fun of opening and playing with a new iPhone 6S like I wanted, but the money saved for something that I don't really need is worth it.

 

[east85]

I've actually put a lot of thought into this since my last post.

In the old days (like last year, lol) I would pay $200 and get a good phone for 2 years that I could sell and recoup most of that cost. The other portion of the phone's price was put into the phone bill which I had to pay anyway. But now I have to pay full price for the phone (and finance it over the billing period), BUT, I have the option NOT to buy such an expensive phone and save all that money, so I could save that $600 (or whatever price the iPhone actually is) by buying a non-smart phone.

I really don't do ANYTHING with my iPhone other than talk, text, and take the occasional picture. All of those other things that I used to do on the iPhone are now handled by the iPad Mini.

The problem is that I text a lot and use the voice to text feature. So no matter what new phone I get, it would have to be a smart phone with a touch screen. So what to do?!?!

Then I realized that i had a great option left: Just keep my iPhone 5! It could take pictures, do speech to text, and all that little stuff for the price of $0! lol

Sure, I don't have the fun of opening and playing with a new iPhone 6S like I wanted, but the money saved for something that I don't really need is worth it.

Yeah that makes absolute sense to me financially. For me I limit myself to texting, calling, answering calls and a few quick Siri searches on the phone. Almost all of the real app usage on iOS is going on via the iPad. For me it isn't really a priority to upgrade from my iPhone 4S when it works properly and the battery is still just fine. I know that I originally tried to go iPad only, but the iPhone form factor is just better for answering and receiving calls even with Hangouts. I couldn't get a bluetooth headset to work on the iPad with Hangouts reliably for the life of me.

Also I have a nice life proof case that keeps the phone pretty much mint. I may upgrade to a larger phone (like say the size of the iPhone 5) in the future, but it's not a huge priority.

 

[Splitbolt]

I like the small size of the iPhone because I have it on me at all times, which is important since I run a small business and that is my business phone as well.

I wouldn't even attempt to use the iPad as a phone.

 

[aleni]

Dumb phone sucks. Better go blackberry q10 + ipad. So you still have access to the internet when it's a cumbersome situation to use the ipad. At least on q10 you can install whatsapp to communicate with your android friends.

Update: and one more thing about blackberry, you can install blackberry blend in your ipad so you can control your q10 in your ipad, like sending sms, bbm. Aint that great.

 

[Splitbolt]

Dumb phone sucks. Better go blackberry q10 + ipad. So you still have access to the internet when it's a cumbersome situation to use the ipad. At least on q10 you can install whatsapp to communicate with your android friends.

Update: and one more thing about blackberry, you can install blackberry blend in your ipad so you can control your q10 in your ipad, like sending sms, bbm. Aint that great.

Blackberry, lol...

 

[gordonsta]

Nah, in order to use the AT&T iPad Sim in the Unite, the Unite does not need to be carrier unlocked, because it is an AT&T device. I purchased mine used on eBay on the cheap, along with a few extra batteries. I imagine that the hotspot you purchase shouldn't be tied to a contract.

Thanks for your help. I ordered a used one off eBay, put the sim in and it worked like a champ. It was a bit tricky getting the chip positioned just right as it appears that the Unite is designed for a slightly larger sim chip.