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All iPads Do/did you buy your iPad(s) with Cellular or Wi-Fi Only?
- Thread starter Yebubbleman
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Wife gets WiFi. I get +cellular since I use mine for gps. If the WiFi had a gps chip id get WiFi only.
I have been using the Cellular on my iPP 13” for the last half of the year so far at work and all of the place i love being able to pay off my iPad Pro monthly with TMo it make life much easier for me
I would get LTE here in Canada, if plans were larger than 4GB. That's right, you can only get a max of 4GB of tablet cellular which in 2025 is a joke. And if you go over it's $10 per 100MB. 100MB, not 100GB. So that's $100 per GB, ridiculous pricing. And I'm on one of the lowest cost providers lol. I would constantly go over it every month and my bills would be a fortune. And on top I'd have to watch ,y data usage on it like a hawk all the time which would be annoying.
I have 1TB of data every month on my cell phone plan so I always hotspot off it. I use about 600-750GB every month. My speeds are just as fast as my home internet. 600MB download and 200MB upload. I run my phone as a hotspot 24/7 so I can connect to it with any device anytime. I don't have to keep turning on hotspot on the phone.
It drains the battery very very little and I'm always near a charger to keep the phone charged. Bringing a portable battery with you also prevents any battery drain.
I would get cellular on my Samsung tablet and use only as car GPS (which 4GB would be fine but I'd still monitor my usage) but I'd want to leave the tablet in the car year round and with extreme temps here and winters going down to -100C in the winters, it would be deadly for the tablet. And no way I'd want to keep taking it in the house and back into the car everytime, plus having to mount it.
I have 1TB of data every month on my cell phone plan so I always hotspot off it. I use about 600-750GB every month. My speeds are just as fast as my home internet. 600MB download and 200MB upload. I run my phone as a hotspot 24/7 so I can connect to it with any device anytime. I don't have to keep turning on hotspot on the phone.
It drains the battery very very little and I'm always near a charger to keep the phone charged. Bringing a portable battery with you also prevents any battery drain.
I would get cellular on my Samsung tablet and use only as car GPS (which 4GB would be fine but I'd still monitor my usage) but I'd want to leave the tablet in the car year round and with extreme temps here and winters going down to -100C in the winters, it would be deadly for the tablet. And no way I'd want to keep taking it in the house and back into the car everytime, plus having to mount it.
Those prices are absurd. I pay around 5 EURO’s/month in Europe and it is unlimited as in the first 200 GB are full speed and afterwards it throttles.
With these prices it is a no brainer to buy the cellular ipad.
I used to buy the cellular iPad for the sake of finding the iPad if I forgot it somewhere. That’s never really been an issue. And… what I’m saving in price on the iPad and monthly fees over the years is the price of an iPad if not more.
Tethering via Bluetooth to the iPhone works just great. And if you want, you can always USB plug your iPhone into your iPad and it will tether over the physical connection.
Tethering via Bluetooth to the iPhone works just great. And if you want, you can always USB plug your iPhone into your iPad and it will tether over the physical connection.
I bought an iPad Pro M4 with 5G completely by accident because I got it at my phone service provider. I only noticed it when going through settings app, but it has been a useful feature a couple of times. For example, I recently moved in a new place and I had to wait a week for a Wi-Fi to be set up so it was nice having data available without dealing with tethering from iPhone. I’ve also enjoyed this feature when traveling since I never can remember to pre-load TV shows before arriving at the airport so it’s nice to do it in the downtime when waiting for boarding, and whenever I’m using my iPad at coffee shops.
But it’s definitely a nice-to-have feature for me, and the price of both cellular iPad + monthly subscription isn’t really worth it.
But it’s definitely a nice-to-have feature for me, and the price of both cellular iPad + monthly subscription isn’t really worth it.
1. i purchased m4 ipad pro cellular but then i returned it because a) eSIM only not good for me (will explain later), b) wayyyyy too expensive
2. purchased ipad 10 64gb base mode wi-fi only. eventually i sold it because 64gb is criminally not enough even with icloud. i took it on multiple international trips and it would be nice to have cellular, but no way i'm paying both for my ipad and iphone for roaming internationally.
3. eventually i got ipad pro m2 cellular. very fairly priced when i got it. around 50% off retail, brand new. this model is perfect for me because a) it has, and the last model to, a physical SIM slot. b) i live predominantly in thailand and there's yearly SIMs that cost $3 US per YEAR for 10GB. and i can purchase more data for cheap. this is extremely convenient. I just pop in the SIM and pay next to nothing and I'm set for the whole year.
2. purchased ipad 10 64gb base mode wi-fi only. eventually i sold it because 64gb is criminally not enough even with icloud. i took it on multiple international trips and it would be nice to have cellular, but no way i'm paying both for my ipad and iphone for roaming internationally.
3. eventually i got ipad pro m2 cellular. very fairly priced when i got it. around 50% off retail, brand new. this model is perfect for me because a) it has, and the last model to, a physical SIM slot. b) i live predominantly in thailand and there's yearly SIMs that cost $3 US per YEAR for 10GB. and i can purchase more data for cheap. this is extremely convenient. I just pop in the SIM and pay next to nothing and I'm set for the whole year.
As I mentioned in another post - Just went on another 7-day pleasure trip, leaving the laptop behind and taking just the 13" Pro. On pleasure travel, I used to use the laptop a lot for RAW photo and 4k video processing, but the iPad worked great for it and all of my other needs.
The entire time I used the iPad tethered to my 16 Pro Max - my T-Mobile bandwidth blew away the hotel's WiFi and I was surprised at how convenient it was and how little the battery was impacted by my heavy use. My Mini 6 is cellular but I don't think I'll ever get cellular again. (Edit - may have to rethink that on the Mini as I like having GPS available on it. Irritating coupling of functionality.)
The entire time I used the iPad tethered to my 16 Pro Max - my T-Mobile bandwidth blew away the hotel's WiFi and I was surprised at how convenient it was and how little the battery was impacted by my heavy use. My Mini 6 is cellular but I don't think I'll ever get cellular again. (Edit - may have to rethink that on the Mini as I like having GPS available on it. Irritating coupling of functionality.)
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