All iPads Do you find yourself needing cellular?

[safelder]

I had a WiFi only original iPad, then cellular (Verizon) iPad2 and iPad3. I have never used the cellular radio on either of the two more recent iPads. Going WiFi only for the Air.

I generally use it either at home or at work, where I've got good WiFi coverage. "On the road" for me usually means in a hotel someplace (where a client may have to pay so I can have WiFi, but I can get it) or at a client site (where I can typically access a guest WiFi network). Plus, my work will give me an LTE hotspot when I need it for travel; if I happen to forget to reserve one, I can tether my iPhone in a pinch. So it's easy to see why I don't need the cellular capability of the iPad.

Of course, this is my use case, and your mileage may vary.

 

[darngooddesign]

I spend more on coffee but just see no needs. Wifi at work, wifi at home, wifi in hotel, wifi in airport, wifi on vacation etc ... Anything in between I could connect to iPhone.

I however, am not around wifi that much.

 

[ZBoater]

I however, am not around wifi that much.

Me neither. Not sure why this is so hard to understand.

 

[rui no onna]

I spend more on coffee but just see no needs. Wifi at work, wifi at home, wifi in hotel, wifi in airport, wifi on vacation etc ... Anything in between I could connect to iPhone.

No wifi at work (which is where I use mine most often mostly to stream Pandora). Besides, Verizon/AT&T LTE is so much faster than internet at work.

 

[iMas70]

I have the 5GB plan for my iPad. I use it away from home and my kids like to watch Netflix on it in the car. I don't like to be limited so I want to be able to use the iPad to get online from anywhere that haw a signal.

 

[Davidkoh]

The advantage is always on connectivity without having to tether. And without running down the batter on my phone which I prefer to use to, you know, talk.

I still have to turn off WiFi and turn on cellular on the iPad. I do not keep them both on at the same time as that draws a little bit more power. For the most part i will have WiFi so it would be a waste to keep my cellular on during those times.

I don't have one of the newer iPhones but I hope theres no problem going through a day of not charging with a few hours of tether on top of the normal use. Even my windows phone i currently have can do that without any problem.

 

[thelookingglass]

Many moons ago, I had a cellular iPad. It was nice, but I kept asking myself why I needed two cellular devices with me. The answer was simple: I didn't. So I then gave up the cellular on the iPad (actually, I gave up the iPad altogether) and life was much simpler.

Now I'm sort of back on the iPad bandwagon and definitely doing wifi only.

 

[Ledgem]

I don't have one of the newer iPhones but I hope theres no problem going through a day of not charging with a few hours of tether on top of the normal use. Even my windows phone i currently have can do that without any problem.

I'm using an iPhone 4S and the battery drain isn't that bad. My guess is that the people claiming that the drain is significant are tethering through wifi which, to be fair, is presented as the default tethering option. I tether through Bluetooth connections instead.

 

[Davidkoh]

I'm using an iPhone 4S and the battery drain isn't that bad. My guess is that the people claiming that the drain is significant are tethering through wifi which, to be fair, is presented as the default tethering option. I tether through Bluetooth connections instead.

I am tethering through wifi on my Lumia920 phone, drainage was about 5% an hour.

 

[rui no onna]

I'm using an iPhone 4S and the battery drain isn't that bad. My guess is that the people claiming that the drain is significant are tethering through wifi which, to be fair, is presented as the default tethering option. I tether through Bluetooth connections instead.

On my iPhone 4, I used to get around 3-5 hours tethering via Bluetooth. How long do you get?

 

[dittman]

I've always bought the cellular model of iPad. My first two were AT&T (iPad 2 for me and my wife). Since then I've bought Verizon (iPad 3, iPad 4, and now iPad Air) since I have an extra Verizon unlimited data plan.

I've been in plenty of places where there's no WiFi available or the WiFi is very slow.

 

[Ledgem]

On my iPhone 4, I used to get around 3-5 hours tethering via Bluetooth. How long do you get?

The iPhone 4 didn't support the Bluetooth 4.0 profile (low-power), which might explain what you saw. I would tether from around 9 AM to 5 PM or 9-6 and my phone battery would be above 50%. I was tethering an iPad mini to an iPhone 4S, both of which support Bluetooth 4.0.