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All iPads Do you go for Wi-Fi only or cellular for your iPad

Which iPad do you go with?

  • Wi-Fi

    Votes: 183 60.4%

  • Cellular

    Votes: 120 39.6%
  • Total voters
    303
beach bum said:
As long as your carrier plan supports ‘Personal Hotspot’ you just have to turn it on in Settings.

Settings>Personal Hotspot… then, Settings>WiFi>Auto-Join Hotspot.

Connect to the Personal Hotspot of an iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Personal Hotspot uses the cellular data connection of an iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) to create a temporary, portable Wi-Fi network that other devices can use to connect to the internet. It can be helpful when you’re not in range of a trusted Wi-Fi network.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
I’ve done that before, but then I run up my cellular data use because it stays connected to my iPhone.

It seemed like the way you described it would automatically connect to your hotspot only when you left the house. Maybe I misunderstood.
 
Charlie Carcinogen said:
I’ve done that before, but then I run up my cellular data use because it stays connected to my iPhone.

It seemed like the way you described it would automatically connect to your hotspot only when you left the house. Maybe I misunderstood.
Click to expand...
It does automatically connect when I leave the house and not on my home WiFi since I have the ‘auto-join hotspot’ turned on under WiFi in my phone settings and on my iPad. With AT&T, I have a 40gb monthly hotspot usage although I don’t use it often but when I need it, it’s available.
 
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I’ve got an unlimited data plan that lets me tether/ hotspot data to my iPad. For my usage combined with the fact I’m often somewhere with good Wi-Fi I got the Wi-Fi only version but opted for the highest storage option.
 
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beach bum said:
I’m not sure on that. Once I’m back home I always turn off WiFi on my phone and the iPad kicks over to the my home WiFi.
Click to expand...
Just tested it. Have a Wi-Fi mini 5 and iphone SE 2020. Both on devices are connected to my home wifi.

My ipad is set to auto-join hotspot on my SE 2020 when there no known Wi-Fi near by.

When leaving house the IPad jump over to hotspot automatically. When I come home again I don’t have to do nothing. Both devices jump back on my home wifi by them self.

Both devices running 15.4.1

Frank
 
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Frankras said:
Just tested it. Have a Wi-Fi mini 5 and iphone SE 2020. Both on devices are connected to my home wifi.

My ipad is set to auto-join hotspot on my SE 2020 when there no known Wi-Fi near by.

When leaving house the IPad jump over to hotspot automatically. When I come home again I don’t have to do nothing. Both devices jump back on my home wifi by them self.

Both devices running 15.4.1

Frank
Click to expand...
Same for me. Though being on the S22U, I use a Bixby routine to switch from the home wifi network to LTE and to turn on the hotspot to which my iPads and laptop connect automatically.
 
Get cellular if you plan on using your iPad on the go. I travel a lot less these days but it’s also useful when Comcast goes down every so often
 
Cellular always. The money I was paying for iPads the difference was negligible. And remember that only cellular models have a gps chip.
 
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beach bum said:
As long as your carrier plan supports ‘Personal Hotspot’ you just have to turn it on in Settings.

Settings>Personal Hotspot… then, Settings>WiFi>Auto-Join Hotspot.

Connect to the Personal Hotspot of an iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Personal Hotspot uses the cellular data connection of an iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) to create a temporary, portable Wi-Fi network that other devices can use to connect to the internet. It can be helpful when you’re not in range of a trusted Wi-Fi network.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
Most of the "unlimited" plans offered by cell companies either do not allow hotspot use, or have it pretty tightly limited. IIRC I get 15GB of hotspot data with my AT&T plan (and due to where I live, unfortunately, I'm stuck with AT&T). But for $10/mo., my iPad has unlimited data. Getting around their streaming resolution caps is pretty easy with a VPN. 15GB can be chewed up pretty quickly.

Back when I had a "mobile share" plan, that's exactly what I did.
 
MrGimper said:
Cellular always. The money I was paying for iPads the difference was negligible. And remember that only cellular models have a gps chip.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Depending on the model, it's $150 or $200 more. Which isn't trivial but it also isn't necessarily the end of the world when we're talking about devices in that price range.

A lot of folks in this thread seem to think it's quite a bit more expensive. It really isn't.
 
el-John-o said:
A lot of folks in this thread seem to think it's quite a bit more expensive. It really isn't.
Click to expand...

Depending upon the iPad, it can be up to a 25% price bump

That's pretty substantial just to add cellular

(and if ever worried about trading in to Apple again eventually -- a concern or desire for some folks -- they screw you totally on any extras like cellular or upgraded storage)
 
Oh wow... I just assumed the cellular models were an additional, flat $130 (they've been like that in many years past). I was out of the market for 6 years, and even recently, never bothered with cellular models, so didn't notice this changed! 😱
 
el-John-o said:
Most of the "unlimited" plans offered by cell companies either do not allow hotspot use, or have it pretty tightly limited. IIRC I get 15GB of hotspot data with my AT&T plan (and due to where I live, unfortunately, I'm stuck with AT&T). But for $10/mo., my iPad has unlimited data. Getting around their streaming resolution caps is pretty easy with a VPN. 15GB can be chewed up pretty quickly.

Back when I had a "mobile share" plan, that's exactly what I did.
Click to expand...
I’m on EE in the UK… I have an unlimited data plan on the phone and a 5GB plan on the iPad. Every month I can “gift” 120GB to my iPad, which works for me
 
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turbineseaplane said:
(and if ever worried about trading in to Apple again eventually -- a concern or desire for some folks -- they screw you totally on any extras like cellular or upgraded storage)
Click to expand...

This is why more often than not, I just pass down iPads to family.

That or I use them until they're worn down and only trade in when they're close to worthless. I usually still get $100 which ain't bad for super slow devices that I wouldn't impose on family members.
 
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Most retailers that I've looked at seem to want to sell the cheapest, WiFi-only iPad available, or a cellular model that is one of the more expensive 12.9-inch iPads. Some of the deceptive tricks that I've run across is when they say 5G... WiFi so that it shows up in a search, or they hide the WiFi-only limitation in their description. They all seem to believe that tablets are for walking around WiFi routers and not for taking on the road, or that we all have a 5G smartphone that can use Tethering without any monthly data cap limit. Even without a data cap, Tethering runs down the battery on the iPad to talk to the phone, and the phone battery is running down to support the 5G. The iPad was meant to be mobile, and originally it was sold as an exclusive contract deal with AT&T. Now there are only a few cellular tablets available in the retail market, so it's a good thing that we can order directly from Apple, a company that still understands why some of us have a need for a universally-compatible, standalone cellular support in a tablet PC.
 
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arogge said:
Most retailers that I've looked at seem to want to sell the cheapest, WiFi-only iPad available, or a cellular model that is one of the more expensive 12.9-inch iPads. Some of the deceptive tricks that I've run across is when they say 5G... WiFi so that it shows up in a search, or they hide the WiFi-only limitation in their description. They all seem to believe that tablets are for walking around WiFi routers and not for taking on the road, or that we all have a 5G smartphone that can use Tethering without any monthly data cap limit. Even without a data cap, Tethering runs down the battery on the iPad to talk to the phone, and the phone battery is running down to support the 5G. The iPad was meant to be mobile, and originally it was sold as an exclusive contract deal with AT&T. Now there are only a few cellular tablets available in the retail market, so it's a good thing that we can order directly from Apple, a company that still understands why some of us have a need for a universally-compatible, standalone cellular support in a tablet PC.
Click to expand...

Retailers will only stock what they know is popular and sells. No point offering loads of cellular options if they know these will still be in stock at the end of the year. A good proportion of iPad users don’t need a cellular iPad and those that do can go to Apple as you say.
 
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arogge said:
Most retailers that I've looked at seem to want to sell the cheapest, WiFi-only iPad available, or a cellular model that is one of the more expensive 12.9-inch iPads. Some of the deceptive tricks that I've run across is when they say 5G... WiFi so that it shows up in a search, or they hide the WiFi-only limitation in their description. They all seem to believe that tablets are for walking around WiFi routers and not for taking on the road, or that we all have a 5G smartphone that can use Tethering without any monthly data cap limit. Even without a data cap, Tethering runs down the battery on the iPad to talk to the phone, and the phone battery is running down to support the 5G. The iPad was meant to be mobile, and originally it was sold as an exclusive contract deal with AT&T. Now there are only a few cellular tablets available in the retail market, so it's a good thing that we can order directly from Apple, a company that still understands why some of us have a need for a universally-compatible, standalone cellular support in a tablet PC.
Click to expand...

Retailers want to sell configurations that give them the highest profit, and I do believe they have a sales per square foot metric. That means stocking items that customers buy and have high turnover rates.

Heck, chances are that high storage 12.9 5G is probably older stock that just hasn’t sold yet. I doubt there’s high demand for a $2400 iPad Pro 12.9” 2TB cellular.

I like having cellular on my iPad. However, even on MacRumors with a pretty skewed membership, I expect cellular iPad buyers are the minority.
 
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