How many are getting LTE on their mini ipad?

[iHeartsteve]

I can't imagine buying the mini w out cellular service. The whole point of the mini was for portability and esp for when the ipad is just too damn large and heavy. I don't know about anyone else, but if I buy the mini - its a MUST to get the LTE service.

With that said...I would def need the 32g. I don't see how 16g is even feasible anymore. I'm looking at $600 including tax. which I think is crazy for something that doesn't have retina display on it, which is my largest pet peeve.

BUT I really want it b/c the ipad is just too large to take 'everywhere'. I'm actually trying to find justifications on buying one but I can't come up with one.

Who is getting wifi only and why? Those getting LTE, Please vote on the poll!
Thank you

 

[DoctorYuyi]

I got the 16GB Wifi one. I usually just go to work or places where I won't use my iPad at all, so I don't need LTE. I don't need a lot of storage because I mainly use it for bookkeeping, social networking, reading, and drawing.

Those getting LTE, Please vote on the poll!
Thank you

Attempting to influence the vote plzban

 

[Ladybug]

I don't take my iPad with me to many places, and the few I do visit all have wifi. I only needed a 16 but went with a 32 so I would never have to worry about space. I am probably not your typical user. When I'm home I use my iPad all the time. When I'm out, I prefer to just be social or involved in other activities. By now you're wondering why I wanted a mini in the first place. I love to read ebooks and I do find my iPad 3 a bit heavy for me after awhile (arthritis in my hands). I do bring my iPad with me on occasions, it just depends on where I'm going that day.

 

[reputationZed]

Moving from a WiFi only 64GB iPad 2 to a LTE 32GB mini. My lesson learned from the iPad2 is that I had overestimated my need for storage and underestimated my need for connectivity.

 

[shenan1982]

It doesn't make sense to buy a 16gb these days, especially since the Mini is designed to run iPad apps not iPhone apps, some of the apps alone would fill a large chunk of space. I'm surprised Apple didn't go to a 32\64\128gb offering, but I guess they realized some people would rather have the product with limited functionality than not at all.... America!

Anyhow, I went with WiFi for one reason, because I want it NOW, haha. Well that and I have a mobile share plan so I might as well take advantage of it, right? For years ATT has said I can't tether, and now that I'm allowed to I might as well. I do see myself trading in the mini wifi for the LTE version when it comes out, should be perfect timing with the 14 day return period (the 16th of Nov)... might have to go without for a week.

 

[iHeartsteve]

It doesn't make sense to buy a 16gb these days, especially since the Mini is designed to run iPad apps not iPhone apps, some of the apps alone would fill a large chunk of space. I'm surprised Apple didn't go to a 32\64\128gb offering, but I guess they realized some people would rather have the product with limited functionality than not at all.... America!

Anyhow, I went with WiFi for one reason, because I want it NOW, haha. Well that and I have a mobile share plan so I might as well take advantage of it, right? For years ATT has said I can't tether, and now that I'm allowed to I might as well. I do see myself trading in the mini wifi for the LTE version when it comes out, should be perfect timing with the 14 day return period (the 16th of Nov)... might have to go without for a week.

Yes the larger gig space has been my gripe forever. Apps and everything else is so much larger. Just give us the 32g base model.

 

[shenan1982]

Yes the larger gig space has been my gripe forever. Apps and everything else is so much larger. Just give us the 32g base model.

Or at least a 4th option for 128, ;-) ... I have a friend who works at the Apple store .. (yeah I know that sentence usually doesn't end well, haha)... he says with every product launch it's the 16gb that people want, be it iPhone, iPad, etc. You have to remember Americans have no sense of fiscal responsibility, and often buy things only because their friends do (I'm not saying people in here, calm down), so people who can't really and shouldn't really be buying it need to have a way to at least get into it, and Apple isn't going to cut them out since it's such a huge segment of their business. My guilty pleasure is to DVR Judge Judy, yeah I'll admit it... and I have seen so many episodes where a mom who can't afford one kid, has 4 kids, and she's on government assistance and low and behold she's got an iPhone 5 in her pocket. WTF. This is why Apple sells the 16gb. You have to remember that 47% of americans are on government assistance, and of those I bet at least a quarter of them carry an iPhone. God bless America, ehh?

 

[Scarpad]

I'm hinking about selling my current third gen Ipad cellular and buying a wireless fourth gen , then buying a mini with cellular, the mini makes sense to be cellullar over the larger Ipad.

 

[KenAFSPC]

It doesn't make sense to buy a 16gb these days, especially since the Mini is designed to run iPad apps not iPhone apps, some of the apps alone would fill a large chunk of space. I'm surprised Apple didn't go to a 32\64\128gb offering, but I guess they realized some people would rather have the product with limited functionality than not at all.... America!

The 16GB (16,000 MB) capacity is plenty so long as you aren't planning on saving a lot of music, videos, or games on your iPad. Few iPad apps, aside from games and some navigation programs, require more than a few hundred megabytes and most require less than 40MB. My 16GB iPad has more than 100 apps, a dozen games, a GPS navigation app with maps for the entire US, several gigabytes of music, and it still has about 5GB available.

 

[HowardSmith]

I just got the 64gb WiFi mini unit to keep in the bedroom for email and XFinity for my flatscreen. I did order a 64GB iPad 4 that will replace my iPad 3.

 

[convergent]

I can't imagine buying the mini w out cellular service.

Simple... I can tether my WiFi iPad to my iPhone 4s... gets me data and GPS. No need to pay for another data plan when I have plenty of data available already.

 

[ckurt25]

Simple... I can tether my WiFi iPad to my iPhone 4s... gets me data and GPS. No need to pay for another data plan when I have plenty of data available already.

I'm doing the exact same thing with my iP5. I don't have to pay extra money for the LTE version when I can just pay a few extra bucks to add tethering to my data plan. I actually get a 20% corporate discount so going from a 3GB to 5GB tethering plan on AT&T only costs me a few bucks more.

 

[kappaknight]

I got the 16GB Wifi one. I usually just go to work or places where I won't use my iPad at all, so I don't need LTE. I don't need a lot of storage because I mainly use it for bookkeeping, social networking, reading, and drawing.

What do you use for bookkeeping? An app or something web based?

 

[glen e]

Simple... I can tether my WiFi iPad to my iPhone 4s... gets me data and GPS. No need to pay for another data plan when I have plenty of data available already.

it's not that simple...some of us have unlimited data plans that go away if we take the hotspot....32 LTE for me...

 

[dthree36]

I thought about the whole LTE thing and well... I have an iPhone already that I pay for data. I have an iPad 2 with AT&T 3G but I don't have it activated. I am rarely in a place that I need to use 3g or LTE that my phone can't already handle. Its kind of nice to have the LTE Chip for GPS but again, my phone does this for me. Because of these things, I am opting to not get the LTE service integrated in my mini. I am also going with the 16GB version because my audio will be on my phone and iPod and have no need for massive storage because I have a cloudftp to house all that stuff.

 

[Jinzen]

Simple... I can tether my WiFi iPad to my iPhone 4s... gets me data and GPS. No need to pay for another data plan when I have plenty of data available already.

In many cases, that kills the iPhone battery life and isn't acceptable for me. I'd rather tether all other devices from the the iPad itself.

 

[convergent]

it's not that simple...some of us have unlimited data plans that go away if we take the hotspot....32 LTE for me...

Um... a throttled unlimited plan is not really an unlimited plan. I ditched that a while back once it was clear that they were going to box you in on those plans. I'd rather have a plan that I can continue to have good performance and pay extra if I need the extra bandwidth. With 5G on the tethering plan, which does get the corp discount, I have never came close to going over it. Also a reason I don't want LTE (vs their kind of 4G)... because it would likely drive much more data use.

In many cases, that kills the iPhone battery life and isn't acceptable for me. I'd rather tether all other devices from the the iPad itself.

I've not had a big problem with that when I use Bluetooth for tethering instead of WiFi. It seems to use less battery that way.

For me, the big think about the Mini was I wanted to keep it really cheap. We'll see once I get it if this pans out or not, but for now I think it will work fine. If I find that I wish I had cellular, I'll just have to buy another one.

 

[ckurt25]

The 16GB (16,000 MB) capacity is plenty so long as you aren't planning on saving a lot of music, videos, or games on your iPad.

Isn't that what they're designed to do? I am getting the 16GB version but I will have to be careful what I load. I had a 16GB original iPad and was always watching what I put on there. I won't have more than 500MB of music, maybe some photos (probably won't use the camera much, just sync with iPhoto) and a bunch of apps. I don't play a ton of games now on my iPhone but think the mini will be a great gaming device. I have a Hot Pursuit game that takes up 560 MB on my 5 now and each Angry Bird / Bad Piggie game is over 100 MB and so are another 10-12 games that I like to play. I've seen some new games for the iPhone that are over 700 MB. I'm going to be using the iPad for watching movies that I've sync'd with iTunes. Avengers is a couple GBs and even the SD movies I put on will be at least 700 MB. Space can go quick.

The only reason I went with a 16 over a 32 for the mini is I anticipate a new version of the mini with retina coming out in 6-18 months and at that time I'll go with 32 and give the 16 to my daughter, like I did my original iPad.

 

[jedolley]

When the iPad first came out, I don't think anyone knew how it would fit into their lives. It's been a couple years now, so if you have been an user from the beginning, you should have a pretty good idea how it works for you.

I went with the WiFi 16GB version for now, but may return it for an LTE version. The reason being is that when I am not at home or work I am running errands or taking my son to the park. I don't usually have time when I am out about to lounge about and use an iPad, or even my Kindle. When I am somewhere when I have an opportunity to use an iPad, it's usually somewhere with WiFi. With that said, the LTE version looks pretty tempting since the data plan will only cost me $19.99/month for unlimited.

 

[KenAFSPC]

The only reason I went with a 16 over a 32 for the mini is I anticipate a new version of the mini with retina coming out in 6-18 months and at that time I'll go with 32 and give the 16 to my daughter, like I did my original iPad.

This is the same justification I used to get 16GB on the iPad 3. The extra capacity does little for resale value, and by the time I must have the additional space, I expect that a new, significantly improved model will be available. At that time I would upgrade, selling or passing on my older 16GB unit to a family member.

 

[rockyroad55]

Tethering with 5GB plan.

 

[Izzybeff]

I bought the 16g Cellular one simply so that when it updates next year I won't feel so bad about upgrading.. Then i'll move up to the 32.

 

[ZivaD]

Tethering to my iPhone 5 so it's not needed and at home/indoors it's on wifi.

 

[iHeartsteve]

it's not that simple...some of us have unlimited data plans that go away if we take the hotspot....32 LTE for me...

I have the unlimited plan and didn't know it gets taken away if you choose to tether! good to know!

 

[pasadena]

I got the WIFI 32Gb. I've found that I am almost always within range of a wifi signal when I need data on my mobile devices (laptop or phone now). I still have my iPhone for the 20% of the time where I need data on cellular.

I figured the additional cost (and wait ) for a cellular wasn't justifiable for my needs. High premium at purchase is one thing, but then US carriers rip you off every month after that. I already think what they make me pay for my phone is scandalous.

Were I still in my home country, I would probably have gone with the cellular mini. But here ? Nope.