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To LTE or not to LTE, that is the question(Pro).

V

Vin2015

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 26, 2015
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What are y'alls opinions on this?

Me personally, I have a iphone(duh) that I can hotspot on and my SUV has it's own wifi, so for this quite large device I saw no need to even pursue trying to find a cellular version.

I don't think I'll miss the dedicated gps that the cell version offers either, as I'm not too worried about not being able to geotag all the photos I'm going to take with this out in the wild.

What are your reason for or for not?
 
It seems that the iPad Air is a better device for bringing out of home. Therefore I bought the WiFi version of the Pro.
 
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I picked up the 128 Wifi version. I have a 3rd Gen iPad with LTE and rarely activated it. I figured it wasn't worth the cost or delay to find cellular when I could always just use my iPhone Hotspot for the handful of times I need it.
 
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With Instant Hotspot on the iPhone, unless you need the GPS it's just not necessary anymore for me. If you're always on the go and need to be taking your iPad out a lot throughout the day maybe it would make sense for you, but if not I say skip it.
 
I always buy LTE iPads, because its super easy and cheap to add on my AT&T Mobile Share account. I rarely use the LTE, but when I need it, it is there.

And tethering is just a non-option as far as I'm concerned. Kills the battery on the iPhone, and if I'm anywhere near power to plug in the iPhone, I'm probably near WiFi that the iPad could use instead.
 
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Yeah, for me I always buy LTE, but I use the iPad on the road for work quite a bit, and it is necessary for me. There is less need for it nowadays, but still extremely useful to me.
 
I think it would be rather odd to use the iPad pro as a GPS device. It is too big for the car, and you would look very odd trying to carry it around. So to my mind, it doesn't make sense to get the cellular version just to get the GPS functionality.

And then if we ignore GPS, then it's totally down to whether you need it out of the house or not. If you are, and the places you will use it don't have WiFi, or the hotspot from your phone is too much of a battery drain before you can get to supply the phone more juice, then it makes sense. Otherwise stick to the WiFi.
 
Got a grandfathered unlimited AT&T plan so LTE for me. I can stream and download on-the-go and not worry about the data allowance on my phone.
 
Vin2015 said:
What are y'alls opinions on this?
Click to expand...
Don't overlook the countless prior threads on cellular data and iPads. It's really no different with the Pro than with prior models.

You cannot simply poll to determine the best options for you and need to decide based on your specific needs/wants.
 
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LTE. Pairing to my phone drains my battery and public WIFI spots do not offer the bandwidth I want. When I go into one of my clients businesses, its is often a pain to inquiry about WIFI access.

But really, it comes down to what you need/want.
 
definitely trading in my wifi version for lte, i have a desktop so this will replace my laptop for traveling.

im on tmobile $10 plan where they take whatever data plan you have (3gigs) and thats the amount you can use on the tablet. so 3gigs on my phone and an extra 3 on the tablet.
 
I went with LTE. I only had one iPad before, the Retina 4, a gift with WiFi only. It was rarely an issue, since I could pair with my iPhone if needed.

But I plan to use the Pro instead of my laptop most of the time, and I almost never bothered to tether my laptop.

As a result, I often ended up using my iPhone rather than my MacBook (or iPad) for web browsing, etc. when away from easy WiFi. The Pro has such a perfect screen and form for browsing, and I find it preferable for anything more than a short email.

Plus, for $10/month I get 5GB LTE with T-mobile.

Last, my guess/hope is that the additional cost of the LTE will depreciate less than the iPad itself when it comes to resale.
 
If I bought an iPad Pro, it would be likely to stay at home most of the time, so wifi only.
In contrast, I would always buy an iPad mini with cellular since I would take it with me all the time.
 
When I add up the $10 per month over the life of the device, plus the extra $130.. it's probably not worth it for most people, but oohhh man it's convenient sometimes. I'm tempted to throw in a 200MB per month free SIM from T-Mobile into mine since it'll be at home a lot.

Biggest problem with using the hotspot from the phone is battery life. When I'm using the iPad on LTE I'm often doing it enough to bury the battery unless the phone is plugged in. Also, the battery in the iPad is large enough to serve AS a hotspot for many, many hours if that's needed for a work notebook or something on the road.
 
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