Guys I am a bit torn on this... What is everyone planning on getting and why? I work full time and only get an hour lunch with 2 fifteen minute breaks so I dont even know if I would bring my iPad to work or not. But with that being said would that even come close to justifying the cost of a cellular iPad over a wifi only model? I play on my existing iPad at home mostly where I have wifi so I cant make up my mind for when I buy the new one. Also with the cellular model comes a montlhy fee for data to add it to a existing plan. Any advice would be appreciated!
I would stick with the wifi model unless you are playing lots of online games. Since as you mentioned it is going to cost another $30 a month for a data plan on top of the extra $130 for the 4G service model. So basically you are going to pay an extra $490 for the first year to plays games online anytime.
What exactly do you need help with? It's a purely personal decision that will by definition vary from individual to individual based on how they intend to use their iPad.
When I bought mine 2 years back I had the same considerations. Decided on Wifi only really fast. I only play at home, or at friends where I can use their Wifi should I need it. And the like one time a month where I use it somewhere without Wifi access: Doesn't matter, I can wait an hour or two. You know, my old-school dead trees (aka books) have neither
Like Gabrien said, there isn't an "answer", but i can give you my opinion. If you aren't going to be using, or more importantly needing cellular data very often, the price difference between the wifi model and the cellular model is in no way worth it, especially with the monthly costs. Get the wifi model.
Just to muddy the water, I started out with a WiFi-only iPad 1 and soon came to regret that decision. It's wonderful to be able to take your iPad to a cafe, to a park, or on vacation and get useful work done. I now have a phone plan that includes tethering, but that turns out to be a pain in the butt. I'm going back to native cellular data for the iPad. The economics are really not so bad. It's an additional $130 for the hardware, that's true, but the data itself is cheap. If you're on AT&T, the iPad only costs $25 for three months (up to 1GB). T-Mobile has announced 200MB of FREE data per month. A side benefit is that only cellular-equipped iPads have GPS. Sure, you can use your phone most of the time, but it's sure nice to have an iPad for navigation on a road trip.
Hey I appreciate everyones response and am leaning toward wifi only. I didnt even think about the tethering so I can always do that if need be!
I have cellular iPad 2s, but I am leaning towards the Wi-Fi only iPad Air or retina iPad Mini as my iPhone 5C seems capable of consistently working as a hotspot now, compared to the iPhone 4...
Not for me, but it does use the batteries on both my iDevices instead of just my iPad, so I will have less uptime and have to charge twice as many devices. iPadisNotInUSAYourMileageMayVary
I have ipad2 and iPad mini both on mobile data. I have no wifi connection so the mobile data wasn't optional for me. I have a 10 gig a month plan on my mini for £10 and it more than covers my heavy usage, I have a 1 gig monthly plan on my daughters ipad2 and if I'd known just how little it would be required I'd have gone for wifi only. My iPad goes everywhere with me except for the bath, my child's is mainly used at home and over 90 per cent if her apps don't need a connection. It all depends on how you plan to use it. If I could afford it I'd go for mobile data again though, it's nice to have the option I guess.
Get one of those waterproof cases and your iPad can accompany you into your bath too. One thing I noticed after going LTE, my mobile data usage jumped up significantly by slightly more than 50%. Something to consider if you are not on an unlimited data plan...
I originally had a pay as you go sim in my daughters, and one day I topped it up online for£10, few days later realised I'd done £100 instead, felt sick lol, but luckily tmobile were really brilliant and offered to refund but we chose to move onto the 1gb a month plan instead so daughter is covered for a very long time to come lol Can I ask what lte is?
HTML: LTE is 4G. Much faster than 3G and uses battery up faster too. The new iPhone 5s are all on LTE. Not too sure if the iPad Air and retina iPad Mini are or not, but it really makes a huge perceivable difference when accessing the internet.