I know these two products different products for different uses, but I'm don't know which to buy. Let me put you into context: I'm getting one of these as a gift. The thing with the iPhone is that since I live in Latin America I need to buy a factory unlocked one ($750 for the 32GB model). That money can easily get me an iPad 2. As most people I don't really NEED any of them, I just love gadgets. I would use and iOS device for the following: gaming (of course), internet browsing and for reference apps (I'm a doctor). Why iPhone: I had an iPod touch before and loved it. But I needed it to be a phone too, I was not confortable carrying two gadgets the whole time. The iPhone is portable, it's powerfull and it has just been updated. Great apps for medicine and gaming Why not an iPhone: $700 seems a bit too much to pay for a phone, but phone companies here will not carry the iPhone anytime soon, since it's importation has been blocked. The phone is somewhat fragile. I don't enjoy being too aware of my phone and taking extreme care mesures, but my country is a little bit insecure, so I will be forced too double check if I want to take it out on the street or public transport. Why an iPad: Lot's of apps. Gaming is much more comforatble on it. Reading is papers or pdf's is a lot easier. Browsing sites is also very intuitive and fun. Great for using at home. Just cool. Why not and iPad: it's close to the end of its cicly. I'm afraid I may lose interest in it eventually (I have a powerfull gaming PC and PS3). It's not that portable. I allready have a netbook but I feel the iPad would totally replace it anyway. Thanks for reading, really looking foward to your advice!
I had an iPhone 4 and upgraded to a 4S straight away. It cost me £699. The week after I bought an iPad 2. Since using and getting used to the iPad 2 I wish I had stuck with my iPhone 4. Not because the 4S isn't a great device, it is. I pretty much just use my iPad all the time. Hardly ever use my lap-top now either. When I buy games I'm always checking that it can be played on the iPad. Once you get used to the iPad screen, the iPhone screen seems really small. It's great for looking on the internet etc and pretty much everything you can do on a lap-top etc. If you are going to be surfing the net a lot, I would recommend the iPad. The screen on the iPhone is a tad too small when surfing the net. Obviously it's doable and usable, just not as good as the iPad. They are both fantastic devices. The choice really is which one will you get the most use/value out of. One thing to consider is that the battery life on the 4S is not the best. Moderate usage (being generous by saying moderate.) you will more than likely struggle to get through a full day.
Agreed. It really depends how much of a handheld gamer you are. Personally I prefer to game on the iPhone 4S, but then again I've been doing most of my non-PC gaming on handhelds since the GameGear. I use my iPad 2 for browsing, writing (I may eventually get a keyboard), and work -- don't carry a laptop anymore. I also enjoy sharing games with my son on the larger screen. But for myself, I just love playing a game in the palm of my hands. BTW, I just did a test with Bard's Tale with the battery savings option off on my 4S -- went through 15-20% of my battery in about an hour. That's not bad, but obvious you'll get better battery life from the iPad 2.
I have both an iPhone and an iPad - I use my iPhone for making phone calls, and occasionally for other uses - internet, texting... Time spent on the iPad vs the iPhone is probably 100:1... For just the reasons that you mentioned - the text is bigger, the screen is bigger, it is much easier to use. If you see patients, you will start using it in your office to show them pictures, or videos of things that can sometimes be hard to explain. The iPad 1 is certainly coming up perhaps on service life - but perhaps not - I generally figure about 3 years for these things - but that is true of all electronic information devices. That being said - I have a PC at home, that works perfectly for what we need it for - surfing the net, and doing reports on it - It isn't used for photo editing, gaming, etc... So it is 7 years old, and doing fine... It would be nice to wait for the iPad 3, but the iPad 2 has at least a couple 3 years of life in it, and with Steve Jobs gone - who knows what the iPad 3 is going to look like? The iPhone I think is a waste if you are not going to use it for its phone / portable capabilities - I use mine for texting / GPS / Phone / see what is close by - all things that require a carrier - if you don't have a carrier - you are spending a lot of money for essentially an iPod touch - for you - iPhone minus phone capabilities = iPod touch... The only reason that I can see getting the phone is precisely for its small size, and nothing more - and again with your carrier situation - get the iPod Touch, unless you travel, and you need a phone - probably cheaper to get phones in country though than to pay carrier rates while traveling. Anyways, good luck with your decision. I'm sure you will be happy - either way it is good...
Thanks for all the replies, they've been great. I would still like to see more opinions before I make a final decision! Just too clarify: I can get all the benefits from the iPhone with my carrier: phone, internet, etc. I just can't buy the device from them. So I have to go the unblocked way and spend a lot more. I would love to wait for the iPad 3, but my uncle who is gifting it to me travels to the states next week. It's my only chance. Keep it coming please!
I can only say that I was very skeptical about an iPad and turned down an opportunity to get one as a gift. Then I got to play with iPad2 for a week and bitterly regretted my earlier disdain. Surfing is just so much better on it, battery life so much longer, Skyping so much more convenient and I really loved watching movies/TV-series on it too. The 2 games that I played on it - Broken Sword 2 and Sword and Sworcery also handled excellently and felt better than similar games that I have played on the small screen. OTOH, you have the issue of portability. Iphone/Ipod is always with you. But given your security concerns, can you really afford to whip it out anytime that you are in transit/bored in your country? If not, maybe a cheaper phone with an MP3-player and an iPad 2 would be better options. Personally, I am getting an iPad 2 in a near future.
I also live in Latin America and I own an ipad 2. I am a university student and I have never regretted getting the ipad 2. I actually use my ipad 2 in class to take notes with a stylus. Works great. Apps and games look so beautiful on it. For example I got IB2 on ipad and I have never had one single issue. As I said, the apps are great. I got skype, notability, kindle, ibooks, gplayer (which flawlessly plays any video), and tons of others apps. Surfing is so much better. As a student ipad is the best. It totally replaced my laptop. I never understand why people get an iphone. An iphone is just suitable for calling and pics. If i want to make a cal I can do so with my $99 phone. But with my ipad2 i can also do calls now using skype. I definitely recommend the ipad2.
I am from India, and here too iPhone is ridiculously expensive for a phone. But then, I actually do carry two mobile devices - an iPod touch, and a phone, all the time. I find having a separate gaming device much better than having it on my phone. For a casual game fix on the go, I think android is ok-ish for the phone. Apart from that, everything on iphone is better on iPad. For e.g., I have never played Infinity Blade, or Aralon, or Death Meadow, etc. on the iPod, just because they are so much better on the iPad. Even the casual games like league of evil, mos speedrun, bike baron are fun on iPad. Browsing is better too. And it's just the right size portable. You can carry it to office (I do), use it for work, reading and the works. If I had to give you a choice between iPad 2 and iPhone, I'd say iPad. As far as cycle goes, I am assuming iPad 3 is atleast 3-6 months away. So you'd be able to get a 2 year life out of iPad 2 easy (And buy iPad 5 perhaps? ) And honestly, if you like handheld gaming too, get an iPod touch too. Not now though, when iTouch 5 comes around. If you look at your own arguments, I think you are leaning towards iPad, arent you? And oh... btw, wrong section.
Instead of just shouting about which I think is best, I'm gonna concentrate on the fact you said you don't want to carry two gadgets around. That pretty much equals iPhone if you ask me. Getting the iPad would mean either you have no apps/games with you while you're traveling, or you have a phone and a huge gadget.
Again, it's a matter of taste. I prefer gaming on the smaller, more portable device (with some exceptions, like board games). With the retina screen, the iPhone is a great reading device, and even though webserfing is better on an iPad, the iPhone is great when you're commuting. And, of course, for business purposes having access to email, managed voicemail, calendars, documents (through Dropbox), and even your desktop is great. The iPad can do all that, sure, but it's amazing how often I can answer a question or deal with a problem single-handed while holding on the bar on the commuter rail. It also helps that I've had my share of $99 phones and truly hated every single one of them. Again, not trying to sway the OP one way or the other (and based on the carrier restrictions, the iPad makes more sense for him/her anyway). But there are certainly very good reasons to have an iPhone. If I had to choose one to give away, it would certainly be the iPad 2.
I have the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 iPhone 4s-great for portable gamind device, small screen, fits in pocket, probably go through more abuse than the iPad 2 because it's a phone so buy a otterbox defender case or something. life- 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours iPad 2- huge screen, internet is like using a computer, buy a Zagg keyboard case and you get a feeling like your using a notebook, not as easy to pull out and mess with compared to the iPhone 4s but I prefer to use it when possible. Life- 7-10 hours I use the iPhone more due to its my phone obviously and its portable, gaming and web browsing is just a second away just pull it out of your pocket. The iPad a great device though for in home usage and pretty much when your sitting down relaxing. They both have pros and cons, just pick whichever fits you better. If your looking for gaming and web browsing for 5-10 minutes and make it look like your texting when your playing a game then get an iPhone. If your looking for something you can sit down and have long battery life and consume countless hours doing whatever you like, then iPad. Personally I prefer the iPad but I use the iPhone way more due to portability for my busy days.
The problem with this question is having too much gray area to deal with. If you are on the phone alot( business pleasure texting etc..) , i wouldnt get an ipad get an iphone. If your main concern is gaming (but you dont travel alot) get a good laptop/desktop for the same price as the 64 ipad 2 you can get a nice gaming machine and still play high end games ..internet , movies,flash etc.. if you travel alot then yeah the ipad is the way to go if you are mainly a gamer and want to surf the web ,email ,facebook skype or whatever. It also depends on budget etc.., but in time you will more then likely have all the above..I dont have just one tool in my toolbox i have differant ones for differant circumstances just remmember you will be replaceing most of that techno garbage in the next five years anyway.... out with the old in with the new.
I dunno about Latin America, but over here cell carriers will upgrade phones at a fraction of the cost of buying a new one, so in the long run the iPhone would work out a lot cheaper in terms of upgrading... but of course you're paying to use it as a phone anyway, so the iPad saves you money in that sense.
Haha Midian, my dad and I envy you and other European countries! You have to pay the rates of the cell phone carrier, pay to break the contract if you want to upgrade or buy your phone at full price. I guess you do have the 2 years to upgrade, but unfortunately mobile technologhy is changing so fast your device becomes out dated in a year on iOS and 3-6 months on Android. We miss the 1 year contracts. It's also interesting to see how things are set up in other countries! Personally, I'd say wait for the iPad 3 if you're willing to use a cell phone. It's not practical to use as a phone IMO. If you really really want only one device pick up the iPhone 4s. Personally, I advise all my good buddies, in real life, to just wait for the actual iPhone 5 if they must have an iOS device. However, this might be too long of a wait for you. For myself, I use a samsung Facsinate coupled with an iPod touch. This has worked out superbly for me I also agree with the people who said the iPhone/iPod is better for mobile gaming. The iPad in my opinion is too big for most games IMO. When I have played it, I found that TBS and tower defense games work perfectly on it though. They still work fine on an iPhone as well. What we need is a 4-4.67 inch phone. I want to start a thread on how many people want the update or feel it is necessary for new games being released. /Rambled hardcore; Sorry! --------------------------------------- But yeah, I mostly agree with this! Personally, I don't see the point of an iPad.
Ok guys, thanks for all the replies, they've been very helpfull. I went for the iPhone 4S after all: portable and just updated (we might be an year away from iPhone 5, plenty of time to enjoy the new phone) iPad 2: it's great (been lend a first gen one and was having a blast) but I know myself and when a retina display iPad 3 is released next march I will feel I'm using a lesser product and feel the urge to update. I will get one eventually, I know I can make some decent use out of it. Plus next year I won't be much at home. Thanks again and feel free to keep the debate ongoing.
