Which iPad to go for?

Can anyone offer me any insight as to which iPad to buy? I have most certainly ruled out the 64GB one but beyond that I am struggling to make up my mind.

So, has anyone gone for the 16GB and then really regretted it, for lack of capacity? But, then I am not planning on using it for vast amounts of media.

Similarly have people, bought just wifi and then regretted it, or bought a 3G version and then found they never used it outside of their home. But again I am not a mobile warrior so WiFi would probably suffice 99% of the time.

So all in all my head tells me to buy the cheapest one 16GB WiFi, but I never buy the cheapest of anything, it seems to be the way I am programmed. Yet £399 to £569 is a BIG difference both in real terms and psychological terms

Santa has provided me with some funds, so it is a case of buy now or buy something else. Money will be spent if wait around for iPad 3.

Any thoughts, other than MTFU and make my own bloody mind up.

I have a 32Gb Wifi only iPad 1, I have an iPhone which can be connected to the iPad via wifi and used for 3G access if really necessary. I would imagine a similar thing could be achieved with Android smartphones if you have one. If I had the option again, I would opt for the 64Gb version, as I have around 26Gb of music which I’d like to have available on the iPad, and adding movies for holiday viewing and so on can easily take up another 10-15Gb of space. If you can stretch your budget, I’d go for the 64Gb version – have a look to see if you can get one off the refurb store on the Apple site.

Is the Ipad 3 out on 24th Feb?

Other tablets are available.

I went for the cheapest one.

I’ve not taken it out of the house yet, so never had any need for 3G (plus I have my iPhone for those occasions). If I did it would be on holiday and doubt that I’d be using 3G abroad!

After ~6 months I’ve still got 13 Gb left… but then I use it mostly for browsing and only connected it to my pc yesterday 😳

Doesn’t sound like you need anything else really.

One thing you might not be aware of,

OH bought the WiFi-only version as she didn’t need 3G – she can tether it via her phone. One thing we didn’t realise at the time is, the WiFi version doesn’t have GPS. May or may not be important to you?

You could buy a Wi-Fi only model then buy a ‘3’ Mi-Fi device which is effectively a mini 3g wireless router – the Ipad will pick up the signal and off you go – a 3g Ipad, saves you buying a data plan on a phone network, instead you can just buy a PAYG Mi-Fi if you’re gonna use it out and about, but you say you’re not really going too, but just incase…!

As a self confessed gadget fan, i find my 16gb ipad first gen fine for space. Will be buying an ipad three next year as faster processor and retina display appeal to me( not conformed features).

I’ve got 32GB Wifi. If 3G is needed can easily tether to my phone.

No music stored on the ipad: it’s all on my phone and that’s always with me. A few films for the kids to watch when we’re away, but otherwise no storage issues.

I have 7 gb left on my 64g wifi b very little music as thats on my iphone – 32gb full of music

Lots of long flights , lack of hdd support means bigger is better for me

If your just using it in your house or occasional travel a smaller one be fine

Both great travel companions ! Didnt go 3g as company wont pay a 3 g contract but i can teather to my company phone in a pinch !

I bought my wife a 16gb 3G iPad last Christmas. Memory size hasn’t been an issue so far but I would still go for the 32gb if you don’t mind spending the extra. 3G is handy now and again but not sure it’s really worth it.

I sell the things all day long at the moment… Rule is such…

Unless you REALLY plan on doing lots of travelling and need the internet wherever you go, or you don’t have wireless internet at home, just buy the WiFi version.

And as for storage size, unless you need tonnes for lots of movies, photos and music all the time, just get the 16GB version. You get 5GB of online storage via iCloud anyway, and you can get another 10GB for £10 a year if need be.

I sell probably 10 16GB WiFi iPads at £399 to 1 32 or 64GB iPad if that helps… So don’t think you’d regret the basic one…

mboy, tell us about other tablets, please. Maybe those with micro SD card slots, for those that need/want more easy/secure access to memory. Or do you only sell one thing?

Flash

I tried em all out before buying and it boiled down to the galaxy and the ipad

The rest all had majormdraw backs

Asus transformer promised so much and delivered so little and the keyboardnthing solved less issues than it created but it gave usb functionality but i might as well have had a netbook – but i already have to lug a laptop aboutmfor work anyway ( but its the size of a house )

The small htc was too small the big htc battery didmt last long

The advent vega was shite slow( and ill never buy another acer or advent product knowingly as long as i live after both companys aftercare royal stiffed me a few years back)

Blackberrys playbook was priced comparible to the ipad and galaxy at the time and the interface was no where near as slick and fast But worth a shufty at 169 !!!

The only reason i went ipad over galaxy was that i like my iphone and al the menus were the same – the galaxy was actuallly quicker in use !

Or do you only sell one thing?

Well, I know we sell at least 20 iPads for every other tablet we sell in our store, and I know that we can sell every iPad we get at RRP, yet things like the Blackberry Playbook get over 50% off and we still can’t sell them! 😉

In all seriousness though, it’s a part time job for me whilst I’m back at uni, and I got the job based on the strength and depth of my Knowledge of Apple products and services. I’ve been using Macs for years, and an iPhone since they first came out, so I’ve slotted into the position of Apple Champion for the store basically…

Alhough if your read my post it seems the on screen keyboard on my ipad is a bit shit 🙂

I’ve got a wifi only 16GB iPad and although I can see how it fills quickly, I don’t spend more than a week away from my home wifi and even less from the cloud so changing content when I need to and have the chance has meant that 16gb suits me fine.

If I had more I’d use it but only because it was there, not because I needed it. Not missing 3G either.

OK thanks everyone we are getting there.

Need to read more about iCloud but am I right in thinking that it is only for content bought from the iTunes store?

mboy – do you sell more white than black or vica versa. Apple shop are very evasive when asked simple questions like which do you sell most of.

Is it rumored that the iPad 3 will be out as early as late feb/mar – I was thinking more like May based on the ipad2 launch

mboy, tell us about other tablets, please. Maybe those with micro SD card slots, for those that need/want more easy/secure access to memory. Or do you only sell one thing?

You can use removable memory with an iPhone or iPad. MicroSD is a PITA: stupid little tiny cards that are easy to lose. And why would you bother. It’s not a camera, you’re not filling up a card with hundreds of photos over a weekend. I just don’t understand this obsession with removable media on iPhones and iPads, unless it’s just because those who are obsessed with anything other than an Apple product have to put up with the pathetic amount of storage supplied on the alternatives, because Apple have access to the Lion’s share of NAND flash memory. I want all my music, books, maps and apps to be where I can access them at any given time. I don’t want to be piddling about looking for a stupid little card with a load of maps on when I need them most, only to find I’ve left the card at home.

as cougar said, 3G = 3G + GPS. And you can use the GPS without a sim card in.

mboy – do you sell more white than black or vica versa. Apple shop are very evasive when asked simple questions like which do you sell most of.

Honestly, I’d say it’s about 50/50… And I’m not trying to be evasive there.

Weirdly it’s quite a sexist split too, would say blokes buy black 80% of the time, and girls buy white 80% of the time.

Need to read more about iCloud but am I right in thinking that it is only for content bought from the iTunes store?

Happy to correct you here as it’s better than you think. Anything you buy from the iTunes store will back up via iCloud, but it won’t eat into your 5GB of storage. Your 5GB is for any of your files/media you may wish to back up, that you have imported into the machine yourself. And you can choose which bits of your media are backed up too, so you may choose to back up your photos and files via iCloud, but not your music as you already have that backed up on your PC at home of course…

how soon till we see 4G? ive been thinking about buying as well so this thread has come in really handy! i was buying the dearest and now it will be the cheaper end of the scale. i heard about the gadget shows take on 4G which is alot better than 3G by miles but does that mean that 4G can be picked up by 3G gadgets or is that a seperate signal?

how soon till we see 4G?

How long is a piece of string? You’re as much in the know as I am…

ive been thinking about buying as well so this thread has come in really handy! i was buying the dearest and now it will be the cheaper end of the scale.

Buy now, enjoy it for some time to come. When 4G comes out, then maybe upgrade if you fancy it, your current gen iPad will still have a strong resale value as it’s an Apple product, and you will at least have had the use of it for a period of time.

4G is now current tech in all major cities here in Oz. Not used it myself, but the speed claims put ADSL2 to shame. However, given the paucity of things that can actually use it on offer, it might be a while before an iPad gets it. Also, the 4G dongles are noticeably larger than their 3G counterparts, which might make integrating the a little hard in current form factors.

Remember the first iPhone was only 2G when 3G had been around for years – Apple are far from innovative from time to time. You’ll probably just find out that its the iPad 2S anyway 😉

thanks for that zokes.yes apple are well behind the times.it seems like 4G wont be here till 2013 as there using the analogue tv masts and that doesnt end completely till middle of 2012.

I think Apple products lag ‘behind the times’ slightly because they know they have the support of their ‘devoted fans’ due to their build quality and UI (Or whatever excuse they use).

This means, if they hang back, they get an extra product on the shelves with an upgrade already waiting.

This mainly works with the iPhone I guess because it was really one of the first touch screen phones that actually worked properly.

the way 3g signal is handled on the new iPhone supposedly gives speeds close to 4g.

How quick do you need your internet to be ?

what we need more than 4g is good 3g coverage

When im in a 3g zone my internet is as quick as my broadband ! I can watch videos webpages load up instantly – i fail to see what 4g will bring to table other than bragging rights

Once out of 3g the net is pathetic

4G is a fair bit faster then 3G, it will be the first viable contender to ditch fixed line home broadband, provided ofc mobile providers can come up with a suitable cost model. It wont hit here until well into 2013 though and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 2014 before it was in general use and that assume the government don’t screw up/delay the auctioning process much longer.

As for tablets, waiting on a iPad 3 myself but if I had to buy one now it would be the iPad 2 32GB wifi.

My wife picked me up a 64gb 3G ipad2 for Christmas. I returned it for a 32gb non 3G as this will give me as much space as I’ll ever need plus I can use my phone for data if I’m not near wifi.

I’m sure the 16gb would have been enough but the 32 was only £80 more.(and I love my podcasts LOL)

Can anyone offer me any insight as to which iPad to buy?

go for the 32mb wifi only model as a minimum (£80 over the base model)

i’ve got the ipad2 64gb earlier this year and its got around 33gb spare at the moment, thats with my music, photos, some selected podcasts and 20hr of movies on it

Thank you everyone, bar CFH :-). Blew my budget this morning now the owner of a 32GB 3G model.

Blew my budget this morning now the owner of a 32GB 3G model.

Well done you. I hope this pisses the sadsack sales rep Flashfart off…just a little.

What data package did you go for?

I was going to add that it’s only the 3G version that comes with ‘real’ GPS but seeing as that’s the one you for you’ve now go that by default. Very handy should anyone steal your new iPad as you can show its position on Google Maps. The assisted GPS in the non 3G version is not very accurate, uses crowd sourced Wifi locations to determine approximate location so not nearly as accurate as GPS especially if your ever out in the middle of nowwhere.

Very handy should anyone steal your new iPad as you can show its position on Google Maps.

To around 5m, my wife and son both have ipads and they show as being in the middle of the road, so if you were trying to track them could be in one of 4 houses.

Re data packages I am going with O2. The very attractive young indian woman in the O2 store won me over, but I had already really decided they seemed the most “flexible”. £10.21 for 1GB a month will do me

My wifes on 25gb a month for £25 but the ipad was £99, gets occasional use when we go away for weekends but we don’t get anywhere near using 25gb a month.

having had the use of both the 3g and wifi models I would say go 3G if you can afford it

I used the iPad as a car GPS on a recent trip across europe and with Tom Tom app (jailbroken ipad) was a god send. It was large enough to sit on the centre console and the kids be able to see where we were and check progress. I could’ve done this easily on my iPhone but having hte larger screen made it so mcuh easier.

Other then the GPS feature, we didn’t use the 3G’ness of it as we just tethered it to my work phone (which I didn’t need to pay for)

64GB 3G here (a first-gen bought cheap when the iPad2 came out).

A little over half of the capacity is used right now. If you use it for magazines then picture/video heavy ones like Evo and the Red Bulletin weigh in at 500-600MB each. I keep a couple of TV series on there for watching when away or on trains. I sync over a few GB of music too. Some games are getting pretty heavy and exceeding 1GB now as well.

3G? I have a spare SIM from work that lives in there and it does get used out and about quite a lot. It’s a much better browsing/email experience if you’re actually sat down somewhere than on a phone, and doesn’t drain your phone’s battery or need another thing to carry about. As said, it does proper GPS as well when you have the 3G model. If I actually had to pay monthly or sort out PAYG every time I needed to use it, I’d probably not bother unless I was actually carrying it with me daily and using it out of the house a lot.

If it went missing and I was replacing with current, my money would go on a 32GB wifi. You can manage on 16, but expect to be doing more swapping around of apps and video.