Ipad 2 contract worth it?

Zeebedy · 13 Apr 2011 at 22:04

Hey guys,

I was just looking at contracts on the Ipad 2.

I was planning on buy one next month (the 16GB Black 3G) and at £500 plus £15 pound a month for the bandwidth charge, but....

I can see the same one for £25 a month and an initial cost of £229 which includes 15GB a month for a 24month contract.

If I am correct...

take the £15 a month for the bandwidth from £25 to make it effectively £10 a month for the pad, this, times 24 is £240, plus the cost of the Ipad at £229 is 229+240=£469 is STILL cheaper than buying it outright and then using a provider on a pay as you go monthly etc.

What do you think, am I fairly accurate in this statement?

RTJ

Disco Boy · 13 Apr 2011 at 22:39

Buying for £500 plus £15 a month comes to a total outlay of £860 (500+360)

Buying for £229 and then £25 a month comes to a total outlay of £829 (229+600)

So it's cheaper to do the latter, plus you get to hold on to your money for longer.

But, £15 a month isn't the best sim-only deal that you can get is it?

Glaucus · 13 Apr 2011 at 22:45

3gb for 3months on 3, pre paid sim is only £7.50

Zeebedy · 13 Apr 2011 at 23:53

Another thing I also noticed is that the pay and go is at 10GB/month and the contract is at 15BG/month, another bonus I think!

RTJ

Beasty · 14 Apr 2011 at 08:54

I can't see 15GB of data a month being necessary, although I am unaware of your situation, remember you're only using that data when not connected to wifi.

Either way, £800+ overall outlay seems a bit crazy, there are much cheaper ways, perhaps with a bit more cost up-front. Also depends you are gonna blow the ~£250 you save up front on contract on something else or save it to pay for the data plan over x months, cos you're not actually saving money if you don't save it or similar.

cochoc · 14 Apr 2011 at 13:34

I thought that data allowances on 3g was really important when I bought my iphone. Since having it for about 9 months, I have come to realise that 3g is so patchy and so poor in general that I don't use that much bandwidth and have to resort to wi-fi to do anything useful.

3g can be invaluable, but it's not really something that I can use for downloading big lumps of data.

Zeebedy · 14 Apr 2011 at 14:57

Yeah, 15GB is a lot but I would like to have too much as the prices for going over are CRAZY!

I ordered mine today and will be in the shop for tomorrow, so will be active by the weekend!

Will post the 3G and how im getting on as hopefully it wont be too "patchy".

RTJ

Glaucus · 14 Apr 2011 at 15:21

Did you go contract? I wouldn't, pre paid sim means you can't go over, you just carry a spare in the case incase you run out. 10 or 15 gb is huge and costly. You should see how much you use before potentially throwing all that money away. On the iPhone I don't even use 500mb and I expect iPad will be less average but with spikes when away. Hence a few pre paid sim cards.