Wife wants a tablet for Mothers Day... total noob to tablets

[Charlie98]

My wife decided she wants an iPad for Mother's Day, who am I to say no? Problem is... I know nothing about tablets, and I don't want to screw the pooch spending a few hundred dollars on something that isn't going to work.

Outline:
We all have iPhones, she wants to stick with an iPad for continuity sake.

We live near a MicroCenter.

We have ATT service.

We need wifi, if not necessarily wireless... I don't know if that's possible.

I don't need a pizza box-sized screen, something in the 9-10" range.

I want a good processor and a good screen, but with my noobness I don't know what I'm looking at when I review specs.

How much memory is reasonable for general browsing?

I'm not really entertaining other products besides the iPad, I don't want to learn another OS, but if there is a tablet that just blows the iPad out of the water, I'll entertain the thought.

General budget: $400

Thanks!

 

[vi edit]

If you are already in the Apple ecosystem no real point in rocking the boat. You can get a Mini Retina for under $400 at a Microcenter. Great combo of power, screen, and portability.

The airs will will about $100 more than that and you only need to go up to those if you need something bigger.

At around $380 the Mini Retina is a very nice tablet if you can deal with the 16gb limit. All your purchased apps and settings will be able to transfer over to it from your phones.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Yup, go with the mini retina. Unless you're using the device for storage, you won't need more than 16GB.

 

[paperwastage]

(if you have a friend on t-mobile postpaid, or willing to just pay one month's service), get a iPad mini LTE from t-mobile


t-mobile's selling the LTE version @ wifi price. slightly more expensive than microcenter, but more useful (you can get 200MB data free for life on t-mobile), and a lot better resale value

 

[Yuriman]

iPads are great tablets. You don't have a lot of choices:

New, or old
Big or small
WiFi only or with mobile data

Take your pick and there's only one iPad that fits.

 

[Red Storm]

Another vote for the Mini Retina, or the regular Mini if you want to spend less... but seeing as it's Mother's Day that would make you a total douche.

 

[Charlie98]

New, or old.

Well, yes. I like new tech, not real interested in old chipsets (you'll notice I'm still running my 2500K... :$ ) and that's part of my question... I don't know enough about the chipsets to know what is old or new.

selling the LTE version @ wifi price

So there is actually two versions of the same... one with wifi, one with wireless? (meaning, cellular data.) I'll have to look at ATT...

EDIT: Ah, I see that on MCs website. + $30!

 

[desura]

Can't go wrong with the ipad mini retina.

Just do not under any circumstances get her an android tablet.

You might also consider a windows tablet.

 

[paperwastage]

EDIT: Ah, I see that on MCs website. + $30!

yep... Apple products usually sell for MSRP everywhere, so an iPad Mini Retina 16GB WiFi-only sells for $399 on Apple.com, Apple Store, Target, Best Buy, etc. LTE 16GB goes for $529

Microcenter sells it at $30 discount ($369 for wifi, $499 for LTE)

T-mobile is selling iPad Mini Retina 16GB LTE for the wifi price of $399 (plus the sim starter kit and LTE service, though you can cancel the LTE service at any time)

if you don't have T-mobile postpaid service(or don't have a friend who has Tmobile), the t-mobile store might force you to jump through hoops to get the device @ $399 (hoops = sign up for service, credit check etc)

 

[vi edit]

You might also consider a windows tablet.

I've got a Venue 8 Pro which you can get for under $200 through Dell outlet. It's an interesting little tab and I love web browsing on it. However it can't hold a candle to an iPad in terms of app numbers and quality of apps. Buy a Win8 tab because you want to tinker with it. Buy an iPad because you want to acutally use a tablet like a tablet and with a mountain of available apps for it.

 

[bearxor]

Honestly, I would just get the iPad with Retina Display. That will you get you the 9.7" form factor with a great processor and RAM and the retina display for $399.

You can get a Mini for that price, but you're giving up a little bit of screen real estate for an insignificant amount of power increase from the A6X chip in the iPad with Retina Display.

Avoid the first-gen Mini.

 

[Charlie98]

Honestly, I would just get the iPad with Retina Display. That will you get you the 9.7" form factor with a great processor and RAM and the retina display for $399.

You can get a Mini for that price, but you're giving up a little bit of screen real estate for an insignificant amount of power increase from the A6X chip in the iPad with Retina Display.

Avoid the first-gen Mini.

MC is selling the '4th gen iPad', but they don't state the gen of the Mini. The way they describe the iPad A6x chip, it sounds like it's an i5 vs. i3 (A7 chip in the Mini.) I don't really know if that's an apples to apples comparo (excuse the pun.)

The 9.7" screen sounds like what she's looking for. I'll just have to make a trip down to MicroCenter and let her handle the hardware (while I go shopping! ) You never really know until you actually pick one up...

 

[Yuriman]

As I understand it:

"4th gen" = old iPad
"Air" = current iPad

"Mini" = old small iPad
"Mini with Retina" = new small iPad

There should be WiFi and LTE versions of all of these.

 

[cronos]

Clearly she wanted 9-10" so get the iPad Air. Keep it simple.

 

[TuxDave]

Clearly she wanted 9-10" so get the iPad Air. Keep it simple.

My thoughts exactly. If there's one blessing in Apple's limited product selection, it would be to simplify your decision making. Take advantage of that.

 

[bearxor]

I just don't think the iPad Air is worth the extra $100 unless there's something specific you need on it. Do you need the thinner, lighter package or more than 16gb of storage? Then you don't really have a choice. I've thought about going to a iPad Air from a 4th gen, but the 4th gen is still a beast. The Air is just like beast+.

 

[Lyfer]

I just don't think the iPad Air is worth the extra $100 unless there's something specific you need on it. Do you need the thinner, lighter package or more than 16gb of storage? Then you don't really have a choice. I've thought about going to a iPad Air from a 4th gen, but the 4th gen is still a beast. The Air is just like beast+.

Beast plus? Lols

 

[Charlie98]

I just don't think the iPad Air is worth the extra $100 unless there's something specific you need on it. Do you need the thinner, lighter package or more than 16gb of storage? Then you don't really have a choice. I've thought about going to a iPad Air from a 4th gen, but the 4th gen is still a beast. The Air is just like beast+.

That's what I like to hear. I want to be a hero, but secretly a cheap hero. ()

I think the Air is going to break the budget.... don't need more memory, and 1lb vs. 1.5lb... she'll get over it.

"Beast +..." :awe::awe::awe:

 

[Charlie98]

Update: Pulled the trigger on an iPad 4th Gen yesterday at MicroCenter... $380 on sale. They were out of white so she gets black...

Thanks everyone for all your advise, I'm pretty confident with the purchase!

 

[sgrinavi]

Yup, go with the mini retina. Unless you're using the device for storage, you won't need more than 16GB.

Does she take a lot of photos? My wife filled her 32 GB with videos and pics of the little one and doesn't want to deal with off loading and/or cloud services.

 

[midwestfisherman]

iPad Air is what you want.

 

[bearxor]

Does she take a lot of photos? My wife filled her 32 GB with videos and pics of the little one and doesn't want to deal with off loading and/or cloud services.

Install iCloud Control Panel on your computer. Turn on Photo Stream on the ipad.

Now, pictures will be automatically uploaded to Photo Stream and then downloaded to your computer permanently.

And remember that whatever you have in Photostream does not use your iCloud storage space, but it only holds thirty days worth. They will stay on your computer until you choose to delete them, however.

 

[bearxor]

Beast plus? Lols

"Beast +..." :awe::awe::awe:

Yes. Beast+.

I'll dub the A8 "Monster".

 

[sgrinavi]

Install iCloud Control Panel on your computer. Turn on Photo Stream on the ipad.

Now, pictures will be automatically uploaded to Photo Stream and then downloaded to your computer permanently.

And remember that whatever you have in Photostream does not use your iCloud storage space, but it only holds thirty days worth. They will stay on your computer until you choose to delete them, however.

Thanks for that - one Q if she deletes them off the phone does the computer sync?

 

[RossMAN]

Update: Pulled the trigger on an iPad 4th Gen yesterday at MicroCenter... $380 on sale. They were out of white so she gets black...

Thanks everyone for all your advise, I'm pretty confident with the purchase!

Great choice! I've read a few complaints about the Air, so I'm glad you didn't pay the premium which isn't worth it IMHO.

She didn't like the mini?