Here’s why i will always go cellular for iPads

If you have $200 for an upgrade, go for cellular. It is the best $200 I have ever spent on an upgrade. Just note that it will also cost you a little more on your phone bill every month. So the expense does not stop at the initial purchase. If you are having trouble paying your bill as it is, don’t bother with cellular. But if you can spare an extra $20 a month on Verizon, you can get unlimited 5G. If you are just wondering if it is worth the extra expense, it is. Here’s why:

Ubiquitous connection

People sometimes say that the iPad is like a giant iPhone. That is not really true. One of the differences is that every phone has a ubiquitous cellular connection. You don’t have to go through some procedure to be sure your phone is connected to the internet when you pull it out of your pocket. It is always connected even when the screen is locked. iPads aren’t like that by default, they do not have a ubiquitous connection apart from WiFi. But that is highly location-based.

The only way your iPad maintains a ubiquitous connection is by having a cell chip that is activated by a carrier in the same way your phone is activated. You will get a data service that is the same as your phone service except without the voice features. All the data connectivity and features are exactly the same. Your iPad is always connected, even when asleep. Background processes keep happening whether or not you are near WiFi. That means your connection is always on.

Aways on

For some reason, laptops don’t generally come with mobile data connections. It would fundamentally change the way we use them if they did. The iPad Pro in a Magic Keyboard case is used like a laptop. In every way that matters, a cellular iPad Pro is a laptop with a cellular connection that is always on.

The moment you open the iPad and are prepared to work, the internet connection is already waiting for you. At no point do you have to wait even for a second to make that connection. You can go directly to email and know it has already been updated. you can go right to the App Store and start downloading. You can open your news reader of choice and see the latest stories. You can go right to the internet and begin your search. You don’t have to waste a single moment preparing your device for connection. You are no longer tethered to another device. You are free.

No more tethering

When tethering, one has to maintain two devices. This can be a problem when one is out and about for a long time. It is easy to deplete the phone’s battery when it is being used to tether. Your phone is always mission-critical. You can’t afford to have the battery completely die. It is your wallet, bus ticket, media player, and emergency contact device. You need to protect the battery as much as possible. When your mobile computer has its own internet connection, you don’t have to put that extra pressure on your phone’s battery.

There is also the matter of opportunity cost. When you have a limited amount of time to get a little work done or look something up, you can get it done on a device with its own connection. if you have to tether, you will miss the opportunity because it will take up most of your time setting up the tethering. Sometimes, you can’t get it to work at all. By the time you do, you have missed your window of opportunity to do something more productive.

Another benefit is speed. If you are tethering, your connection speed might be slower because of a bad WiFi signal. Or it might be slowed down by the carrier. If you have used up your tethering allotment, carriers will often slow your connection to a crawl as a sort of punishment for using so much data. But if you have a data plan for your mobile computer, it is not subject to the same kind of metering and you can run unlimited at full speed. That can be rather important when you are trying to get some work done.

Security

The final benefit I will mention is security. If you have a WiFi only device, you will be tempted to connect to free WiFi access points when you are out and about because you need the speed and reliability of a good WiFi connection. The problem is that those connections are rather insecure. The most secure connection is the one between your device and the carrier. With 5G speeds, you don’t have to try to find WiFi for any reason. You can even run the system updates from the mobile connection. Cellular on the iPad eliminates the temptation to use a less secure connection.

Conclusion

This is one of those rare times when convenience and security go hand in hand. It is more convenient to have a cellular connection to the internet on your iPad and it is also more secure. It will make your expensive purchase even more expensive. But you will also love your purchase a lot more. You can’t put a price on love. Well, actually, you can. In the case of a new iPad Pro, that price is an extra $200. It is worth every penny.

David Johnson