Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Apple iPad Wi-Fi + 3G Review

Apple iPad Wi-Fi + 3G Review | Tablets | Macworld

Wi-Fi may be plentiful these days, but it's far from ubiquitous.

A device like the iPad is just begging for always-on Internet access, whether it be for checking mail, surfing the Web, or even keeping up with your latest game of Words with Friends HD.

Image by Jennifer Maddrell via Flickr

Apple's iPad Wi-Fi + 3G delivers

Apple's iPad Wi-Fi + 3G delivers on that promise, though the 3G experience may occasionally have you searching about for a Wi-Fi access point tout de suite.

Outwardly, the 3G-enabled iPad is almost identical to its Wi-Fi-only counterpart.

Everything my colleague Jason Snell said in his original iPad review holds true with this device, as the differences between the two models are few.

Outwardly, the 3G-enabled iPad is almost identical to the Wi-Fi model, and the two share almost all of the same features, with the exception of those related to 3G networking and GPS.

For the privilege of those few features, however, you will be paying a bit extra: the 3G models command a $130 premium over their Wi-Fi-only siblings, making the price tags $629 for the 16GB version, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.

And keep in mind that the higher price covers only the 3G hardware inside the iPad.

In order to actually use the 3G service, you'll need to pay for one of the two monthly plans that Apple and AT&T have teamed up to offer: a $15-per-month plan that allows you 250MB of data transfer or a $30-per-month plan that allows you unlimited data.

And unlike the iPhone service agreement, which requires a two-year commitment with AT&T, you can cancel your 3G plan for the iPad at any time.

If you've spent any time with an iPhone 3GS, then you'll be pretty familiar with the iPad's 3G performance, as under-the-hood investigations show that the two use the same hardware.

Performance

Speed Tests for 3G (left) and Wi-Fi (right) show a big advantage for Wi-Fi.
Given that the iPad also boasts the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, there's no contest between the two: Wi-Fi will beat 3G every single time.

I ran a few speed tests using the Speed Test iPhone application and, though unscientific, Wi-Fi's superiority was readily apparentâ¬"in one test at my home, Wi-Fi was an astounding 70 times faster at downloads and 30 times faster at uploads.

Other tests (such as the one pictured here) showed less of a disparity, but still universally deemed Wi-Fi the winner.

Of course, such performance varies widely depending on the quality of the AT&T network in your location.

And given that poor performance on AT&T's 3G network has been one of the major complaints with the iPhone, don't expect magically better performance on the iPad.

The apartment to which I recently moved resides in a spotty coverage zone for AT&T's network, and I've experienced frequent signal drops, poor coverage, and slow service on both my iPhone 3GS and my 3G-enabled iPad.

I also have one of Apple's recent 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations, which helps me get the most out of my Wi-Fi network.

If you live, work, or otherwise spend a lot of time in a place with solid 3G coverage, you should find the iPad's 3G performance to be perfectly serviceable for most common tasks, like reading e-mail, surfing the Web, checking RSS feeds, and keeping up with social-networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

But when you start to get into more intensive tasks, the cracks in the 3G network begin to show.

While I was able to stream video, audio, view maps, and so on over the 3G connection, the performance was sometimes subpar.

Streaming via Netflix's iPad app, for example, yielded video that was mostly watchable, though it did suffer from frequent pauses in playback as the video re-buffered.

Interestingly, YouTube streamed over a 3G connection (above) is substantially lower quality than the same clip over Wi-Fi (below).youtube-over-3g.png

The quality of the video delivered over the 3G network is also noticeably lower than what you get via Wi-Fi.

Netflix, for example, down-samples the video, though it's passable.

Performance varied hugely depending on location, with streaming basically impossible to use at my home.

However, I did find that other locations yielded better results, and in one particular incident, I actually had to flip the iPad's cellular data connection off and then on again to yield better speeds.

The Plans

As I noted in my first look at the 3G iPad, managing your AT&T account on the iPad is simple: you can sign up, monitor your usage, change your plan, and even cancel it all from the iPad's Settings app.

If you want to keep an eye on how much bandwidth you're chewing up, there are two options: one is to use the meters under Settings -> General -> Usage, which tell you how much data has been sent and received over the cellular data connection.

While relying on the cell phone connection, I saw the battery power dip much lower than it had on any day while using the Wi-Fi model, but not so much so that I was unable to get a full day's use out of it.

3G Connectivity Gives Latest Ipad Needed Flexibility

My colleague Mr. Snell made the case for a 3G version of the iPad well before it shipped, and having one in my hands, I find myself inclined to concur with his conclusions that 3G connectivity gives this version of the iPad a measure of flexibility missing from the Wi-Fi-only version.

think-act-do

Tuesday, May 11, 2010