Apple iPad Wi-Fi + 3G

Apple Ipad WiFi + 3G Demo

Apple iPAD

General Setting

Apple ipad

Apple IPAD WiFi

Apple iPad Wi-Fi +3G

iPad Picture

Apple iPad Wi-Fi

Apple iPad Wi-Fi Picture

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. 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.

The performance

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.

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 apparent—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.