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Is 250MB Enough for the iPad?

By | May 1, 2010 | 6 comments
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Now that you’ve had a chance to pick up a new 3G iPad, you’re probably ready to pull out the credit card and pick one of the two iPad wireless data plans.  Question is, which one should you pick?  One gives you 250MB for $14.99 while the other one is unlimited and doubles the prices to $29.99.

To help you figure out what’s right for you, let’s take a look at what you can do with 250MB. Bandwidth breakdown after the break.

  • The average web page is 350KB so you could view 731 pages and stay under 250MB
  • Consumer digital camera file sizes are around 1.5MB so you could transfer 166 photos
  • A four minute song on iTunes is 8.2MB so you could purchase 30 songs
  • YouTube videos average 2.5MB per minute so you could watch 100 minutes
  • iPad apps average around 20MB so you could download 22 apps with the 250MB limit
  • A Standard Definition 30 minute TV show (22 minutes without commercials) on iTunes is 249MB so you could get 1 show and just sneak under your 250 limit
  • A High Definition 60 minute TV show (44 minutes without commercials)  is 1.4GB so you would need to buy five 250MB buckets to download one HD episode
  • A Standard Definition two hour movie is around 1.5GB so you’ve blown your 250MB limit

So which plan should you pick? If you are mainly going to use your iPad for email, casual web surfing, twitter and Facebook you probably can get by with the basic $14.99 plan.  If you are planing on downloading a lot of video, music and apps with your iPad, you will probably need the unlimited plan for $29.99.

The good news is you can always start with the $14.99 plan and upgrade to the unlimited plan if you think you’re going to need the extra data.

Let us know which plan you’re going with and how you plan on using your new 3G iPad.

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About Bill: Contact me via Twitter: @PadGadgetBill

  • PixMan

    Interesting. I just got my 3G Friday and generally do not plan to use the 3G unless I am traveling. Since this is only maybe a couple times a year, I will probably go with the unlimited for those two trips.

    First trip is in June so I will sign up for the 3G later this month and cancel it when I return from my trip.

  • MrMLK

    > The good news is you can always start with the $14.99 plan and upgrade to the unlimited plan if you think you’re going to need the extra data.

    This is incorrect. You cannot pay $15 for 250MB and then pay another $15 to switch to the unlimited plan. What you can do is to pay $15 for 250MB and then pay another $30 to buy a month of unlimited.

    This is not called “upgrading”. This is called “buying something else”.

    • Chris gargasz

      I agree a little bit. I was hoping that you could just spend the 15 extra to “upgrade” but like you said, you can’t. What happens instead is that you buy the 250 mb and then if you upgrade, you pay 30 bucks, but it doesn’t start until the 250 mb plan is finished ( either 250 mb or 1 month is up, what ever comes first.)

    • Creedo

      He did not specify during the same month, and is correct that you can change it the next month.

  • Drewtheman

    I see no reason to get the 3G iPad if you have a jailbroken iPhone unless you really want/need GPS. A simple download of the MyWi app and my iPhone data plan is shared with my WiFi iPad.

    I only have a 500MB plan but just as I do with my iPhone, I reserve videos, podacasts, music and app downloads for when I am at a real hotspot or at home and use my 500MB for web surfing, blogging, facebooking and other social media activity.

    Thanks PadGadget for the data breakdown, comes in real handy!!

  • Russ

    I can’t believe that they no longer have an unlimited plan!