Is it worth buying an iPad now?

[Raphhashem]

Was thinking about getting an iPad mini, but now have started to hear about the "All new revolutionary" iPad mini 3 that's going to be "so thin" and "is rumored to have a faster processor". Keep in mind that this is for school, so officey apps will be kinda important, but obviously I'm going to game on it on the side. With tablets hitting a wall in terms of features, does an iPad really matter in a world where you can buy a cheaper alternative tablet which pretty would do all the same things?

 

So would you guys say I should wait, buy a mini 2 now, or just habberdash it all and go for a windows/android option?

[Shd0w2]

If you need a tablet for school, don't get apple, they have poor support. Grab something like a surface RT. Much better for schoolwork.

[ttam]

I'd go the Windows route for office stuff.

[Katsu-K1L]

Personally i'd go with an ipad because its really just personal preference but for gaming i think the sheild is good..and as above suggested a Surface RT Would be good

[sterreprop]

If you can get a good deal on an ipad, go for it. But you could also wait untill the next "Special Event".

[Thorium19]

I have an original mini, and it's still a solid choice. I don't do all that much work on it, but I do a lot of internet searching, YouTube watching and also Skype calling. The battery life, like most mobile apple products, leaves something to be desired, but it is still a solid choice, so I think the mini 2 will be fine for now so long as you have a charger with you.

[Simmytu]

For entertainment purposes is the iPad quite great but when it comes to productivity, please get the Surface RT.

1. It has full fledged Office in it compared to what you can get on the Apple store.

2. It has good battery life. (At our school we have these tablets and they last quite a long run at full brightness).

3. Because the RT store doesn't have much apps in it you won't waste time on some Flappy Bird equivalent game

[ROK]

The retina iPad mini can be had for pretty cheap (like $300 for the 16gb) with edu discounts and other stuff in the states. If you can get one for $300 it's a pretty solid buy. I've got one on hand and can say it's a pretty nice device and if you were to pair it with one of the keyboard covers (logitech and zagg make some nice ones) it would be quite nice for lighter notetaking in ms word or onenote (onenote especially).

 

IMO in my time with the surface family I wouldn't bother with the RT. If you do decide to go the surface route (which will be better for all-round productivity) then I'd go for no less than a Surface pro 3. It's a very nice device for notetaking, especially with that digitizer. OMG. Dropping a few extra bucks will be worth it in the long run if you plan on using one of these as your main mobile device.

[SSOB]

Definetly not the mini version for schoolwork. Get at least a full sized iPad air or go the Windows Tablet route. As for android tablets, meh... Android is still not very well optimized for tablets like at all...

[sqwidee]

My class got iPads to use in school. It was funny cuz the dept. heads thought it would boost productivity. Nope.

 

In the business world, the iPad is a toy and a joke. Get a Windows Surface for the proper balance of portability, productivity, and casual use. Plus it supports real software that we use everyday (OFFICE 2013 HELLO APPLE).

 

I'm no MS fanboy but I do sincerely believe that the iPad is only for browsing the internet and playing games after using one for a year. Complete joke when it comes to getting any portable PC work done.

 

TL;DR Get Windows Surface. The premium is worth it because the device actually does useful things.

[KemoKa]

For the love of who or whatever you believe in or don't believe in, DON'T get the iPad, regardless of how powerful and thin it is. Seriously, at the end of the day, no one really pays any attention to how thin it is after about a week. Then the novelty wears off instantly. The only thing that will be worth looking at is the lovely screen it will inevitably have (cough cough Sharp) and there are other tablets on the market that have higher pixel density than Retina. The operating system is completely inadequate for any office applications, there is next to no support for anything, let alone specific printers, you can't run x86 programs off of it because it will run off a chip made by ARM, and everything else that it is going to have will be a gimmick that will work but you will never ever use. It's the same story with every iPad/Pod/Phone. They come out with all these blown-out claims about how "revolutionary" their devices are, install proprietary interfaces and random widgets that no one ends up using or caring about, and the machines fail to support multiple standards that many other tablets have native support for. Even the Nexus 7, a brilliant tablet, but not exactly revered for its expandability, has purposefully-built support for USB interfaces so you can read a USB stick or plug in a keyboard. Will you find that on the iPad? Absolutely not.

All the iPad is good for is light surfing, watching videos (even though it doesn't even support flash player), Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds and reading a few eBooks. They look good, but are the most impractical tablets you can buy for the price.

If Android supported printer drivers and supported WINE, Flash or OpenOffice, I would say get a Tegra Note 7 or a Nexus 7, but they don't, so don't. Get a windows tablet. Please.

Please.