Hi. I need help please! My dad will be turning 75 in a few weeks. I want to get him an iPad 10th Generation. Should I get the one with cellular or just Wifi? He has an iPhone. He is going on a 6 week Europe trip, so I want him to have the iPad for his trip. He is 75, so obviously not SUPER tech savvy - but he has the iPhone 13 and does pretty well with it to be honest. Should I get the one with cellular or will Wifi only be okay for him? Sorry and thanks in advance for your help!
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For a 75 BDay gift - get the iPad with Cellular?
- Thread starter happyingeorgia
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Is he going to use it away from WiFi? It’s hard for us to guess that. Cellular one is going to be attached to a service. You didn’t say where’s home but if you get a plan from the USA it likely won’t work without some type of crazy roaming charge in Europe
Hi and thanks for your answer. My dad and I live in Canada. He will be traveling to Prague and Greece for the Europe trip. So it's hard to say if he will have access to WIFI. Also, I'm concerned about him knowing how to use his iPhone as a hotspot to tether - I mean, I will show him of course, but whether he remembers it without me there is another thing. I strongly feel like in Greece and Prague he will have good connections with WIFI - but I could be entirely wrong. The last thing I want is for him to be frustrated with his device on the trip.
Ooooh.... I'm sure there will be LOTS of tech-related frustration for him on a trip that long away from home. Oh well. LOL.SIM-swap probably falls into that category
He will prob. adapt . . . worst-case is that he just tosses it in the luggage
[edit]
I just remembered my Sis recommending Viber for my Mom's international travel.
I've never used it (not have I traveled internationally), so YMMV.
Get him the cellular model and add a travel eSIM. There are plenty of options: Airalo, aloSIM, MobiMatter, Nomad, Saily, etc.
I did that for my parents and I can keep track of their GBs on my phone so I can top up remotely if needed.
I did that for my parents and I can keep track of their GBs on my phone so I can top up remotely if needed.
Assuming you want "it just works" then it would make sense to go cellular. WiFi access can be spotty, slow, with constant password hassles or incomprehensible behavior. You can have a good connection but no internet connection.
Hopefully others can recommend one service and eSIM that for all of the countries he will be visiting.
Don't know if the European iPhone supported cellular frequencies are the same as the U.S. phone ones.
Hopefully others can recommend one service and eSIM that for all of the countries he will be visiting.
Don't know if the European iPhone supported cellular frequencies are the same as the U.S. phone ones.
I would go with the cellular model. As pointed out, that will give him a GPS which is not included in the wifi models. Cellular connectivity will be a plus if there's no wifi and there can also be security issues with connecting to unknown wifi networks.
Sorry, but I need to push back a little on your use of "obviously". Of course, I don't know your dad or what issues he might have. But I just turned 75 myself and spend much of my time working with computers and writing code. When my kids have tech problems, they come to me. I don't think age alone determines how "tech savvy" a person might be.
Sorry, but I need to push back a little on your use of "obviously". Of course, I don't know your dad or what issues he might have. But I just turned 75 myself and spend much of my time working with computers and writing code. When my kids have tech problems, they come to me. I don't think age alone determines how "tech savvy" a person might be.
Might be true for you but that is by no means is a universal truth applying to all.
I would go with the cellular model. As pointed out, that will give him a GPS which is not included in the wifi models. Cellular connectivity will be a plus if there's no wifi and there can also be security issues with connecting to unknown wifi networks.
Sorry, but I need to push back a little on your use of "obviously". Of course, I don't know your dad or what issues he might have. But I just turned 75 myself and spend much of my time working with computers and writing code. When my kids have tech problems, they come to me. I don't think age alone determines how "tech savvy" a person might be.
I had to laugh at that myself - I'm a retired h/w & s/w engineer close to that same age and am the IT guy for too many people.
I have a cellular iPad that I bought for the same kind of use that the OP is asking. When I'm traveling with it, I buy short term service. When I use it at home, I use my home wifi.
There are a number of service providers that have set up specifically to cater to travelers, so there's no need to pay to attach the iPad to ongoing service and then face crazy roaming charges when traveling.
As pointed out, you need cellular if you want to use the device as a gps (with any accuracy). That can be overcome by purchasing a separate bluetooth GPS receiver, the Garmin GLO2 is one example that also gives much better accuracy and faster refresh rate than the built-in GPS (10 position fixes per sec vs only one). iOS/iPadOS are pretty good about automatically connecting to a bluetooth GPS and using it the same as an internal once you have paired it.
One of these plus a wifi iPad will probably be cheaper than a cellular iPad and it can be used by multiple devices, I got an original GLO gps back in 2013 and it still works great today with my iPhone, iPad and several android devices. Downside is that it's one more device to carry and recharge, probably a bad choice for somebody who isn't tech-savvy.
I have a cellular iPad but eventually let the plan expire and just used my iPhone 12 ProMax as a hotspot. This seemed to work very well... until it didn't (for a variety of reasons). Just went to T-Mobile yesterday in fact and got a SIM for their pre-paid data plan. It really is much simpler to have cellular connectivity built in when you need it IMO. Whether that justifies the price difference is an invididual choice however.
I also have a GLO 2 and it does work well but as you say, it's another rechargeable (mini USB) thing to carry so I got cellular with my Mini 6 for the convenience. The Glo 2 is $92 so the price is close to adding cellular.
Definitely get him an iPad with cellular. It's easy as pie to set up prepaid cellular service on an iPad.
Inside the settings app on a cellular iPad,you can drill down from "Cellular Data" and you'll eventually see this (if you're in the US - undoubtedly something similar in Canada):
(Interesting - alosim *just* showed up - that's new.)
Checking the various plans, the best one, if I were going to Europe, appears to be on 1GLOBAL ((formerly TruPhone). 30 days 2 GB in 60 countries for $30. This plan only auto-renews on request.
More options may appear upon landing in Europe.
There may be better deals, but signing up for these on the iPad is painless, and I don't think 1GLOBAL's prices are that unreasonable.
Seems to me we have discussed this before? I'm the author of a gps web app, was a moderator at GPSReview (until they suddenly vanished one night) and currently the only mod at gpsfiledepot (mostly a spammer's playground now). So I really like the added accuracy of the glo, which I've mostly used with my phone. It's a fun toy for geeks like me, but probably doesn't have much appeal for the average user.
I think it's worth pointing it out as an option however, since many people aren't aware that such devices exist. And you can even get centimeter-accuracy with some bluetooth receivers... IF your pockets are deep enough.
Sorry... now I'm getting pretty far off-topic for a thread about a gift for a tech adverse parent.
Yes, I now remember that and you and the good ol' GPSReview days.
I would be inclined to go for Cellular. The 10th Gen still has a physical sim slot, which was removed with the 2024 models. It is in addition to eSim rather than instead of and might be useful to have, with the 11th Gen likely to lose the flexibility of a physical slot also. I know that my dad wouldn't be a fan of eSim, so grabbing a device with a physical slot would suit those who aren't the greatest fans of change.
To be fair most of those issues are solved with the iPhone you likely already have near by or in a pocket. I’ve had 0 issues with Verizon’s hotspot. T-Mobile is a dumpster fire in my market. Fast but totally unreliable.
Interesting. I've found T-Mobile to be solid here around the Pacific Northwest - fast and reliable.
In my market Verizon is the most reliable but not the fastest (unless you're in our major city or at a large event like a sports stadium...where it's stupid fast Ultra Wide Band). Usually AT&T or T-Mobile is faster around here but T-mobile has terrible coverage so the extra speed is pointless. AT&T is a nice middle ground.
THIS! Plenty of eSIM operators in Europe, the best solution sometimes is land then get a payg sim, but I’d advise as per this post, get him a cellular model and a eSIM, then he can FaceTime you. But he best keep an eye on his iPad and iPhone too, thieves are around the tourist spots.