iPad Is iPad speed the same w/cellular sim as tethered to an iPhone?

[Turnpike]

Is there any advantage or notable speed difference connecting an iPad to the internet with it's own cellular sim vs. tethering off an iPhone?

I assume they might be similar but maybe someone knows of some scenarios where some setup is noticeably quicker? I do a lot of work on an iPad, and just in case there IS some difference, I wanted to check. Thanks!

 

[rui no onna]

I’ve got the iPhone on AT&T and iPad on Verizon (with T-Mobile $10/5GB/150 days as backup).

Coverage and speed depends on the location.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

There are certainly benefits - if you lose/damage your phone, or if the battery's down, you don't have to worry about that with a separate SIM in the iPad. You could also set up the iPad SIM on a different carrier, so that you can choose between it or tethering to your phone based on which carrier has a stronger signal. Getting an iPad with Cellular also means it comes with GPS, which is helpful for iPad-based navigation.

But in terms of your specific question - Not enough difference to matter.

 

[Digitalguy]

In my experience, when signal is good the difference is minimal. When signal is bad, cellular will work way better than hotspot, which often does not connect at all with poor signal.

 

[jbachandouris]

Another advantage is that you can get 0% financing through your carrier. Might be worth it. To me it was but that was over a year ago for me.

 

[HDFan]

Is there any advantage or notable speed difference connecting an iPad to the internet with it's own cellular sim vs. tethering off an iPhone?

Depends on the policies of your carrier. Internet went down so I tethered my iPhone to my Mac. Quickly went through my 5 GB limit (T-Mobile) at which time received a message that my bandwidth would be severely throttled to something on the order of 600 kbps.