Tablet computers - cellular without commitment

November 23, 2011 8:41 AM

Tabletfilter: What are my options for a tablet computer with occasional 3g connectivity (not a monthly contract)? Preferably something powerful enough to handle video and other display-heavy apps.

So, I'm looking at tablet computers and mobile things, and I'm generally finding the android honeycomb level of tablet looking good -- powerful enough for what I want, including video (and specifically including netflix). I'm not against the idea of an ipad, but I've got an iphone so I figure it would be nice to have a heterogeneous mobile platform as well.

One feature I'm looking for, however, is the ability - like the ipad has - to have zipless contractless, one month at a time sort of cellular service, or some kind of pay-as-you-go thing. Because I spend most of my days moving between places that have wireless service, but it would be worth it to have cell connectivity for the odd week here or there. I have a strong preference against something I'd have to jailbreak/root in order to get the functionality.

posted by rmd1023 to computers & internet (3 answers total)

It sounds like you want an iPad but don't want to want one. There are advantages to having a homogenous mobile platform, like being able to share purchased apps (and actually having tablet-sized apps available instead of just hoping you can find an acceptably-blown-up-from-phone-sized version). Just buy one and be done with it. : P
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:30 PM on November 23, 2011

*grin* Yeah, I may end up getting an ipad. I don't think there's anything on android that's a must-have for me (flash is nice, but not mandatory), but I figured I'd try to see what was out there in android-land before getting Another Damned Apple Product.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:53 AM on November 24, 2011

Answering my own question, here, it looks like the contractless motorola xoom (at least from verizon) is available with a random month-to-month plan. It's not clear if it's as trivial to set up as it is in the ipad, but it's there. or so they claim.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:09 PM on November 24, 2011