Orange Ipad Deal! Only £199.00! Can this be real!?

My mum recently came home gloating about how she had found such an amazing deal. "An iPad for only £199! Its amazing, Sid (my brother) shall we get it for Christmas as a family present, I mean I think theres some contract but its such a good deal?" "No mum theres obviously a catch." responded my brother and I, and what do you know? There was. You have to pay £25.00 a month for 24 months and £28.00 a month for 24 months if you are a new customer.  You do get 1gb of any time internet and unlimited bt openzone, however is it really a good deal? I went to investigate.

If you chose oranges £199 up front deal, and are an orange customer, after 24 months you end up paying £799 for an iPad, and if your not an orange customer, you end up paying £871. I would not call this a good deal. However, as I think most will agree, the benifit from this deal is that payment is a lot more gradual, but an extra £200 just for gradual payments, EERRRRRR, not so sure. Check Orange iPad Deal! iPad for only £199.00!  for more details  

There were a couple of BETTER deals I found for 3g internet surfing on the iPad. Even Orange themselves offer two alternative plans if you buy the iPad for full price (lowest around £429.00 for the 16gb model.) First they offer 1gb of 3g internet for a month for £7.50. 3 also offer the same deal.

The 3 network offers very many rather complex offers for iPad 3g internet, they can offer you the 1gb for £7.50 a month, or 1gb + the top up option for £10 a month. The prices then go up according to the gb allowance you want, and if you want the top up option.

The Vodafone network decided to keep it simple an just offer 1gb for £10.00, 3gb for £15.00, and 5gb for £25.00 a month

 There is also one more option that caught my eye, its not a very publicized option and I think I know why. The 'pay for what you use' service is what Orange calls it, and it seems like the best deal for users wanting 3g internet for their iPads. You basically pay 5p per megabyte and the max you can pay is £40.00 a month. From research, I found that even only a megabyte of surfing will get you around 20 minutes, using the simplest pages, using emails with attachments, a single megabyte will allow you to send around 3 emails. I think this is really the best deal for those who have an iPad, but do not use it as their only computer-like device. I think this would also be the best option for a family like mine, who want to buy an iPad, but will not use it all the time outside of the house for business.