Get the cheapest UK iPad: A buyer's guide

So you've decided you need an iPad, but your bank balance isn't having any of it, so you desperately need to find the cheapest way to get one.

Don't worry. Wired.co.uk is here to look after you.

We have scoured the pages of Apple's website, the tariffs of the five UK networks that are offering iPad data-only tariffs, and fed it all into a big number-crunching machine. The result: we know the rock-bottom, most affordable ways to get a cheap iPad legitimately into your hands.

We've had to make a few assumptions -- the biggest being that you don't need more than 16GB of storage on the device itself, and that you're going to use it for 24 months before it becomes useless to you. Tweak the figures a little if you don't think that's true, though be aware that some of the contracts have 24-month minimum terms.

It's also worth saying a little more about the 3G packages on offer from the different networks. O2, Vodafone 3, T-Mobile and Orange all offer data bundles and a microSIM, but they're not created equal -- each has different little tweaks that make them better or worse than the others.

On the surface, Orange looks good because it comes with "unlimited" access to more than 150,000 Wi-Fi networks across Britain. But a fair usage policy limits access to those hotspots to 10GB per month -- this is Wi-Fi, for crying out loud. Why are there limits at all?

Before we give you the prices we need to know a little more about you. How much are you going to use your iPad, and where? If you're primarily thinking of buying the device for use in the home, and can't see any situations where you might want to take it somewhere else that doesn't have free Wi-Fi, then there's no point buying the model equipped with 3G access. If you do want 3G, then how much are you going to use it? Every single day, or maybe once a week?

Pick whichever category over the page applies to you best, and we'll point out your cheapest option -- you can bookmark that page to get back to just the prices quickly.

The housebound user
For users who just want the cheapest of the cheapest options. No 3G at all.
Limits: There isn't any 3G.
Data plan: None
Total cost over 24 months: £399
Effective monthly cost: £16.63

The light user
Very occasionally you'll take the iPad out of your house -- no more than once a fortnight.
Limits: We've costed the below such that you only use 3G once a fortnight, and you don't use more than 250MB each time. More use will cost you more.
Data plan: T-Mobile's PAYG Micro-Sim
Total cost over 24 months: £595
Effective monthly cost: £24.79

The connected user
A reasonable amount of usage, in case you want to get on the web from the train ride home.
Limits: 1GB per month, but you can use that whenever you want -- you can use a little bit every day if you like, rather than having to pay for a new chunk of data every time you use it. It's also a 1-month rolling contract, meaning you don't have to commit to a full two years of payment.
Data plan: Three's 1GB Pay Monthly Micro-sim
Total cost over 24 months: £679
Effective monthly cost: £28.29

The road warrior
For the all-consuming, data-hungry user who's almost never in range of Wi-Fi.
Limits: If what you want is bang-for-buck when it comes to data, you can't get better than Three's 24-month, £25-per-month that comes with a whopping 15GB of data. That's a price-per-month-per-gigabyte of £2.30, including the cost of the iPad itself -- far below its competitors. Of course, you need to ask yourself whether you're going to use all that data.
Data plan: Three's 15GB 24-month iPad 2
Total cost over 24 months: £829
Effective monthly cost: £34.54

So there you have it. The full range of possibilities. If you want to see our datasheet, which covers all offerings from all providers (that we found) then you can see it here, ordered by monthly cost. If it's an iPad you've got to have, then this is the cheapest you're going to get it.