T-Mobile Has A Really Good Deal On Tablets If You're Already A Smartphone Subscriber
It'll also let you buy a 4G LTE tablet for the same price as one that only has WiFi.
For example, the 4G LTE iPad costs $629. But T-Mobile will sell it to you for $499, which is the same cost as the WiFi-only version. You can get a tablet for $0 down plus a monthly payment over 24 months until the tablet is paid off, but you have to go through a credit check and sign an agreement to do that. You can also just pay for the tablet in full up front.
But there are some caveats.
First of all, the deal is only good if you're a current T-Mobile customer on one of its postpaid plans for smartphones. The free 1 GB of data goes away after 2014, so you'll have to start paying at least $10 per month if you want to continue using the data plan on your tablet after that. This is a limited time offer.
If you go over your 1.2 GB of free data within the month, T-Mobile will slow down your data speeds until the new billing cycle begins. But you won't be charged anything extra. That's a good amount of data, more than enough to handle the average person's emails, Facebook use, and casual Web surfing. But if you plan to stream a lot of audio or video, it won't be enough.
As for the discount on LTE tablets, a T-Mobile spokesperson wouldn't comment on how the company is making up the cost.
So, is it a good deal?
If you're already a T-Mobile customer with a postpaid smartphone plan and you want a tablet, yes. You can get a tablet at a nice discount on a tablet, even if the free 1 GB of data offer goes away after 2014.