Which iPad Retina should I buy in the US so it will work in the UK?

Hi, as someone from the UK I'm not 100% sure if my answer will be of any help or even 100% correct.

I have an iPad 2 on Vodafone. I'm not 100% sure how the US works but from my experience we just buy the iPad and then go to whichever provider we want for the data plan.

With that said you can buy the iPad direct from the supplier (i.e. Vodafone supplied my iPad and plan) but I'm not sure of the impact of that.

I have done a quick search for info about the UK and found this http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-953301.html

Which basically states that you aren't locked down onto a network with an iPad so you can buy one and then go and get the data plan from whoever. I'm not sure if the US lock them down onto different networks.

Hope this goes some way into answering your questiona above and sorry if not.

Ahh I see you want to buy one in the US that would then work back here in the UK. Sorry I thought you were in the US looking not from this end out and then back.

I've just found this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3786805?start=0&tstart=0

Think this might more accurately answer your question?

Hi,

We don't have cellular, but I have often read many ques. and answers here just for my own info when we were first buying. I do know that in the past, Verizon had a different system than ATT and others. That could all have changed with LTE. I checked a couple of articles and found the following links which might help you. PLEASE NOTE these were published in March and May of 2012, so things might have changed with the new ipad 4. Also note that you can buy a cellular here without a contract that you could then set up with your own UK phone company.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Apple-iPad-UK-4G-LTE-Australia,15634.html May 15, 2012

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/43972/are-the-new-ipads-ipad-3-for-sale -in-the-us-unlocked-for-the-uk Mar. 2012

You also said you wanted retina display and then said you were probably staying with 02. If by that you mean the ipad 2, I want to let you know that the ipad 2 does NOT have the retina display. That would mean you'd have to get the old discontinued 'new' ipad or the ipad 4. And if I were you, I would not even think of buying an old 'new ipad, even if there's a great sale on them. I'd go straight to the ipad 4.

Make sure you do as much research as possible.

Hope this helps.

Hi again,

If you scroll down on the questions just below this response you'll see that somene else (cabal101) has pretty much the same question, and it was answered by Demo.

All ipad minis, so I expect that all ipad 4's are now sold unlocked! So you can wait and still use your carrier at home. It's probably the LTE. But please keep researching to be sure.

GSM to ensure no issues

the iPad 3 does not support LTE 4G outside US

Not clear whether the iPad (4) Retina will support any of the UK 4G transmissions

The new iPhone 5 can only use EE 4G signals when they arrive but not O2

So if you plan to stay with O2 then the AT&T version will work fine

on 3G with O2 in UK but unlikely to support any 4G

Different altogether he responded on Wifi only and in that respect was correct

He did not address cellular version

http://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/

BobTheFisherman wrote:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/LTE/

I still would not buy a "CDMA" version to bring back to UK

The "may " bit of warranty would certainly come into play

and not be covered outside country of purchased