Buying i-pad abroad

[auntiebertie]

Off to the USA next week and thinking about getting an i-pad as the latest toy. Can Ijust connect it to my BT Broadband wifi at home and to wifi when i am out and about or will i need a separate contract for it?

[Buenchico]

An iPad purchased in the USA will be supplied with a power adapter fitted with a US plug, for connecting to a 120V mains supply (at 60Hz). You won't be able to use it with the 230V (50Hz) domestic power supply in the UK. So you'd need to buy a UK power adapter.

Since the iPad can function as a media player, it's likely that UK customs officials will charge Import Tax at 13.9%. Then there's 17.5% VAT to be added onto the total of the cost price and the Import Tax. So (based upon a retail price of $499 = £345), HMRC will charge you approximately £117 to import your iPad.


So, even before you consider whether you can actually connect a US iPad to the internet in the UK (not to mention the inconvenience of having things like a built-in dictionary which uses US spellings), you could well end up spending far more than if you purchased your iPad in the UK.

Chris

[237SJ]

Lots of my colleagues have bought ipads back from the States before they were released over here. Don`t know any details, but they don`t seem to have any problems connecting to service providers here. Shouldn`t be a problem (nor with customs in practise - they`ve got bigger things to worry about)!

[BertiWooster]

Chris

Would you need to declare it to UK customs ?

Surely you just stick it in your suitcase , which goes in the hold - which is what people do when they buy goods in the states

[237SJ]

BertiW I think the personal allowance for an individual is £390 worth of goods so in theory, yes, duty should be paid. Would I? no probably. I hope no government spies are looking at this!

[Fitzer]

I have a US iPad and the power brick is universal voltage so you merely need a plug adaptor, in fact like all of Apple's recent power supplies the 'pin' section is removable so you can get the correct three pin adaptor and plug it straight into the wall. WiFi works fine on both home and hot-spot, be aware that you can't tether to an iPhone via bluetooth to use the phone's 3G connection as Apple have prevented this, there are workarounds but they require jailbreaking the phone. Dictionary seems to understand British spellings but I haven't exhaustively tested it. It really depends on the price you could get it for in the States, as Chris said you may get clobbered for customs and then a few other incidental costs, plug etc.