Which iPad 2 To Buy? The 16GB WiFi Version Is The One For Most Of Us, But You’ll Still Have To Choose Between Black and White

Cult of Mac’s Buster Heine says he’s been fielding a lot of questions from readers and friends over which model iPad 2 they should buy. Should you go with WiFi only, or the 3G version for when youre not around a hotspot? How much storage do you need? And most importantly, how do you choose between black or white?

Buster’s answer is that you should get the 16GB WiFi-only model in black, and he goes on to explain why he’s come to that determination.

I agree with most of Buster’s reasoning on this issue. Unless you really need greater storage capacity (with the compactness of most apps. you can fit a ton of them on the base 16 GB drive) and/or plan to use your iPad a lot on the road, go with the base model Wi-Fi version and save yourself some money. iOS software to some degree returns us to more of a smaller-storage needs environment. My first Mac, a Mac Plus, could boot and run a production application from an 800k floppy disk, and with a massive 20 MB external SCSI drive I was able to partition, install both System 6 and System 7, Microsoft Word 5.1, HyperCard, SuperPaint, seceral other productivity apps., my entire accretion of document archives, and never came even close to filling it up.

However, I think I part company with Buster on the color choice matter. Im personally partial to white devices. Buster makes well-argued case for black, but AnandTech counters that rather than being overwhelming or busy, the white bezel actually has one notable advantage over black – it doesn’t show fingerprints or dust, a constant aggravation with the previous, black-only generation – it always looked dirty, and in this context, white seems to actually make sense. I have some glossy piano black Logitech keyboards that look spectacular, but also get fingerprinted and grubby quickly with use.

However, the main takeaway here is that in 11 months or so you’ll be wanting to replace your iPad 2 with an iPad 3, and depreciation will be higher with a 32 GB or 64 GB iPad 2 and with the 3G versions.