Do I buy a tablet with a data plan? Or do I just use Wi-Fi? Those seem to be the questions a lot of people are asking themselves these days when considering the purchase of a tablet.

Most tablets on the market today offer both 3G/4G and Wi-Fi capabilities as well as a version that only uses Wi-Fi (or hotspots). The 3G/4G tablets require you to purchase some sort of data plan, much like the ones you have for your cellphones. If you purchase a plan, tablets usually run in the $100-$200 range. If you buy the same tablet outright without the plan, the cost can run as high as $600 or more. You can understand why people often choose the data-plan route.

However, if you factor in the monthly cost of the plan over the course of two to three years (the average length of the most basic plans), you can quickly do the math and see that the tablet that cost you $100-$200 will end up costing you in the neighborhood of $700-$800. Pay now or pay later, the tablet with the 3G/4G plan is costing you a mint.

Go Wi-Fi

There are many Android tablets on the market that are very inexpensive (for example, the Le Pan TC970 Google Android tablet, which can be purchased online at Walmart for under $200). Because of the ubiquity of hotspots at most coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, and airports, there is a diminishing need to have 3G/4G capabilities for your mobile device and/or tablets. This means that you can browse the Internet, shop online, or work anywhere there is a hotspot or Wi-Fi (including your home, presumably).

Unless you have a need to be connected at all times, the Wi-Fi/hotspot route is the way to go, especially if you want to save some money. As with all other electronic devices, it comes down to need and desire. Who wouldn’t want Panasonic’s new Toughpad (to be released in the Spring of 2012 at a cost of approximately $1200), which can apparently be sandblasted and submitted to powerful jets of water? But unless you are planning to participate in the annual footrace across the Gobi desert, chances are you will be okay with something a little less rugged.