iPhone 5 - what are we expecting?

Idiophreak

NFH wrote: »

Yes, but don't do all that division. Just calculate the total over 24 months.

The last time I calculated this for Orange, a SIM-only contract worked out at £499 + £9 x 24 = £715 but a bundled contract worked out at £100 + £36 x 24 = £964. The figures are probably slightly different now, but the large discrepancy will remain.

But even without the division, the same ideas apply...

In your example, if you took off £130 cashback from the 964, you'd be down to 715 vs 834. If you reduced your tariff by £10/month for the second half, you'd be down to 715 vs 714. Like I said, take off the little interest you'll earn by paying the contract and you could well be paying less for what would be a much better tariff. Of course, it all depends on the monthly costs, the cashback offers on at the time, the upfront cost and terms of the tariff...but, like I said, I don't think it's as easy as "going sim-only is cheaper" - I think it's worth doing the maths.

buscape

diamonds wrote: »

Personally a Samsung SIII or moreso Note with WP8 sounds great to me !

http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/news/item/15588_Samsung_announces_the_ATIV_S.php

morg_monster

But idiophreak no place is going to give any cashback for the new iphone for a good while yet.

NFH

morg_monster wrote: »

But idiophreak no place is going to give any cashback for the new iphone for a good while yet.

That's true, and the other factors to consider for SIM-only are:

• Ability to change providers easily after the minimum contract period (usually 1 month or 12 months)
• Ability to use other SIM cards when abroad, avoiding hefty roaming charges, particularly for data outside the EEA
• If the iPhone develops a fault after the one-year warranty has expired, it's easier to exercise your consumer rights when the retailer and manufacturer are the same company.

blizeH

The only thing that'd excite me during the iPhone 5 announcement would be a Micro USB connection, and Google Now integration.

So very apathetic about the new iPhone, even though I'll almost certainly cave get one over the S3. Sigh.

vacheron

morg_monster wrote: »

But idiophreak no place is going to give any cash-back for the new iPhone for a good while yet.

When I bought my iPhone 4 a friend offered me his BBC O2 "friends and family" discount to get £120 cash-back.
He's offered me the same facility this year but I'm waiting to see if the iPhone 5 justifies the price.

When I came out of my 24 month contract a couple of months ago I moved from £35 per month with O2 to £9 with Virgin on a rolling 30 day contract which has twice the data and texts that O2 offered!

All I had to do was fill in a form on the O2 website and they remotely unlocked the iPhone to allow use of the Virgin SIM.

By my calcs: £35pm x 24 month contract (F&F offsets the phone price) adds up to £840 vs £216 with virgin and you can cancel at any time.

If I feel the new one justifies a purchase then I'll be buying the phone contract free this time. It also helps you really consider if it's worth it when you have to hand over half a grand!

morg_monster

One thing I have thought is that I was planning to get a 32GB one so that is going to be more £. My 3GS is 16GB and I am at the limit of it. With the better camera on the new one I really think I will want/need the bigger one unless I decide to not have *any* of my music on it... Although I also have an 32GB ipad so perhaps with judicious use of iCloud I will manage on a 16GB...

DUTR

vacheron wrote: »

When I bought my iPhone 4 a friend offered me his BBC O2 "friends and family" discount to get £120 cash-back.
He's offered me the same facility this year but I'm waiting to see if the iPhone 5 justifies the price.

When I came out of my 24 month contract a couple of months ago I moved from £35 per month with O2 to £9 with Virgin on a rolling 30 day contract which has twice the data and texts that O2 offered!

All I had to do was fill in a form on the O2 website and they remotely unlocked the iPhone to allow use of the Virgin SIM.

By my calcs: £35pm x 24 month contract (F&F offsets the phone price) adds up to £840 vs £216 with virgin and you can cancel at any time.

If I feel the new one justifies a purchase then I'll be buying the phone contract free this time. It also helps you really consider if it's worth it when you have to hand over half a grand!

Your calcs are obviously incorrect somewhere, you have omitted the cost of the handset.

blizeH

Indeed... you're looking at £500 for the 16GB right?

I'm off to America soon so will probably get one then. Going by current conversion rates it's going to cost around £400 that way.

Idiophreak

morg_monster wrote: »

But idiophreak no place is going to give any cashback for the new iphone for a good while yet.

I guess that may be true. I think I got my last one about three months after launch...

As an aside, though, I read something suggesting that the highest priced iphone 5 was going to be around the £799 mark...which would blow all of our theories out of the water