No longer buying flagship phones...

[lsd]

Since the op finally figured out how expensive those subsidized iphones really were I have hope our younger/dumber generation will follow suit. Maybe he will open his eyes to mvno's too.

 

[Kaido]

Why bother being with AT&T if they're going to charge you full price for the phone now?

Depends on if you care more about carrier games than new toys. For me, my smartphone is about the only fun thing I buy as an adult, outside of kitchen gadgets. I live on my phone, so it's worth getting a new one every year or two. It stinks that I either have to pay full price at Verizon (or finance it month-to-month), but that's basically what I was doing on the Edge annual upgrade program anyway, so meh.

 

[highland145]

I still use a free phone and try to avoid using it.

Go figure.

obama phone? Get a job, you bum.

j/k

Flip phone users still exist?

2007, lg 8300, original battery and it makes and receives calls....sorcery at it's finest.:biggrin:

 

[HomerJS]

If you're an existing customer, Verizon still has subsidies. They just claim they no longer have them. Just got my daughter the iPhone6s for $199 and her old iPhone6 is getting a $300 trade-in, so we're making $100 on the deal

Refresh my memory, when I looked at subsidized phone vs their so called lease, the data access price with lease is reduced and over 2 years its a break even.

 

[sdifox]

Still sporting my $50 Samsung dumb phone from 2010.

I am using a US$63 Lumia 521 :biggrin:

 

[soulcougher73]

Ridiculous like a $200 trash can ridiculous? Or ridiculous like a $1,000 vacuum?

lol

 

[rh71]

1 - Stop buying Apple

this

 

[NikolaeVarius]

this

Not necessarily. If you're going to buy flagship Apple products are the best ones to buy, because they maintain a ridiculous portion of their value relative to their age.

 

[rh71]

Not necessarily. If you're going to buy flagship Apple products are the best ones to buy, because they maintain a ridiculous portion of their value relative to their age.

Along with being a shiny Apple product, I think this is the other biggest reason most people are overpaying for them. Paying more to sell it for more... umm... isn't everyday usage more important?

 

[pete6032]

Put it this way, when you get a phone for "free" it's not really free, you are paying for it multiple times over through the contract. Just get a Nexus 4 or other cheaper phone and get a lower end plan that wont cost as much per month. You'll save a lot of money in the long run.

If you don't mind singing a contract, the subsidized phone plan works out well for the consumer in some instances. I am on a sprint everything unlimited plan shared with 3 other people and it averages out to $55/person/month and we have 4 "upgrade" pricing phones every 2 years, so I got the first HTC One about 2 months after it came out and it was $100. Hard to beat that combination of plan price + subsidized phone. (I know you can sometimes find an unlimited plan here for $40/month, but you would have still had to pay $500 for the phone, which means you still come out ahead with the contract).

 

[Anubis]

Flip phone users still exist?

?

why wouldn't they? most people don't need a smartphone

I work with people who still have flip phones. its not shocking or odd at all

 

[bigi]

I get last year's phone for $0. ATT - Samsung Note 4 for Free which is $0.

Could not shake upgrade fee though, but this is fine every 3 years or so.

 

[Captante]

Still sporting my $50 Samsung dumb phone from 2010.

Same here except mine is an LG.

Does everything I need it to do.

 

[rh71]

why wouldn't they? most people don't need a smartphone

I work with people who still have flip phones. its not shocking or odd at all

Wasn't even 10 years ago when people were still saying this about having cell phones at all.

If you have a smartphone, you'd never go back. They make life easier, but of course not necessary. Neither are personal automobiles or televisions, or internet.

 

[lsd]

I get last year's phone for $0. ATT - Samsung Note 4 for Free which is $0.

Could not shake upgrade fee though, but this is fine every 3 years or so.

How much are you paying monthly?

 

[ra1nman]

Still on the $12 on P+. The speaker on my Moto G went out and replaced it with a 32GB iPhone 4s. Yeah it's almost 4 years old, but it's still supported by the latest iOS version. When it dies i'll probably spend another $120 for another one....meh

 

[Greenman]

Still haven't found a job trident?

 

[Fritzo]

Refresh my memory, when I looked at subsidized phone vs their so called lease, the data access price with lease is reduced and over 2 years its a break even.

It depends on your plan. I have unlimited data for $30 and my daughter has 4GB of data for $30, so in our case it would be a LOT more expensive to get off of a subsidized plan (like $60 more per month).

 

[MetalMat]

Put it this way, when you get a phone for "free" it's not really free, you are paying for it multiple times over through the contract. Just get a Nexus 4 or other cheaper phone and get a lower end plan that wont cost as much per month. You'll save a lot of money in the long run.

You could always go with a non contract cellphone company like Cricket. They offer free phones as well, usually you have to go through a rebate though.

 

[TridenT]

Mm, looks like I might be able to do 2 year contract with AT&T still. News articles were saying I couldn't and it was hard to find the option on the AT&T website. Interesting.

If I can, I might upgrade to an iPhone 6S+ 64GB. Questioning whether to go Rose Gold or not. Feels like I should. I did gold for iPhone 5S, after all.

 

[gorcorps]

Mm, looks like I might be able to do 2 year contract with AT&T still. News articles were saying I couldn't and it was hard to find the option on the AT&T website. Interesting.

If I can, I might upgrade to an iPhone 6S+ 64GB. Questioning whether to go Rose Gold or not. Feels like I should. I did gold for iPhone 5S, after all.

If you're willing to enter a 2 year contract with ATT to get a dying subsidy plan, you might as well do the new NON contract plan and pay for your phone monthly. In the end your payments should be similar because the non-subsidy plans are cheaper.

 

[amdhunter]

OP is poor.

- Posted from my shiny new iPhone 6s Plus, which was bought purely so that people think I got money because iOS is a useless operating system and no one buys an iPhone to actually use it.

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah, it's time for Apple to cut the price on their flagship phones. No other manufacturer is really charging $850 for a phone with a 5 inch screen and 64 GB of storage anymore.

Apple is getting away with it so far because they are considered to be a premium product, but something tells me that shit isn't going to fly for too much longer with compatible Android phones costing half as much.

 

[SP33Demon]

I don't see this option on AT&T's website. From articles I've read, AT&T doesn't subsidize the iPhone 6S.

I understand a lot of you don't use smartphones for their actual capacity. Some of us do and would like to have the nicest phone available. However, I don't want to spend $850+ to get it. That's fucking ridiculous. Phones shouldn't be more than $500, ever.

I don't agree, for some phones like Samsung S6 octocore (more powerful than my desktop) spending more than 500 is worth it. Especially if you require info on demand while on the go.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

some people are just cheap....lol

Or just not stupid with their money and enslaved in debt their entire life.

Enjoy your shit life working till the day you roll over and die.



OP - we buy our own phones when we actually need them, and we stick with a plan that will be as cheap as possible. Currently with Verizon, they had a deal with their month to month program (I believe it is called Edge?) - $15/month per line, $58 for the plan (unlimited minutes/text, 6GB data), so it ends up being ~$90/month. Even that is a lot for us, but it's the best we can do so far.

I would have a limit on minutes, but we pay our mother in law as well - and she spends all day and night on the phone :|