Thursday
Sep202012
Why so much?
Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 3:00AM How would you justify the price you paid for your smartphone and do you consider yours to be value for money? Also, do you buy with your heart or your head?
Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 3:00AM
Reader Comments (11)
No problem at all since I got a *small* phone with minimal specifications at a cheap price.
When I can buy a Galaxy Note II, then some justification may be called for, but from the get-go, one word; Stylus!
Well I have the Samsung Galaxy S3, which is the worlds best spec device. However, I don't have the new iPhone 5, well I will tomorrow.
You see one must have the iPhone 5 because its the new iPhone. I will pay for a poorer Maps experience, but gain all the polish of the iOS 6 operating system, beautiful syncing with iCloud features, iMessage,FaceTime over cellular, airplay to Apple TV, and the worlds thinnest phone (except its not really, but Apple says it is).
The iPhone 5 will be an upgrade over the S3. I will only lose the best Maps and free Navigation software from Google, a camera with tons of options, fm radio, apt-x, wifi direct, NFC (as Apple says who uses it) (at least phone is future proofed) and much more. But then I will have the new iPhone 5. It's new, it's made by Apple and unless you have the new iPhone , then you don't have one.
Hopefully that's justified everything :)
First of all at this point I am committed to A. OS.
First A phone HTC Desire - thought it was the best out there at the time.
It died on me while on a long trip and I needed a new phone FAST - too much of my info on it.
Bought the Galaxy SII and it is an improvement and they have updated it OTA to ICS.
SIII looks nice but no reason to upgrade yet as the S II does what I want from it and the Desire is a nice backup.
If I can afford it I'll but the best one out there.
I am only interested in an LTE phone now. Will happy to pay premium for Note 2 on EE.
I usually get the best phone I can get for free at upgrade time, although I did have to pay £150 towards my HD2. I'm a bit torn between iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3, and upgrade is due next month.
I'm usually level headed when it comes to these decisions but the new iPhone just looks really nice!
I like to think that I buy with my head. I've been upgrading roughly every two years. Since my iPhone is my second brain and oh yeah, it's a phone too, I consider it excellent value for money.
Now buying the iPad 2 a year after the iPad 1, and then buying the new iPad a year after that, part of that's heart.
I just think paying 500/600€ for a phone is too much. And then you see the prices over in America... $199, etc, it's ridiculous and I would feel robbed if I buy a 500€ iphone in Europe.
I tend to buy with my wallet. The last upgrade was a better contract and a SII.
I upgrade every 2 years, and thus I feel when I do, I think it is justified, as going via the PAYG would actually cost me more.
Official prices in Portugal: from TMN carrier, 679,90€; with data plan, 149€ + 80€/month for 2 years.
@Rui Duarte
You don't understand that mobile phone pricing and contracts have more variation here in Europe
you can buy phone outright for say 500 completely independently of the operators, but then pay just 10 a month "sim-only" for service. Or even get a pay-as-you-go deal where you buy non-expiring credits when you need them.
Or get the phone subsidised by the mobile operator/carrier sometimes for free but pay a lot more per month. These deals usually work out that in one year (roughly) you've paid for the phone and the second year is lots of profit for the operator. The operator will usually try and lock you in for a further two years with the offer of a cheap upgrade halfway through second year.
I always buy my phones up-front and go sim-only or payg, that way I am not locked into two year cycles. I can buy unlocked second hand phones if I wish, or only sign to a one year contract. In fact with the contract being quite cheap if I decide to cancel it there will not be a big penalty if any at all.
As I see it, in the USA there's no such thing really as a cheap sim-only. PAYG credit expire and/or you have to top up regularly to keep service. So you really might as well surrender to a cheap phone and expensive monthly bill.