Phones got expensive

aeonrevolution

aeonrevolution

2[H]4U
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So, I got a S3 back in the day when it came out on an upgrade price of like...$150 or $200? Something like that. I have T Mobile.

My phone is finally starting to crap out for various reasons that are my fault. Since when do you have to pay full price on all phones?!?!??!?! WTF. All I use mine for are texting/facebook/browser and random stuff like snapchat etc. Why in the hell would I want to pay nearly the same price I did to build my computer for a stupid phone.

I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do here. I have a huge family plan on my account and it is gonna be a pain to switch carriers. Anyone have advice? I don't even care if my new phone isn't the top of the line.
 
I'm confused what you are trying to say here. The price for the upgrade is too high?
 
tl;dr - T-mobile is splitting up cost of service from cost of equipment. You can buy a new phone outright at $650, or use Tmo's financing to split up that cost over 24 months (optionally use Jump! if you want to upgrade sooner, but its usually a bad deal)



The whole industry is moving towards this model (Offer discounted service if you don't want a subsidy... good because people can stay on a phone for 3 years and save money)

If you joined T-mobile in the past 2-ish years, you're already on the Simple Choice plans that don't offer subsidy

You might have a legacy plan (with or without subsidy), you'll eventually be shifted to the Simple Choice-type plans with minimal extra cost(up to $1 more a month) with the benefits (music freedom, free international data/texting). Unfortunately, it may be more expensive if you had a legacy plan with subsidy, since the new plans don't offer subsidy
 
Paperwastage had a pretty good summary, but I'll add this:

Your high-end phone has always (well, within the past several years) cost around $600-700. It's just that this price was hidden before. Now, you have a clearer sense of what that device actually costs, even if you're paying the same amount in the long run. It's part of why paying up front for an unlocked phone is more appealing now; you'll pay the same in the end, but you'll get something that's truly yours.
 
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You can get an original Moto X dev edition for $250 brand new or an entry level Lumia's for sub $100 all the time.

It just depends on what you want. Of course for high end phones with the highest resolution screens and fasted processors are going to cost extreme amounts.

Also you aren't paying a lot of money for a "stupid" phone, these are general devices now, as you said yourself, you use it for a ton of random things and being a phone wasn't one of them. Honestly if you don't do anything intense and don't care about low res screens, just get a cheap'o entry phone and enjoy the lowered prices.
 
Well, yes I know they aren't really stupid. I'm just very frustrated at the price. I dunno. I totally understand the cost always had to go somewhere, but I just really dislike the idea of spending this much on a phone which will do nothing my 3yr old phone can't do.

At least when I build a new computer there are obvious gains to things it can run that my old one can't. Know what I mean?

What are your opinions on Blu phones? My dad read up on a lot of them and bought one from MicroCenter - I've played with it a bit and it seems fine. They're also pretty damn cheap. I think they had one for around $150 with specs that put it around the S4 level.
 
Do you know if you are in an area where T-mobile owns 700mhz band 12?

https://sites.google.com/site/cellularbinder/t-mobile-700a-spectrum

If you are, it's probably a good idea to be future proof, and get a phone with band 12
ZTE ZMax Phablet usually goes on sale under $200
Galaxy Avant (on sale under $200 as well)

How badly do you want WiFi Calling (only on phones sold by T-mobile)

otherwise, the only phone around $200 I'd recommend would be the Moto G LTE (future proof on LTE except band 12/microSD/updates, may have a small chance of gettng WiFi calling in AOSP next year)
 
If you have been with tmo for a while(I have 9 years with them) call and ask them give you a discount on a G2 or other phone. I got my G2 for 300 from them when it was 400. Like you, I refuse to pay the prices for brand new phones. So I stay 1 year behind and pay half, thats fine with me. More community support that way anyway and all the kinks have been worked out.
 
You can by a used S3 unlocked in the $150 range. New ones are still around in the $200-250 range. A new unlocked S4 will run you $350 or so if you shop around. There are relatively inexpensive options as long as you don't have to have one of the current flagships.

Current flagships are usually in the $600-700+ range.
 
aeonrevolution said:
Well, yes I know they aren't really stupid. I'm just very frustrated at the price. I dunno. I totally understand the cost always had to go somewhere, but I just really dislike the idea of spending this much on a phone which will do nothing my 3yr old phone can't do.
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While I don't know anything about T-Mobiles plans or costs, but I can tell you I'm saving money by buying a new phone off-contract and using an off-contract AT&T plan.
I'm saving about $360/yr (so $720 over 2 years) on my off-contract AT&T plan.
I bought my S5 about a month after release, "slightly used" off swappa.com, for $500.
Then consider I still would have to pay the "upgrade" price on-contract of, oh, $200.
So I actually saved about $400.

For single-line accounts, it's actually cheaper in the long run.
You pay more up-front, but save money in the long run.
 
Carriers started killing their upgrade discounts last year iirc OP
 
aeonrevolution said:
So, I got a S3 back in the day when it came out on an upgrade price of like...$150 or $200? Something like that. I have T Mobile.

My phone is finally starting to crap out for various reasons that are my fault. Since when do you have to pay full price on all phones?!?!??!?! WTF. All I use mine for are texting/facebook/browser and random stuff like snapchat etc. Why in the hell would I want to pay nearly the same price I did to build my computer for a stupid phone.

I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do here. I have a huge family plan on my account and it is gonna be a pain to switch carriers. Anyone have advice? I don't even care if my new phone isn't the top of the line.
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I have T-Mobiles ZTE Zemax 5.7" smartphone and I like it. If you don't mind the size increase, it's an overall good phone for 200. It has a near stock Android KitKat OS, a quad core 1.2ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, Micro SD slot and a beefy 3400mah battery (non-removable) The S3 will take better pictures and videos than the ZTE Zmax phone though. Also, the Zmax phone only supports up to 32GB microSDHC. A 64GB microSDXC did not work in my ZTE Zmax phone.

The Galaxy Avant is another option for 200 and about the same size as the S3 but little smaller. It should be good enough for your needs. The Avant has a lower screen resolution than the S3 with 960x540 res vs 1280 x 720 on the S3 and lower RAM with 1.5GB vs 2GB on the S3. Plus, the Avants screen size is 4.5" vs 4.8" on the S3.

Both the ZTE Zmax and Galaxy Avant phones have TFT display so, if you're use to the S3 vibrant color Super Amoled display, the colors on the Zmax and Avant will look dull.
 
Phones are expensive because everyone acts like they need the latest and greatest, every freaking hardware cycle ..... Hopefully, the telecom bubble will pop soon..
 
jlbenedict said:
Phones are expensive because everyone acts like they need the latest and greatest, every freaking hardware cycle ..... Hopefully, the telecom bubble will pop soon..
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It already is. Look at Samsung's plummeting sales.
 
Skripka said:
It already is. Look at Samsung's plummeting sales.
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Thats not so much because of the US. Its mostly because China doesnt want to buy Samsung anymore, they buy Apple or their own brands, ZTE, Huawei, Xaomi, etc. I am actually really tired of Samsung as well, I have been trying out LG and Sony lately.

Anyways One Plus One is a good phone at a low price range. The Nexus line is as well, just dont ever buy it from T-Mobile because for some reason they mark it up like $200? Phones have always cost a lot, but thats because plans were more expensive and that included the subsidy carriers used to make phones cheaper.
 
Samsung have decided to be asswipes, their excuse for not rolling out kitkat 4.4 to the S3 is apparently it hasnt enough memory, yet android 4.4 is optimised for lower memory usage.

I wouldnt buy an S3 today its 1 gig is too low. You can run 4.4 on it but it will probably be problematic due to a lack of official release to port from.

The android situation is a mess.

AOSP style android is way faster than touchwiz, no argument, but touchwiz has a better UI, google have gone with the horrible white background stuff and the contacts/dialer APP is rubbish in AOSP roms. Touchwiz however is bloat hell, its so slow and sluggish.

My galaxy ACE on cyanogen mod 7.2 has faster launcher navigation and faster dial/contact responsiveness than my galaxy S3 which is running a slimmed down touchwiz 4.3. The ace does get sluggish tho when doing anything remotely demanding such as using google play which itself is now bloatware.
 
chrcoluk said:
Samsung have decided to be asswipes, their excuse for not rolling out kitkat 4.4 to the S3 is apparently it hasnt enough memory, yet android 4.4 is optimised for lower memory usage.

I wouldnt buy an S3 today its 1 gig is too low. You can run 4.4 on it but it will probably be problematic due to a lack of official release to port from.

The android situation is a mess.

AOSP style android is way faster than touchwiz, no argument, but touchwiz has a better UI, google have gone with the horrible white background stuff and the contacts/dialer APP is rubbish in AOSP roms. Touchwiz however is bloat hell, its so slow and sluggish.

My galaxy ACE on cyanogen mod 7.2 has faster launcher navigation and faster dial/contact responsiveness than my galaxy S3 which is running a slimmed down touchwiz 4.3. The ace does get sluggish tho when doing anything remotely demanding such as using google play which itself is now bloatware.
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What are you smoking?

Try using the Sammy Settings app nevermind all the other GUI elements TW bastardizes...it is an exercise in obfuscation and idiocy. Better UI, my ass.

White background is not horrible, it is better for readability across conditions. Dark background apps suck in direct sunlight on all but the brightest of bright panels at burn-in levels of brightness.
 
The dialer/contacts is abysmal in modern android AOSP. I like dark backgrounds also, is there a reason google cannot add the choice? I also like hardforum because of its black background, white isnt universal, a fair few people hate white backgrounds.
 
This is 2014. Year of the $700 phone and $200 laptop.

Prices should go back to normal once more people figure out Verizon and ATT have been jacking them over on contract prices with that $700 hidden in there.
 
gunbust3r said:
This is 2014. Year of the $700 phone and $200 laptop.

Prices should go back to normal once more people figure out Verizon and ATT have been jacking them over on contract prices with that $700 hidden in there.
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Err... I'm pretty sure that the rest of the world is charging say a new unlocked Samsung Galaxy S5 for the same prices that we see here. That's got nothing to do with Verizon or AT&T. The difference is the service bills. For example, when I go overseas, I could get a plan that's 5000 minutes/text, and 5GB of data for USD equivalent of $30. And this plan would only expire after a year. Unless I use it all, I wouldn't have to refill my data, minutes/text. I believe that 1GB of data + 100 bonus minutes is like $5, and 5GB + 500 bonus minutes is $15. Way more affordable... Most annoying part is having an address; I had to use my friend's address as my home address. And I can't really write in that language, so filling out the forms is a hassle. The other thing is that they discourage the use of text SMS, just use Line, Viber, etc.
 
Always felt the $5-700 price was full msrp inflated. While the market IS changing one thing that drives me nuts is how after 2 years of $20 a month we're still "paying off" our S4 and M7. The M7 has been a nightmare for me and I'm not itching to get into another deal with the devil, hoping to snag a Nexus 5 on the used market or something affordable :(
 
TECHNOLOGY COSTS MORE IN SMALLER FORM FACTORS. It's more expensive to produce and manufacture reliably and its also more difficult to keep cool, keep powerful, and keep power use at a minimum. Not to mention they have 1080p+ displays on a 5" screen... cramming that many pixels in a small area is going to cost more. Get a nexus 4 or a nexus 5. Constant OS updates and dirt cheap, the Nexus 4 should be under $150 by now. Unfortunately, we can't blame the phone companies for this one.
 
This year I bought a iPhone 4S. Believe it or not, I'm super excited to have this phone. I got it in January-ish, of course long before the 6 dropped.

If you want the latest and greatest all the time. Expect to pay for it. 1-2 year old models go for a song in comparison as the tech obsessed toss stuff away. I quite literally can't afford to just buy a 'nicer' phone because I want it. I use my phone and my plan pragmatically. If you're concerned about upfront cost, I suggest you do the same.
 
As has been said, you have ALWAYS paid 600-700$ for a phone. You just haven't realized it because the cost was added to your service plan. Now you can CHOOSE to pay that much for a phone, and have the cost spread out over 24 months if you want. Or you can CHOOSE to pay less and get an older model or a lower end phone like the Moto G. It has only changed for the better for you man.
 
This is the best thing T-Mobile has done in a decade and people still find something to complain about. :rolleyes:
 
CEpeep said:
This is the best thing T-Mobile has done in a decade and people still find something to complain about. :rolleyes:
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Seriously, I think it has been great. I bought my Nex 5 on 24 mo/ plan for $350/400 (cant remember) at the time. My wife got a Note 3 and was shocked at the price. They have always cost this much. Now you pay for it outright, uncoupled from the service.
 
CEpeep said:
This is the best thing T-Mobile has done in a decade and people still find something to complain about. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

This. I went off contract with T-Mobile (coming from Verizon for 10+ years) before even the new simple choice plans came out (after they did I switched to them as it was a better fit for us than the prepaid plans). Best thing ever. I will never ever go back to contract plans and subsidies. It just gives you choice and freedom to change things up if needed. You can buy used or cheap phones and ACTUALLY save money if you want. You can change your plan as needed, you can completely stop or suspend and change carriers if you have to with no fuss.

Here's a quick example. My wife had to travel for family emergency last week to another state. She was staying over at a hospital and some other areas without reliable WiFi so I loged in, bumped her data from 1GB to unlimited....just for this one month (so she can video chat, stream netflix, ect with no worry). When she returns I will put it back down to 1GB. No fuss, no muss. I don't even have to talk to anyone. Just log in and change it. And lets say she didn't have good Tmobile coverage where she was I could just stop or suspend her line and have her use AT&T for a month without a problem....(because one of the side benefits is we can choose to use strictly unlocked phones from the get go).

Anyway...just say no to contracts kids.
 
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