The iPhone 4S is the fastest-selling Apple phone ever, with 4 million sales since the phone went on sale on the 14th of October. If you’ve been looking to pick up a new iPhone 4S, whether you’re getting your first iPhone or upgrading from an iPhone 4 or 4S, then this is the article for you.
With so many contract and pay-as-you go options available, there’s a lot of range in what you can end up paying — don’t just take the first deal you can find. If you’re interesting in finding the best deal, read on!
The first decision you have to make is whether to go with a contract or a pay-as-you-go option.
The contract will typically allow you to have a much lower upfront cost (as low as the first monthly bill) and you’re also sure to enjoy slightly better value for things like minutes, texts and internet allowances, although it’s likely that at some point you won’t use up all of your allowance, or go over it. Most mobile phone contracts are 18 or 24 months, meaning that you will have to keep your phone (and your plan) for quite some time, giving you less freedom in the long term. Finally, contracts are the most expensive over the long term.
The pay-as-you-go option has a very high upfront cost, as you’ll typically have to purchase the phone outright (or at a small discount) from your mobile provider. Once you’ve got the phone, you’ll be paying less each month (as you only need to buy as much credit as you use), but you’ll be receiving slightly worse value for money: £30 spent on a month of contract will usually get you a lot more than £30 spent on minutes, texts and internet individually. There are some good deals that nullify this, to some degree. The big advantage of the pay-as-you-go option is that you have much more freedom. You get to choose precisely how to spend your money, whether on minutes, texts or internet allowance, to suit your own usage patterns. You can even pay to have your phone unlocked and then switch providers.
It’s also possible to take a 12 month contract. These middle-of-the-road deals offer a lower (but still significant) upfront cost but a higher monthly rate. The advantage of the 12 month contract is the cost is spread out more evenly across the year, and you’re free to upgrade your phone or switch to a cheaper contract after a year, which seems a much more reasonable amount of time than two.
Now that we’ve laid out the trade-offs, let’s have a look at some specific deals for the iPhone 4S, starting with the contract deals. We’ll look at the best contract deals currently available for each price point, then move onto how to check for the latest deals using comparison websites, and what to look for.
Best Contract Deals
12 Months
Not many carriers are offering 12 month contracts on the iPhone 4S.
18 Months
The only carrier offering an 18 month contract I could find was Vodafone.
24 Months
The offerings from Three and Tesco are the best value, with the rest offering identical deals to each other.
How to Choose a Good Contract Deal
There are also quite a few useful contract comparison websites which you can use to look at deals from multiple networks and retailers. The two I’ve used are omio.com and phones4u.com, but others are available too.
BillMonitor.com is an excellent resource for choosing the right plan based on your actual usage habits; given your login details it can check your usage patterns and advise you as to which plan would give you the best value.
Finally, you can also apply the standard array of discounts and vouchers to get better deals or money back. One good site for this is QuidCo.com, which offers money back offers on a wide range of products, including smartphones like the iPhone 4S.
Using these resources, you now must judge each deal as its presented. It’s a good idea to write things down on a bit of paper (real or virtual) as you go along, so you can get a clearer idea of the various deals, as there will be different ones between comparison websites. Remember to ensure that your plan fits your usage habits, so don’t pay extra for a plan that has unlimited texts if you only use a few dozen a month. You’ll be stuck with your choice for up to two years, so take the time to find the best deal!
If you’ve found a particularly good deal for the iPhone 4S, why not share it with us by leaving the details in the comments below? If it’s a top deal, we’ll add it to the article!
Best Pay-As-You-Go Deals
You can also buy a sim-free iPhone 4S for £499 direct from Apple. Then it’s just a case of finding your favourite mobile operator.
Of the deals I’ve found, Giffgaff and Three are above the rest. The Giffgaff deal is the cheapest of all the deals I’ve found, including contract deals, working out at £619 for 12 months and £739 for 24 months with unlimited data.
Selling your iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS
If you’ve already got an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS, it’s quite possible to trade in your old iPhone for a new 4S. You can do this by selling your phone via eBay or mobile phone recycling sites.
Via eBay.co.uk, you’re likely to get around £250 for a 16GB iPhone 4, which is about half of buying the iPhone 4S sim-free from Apple.
Recycling sites tend to offer less, with about £210 – £240 per iPhone 4, but they offer a much more streamlined experience; you don’t have to deal with eBay’s sometimes treacherous PayPal system and arranging your own shipping. MobileValuer.com is a good comparison site for these services.
Conclusion
The best deal available is from stellar provider Giffgaff – buy an unlocked iPhone 4S directly from Apple, and pair it with giffgaff’s exceedingly generous £10 monthly goodybag, which comes with 250 minutes and unlimited texts and data. If you’d prefer a contract deal, Three’s services are the best, with the highlight being £99 up front and £35 a month for 2000 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data.
I hope you’ve found that this article helpful. If you find a better deal for the iPhone 4S, let us know so we can add it to the article! If you’d like to contact me, then hit me up via the comments below or via Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for reading.