iPhone iPhone 5S or 5C

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Whether you get a subsidized phone or you bring in a fully paid phone, Verizon charges you the same amount for their service.

Then that means the people with fully paid phones are just screwed worse. No cellular company gives anything away. if you get a subsidized phone from any of them, they will eventually get back the cost of it from you. If you cancel service prior to the two years being up, they will charge you enough to more than cover the rest of what you owe on the phone. I realize they might not specifically state you are paying for the rest of the phone, but you are. You just are not paying the whole amount up front.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Then that means the people with fully paid phones are just screwed worse. No cellular company gives anything away. if you get a subsidized phone from any of them, they will eventually get back the cost of it from you. If you cancel service prior to the two years being up, they will charge you enough to more than cover the rest of what you owe on the phone. I realize they might not specifically state you are paying for the rest of the phone, but you are. You just are not paying the whole amount up front.

You bet they are. That's why they force data plans on you and why I don't have a smartphone.

[Dylrob]

^ This is why I love T-mobile. The cost does go down after you've paid the phone off.

As for the whole 5c vs 5s... Well Apple did recently demo an app that will only run on the 64-bit processors (5s and above). I imagine game developers will be eager to exploit the raw power of these phones.

Cameras are an interesting area... The 5c retains the 5's rear camera, but received the same upgraded front camera as the 5s.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Whether you get a subsidized phone or you bring in a fully paid phone, Verizon charges you the same amount for their service.

Actually, not necessarily. Verizon started losing customers to AT&T and T-Mobile when the latter two introduced new plans with BYOD discounts so back in April 2014, they added BYOD discounts to their More Everything plans. On More Everything, it's $160 for 4 lines with unlimited talk, unlimited text and 10GB shared data so that comes down to $40 per line without any subsidies. Really not that far off from prepaid plans.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Actually, not necessarily. Verizon started losing customers to AT&T and T-Mobile when the latter two introduced new plans with BYOD discounts so back in April 2014, they added BYOD discounts to their More Everything plans. On More Everything, it's $160 for 4 lines with unlimited talk, unlimited text and 10GB shared data so that comes down to $40 per line without any subsidies. Really not that far off from prepaid plans.

According to the More Everything page, that $160 (talk/text/data) plan only applies to Verizon Edge customers. All 4 phones are purchased at full retail price ($700+ ea) and paid for in 20 monthly installments ($35/phone = $140). You then add that price to the monthly More Everything plan of $160 for a total price of $300 per month.

Also, the monthly access fee for More Everything (talk/text) is the same whether you bring your device, pay full price, pay one-time subsidized price, or pay monthly subsidized price. So your best bet is to pay the one-time subsidized price.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

According to the More Everything page, that $160 (talk/text/data) plan only applies to Verizon Edge customers. All 4 phones are purchased at full retail price ($700+ ea) and paid for in 20 monthly installments ($35/phone = $140). You then add that price to the monthly More Everything plan of $160 for a total price of $300 per month.

Also, the monthly access fee for More Everything (talk/text) is the same whether you bring your device, pay full price, pay one-time subsidized price, or pay monthly subsidized price. So your best bet is to pay the one-time subsidized price.

Starting April 2014, BYOD/off-contract customers do get discounts. You just have to manually apply it to your account (add features). BYOD discounts were still available as of this month. Verizon tends to not advertise it much though.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/...one/2014-04-14

http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/...gs-coming.html

That said, if you're still on an older grandfathered minutes plan, they're generally less expensive compared to More Everything.

[tubemonkey]

Update

Plan change. My son played with the iPhone 6 and doesn't feel it's overly large for him; plus he likes the 64GB storage option. So, a new 64GB iPhone 6 will only cost $100 with a two-year contract after a $200 trade-in credit for his old 4S.

It's a done deal. Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help. I didn't expect things to lead to a new 6, but it happened.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Update

Plan change. My son played with the iPhone 6 and doesn't feel it's overly large for him; plus he likes the 64GB storage option. So, a new 64GB iPhone 6 will only cost $100 with a two-year contract after a $200 trade-in credit for his old 4S.

It's a done deal. Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help. I didn't expect things to lead to a new 6, but it happened.

Not bad. Good luck with the blurry apps!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

Not bad. Good luck with the blurry apps!

Thanks; I'll let him know.

[Dylrob]

Having finally gotten to hold an iPhone 6 myself today, I think it's the rounded edge that makes all the difference.