Buying an iPhone

[lavendertook]

Do any of you, dear flist, have advice on buying an iPhone? I am planning on getting one this week.

Currently, I have a flip phone from a Verizon family plan that it is time to retire and move myself into the 21st century with an iPhone. For my own account, I already have an internet wireless and Fios connection and a landline phone bundle with Verizon. I plan to add the iPhone to my current plan, or switch to a new bundle with Verizon if it will be cheaper.

Would it be cheaper to buy the iPhone itself from the Verizon store, or get it at Best Buy or an Apple store and then take it to the Verizon store to set up the account? Any advice on which iPhone?

I'm going for an iPhone instead of a Smartphone because I like apple computers and have a MacBook, but if you think that's a mistake, now is your chance to tell me, if you'd like.

Any advice on what I should look for in the Verizon plan?

I don't think Comcast is an option for my apartment building, but I'd rather not go with them anyway.

Tank yew!

Comments

[onyxlynx]

I can't answer your other questions, but I think one has to get cellular service set up when purchasing the phone.

(If I ever get an iPhone it will be for the reasons you give.)

[settiai]

I only use Androids (because I hate Apple products, including MacBooks, so that's clearly just a difference in our tastes rather than an actual argument against getting an iPhone), so I can't answer any specific iPhone-related questions. That said, does your current phone have a data plan? If not, just a fair warning, but Verizon Wireless will have to make quite a few changes to your current plan in order to account for adding a smartphone to it.

Are you planning on buying the iPhone outright or setting up a monthly payment plan? If you're planning on just paying for it upfront, then it probably would be cheaper to get it somewhere else and then attach it to your plan (or, at least, that's how it almost always works with Androids). If you want to set up a monthly payment plan to cover it, though, then you'd want to get it directly from Verizon.

When it comes to their data plans, they have quite a few options, ranging from 2GB a month to unlimited, depending on your needs. I personally have an unlimited plan, but I've slowly worked my way up to that level. When it comes to your data plan, you can change it whenever you need to, so if you choose the wrong level it's not set in stone.

[primwood]

An iPhone is a type of smartphone. Android and iOS (iPhone) are two general types of smartphones.

My brother gave me my Android type smartphone, and he gets the coverage from a company called Cricket. Cricket is owned by AT&T, so it's compatible with the type of phones we have. I don't know much else about plans and costs, and I'm kinda glad about that. It's so confusing! Good luck to you.

[glaurung]

If you have a sim card for your current phone, you can just buy an unlocked iphone and put the sim in it and be done, no need to buy a new plan or upgrade from your provider. Unlocked iphones start at $400 for the small model and go up from there.

However, you will need to buy a data plan if you want to use the phone to do smart, internet connected stuff when you are away from wifi. The data plan will raise your monthly bill. Buying the phone any way other than full price up front will raise your monthly bill. Smartphones are expensive and their monthly plans are expensive. Be prepared for sticker shock. The cheapest way to go is, as always, prepaid, but prepaid data plans tend to be stingy. On-contract, expect to pay around $75-100 a month depending on how much data you buy.

The only real difference between iphone models is size and age. Age, last year's (the 6s) and this year's (the 7). Size: small ("SE" without a number), medium (no suffix), and large ("plus").

Small, $400. Last year's medium $550, last year's large $650. There's currently no this year's small, and this year's medium and large are each $100 more expensive than last year's. The differences between last year and this year are pretty minor, except the large has two cameras (wide angle and zoom) this year, only one last year.

Medium and large are good if you plan to use the phone as a portable computer and are willing to sacrifice in-pocket and in-hand comfort to have a more pleasant to use screen on your mini computer. Medium sorta fits in a pocket, large is more for your purse. If you have small hands, large may not be a good idea. Small is good if you value in hand and in pocket comfort more, or don't plan to use it as a portable computer all that much, or just need the least expensive option.

For mysterious reasons, Apple doesn't sell refurbished iphones. The phone companies do, though.

[claudia603]

I have no advice about buying, not really, but I do have an iphone. The thing is, I didn't purchase my phone/plan on my own, so I don't have advice about plans or what to buy. It's a family plan that I share with my mom,I never see the bills, she gets a discount through the university, and I pay her every month, and she lets me know the rare times I go over (if I call Trinidad which is less and less necessary with skype and whatsapp). I think it's through AT&T (not sure why other than I think that's what my parents use for their t.v./internet). I will say that it's a high quality product (the physical phone). Just like the mac computers I've had at work and at home, I've never had any technical issues. It takes beautiful pictures, too. :)

[just_ann_now]

I have had both an iPhone and an Android, and I prefer the iPhone - I didn't feel I got great battery life out of the Android. I use a Mac at home, too.

Think about how you are going to use your phone. Many, many stores/restaurants/libraries/etc have free wireless, so once you hook on to their systems, you won't need to use data from your own plan. And (I don't think) texting counts against your data plan, either. If you text a lot, you might want a plan with unlimited texting. And think about giving up your landline, if a package without it will save you more money.

Will you be storing music, photos, etc? on your phone? Then you want a good bit of internal storage (like a portable hard drive.) One thing we discovered in buying phones: young people are the ones selling them, and they use their phones differently from older people, LOL. My most recent salesperson was horrified at the small amount of data storage I selected, but I download my photos to my desktop computer, and only carry on my phone the music playlists I used for exercising, not all my music. And I think the newest iPhone might not have a headphone jack? So if that is important to you, be sure to check!

You are very lucky to not have Comcast in your life. *grin*

[untonuggan]

I don't know about cheapest iPhone purchasing options because that is part of why I switched to Android (cost).

However, I do know some things about cell plan costs! I use Consumer Cellular, which piggy-backs of the AT&T network and is currently marketed mostly to AARP members. It is the cheapest thing I could find that meets my needs (and I looked a LOT). You pay for minutes and text/data separately, so if you hardly ever talk on the phone you can go for a really low # of minutes and more data. Also, there's no contract, and you can adjust your plan mid-month with no penalty. So if you're like "oh no I might actually use 3 GB after all!" the most it will do is just bump you up to that plan. It has a 5 GB plan and then after that it starts slowing your roaming data and charging an extra $10 per GB, but even when we had TWO PEOPLE playing Pokemon Go on our plan we never hit over $100/month for our cell bill.

Currently my cell bill lives in the $60-80/month for two people using both minutes and data, and if I'm careful about remembering to turn wifi on then it can be lower.

There's another provider called Metro PCS which piggy-backs off of T-Mobile and offers more "you want a LOT of data" options. For the amount I use, it's not cheaper, but. That is also a thing.

One thing to know is that if you get a cell phone through Verizon, it will mostly likely be locked to Verizon's networks. So even if you want to switch to AT&T you will have to get an entirely new phone. It is possible to get an "unlocked" iPhone but it costs a little bit more usually.

Gamestop sells refurbished iPhones. I don't know if the price is that much better, but I was looking at trade-in options when I was like "do I really want a shiny shiny phone." The older models will probably not have as much longevity because of planned obsolescence.

I hope some of this is helpful and not just like, an overwhelming infodump.

Also *waves*

[grey_wonderer]

I've had iPhones of one sort or another since 2009 when I got an iphone3. I currently have an iphone7 and I got the larger one so I could use it as I would my iPad. It's bulky to hold at times but I think the larger screen is worth the trade off of easy to store and hold. I got one with 128 gigs of storage because I tend to load the phone down with photos. The thing I like the least on the 7 is the change in the head phones jack. It doesn't have one just for your head phones. It has a shared one so that you can either charge the phone or use the head phones. Also because it has no regular head phone jack, you can't go out and buy cheap headphones to use. You pretty much have to use the Apple head phones that come with it. I think the 6 still had a head phone jack so if that's important to you then you might want to get an iphone6 instead of the 7. They seem to last well. I replaced my 5s for the camera on the 7, but my 5s still works. I use it as storage and to play autobooks on which saves space on the current phone.
As to plans, my phone service is with ATT but my almost ex pays for it so no clue what it costs him.