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What do you make of the £17-per-month iPhone deal?

10 May 2013
By Mof Gimmers

Bitterwallet - iPhone 4

Carphone Warehouse are pushing what they claim to be the cheapest iPhone deal around. For £17 a month, you get an iPhone 4 8GB for two years. You'll be able to choose between Three or O2 networks. That is indeed pretty cheap and maybe a great deal for newbies to the smartphone world.

If you go for Three, then you'll get 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB of data, while with O2, the same deal gets you 500MB of data, 300 minutes and unlimited texts.

Carphone Warehouse COO Graham Stapleton said: "Many of our customers want the opportunity to own the iconic Apple handset but at a tariff that works for them. Even though smartphones are mainstream, there are still thousands of customers who are upgrading from a feature phone to a smartphone, and this deal is perfect for them."

However, there's no getting away from the fact that anyone signing up to this deal will have a four-year-old handset and be stuck with it for 2 years.

Is that worth it?

TOPICS:   Mobile   Consumer Advice

9 comments

  • Jokester
    The people who buy iPhones aren't bothered by how much it costs them... otherwise they wouldn't get a iPhone. Do yourselves a favour and get a £20 phone that has more functionality like Bluetooth File Transfer
    Reply ·
  • klingelton
    still going on about the bluetooth file transfer. the reason apple don't support it is because there are better/newer ways of working with files. why have bluetooth file transfer when your files are already on the cloud. if you really must share the files with another party, use a 3rd party app like bump or the very well supported dropbox. It's a total non problem. Anyway back on topic - is the iphone 4 worth £17 a month? no, not really. im pretty sure you could pick up a second hand handset for around £150 and use a sim only or payg sim and wind up paying less a month than the 2 years would have you pay. Yes there are some apple customers who will pay anything to own their products, then there are the wannabies, and i feel this is aimed at them. sent from my iSmug
    Reply ·
  • StuPid
    The problem is that iCloud has a paltry amount of storage available and 8GB is tiny on an iOS device - the recent Lego Batman is 1.22GB for example (although it possibly wouldn't run on iPhone 4) iOS is unlikely to support the iPhone 4 fully, as iOS 6 did away with some features on 3GS - so for the next two years, you can have a phone that Apple won't keep as updated, cannot have memory added to, will have next to no resell value and will have issues with newer software. Also is only a 5MP camera (good enough 2-3 years ago, but not 18 months down the line). If you buy an iPhone to look 'trendy' you won't buy an old model so all in all, a fairly rubbish deal for the UK market
    Reply ·
  • jiva
    I have an iphone 4 I bought outright when it came out for £600. Looking at trade up now and I'll get max £120 for it. I pay 15.30 per month to 02 for my sim with 500Mb data on it. The deal here is ok but not fabulous. I'm waiting for the new handset which is likely next month, which is probably why they are trying to get rid of old stock.
    Reply ·
  • JonB
    Seeing as you can get a Galaxy S3 for £15.50/month on t-mobile this iPhone deal is not great.
    Reply ·
  • Shaqdhup D.
    This smells like an advert for Carphone warehouse, masquerading as journalism. Keep up the good work!
    Reply ·
  • Jokester
    @klingelton "still going on about the bluetooth file transfer. the reason apple don’t support it is because there are better/newer ways of working with files." - If you say so. Name one that doesn't use your "data" and that almost every phone supports. Good luck! There are various reasons to transfer files via Bluetooth including: - speed (Bluetooth is faster than most mobile data connections) - cost (going over your data allowance can cost you up to £2/MB or a lot more if roaming) - compatibility (Bluetooth is supported by almost every device except iShit) - ease (why bother signing up for file hosting services if you don't need to?) - portability (Bluetooth can still be used even when you have no active data connection) The reason Apple don't support Bluetooth properly ISN'T because there are better/newer ways - I can only assume it's just because they just like to limit what their users can do, because there is no valid reason for what they are doing! It doesn't even have any effect on pirating music/movies! Typical iDiot (the correct term for an Apple user)
    Reply ·
  • Androidfanboi
    Bluetooth file transfer - wtf? Dammit I hate apple as much as anyone but thats the least worrying issue I would have about an iphone 4, my first issue would be that there not very good as phones - as in receiving calls - so many missed calls where it didnt even fucking ring, dropped calls etc, aweful 'phone'. Bluetooth and file transfers - there are many apps for that and they work great, but there aint an app to make the phone handles calls properly.
    Reply ·
  • Jokester
    @Androidfanboi Yeah, iPhones are just iPods with a crappy phone built in.... but Apple users won't admit it. "Bluetooth and file transfers – there are many apps for that and they work great" - alright, name some that work WITHOUT jailbreaking the device, and without the major downsides listed above.
    Reply ·

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