Nexus One and iPhone family plan price comparison
Me and my husband have recently decided to buy smartphones. We are actually interested in both Nexus One and iPhone. Each of them has its pros and cons. So one thing that we wanted to see as one of the factors is their price and monthly cost. It’s pretty obvious if you buy one phone - Nexus with T-mobile contract will be the best bargain. However, there is no family plan offers on T-mobile today, so the cheapest option is not really obvious. So I investigated different plan options that we have.
I don’t want to go into details on different networks benefits. I am going to select the minimum available plans for today in California. So I decided to operate with the following plans:
- Nexus with T-mobile contract will cost $79.99 as it is stated at http://google.com/phone
- AT&T individual plan will cost $39.99 (450 minutes) + $30 (Unlimited Data) + $5 (200 text messages) = $75*
- AT&T family plan will cost $39.99 (550 shared minutes) + 2* $30 (Unlimited Data) + $5 (200 shared text messages) = $125*
* - in addition when you join AT&T you have to pay once an activation fee of $36.
In order to see the difference between payment costs more precisely I’ll select one date in the future and check how much money will be spent. Let’s take 24 months period - the usual contract duration.
So what will happen if we buy phones with the following options.
1. Nexus + Nexus with contract (T-mobile)
| Phone | 2 * $179 |
| Plan costs for 24 months | 24 * 2* $79.99 |
| Total | $4197.52 |
2. Nexus + Nexus (AT&T family plan)
| Phone without contract | 2 * $529 |
| AT&T account activation | $36 |
| Plan costs for 24 months | 24 * $125 |
| Total | $4094 |
3. iPhone + iPhone
| Phone | 2 * $199 |
| AT&T account activation | $36 |
| Plan costs for 24 months | 24 * $125 |
| Total | $3434 |
4. iPhone + Nexus with AT&T family plan
Because iPhone is only available on AT&T right now, this is the only combination that allows you to have both Nexus and iPhone on a single family plan.
| iPhone | $199 |
| Nexus | $529 |
| AT&T account activation | $36 |
| Plan costs for 24 months | 24 * $125 |
| Total | $3834 |
5. iPhone with AT&T + Nexus with T-mobile
| iPhone | $199 |
| Nexus | $179 |
| T-mobile individual plan costs for 24 months | 24 * $79.99 |
| AT&T account activation | $36 |
| AT&T individual plan costs for 24 months | 24 * $75 |
| Total | $4134 |
According to these calculations, the most inexpensive solution would be to have two iPhones on AT&T family plan ($3434 over 24 months). At the same time, if you are both Google phone fans, it’s better to consider AT&T family plan than go with individual plan contracts as seen in 1 and 2. Finally, if you want to get both phones experience, then family plan is also a better bargain.
Notes
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shaldybina posted this
