Downsides of a longer smartphone contract

[Daniel Puchert]

Smartphone contracts warning

South Africans looking to buy smartphones on 36-month or 48-month contracts should be aware that they will still be paying for their device long after its warranty has expired.

If their smartphone suffers from a factory fault, it could cost thousands of rand to repair or replace while they will have to keep paying for their device or take a significant penalty fee for early cancellation.

 

[FiestaST]

Vodacom recently went a step further by adding 48-month contracts this year to help make new devices more affordable for subscribers.

Linked again for posterity:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1831965759633027074

 

[bixt]

"
The table below illustrates how the insurance premium for a two-year-old R12,000 smartphone changes based on the excess.

Excess	Monthly premium
R500	R489"

 

[bixt]

What a stupid thing. You can get another contract with that monthly premium.

 

[Bernoldus Niemand]

Apple’s latest operating system — iOS 18 — is supported on all iPhones released from 2018, working to to six years of support.

Don't tell @Dolby that. His iPhone 13 Pro is already obsolete.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Yes, as mentioned above, factor in device insurance over 4 years when pricing these things, and suddenly high end devices start looking stupid expensive. What's insurance on an iPhone 15 / 16 or a top end Samsung?

48 month contract? Voetsek! You can't even keep up with a decent service where I am.

 

[Dolby]

Don't tell @Dolby that. His iPhone 13 Pro is already obsolete.

Oh for sure ...

And your iPhone 14 You can't limit your battery because you need the special hardware

 

[Bernoldus Niemand]

Oh for sure ...

And your iPhone 14 You can't limit your battery because you need the special hardware

I'll need a new battery as well anyway.

 

[deweyzeph]

Contracts are for suckers. There are better ways to finance a phone you can't really afford.

 

[Lupus]

Linked again for posterity:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1831965759633027074

Scary thing is, the 30 year home loan doesn't actually bring payments down that much really.

 

[bixt]

Contracts are for suckers. There are better ways to finance a phone you can't really afford.

Elaborate for the less endowed like me to know?

 

[LazyLion]

I stopped using phone contracts for purchasing phones a long time ago....
Now I just buy all my phones outright for cash through online stores.
Do NOT go for big brand premium high end phones, you will be taken for a ride.
You should look for mid-range popular phones that offer the same features for a fraction of the price of high end brands.
You can usually find much the same for around R8K to R15K that high end phones are offering at R25K to R30K and up.

 

[bixt]

I stopped using phone contracts for purchasing phones a long time ago....
Now I just buy all my phones outright for cash through online stores.
Do NOT go for big brand premium high end phones, you will be taken for a ride.
You should look for mid-range popular phones that offer the same features for a fraction of the price of high end brands.
You can usually find much the same for around R8K to R15K that high end phones are offering at R25K to R30K and up.

Do they have Apple intelligence 3.0 with an A22 CPU?

 

[Lupus]

I stopped using phone contracts for purchasing phones a long time ago....
Now I just buy all my phones outright for cash through online stores.
Do NOT go for big brand premium high end phones, you will be taken for a ride.
You should look for mid-range popular phones that offer the same features for a fraction of the price of high end brands.
You can usually find much the same for around R8K to R15K that high end phones are offering at R25K to R30K and up.

Hey my S23 Ultra has a pen thingy and a better camera than my wife's S23 FE... That is definitely worth the price

 

[LazyLion]

Do they have Apple intelligence 3.0 with an A22 CPU?

Seriously, how many times are you ACTUALLY going to use that feature in two years, that you paid an extra R20K or R30K for?
I can use the same feature on the Internet for free, or for an annual subscription price of R400.

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

Contracts are for suckers. There are better ways to finance a phone you can't really afford.

Why? I have never in my life had anything else than a contract. Nothing to do with afford a phone. Its easy, get contract and they just bill you every month for what you used.
No need to constantly load airtime etc. I know its easier today. But you used to have to drive to the shop to buy airtime and then load it on your phone. Contract was and still is just much more convenient.

 

[deweyzeph]

I stopped using phone contracts for purchasing phones a long time ago....
Now I just buy all my phones outright for cash through online stores.
Do NOT go for big brand premium high end phones, you will be taken for a ride.
You should look for mid-range popular phones that offer the same features for a fraction of the price of high end brands.
You can usually find much the same for around R8K to R15K that high end phones are offering at R25K to R30K and up.

Exactly. Every time my mom needs a new phone I just buy her a Xiaomi mid-range phone off Takealot for about R3k to R4k and it does the job surprisingly well. Dual-sim, 256GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, these mid-range cheap smartphones are all you really need.

 

[RaptorSA]

I stopped using phone contracts for purchasing phones a long time ago....
Now I just buy all my phones outright for cash through online stores.
Do NOT go for big brand premium high end phones, you will be taken for a ride.
You should look for mid-range popular phones that offer the same features for a fraction of the price of high end brands.
You can usually find much the same for around R8K to R15K that high end phones are offering at R25K to R30K and up.

Yup, did the same thing for years.
However, for those interested be aware and do your homework.... my recent Nothing Phone 1 worked out cheaper in total on contract than buying outright or importing with the added benefit of double the crappy mobile data allowance I had before.

Also, a decent device like a Poco F3 from a few years ago with a custom ROM like LineageOS will give you many years of service.
In fact, my nothing phone 1 was a downgrade from my Poco to be honest, bought it just because I had issues running banking apps on an unlocked device (only for it to be patched a day after I got the "new" phone.... doh!!!).... even my OnePlus 5T from 2017 is still going strong and would be a perfectly usable device if I had to switch back to something old.

 

[Lupus]

Exactly. Every time my mom needs a new phone I just buy her a Xiaomi mid-range phone off Takealot for about R3k to R4k and it does the job surprisingly well. Dual-sim, 256GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, these mid-range cheap smartphones are all you really need.

Honestly, at the price of Xiaomis now, rather look at an A3x or A2x series from Samsung, longer update cycles and roughly the same price.
Xiaomi used to be good value for money, now they're not anymore.

 

[bixt]

Seriously, how many times are you ACTUALLY going to use that feature in two years, that you paid an extra R20K or R30K for?
I can use the same feature on the Internet for free, or for an annual subscription price of R400.

Sarcasm aside, I personally use my phone for 1. Calls 2. Whatsapp 3. Gmail 4. Notes . 5. Weather. 6. Browsing a few tabs at once 7. Camera

My Xiaomi 13C (128gb / 4gb ram) which I picked up from TAL for R2k on special, does all that and fast. My wife's iPhone 15 pro does the same thing at almost the same speed......low light camera quality aside.

So yes you are 100% right