Does paying for a full priced iphone rather than getting a contract price ....

[himynameiscody]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Make any difference at all? In terms of warranty or anything

 

[AlohaMaui]

No difference at all, in terms of warranty.

The only reasons to get a full-contract unlocked iphone is that:
1) Travel overseas often and so want to use a foreign carrier SIM card when abroad.

2) Want to use a GSM non-Sprint/ATT/Verizon carrier for some reason such as prepaid SIM cards.

If you stay in the US mostly and dont plan to switch to another carrier, then using a contract phone is much cheaper.
You have to pay for the phone plan anyway so might as well get a phone subsidy out of it.

 

[himynameiscody]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I wish I could use a contract price when the 5 comes out

 

[cyks]

You pay (much) more for it and the only benefit is that you are not bound to a 2(+) year contract.

Everything else is the same.


If you're comfortable using slower speeds on T-Mobile or if you travel out of the country often, it may end up saving you money down the line, but otherwise there are no real benefits to buying one out of contract.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I wish I could use a contract price when the 5 comes out

Then you should have held off on entering into another contract with a 4S.

 

[himynameiscody]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Old phone broke

 

[ilifecomputer]

being no contract is nice because when things change carrier to carrier you can put your money where you want it. like i assume when an LTE iphone comes out I will want it with whoever has the largest LTE rollout.

the beauty of doing it with iphones is that once you start the contract-less life with your first purchase, you will essentially be paying the same as upgrade if you sell each one before buying the next.

for the 4S, I sold my 4 for 430 and then ended up paying about 3something total for the new one (about the same as if i was committing for 2 years without having to). all it takes uis buying the first one

 

[himynameiscody]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Damn they hold their value!!

 

[nebo1ss]

You pay (much) more for it and the only benefit is that you are not bound to a 2(+) year contract.

Everything else is the same.


If you're comfortable using slower speeds on T-Mobile or if you travel out of the country often, it may end up saving you money down the line, but otherwise there are no real benefits to buying one out of contract.

Well seeing how this is an international Forum you might also want to consider that outside the US you can get monthly plans for between $15 and $20 per month cheaper if you don't take the subsidy. That is $480 over two years.