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First Time UK iPhone Buyer - All help much appreciated!

M

Macaroooon

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 9, 2012
378
3
Hi all, please bare with me, I'm not only new to here, but new to owning any type of smart phone, so I'm a tad clueless when it comes to them!

I've decided, after many years to go from my cheap as chips phone to an iPhone.

I own an iTouch (2nd Gen) so I know my way around the basic iPhone System, but not the nooks and crannys!

I'm aware on Wednesday there is the conference where it is heavily speculated the iPhone 5, as we've come to name it, will be announced. (Can anyone possibly give me the UK time of this)

I'm sure that someone has already asked, and hence all my questions been answered, but I'd really appreciate any help I could get.

I've read things about the iPhone 5 having a new sim, do you think places like o2, Orange, Tesco, Vodaphone etc will all provide Sim only price plans for these new iPhones, at the same price they offer for the current 4S's?

I know I'll be unable to afford any of the contracts offers (likely to be about £35 a month, for 24 months!) so at the moment I'm looking at buying it in full and taking out a cheap sim only.

--

The other question I had, is, assuming like I've read, it's available to pre-order on the 12th, and actually released on the 21st, when do you think the average buyer like me can buy it - ie one that hasn't pre-ordered, or lined up on the first day (as from experience I know unless I've camped out I wont have a chance in hell!)

Thank you all :)
 
The UK time for the Apple event is 6pm.

I am quite sure that on launch day, the major carriers will all have plenty of nano sims if that is what the new iPhone uses.

If you do not pre-order it or queue to get it on launch day, then i think the minimum time you will have to wait to get the iPhone is about 2 weeks. But even then you will have to be quick to get any of the new stock.
 
First of all, welcome to the fold.

I think the event starts 6pm our time on Wednesday.

I'm a bit confused about how you can afford to buy the phone up front but not to pay £35 per month. that said, the eventual cost is pretty much the same whichever route you choose.

If you're not ready to pre-order on Wednesday, then you might have to wait a week or two for Apple to get stocks back in. I'm planning to order from Apple (if I get one) and possibly through Quidco if they're doing any sort of cash back deal (unlikely I suspect and only 1% or something equally pathetic if they do).

O2 etc will hoppefully announce availability of nano sims etc in the intervening days - hopefully they'll be available before the phone so we can get them when the stores are quieter.
 
Thank you all, I thought the clock on the front may be US, but glad it's UK.

The reason I can't afford the £35+ contract is because I can't afford it over two years, I can afford it for a year, but the second year I'd like to go down to a cheap sim only contract.

I'm hoping Tesco will offer the £35 a month, £370 upfront for 12 months as they do with the current 4S models, as if they do I'll take up that.

----------

Oh and another question, I think I saw it asked here but it seemed to confuse me only more by the wording.

So the conference is at 6pm, and I've seen it said it's likely on the 12th we will also be able to pre-order it - will this be at midnight, or straight after the launch - ie, will at the launch, a time be specified for when you are able to begin ordering it?
 
Macaroooon said:
Thank you all, I thought the clock on the front may be US, but glad it's UK.

The reason I can't afford the £35+ contract is because I can't afford it over two years, I can afford it for a year, but the second year I'd like to go down to a cheap sim only contract.

I'm hoping Tesco will offer the £35 a month, £370 upfront for 12 months as they do with the current 4S models, as if they do I'll take up that.
Click to expand...


Don't forget Giffgaff do a £10pm no contract 250 mins unlimited text and unlimited internet. Consider buying the iPhone outright from Apple as it will be unlocked and going with the £10pm option.

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags
 
Macaroooon said:
So the conference is at 6pm, and I've seen it said it's likely on the 12th we will also be able to pre-order it - will this be at midnight, or straight after the launch - ie, will at the launch, a time be specified for when you are able to begin ordering it?
Click to expand...

Last year the pre-orders went online on the Friday morning a week before the launch.
 
toondw said:
I believe it will be along time before giffgaff do the nano sim unfortunately
Click to expand...

Here's the discussion about this. It may be delayed a while, it may be delayed only a few weeks/one month, its hard to tell. More info probably after the release.

I use my own iPhone 4s with Giff Gaff, even with the upfront cost its the cheapest way to run one, as moneysavingexpert.com will attest.

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/ideas_01/article-id/85607/page/1#comments
 
I've looked at Giffgaff before, I really like them and their rates.

I think I'll just have to be patient and wait until Wednesday, I'm just getting a bit confused with all the hype and speculation, as I suppose many are.

I'm just worried about pre-ordering, and then having to wait weeks for the phone to arrive, but I suppose that's difficult to avoid!
 
wrkactjob said:
Don't forget Giffgaff do a £10pm no contract 250 mins unlimited text and unlimited internet. Consider buying the iPhone outright from Apple as it will be unlocked and going with the £10pm option.

http://giffgaff.com/goodybags
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I have with my 4S. I don't use the phone much and the £10 credit does not expire after one month like all the other plans or giffGaff goody bags do. More than enough for the few calls I make.
 
I was running an iPhone on Giff Gaff for a while, after my O2 contract expired. Its a great value way to do it and Hullo Mail is the app you want to replace vis voicemail. It works fine.

Hmmm, I could give notice on Voda and go giff gaff again....tempting.
 
Try to buy it outright and use giffgaff. It's amazing how you can spend so little over a two year period by buying the phone and using giffgaff compared to a 24 month O2 contract, for example. As far as a nano sim goes, I am sure you can cut and file down the micro sim to make it fit. I bless the day I found them instead of having to shell out £35+ per month with another provider.
 
You could also look at Three, £6.90 a month on a 12 month sim-only, I know they have a bad reputation but they've got a lot better in the last few years, and with rates like these, and everything you get, can't really fault it.

Orange do a similarly priced Dolphin plan, for £7, but you don't get much of anything, and also an iPhone plan for £10.50 a month discounted from £15.50, but I'm going to focus on the Three plan for this post, just because it's cheap as chips.

Preorder the phone from Apple, whenever they launch that, for £500, then you can sell it after a year for ~£300 or after two for ~£170 (based on 4S and 4, now).

You also get back £30.30 with TopCashback so line rental for the year will only be £52.30. They should also do nano sims because, obviously, they'll be selling the iP5.

So the total contract price would be £252.30 (~£21 a month) for one year or £465.30 for two (~£19.50 a month) should you stick with the iP5 for 2 years, or £535.10 (~£22 a month) for 2 years, for both iP5 and iP6 (when you look at it this way, as only an extra £70, it's bonkers not to upgrade every 12 months).

If O2 hadn't mucked up and extended my contract, that's what I'd be doing.
 
Last edited:
Lets say I take out my full size sim card from my Galaxy 2 phone, cut it down to nano size for the iphone5, and for some reason it doesnt work. Is there anyway I could get the cut down card to work again in my Galaxy 2?
 
Big Stevie said:
Lets say I take out my full size sim card from my Galaxy 2 phone, cut it down to nano size for the iphone5, and for some reason it doesnt work. Is there anyway I could get the cut down card to work again in my Galaxy 2?
Click to expand...

Probably not, but it shouldn't be a problem because you'll probably be able to just order a nano sim from your network for free (that's what they did for iP4 in 2010)/

If they don't, my advice would be to just order some sim cards from your network, or pick some up in Tesco beforehand, and then ring the network to get them to transfer your number, etc if you do it wrong.
 
Moccasin said:
They don't - they suggest a 3rd party app. Sorry, was being lazy
Click to expand...

Off topic but my wife and I have just got back from 3 fantastic days in Newcastle. Hotel Du Vin, highly recommended. Lovely city.

Still got some money left so onwards to the 12th and new buying opportunities!!
 
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