UK only - iPhone SE far cheaper at other retailers than Apple stores

[addictive]

I was just researching a probable new iPhone purchase for the weekend and was surprised to see both John Lewis and PC World have the iPhone SE for £50 cheaper than Apple on the two storage models. £299 + £399 versus Apple's price of £349 and £449.

Given the price of the phone a £50 saving is valuable if Apple is selling the same product but just at a higher price.

Has this been the case for a while? It doesn't seem to be signalled as a current promotion?

I've been trying the iPhone 7 Plus for 10 days now but I know I'm returning it this weekend because I can't use it in one hand. Great camera though.

I like Touch ID v2 and the idea of having a waterproof phone makes me really want to get a iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 but I'm familiar with smaller display iPhones and had the iPhone SE for 18 months until recently.

The 128GB iPhone SE for £399 seems like a great value purchase. Am I foolish for going for an older phone? I know I don't want the iPhone X and am happy to wait a year or more for Apple to improve the model through another iteration.

I guess I'm still vacillating between the SE, 7 or 8.

 

[dabotsonline]

Aren't there rumours that Apple will release an iPhone SE 2 in Spring 2018? Hopefully it'll include EVS / Enhanced Voice Services (or Enhanced HD Voice, as EE call it).

 

[addictive]

Just to update this thread. I went to Apple's Covent Garden store yesterday and was about to get on the upgrade programme and get an iPhone 8. I mentioned to the lovely Apple Store employee that John Lewis and PC World both had the iPhone SE 128GB for £400 which is £50 cheaper than Apple did. She told me that Apple would price match so I decided to go with my original choice a Space Grey 128GB iPhone SE.

Another store employee came over and said Apple could only match within 10% of the competitor's price so I was offered £404 while the advertised price was £450.

I was told Apple will try and price match most products with other competitors. Perhaps this is useful for other British consumers to know.