Do you buy your smartphones with a contract?

Discussion in 'Notebooks & Mobile Devices' started by Adrian Wong, Nov 6, 2014.

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Talking about new smartphones, do you guys buy them with or without a contract?
     
  2. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    Bought my S3 in 2012 on a Digi 2-year contract on RM 48/month package. After my contract finished last June 2014, somehow I'm left with RM 400+ in credits (-400+ in my Digi account). LOL! I think they gave me discount or something because I don't call much. :haha:

    So, this round with the Note 4, as not to waste the 400+, decided to buy it without contract from SenQ. Once the Digi's 400+ is used up, I'll change to Maxis's SurfMore 50. :D
     
  3. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    You are not on a Family plan yet? You should get a Family-type plan so you can call each other for free. :D

    I moved to SurfMore 50 a few months after my contract expired, but I saved maybe RM 5 on average, so now that I'm getting the iPhone 6, I decided to get it with a contract.

    I would "lose" RM 5 x 24 months = RM 120 but gain RM 860 from the contract subsidy, for a net gain of RM 740.
     
  4. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Usually it's not worth it getting the package, especially for android phones. You can always get the same street price even after all the discount given by telco. So I will not sign contact with them anymore.

    Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk
     
  5. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    For Note 4 on Maxis... only MaxisOne plan and MaxisOne plan lite. No more SurfMore 50. That's why I went without contract. I don't need RM 78 per month. :D
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    It depends on your usage, I think. If you use about the same amount as the plan's value, it's worth getting the phone with the plan, at least for Apple iPhones.

    Like I use about RM 95 worth of services on average with the SurfMore 50 plan that Dashken is thinking of getting. With the iValue1 plan that costs RM 100 per month, I spend about RM 100 (minimum) to RM 110 per month. So I still save a bit with the plan.

    But if you use very few calls or SMSes every month, then it's worth getting the phone without a contract.

    Jenny, for example, uses less than RM 20 a month, so I got her the RM 30 SurfMore plan and purchased her phone without a contract. No point paying for a more expensive plan just to save a few hundred bucks.
     
  7. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Did Maxis ever offer SurfMore 50 for any smartphone contract? I always thought it's just the MaxisOne plans or the iValue plans.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2014
  8. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    Hmm... true. Guess I was wrong. LOL! It was the value plan + data. Which was much more expensive. :D

    Maxis Android - Android Phone Packages

    Well... for me... just a few bucks of calls/sms per month, maybe less than that. That's why I don't think it's worth it to pay an additional of:

    RM 28 x 24 = RM 672 + My balance of RM 400 credits from Digi. :mrgreen:
     
  9. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Yea, so I'm not sure if switching from my existing corporate ValueShare plan to SurfMore is going to save me more money and have more data.

    So I'm still sticking to ValueShare.
     
  10. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, it's no point switching unless you really make a lot of calls.

    As for data, I think Maxis no longer charges for excess data usage. They just throttle you after you reach your limit. So there's no incentive to really get more data unless you use A LOT and must have 3G / LTE speeds.
     
  11. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    3G / H+ / LTE speed depends on where you are and not the package you signed up right? So far, I've only seen 3G/H/H+ on my Note 4. :think:
     
  12. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, all their packages with Internet will support LTE / 3G where there's coverage. Otherwise, it drops to EDGE or even worse, GPRS.

    Now that I'm so used to 3G, I don't know how I survived on EDGE last time... Hahaha!
     
  13. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I'm not so sure about that. Strawroot was using hsdpa for so long eventhough she was using a lte capable phone, until she changed to celcom. I believe lte is not enabled by default.

    Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk
     
  14. Dashken

    Dashken Administrator!

    Yeah... my guess as well.

    Look at this SurfMore 50 for example, it's not stated under the 2GB, 5GB, etc. that you'll get LTE.

    SurfMore Data Plans | Maxis

    But with the MaxisONE plan... it's stated clearly there's 4G LTE. Hmm... :think:

    MaxisONE plan | Maxis
     
  15. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I'm ok with using slower connection on a phone. I don't use it for tethering, and phone apps are not that data hungry. It is also another way to prevent data usage from spiking uncontrollably. :haha:
     
  16. APInnSol

    APInnSol Newbie

    I've bough with and without. You can save a ton of cash by buying without a contract because you can pay quite a bit less per month. This works especially well if you buy your phone used on ebay. Craigslist can be good too, but it's a bit more risky if the phone ends up having a blocked ESN. ESN depends on your carrier, i think that is for CDMA - verizon / Sprint only.

    I think a lot of people are doing this now with the new blackberry passport since it's either unlocked or AT&T only.
     
  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    After you get an LTE-capable phone, you may need to update the carrier settings.

    I remember receiving an SMS or email from Maxis asking me to update my iPhone's carrier settings to support LTE. Of course, at that time, I didn't have an LTE-capable iPhone, so I just ignored it.
     
  18. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    From what I understood, as long as your phone supports it, their mobile broadband plans will allow you to use LTE wherever there's coverage and if your phone supports it.

    But I just checked Jenny's phone which is on the Maxis SurfMore 30 plan, it's stuck on 3G even though I enabled LTE for her. So yes, it looks like they are reserving LTE for certain plans.
     
  19. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Yeah, like I said, it needs to be enabled, definitely not enabled by default. There's really nothing to change in the settings, not any different from enabling 3G or HSDPA.

    If 3G was power hungry to you, wait till you try LTE. Coverage is pretty bad, you spend even more time searching for data coverage.
     
  20. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hmm... Maxis' network map shows that most of KL and PJ have 4G LTE coverage.

    You can check it out here BTW - https://www.maxis.com.my/en/personal/internet/maxis-network-map.html

    I will check when I get my iPhone 6... :mrgreen:
     

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