iPhone 4s growing long in the tooth-how's my reasoning?

[Grumpyguy]

The trusty 4s battery is shot and I use a battery case to keep it going. Its been a good long run....

With me being sick, I'm looking to be a bit more economical as well-short of having no phonemiley-laughing001:

So currently, I still have the unlimited plan with AT&T. With corporate discount, its about $85 a month.

My average GB usage is 1.7GB a month. Once in a great while it spikes to 2.3GB.

So first, I was thinking of changing to the Next Plan, and using the 3GB option, which is $60-minus the corporate discount.

Then getting the iPhone SE, which is $15 a month (which of course I can lower with a downpayment). So basically, I save $16-18 a month by my calculations.


I know it came out in May, but it will still be bigger and faster. That's option one...

Option 2, is that Best Buy has a gift card with the 6 Plus. I pay more upfront, but then get a battery case, adapters, accessories paid for on the back end. I think I would enjoy the 4 in screen better, but I could live with the 4.7 inch.

Reasoning? Better options in the AT&T universe?

Thanks,

Bryan

[Ombligo]

Hard to judge option 2 without prices to compare.

But just putting a wildcard into the mix..
Buy a iphone 5s from from Walmart ($150) on Straighttalk for $45/month - unlimited talk/text/data (5gb at LTE). It uses ATT towers, so coverage won't change.

Seems like that is cheaper than the corporate discounts. The phone is paid for in about seven months with the lower rate savings.

[rgG]

Also look at Cricket which is owned by ATT and has much better rates for the same towers and service.

https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

You can get 2.5GB of data for $35/month with auto pay.
You can get a 5S for $199 from them or buy a good used one for less and bring your own phone.

[bwicklander]

I'm paying $70.15 per month with unlimited talk/text and 8gb per month. Plus hotspot ($15 included) this is with Virginmobile.

[Buck]

Reasoning? Every time a new iPhone model is released, my current phone suddenly becomes slower and inadequate. The same thing happens with computers.

[Grumpyguy]

In this case, the battery life is next to nothing, even with a 3200mah battery case on it.

[Uncle Wig]

Grumpyguy wrote:
In this case, the battery life is next to nothing, even with a 3200mah battery case on it.

If the battery wasn't dead, would you keep your current phone? Putting a new battery in a 4s is pretty easy.

[sekker]

The 4S is a little slow, but still a worthy smartphone.

The newer phones have much better cameras and larger screens, however.

[Grumpyguy]

Thats in the equation.....

Uncle Wig wrote:
[quote=Grumpyguy]
In this case, the battery life is next to nothing, even with a 3200mah battery case on it.

If the battery wasn't dead, would you keep your current phone? Putting a new battery in a 4s is pretty easy.

[davester]

It's a cheap no brainer to replace the battery. In fact I'd do that even if I was going to buy a new phone so that I'd have a spare phone and/or music player for the home. Next, I'd decide exactly which phone I wanted and then buy it used. I certainly wouldn't buy a 6 Plus if I really wanted a smaller phone.

To figure out the best deal, add up the cost of the phone downpayment + installment charges + service for each option over the 2 year (or whatever) period over which you'd be buying a phone on one of the installment plans. It doesn't make sense to compare monthly costs if some plans include installment payments and/or down payments and some don't. Also, you don't mention the option of keeping the iPhone 4 and going to a cheaper data plan. That's probably your cheapest bet.