iPhone replacement

The Sandbox Software/Technology
1

Family of four with iPhone 12 Pro Max.
Two of them have batteries that are not doing so well. (I’ve tried replacing them but can’t even get the napolean phone a part.)

I could survive with what I’ve got (in most instances I’m near enough to a source of electricity).
However, I’ve also found that delaying the trade in reduces the value so much that you simply endure using an inferior device to save not that much money.

I’m currently with T-Mobile and pay $180/mo for the four phones.
The only perk that I really enjoy is the reduced Netflix.

I could trade in/upgrade and save $300/phone staying on the same plan.

I could trade in/upgrade and get $1000/phone if i upgrade to the Go5G plan which appears to be $225/mo.
It includes Netflix standard with ads, Hulu with ads, and Apple TV+.

This all might not be correct because the ads they run are very misleading as to whether they apply to me or not.

Assuming that’s all true, do you have any thoughts? …including “switch to ABC wireless because they have an even better promotion/trade in/coverage”.

Three of us are in the USA right now. Sometimes I drive through Wyoming and South Dakota where the coverage is lacking on Tmob…probably every carrier, too, but I mention it in case it’s useful information. The fourth of us is in Europe (Helsinki, Finland) for ~2 years and then will probably be back in the USA. (FWIW, she also has a cheap phone & plan (think virgin mobile) that works over there for all the specific things she needs to do over there.)

As you can see, I don’t upgrade often and am cost conscious, but I try not to be penny wise and pound foolish, iykwim.

I find this all very confusing and fear that I’m making a horrible life decision, so i ask you for your input and advice.

Kind regards,
‘###

2

A phone is not worth that much per month.

So, I cannot help you because I would not pay that much for any phone. I usually ask, “what is the free option?” Downside is that I do pay for my wife’s Apple Products so she can do Apple things.

As for severely rural parts of the USA: no one wants to be the one to put up the towers and not get a return. Just not enough people to care about. I went to the Solar Eclipse in Backwater Oregon in 2017. No cell service for two days. Lucky for me I printed out the directions to and from the place to Civilization.

3

Create a spreadsheet with the costs of each plan along with the monthly costs of each plan. You can also add in the cost of Netflix, hulu, etc. if you would pay out of pocket for those. Whichever is the cheapest go with that.

4

  1. You can replace batteries at an Apple store, but they will charge you over-inflated Apple prices for doing so

  2. THe one in Europe should be using a Euro sim card and be outside of the USA family plan. Why do you pay for him or her

  3. You can research which carriers have best coverage in remote rural areas, but I would assume the answer will be verizon.

  4. Get a new phone(s) if you wish. The prices seem to dictate that no decision you make is a clearly more pareto-optimal answer than any other choice. I am sure the carriers make sure this is true.

But this I gotta debate:

I cannot abide by any decision that is based on the false assumption that depreciation for any item will speed up. If you graph the depreciation curve on anything (vertical axis is value, horizontal access is age of item) then the graph is going to look First derivative negative and Second derivative positive. Everything depreciates. Depreciation is the fastest in the earliest ages of ownership.

Thoughts?

2 Likes
5

i have no thoughts outside of the selfish one. “thinking about cell phones and plans for my family is the least enjoyable thing i have to manage.”

1 Like
6

I am happy with Google Fi. It uses the TMobile network if that already works for you. The international coverage has been good for me.

I use the flexible plan, which is about $20/month plus $10/GB (free after you pay for 6GB). I do this because much of my data usage is via WiFi which doesn’t tap my mobile data. I usually wind up paying $40 per month ($20 plan, $6 fees, $14 data), but if I need to use more mobile data in a given month I pay more.

I would not get this plan if you use a lot of mobile data. Besides the cost per GB, they throttle you after 15GB/mo. Note I have never even hit the 6GB mark. They have other plans with data included with higher monthly prices.

If your family usage is similar to mine it could save you some bucks. The flexible plan for 4 phones is $65/mo plus $10/GB.

One caveat: google Fi uses network switching, meaning some phones can take advantage of switching between wifi and google’s network partners on the fly. iPhone doesn’t do this. I think it’s probably a minor item to miss out on if you are committed to the iPhone ecosystem. I haven’t used an iPhone on Google Fi myself.

1 Like
7

I would say that I’m 85% committed to the iPhone ecosystem…for three reasons 1) it’s what I’ve always used & 2) it just works & 3) security/privacy seems to be a little better.

8

Cricket is like $30 a line per month. No frills, no gimmicks. BYOP. You can get a nice Samsung or Pixel for $500, keep it for 4 years, or whatever.

1 Like
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Indeed. Hence, why I won’t do it.

'cuz I don’t know how else to do it.

Yeah…coverage maps are a lie…tmobile says they have coverage all throughout wyo & sd but it’s clearly not true. verizon has a similar map. It’s a twice a year thing that I have to deal with. nbd.

certainly, they know what they’re doing. & tinstafl.

I understand your point, they’re just like cars. My decision is based on n=2 observations…and what the whizzes in marketing come up with to urge us to upgrade. When I went from Iph6 to IphX, the 6s were worthless & I got no trade in value. When I went from X to 12, I was able to trade in the X for a good chunk of change such that the 12s cost me much less than if I had held onto the X for a while longer and got the 14s or whatever. I was surprised at how much they gave me for the Xs. Obviously, I had some obligation to use their service, but I was going to use someone’s service regardless. The utility gained from a new phone minus the utility lost from the (reduced) extra cost > utility of holding onto the old phone, in that case.

10

for the innumeracy thread…unless someone can explain this to me…

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If you have 4 lines, why would you not get the unlimited?

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Pricing structure is weird. Is there a per account data cap?

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That’s a good question. Their pricing may have changed since we signed on, but I believe we included the hotspot add-on. Might be time to drop that.

13

I think they throttle their unlimited data plans after a certain amount used or whenever they want to. Never really noticed, but if you want 5G all the time to watch HD videos, you would care about that part.

14

That could be the rub. I didn’t look into it too much…clearly…just going for the catchy headline.

15

It’s on the AT&T network, but they dont allow international roaming, if that is something you might care about.

1 Like
16

I find this hard to believe, and maybe I’m comparing apples to hamburger, but I can switch to AT&T on their (least generous) “SL” plan, and it’ll be ~$144/mo (incuding the phones). If i stick with tmob, I “need” to upgrade to their highest tier plan (to get those phones for “free”) & that will be ~$280/mo. I’d lose out on netlfix but get hbomaxplusorminus (I think).

17

Just for SAG, I tried to get bingycopilotgpt to help. This was its concussion/conclusion:

Summary

  • T-Mobile: $400/month
  • Verizon: $360/month
  • AT&T: $340/month
details

T-Mobile

  • Plan: Go5G Next
  • Monthly Cost: $100 per line
  • Trade-In Credit: Up to $1000 per device
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max Monthly Cost: $0 (with trade-in)
  • Total Monthly Cost for 4 Lines: $400

Verizon

  • Plan: Get More Unlimited
  • Monthly Cost: $90 per line
  • Trade-In Credit: Up to $1000 per device
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max Monthly Cost: $0 (with trade-in)
  • Total Monthly Cost for 4 Lines: $360

AT&T

  • Plan: Unlimited Premium
  • Monthly Cost: $85 per line
  • Trade-In Credit: Up to $1000 per device
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max Monthly Cost: $0 (with trade-in)
  • Total Monthly Cost for 4 Lines: $340

Summary

  • T-Mobile: $400/month
  • Verizon: $360/month
  • AT&T: $340/month
18

For the one in Europe, presumably you could just stick some money in their account and they could buy a sim card. It doesn’t seem complicated.

19

You don’t need a SIM card.

Just get an e-sim. Its much easier as you don’t have to buy a physical SIM.

20

Yeah, the Europe issue is the least of my worries & only temporary.