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APPLE fans keen to snap up the new iPhone can save nearly £500 over two years if they shop around.
Three versions went on sale on Friday, starting at £729 for the entry-level iPhone 11 and £1,049 for the flagship Pro.
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The standard 11 is expected to be the top seller, with many of the Pro’s bells and whistles but priced hundreds of pounds cheaper.
We have teamed up with MoneySavingExpert to offer some tips on cutting costs.
Do you need the latest iPhone?
Models from previous years are now cheaper. A brand-new iPhone 8, from two years ago, costs from £479 and last year’s XR starts at £629.
If you aren’t dead set on Apple, rival devices offer great value. Google’s Pixel 3a costs £400. It is even cheaper to buy second-hand handsets.
Do you need it right now?
Demand is often highest when a product launches, so there are fewer deals around.
Networks including EE and companies that resell deals, such as mobiles.co.uk, will tweak their pricing once the initial buzz dies down.
However, the latter has some of the market’s best offers at the moment. More on that later.
Contracts can be cheapest
Mr Money’s advice before has always been to buy a phone outright, if you have the cash, and get a good-value SIM-only deal.
This was cheaper than a two-year deal — and still is if you go direct to networks.
But mobiles.co.uk — part of Carphone Warehouse — has some cracking offers.
It negotiates low prices with networks and sells them online. Its lower overheads allow it to charge less.
But it also charges more upfront.
Still want to buy upfront?
Go direct to Apple and you can spread the cost over time, interest-free. Pay £69 upfront then a set amount each month — such as £33 for a 64GB iPhone 11.
Shop around to save nearly £500
The best price over two years for an iPhone 11, with unlimited calls and texts and at least 4Gb of data, is £906. That is on a 24-month contract with O2, taken out via mobiles.co.uk.
Go direct with O2 and it will cost you £1,370, MoneySavingExpert found.
That is a whopping £464 more. But there is a catch. As mentioned earlier, the upfront cost is higher.
With mobiles.co.uk, you pay £330 upfront then £24 a month. Direct with O2, it costs just £30 initially but then £55.82 monthly.
The deals: going direct versus reseller
MONEYSAVINGEXPERT compared prices for an iPhone 11 with unlimited calls and texts and at least 4GB data for 24 months, going direct to networks and via a reseller.
There was no cheaper deal for Three via a reseller. To compare the cost of buying a handset outright, they added the cost of the iPhone 11 from Apple and a sim-only deal with the same calls, texts and data.
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Top ‘just in’ cases
A NEW iPhone means a range of new cases. Here are some for the 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, plus older Apple and Samsung handsets.
Eye-catching
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- Ted Baker cases, from £25 – buy now
Proporta makes great cases for designer label Ted Baker, from anti-shock cases to wrap-arounds with a mirror inside the front. All have lovely floral patterns.
Top protection
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Mous has made headlines for dropping iPhones in its cases from 1,200ft up. This has a clear back so you can show off the 11’s bright colours safely. Has thousands of tiny air pockets to absorb impact.
Leather
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- Snakehive vintage wallet case, from £28.95 – buy now
Handmade nubuck wallet looks pricier than it is. Flip-front keeps the glass display safe without needing a screen protector. Colours include gold and rose. You can personalise it with your initials too.
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