back to article Three prunes prices of smartphone contracts

Three has encouraged consumers to join the smartphone bandwagon today by slashing prices on five models and removing upfront handset costs. Although in most cases, the monthly cost is roughly the same as its competitors, Three has outdone its rivals by saving buyers up to £150 in upfront costs. Samsung Galaxy Ace Firstly, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. thesykes

    What would be useful...

    ...is if 3, or any other telco for that matter, allowed you to mould the included minutes/texts/data to your own needs.

    If I could use sliding controls on a configurator screen, to adjust the quantities, and the cost adjusted accordingly (similar to altering excess values on car insurance comparison sites). Then I could reduce the useless 5000 texts to sometihing like, oh, I dunno, 2, and ramp up the data.

    That'd suit me.

    Maybe one of them does that and some enlightened soul could point me in that direction?

    1. Cliff

      Flext

      Sounds like you want T-Mobile Flext - a fixed monthly fee gets you a much higher's 'worth' of stuff. Hmm, how to explain - I pay £30/month, but get £180 of calls, texts, international calls, etc which can be used in any proportion, it just decrements the outstanding credit from the £180, so it automagically conforms to what I use. And the data is an all-you-can-eat add-on.

      1. thesykes
        Thumb Up

        Re: Flext

        Cheers... £30 a month is more than I'd pay... don't make that many calls to be honest, but I'll take a look to see what they are offering

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      What would be even more useful....

      would be a 3 network that had decent coverage and didn't drop out every verse end!

    3. Bassey

      Re: What would be useful

      "If I could use sliding controls on a configurator screen, to adjust the quantities, and the cost adjusted accordingly"

      There was a telco (probably virtual) called Cloud9 that were due to launch with exactly that 3 years ago. I remember playing with the sliders and figuring out what I would need. I assume they ran out of funds before they ever launched as I never heard of them after the initial announcements.

  2. Shades

    Samsung Galaxy SII

    I'm beginning to think, and I never thought I'd say this, that Apple just might have a point about Samsung being a bit too fast and loose with the ol' photocopier if that picture is anything to go by.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Thats only the front....

      if you look at it from any angle other than straight on, you would see that it shares very little in similarity with the JobsPhone.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC

        Yeeeeesssss..... because they advertise these phones never lingering on the front at all do they... and using them never involves spending 99% of the time looking at the front..... nooooo.......

      2. Shades

        On this occasion...

        ...I was actually referring to Samsungs apparent borrowing of the tiles "look" from Windows Phone 7, rather than its physical appearance. Which is what lead me to say Apple might just have a point about Samsung and their photocopier.

        //Mentioning Microsoft/Windows AND Apple in the same post makes me feel dirty. Err... Amiga! Ahh, thats better, I feel a little cleaner now. ;)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    £22/month for a Desire S

    I got mine a couple of months ago for £18/month, with 300 mins, unlimited txts & 1Gig data.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mis-read the headline

    How long has the Prune been an El Reg standard unit of currency?

    How much are three prunes worth in £ ?

    1. GuyC
      Coat

      I read it that way as well

      Seems to be that 3 prunes are worth a max of £30, so this must actually be a measured in the same way as promised Internet speed. A prune would then be up to* £10 (depending on how far away you are from the "branch" network)

      Ok I'm getting it now

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Got a good deal

    But not from three. CarphoneWarehoues mobile.co.uk.

    Got a Galaxy s2 for £120 upfront, £30 a month 12 month contract with 400 mins, 1000 texts and 1gig data.

    Not a bad little deal.

  6. Arrrggghh-otron

    Am I alone?

    Am I alone in not minding paying towards the cost of a phone, but not wanting a 2 year contract?

    1. GrumpyJoe
      Thumb Up

      It's not just you...

      2 years is eons in smartphone tech, I've still got an HTC Hero that is barely working now, and 6 months left on my 2 year contract.

      Weighing up all the numbers it was actually cheaper for my wife to buy a sim-free Galaxy and then choose her network.

      You need to see the upfront cost for what it is, an investment. You'll pay it all back and more during your contract anyway - mobile companies don't give something for nothing now, do they.

      1. Shades

        @GrumpyJoe

        "I've still got an HTC Hero that is barely working now"

        What have you been doing to the poor thing? I've still got a HTC HD2 and it still looks, and works, like brand new. Actually, let me correct that, it works better than new thanks to the many clever folks over at XDA-Developers :)

    2. PyLETS
      Thumb Up

      Not alone

      I'm on a rolling monthly £10/month contract with 3 which gives me all the data and texts I need and 100minutes which I rarely exceed. That's the advantage of buying your phone outright - in my case an LG Optimus one which does tethering as well. I might switch to a 12 month version of the same deal if I ever want significantly to exceed 100 minutes as this goes up to 300 minutes for the same price, but 12 months bound to one supplier is about as long as I'm ever likely to feel comfortable with. I've found 3's coverage generally OK but could be better.

    3. Richard 116
      Thumb Up

      No you are not!

      'nuff said!

  7. Andrew 66

    This would be excellent...

    ...but unfortunately in their insane pursuit for ridiculously cheap contracts, it seems Three have completely forgotten that they do in fact need to put some money aside to actually pay for network maintenance, something which I have always had a problem with every time I have tried them...

    Apart from the fact I'd much rather pay £250 upfront and have a 12 month (at a push, 18) contract...

  8. b166er
    FAIL

    Ah but,

    Three's website fails to offer the Sensation or S2 for £30pcm

    I'm canning my Flext contract in September, keeping my Desire and going GiffGaff baby!

    They can stick their 24 months!

    1. SteveK

      reply

      "Three's website fails to offer the Sensation or S2 for £30pcm"

      No it doesn't. It defaults to the 'One Plan' at £35/month but switch to the text plan and it's there at £30. (I'd thought that at first too).

      Agree with the 24 months thing though.

      Steve.

  9. Bassey

    Misleading advertising

    From the headline I thought I could now get a smartphone contract for the cost of just three prunes.

  10. Frederick Tennant

    if you think the price for these are good have a look at the iphone

    just seen the iphone prices, you can pick up a phone for with £29 up front for an iphone4 and the same tarriff as what i now have at O2 now. I can only hope that it will be cheaper next year when my contract runs out.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like