Not trolling, really, but - In America, what is the upside to buying an unlocked Nexus? AFAIK, my plan options will be the same price whether I have a contract or not, so really I'm just costing myself an extra $330 dollars. OK, so I get to "choose" carriers, but again, if I choose not to use T-Mobile, won't I be stuck with edge?
One of the local carriers, Wind Mobile, added a plan in December that includes a lot of goodies - unlimited calling in home areas, unlimited text, unlimited data, etc. - for $40/mo.
This is miles ahead of the competition - the catch is that Wind coverage isn't great, but not an issue if you rarely leave the metro area.
At least 3 of my friends have told me they would love to switch, but don't want to pay the cancellation fees for their current providers.
That alone is reason enough for me to avoid multi-year contracts - even if I don't end up ahead financially by switching to better deals, I have almost a philosophical objection to this kind of coercion.
To relate back to the original post, the salesman at Wind told me that they have no plans to update any of their phones. Which is why I'm on Mobilicity which offers a Google phone.
AFAIK, my plan options will be the same price whether I have a contract or not
The "Even More Plus" from T-Mobile are contract-free and $20/month cheaper than their on-contract equivalents. You save $480 over 2 years, well above the difference in purchase price, and have no ETF issues if you need to cancel.
if I choose not to use T-Mobile, won't I be stuck with edge?
T-Mobile plans are actually about $20 cheaper without a contract. (They're pretty quiet about this.) Also, there's value in being able to switch carriers without penalty at any time if, say, you decide to get a different phone a year from now.
> Not trolling, really, but - In America, what is the upside to buying an unlocked Nexus? AFAIK, my plan options will be the same price whether I have a contract or not
I haven't seen anything else yet (though I might just have missed it) in western Europe. There are even countries (e.g. Belgium) where you don't get pack-ins (so the phone is full price) and the contract price's as expensive as in subsidized countries.
On the other hand, buying your own phone means you're not forced to remain with your carriers for the standard 24 months (that probably is more of an advantage in europe, where all carriers are on the same GSM bands, so the pain of switching amounts to getting a new SIM and telling your old carrier to shut down your account)
"There are even countries (e.g. Belgium) where you don't get pack-ins (so the phone is full price) and the contract price's as expensive as in subsidized countries."
In Belgium, operators are prohibited from selling subsidized phones. Instead, consumers buy their phones full price and sign up for a SIM-only plan.
Example: An iPhone 4 16GB costs Euro 640 ($850) at Mobistar Belgium. Their iPhone plan costs Euro 45 a month ($60). The plan includes 6 hours of outgoing calls (incoming calls are free), 600 text messages and 500MB 3G data. Spread over 2 years, that would be the same as paying $95 a month for a plan with a subsidized phone. That's about the same as it would cost in Belgium's neighboring country, The Netherlands, where phone subsidies are allowed.
