Crazy Pricing With The New Pixel Fold

[Jonj1611]

I know top end phones are expensive but the new Pixel Fold seems crazy priced. £1749!

https://news.sky.com/story/google-pi...eiled-12877274

[MrJim]

I suspect it'll drop in price fairly quickly...I can't imagine it offers anything substantially different over the Samsung Z Fold 3 at around £1,149?

[AGTDenton]

Eye watering!

I can instantly cross that off my list.
If it wasn't for the 3G switch off I'd happily keep my phone going, fast enough for everything I need. But annoyingly the OnePlus 6 didn't support all our bands.
Right now nothing takes my fancy out there

[Jonj1611]

I had the Oneplus 8, my favourite phone, loved it. Unfortunately I am awful for keeping phones and just like trying new ones. But not the fold ones, they aren't my thing at all

[jimborae]

Yeah the pricing is completely in cloud cuckoo land at the moment and I guess Google is not looking to sell this device in high volume. Give it a few months and I'd expect to see some decent price cuts, trade ins & bundles on this device, albeit not at the levels that we initially saw for the Pixel 7 Pro though.

The other thing that makes no sense to me is Pixel 7A's pricing, it's far too close to the Pixel 7 atm and means that I see little point buying a 7A at it's current price, you may as well get a 7 which I've seen for the same price or less in the past.

[Rob_B]

Interesting phone, nothing wildly new, but that price is just mental!

[ik9000]

Of course. But isn't their aim to get things to the point where people can't afford to buy them, only to lease them? Once someone is leasing they can load the terms and data gathering in their favour and data mine away. Milk people twice. The lease and their sold data.

[Rob_B]

We're sort of already at the leasing point and have been for some time, monthly costs either include or there is an additional charge for the handset per month.
When I worked as a mobile phone saleperson we had 12 month contracts and the 'expensive' ones were about £30/month, trying to get someone to pay that much was a rare event as £30 was ridiculous.
Now we're at what, 36month contracts at £50/£60+ ?

EDIT: Looked up an S23 Ultra on Vodafone

36 months
£49 upfront cost
£38/month for the phone (total £1,368, phone alone on Samsung.com is £1,399)
£23/month for line rental (8GB data)

So £50 upfront and £61 a month

[ik9000]

Am I the only one who buys their phones outright sim free?

[jimborae]

Am I the only one who buys their phones outright sim free?

Nope, I buy all my phones & family's phone outright & SIM free. Hence why I'm always looking for bargains on high end handsets and they're out there if you look hard enough and are willing to do a little work.

Example, paid less than £400 for a Sony Xperia 1 mk.IV from a GifGaf deal, (They're currently selling the Xperia 5 mkIV for £349!!!), it was claimed that these were Grade B referbs or store returned but in many cases, mine included they were pristine & still under manufacturer warranty till 2024! Also got a new Pixel 7 Pro from the Google Store for under £300, kind of once I've spent the £300 Goggle Store credit that i received from it, which I'll easily do when I upgrade to a Pixel 8 Pro later this year.

[cptwhite_uk]

Just picked up a Pixel 6 for £239 delivered off Ebay, as new condition. Pretty much all phones these days are "good enough". I only spend more for the build quality, software experience and excellent camera. Can't see why anyone would want to spend more than £400 on a phone, but each to their own.

[Ttaskmaster]

Am I the only one who buys their phones outright sim free?

No, but in my case I got a deal whereby it was cheaper to get a new phone and new contract bundled all-in.

It would have been cheaper to go with o2 but they stuffed up the ordering process and their CS lot were so incompetent, that they got tired of hearing from me about how they'd messed up yet again, and they just blocked my number!

[circuitmonkey]

I like the concept, I don't like the price
Looks like I'll be sticking with my Pixel 6 Pro until it doesn't want to do phone things anymore

[AGTDenton]

I had the Oneplus 8, my favourite phone, loved it. Unfortunately I am awful for keeping phones and just like trying new ones. But not the fold ones, they aren't my thing at all

I'm still contemplating 10 Pro or 11. 10 Pro has some good deals at the moment and within range. The 11 might drop at the end of summer when the refresh comes out.

Am I the only one who buys their phones outright sim free?

I do, I've never done it the other way round.
I've only ever had one contract with Virgin but without a phone, it started off as a great deal, £12 unlimited everything.
Year by year that crept up to £30 - so I went with Giffgaff the moment I learned about them. At the time they were doing £18 unlimited so it was a no brainer.

I've since been with Smarty & VOXI and like the freedom to change to whoever has the best deal at the time.
The process for keeping your number is so simple now that it's worthwhile making an effort to change to the best deal as there is no such thing as loyalty these days.

[Saracen999]

Am I the only one who buys their phones outright sim free?

As Jim said, no, you're not.

For reasons I won't go into, my stance on phones has changed. A bit.

For years, I was definitely a cheap-as-chips buyer, not least because I was reluctant to have a "smart" phone at all, never mind a top-end one, in part because I didn't want a Google (or Apple) account. Still don't, but I have a way, I think, of minimising the effectiveness of Google Snooping, and needed a smartphone for a couple of reasons, not least of which is my DJI drone.

So, smartphone then. Through gritted teeth.

But top-end? Nah. Well, .... maybe??

I had been looking at top-end Samsung. Why? Camera performance. I need a camera for certain things and what I want is going to cost the thick end of £2k or more (exact model, dependent) but I just wonder if I might get away with a good enough phone camera. Maybe, for at least some of what I want, and it would mean not carrying an extra device.

So despite my long=standing aversion to high-end phones, it's possible (and I put it no higher a probability than that) that I go high-end .... for the camera. See, thing is, I still don't use the phone to anywhere near what they can do, partly because far too many app's demand far to many permissions and I simply do not even begin to trust them.

So, I still buy phones outright, and still use a minimal cost Vodahone SIM that costs £0.00/day UNLESS I use the phone as a phone. I don't need to do that to use the camera.

So I'm in the slightly ludicrous position of considering a bleeping expensive phone, and yet tight enough to use a PAYG SIM. Or, I might just buy the damn Canon R-series camera I really want.

[circuitmonkey]

I had been looking at top-end Samsung. Why? Camera performance

I've always said; the best camera is the camera you have with you. Which more often then not is my phone, so I always prioritise camera performance