Which iPhone 8 Postpaid Plan Offers More Bang For Your Buck?
5 min readIf you’re in the market for a new phone this holiday season, we’re pretty sure that the iPhone 8 (and its big brother the iPhone 8 Plus) is in your radar.
Since we’ve covered the more technical stuff like the specs and price of the iPhone 8 in the Philippines, let’s talk about something more realistic: How do you plan to afford Apple’s latest smartphone? How do Globe plans stack up against Smart iPhone packages?
Whether you’re charging your new iPhone to your credit card or planning to burn your 13th month pay and Christmas bonuses…well, good news, because you have a few options available.
For starters, you can buy one off-contract from Apple starting at P64,990 for the 64GB iPhone 8. If you like living on the edge, gray market sellers are also offering the iPhone 8 for a slightly lower price. However, the most practical way to get the iPhone 8 in the Philippines is through a postpaid plan.
Both Smart and Globe have already announced their iPhone 8 prices, with the carriers offering both the 8 and 8 Plus under different plan tiers. Whether you’re a new applicant or merely recontracting, we checked out which iPhone 8 plan is the best deal for you.
iPhone 8 Globe plan
The Ayala-owned telco offers the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus at all ThePLAN and ThePLATINUM tiers. By default, for all postpaid plans with a handset issued, customers will be tied in a lock-in period of 24 months. Without looking at the contract specifics, here’s what you should expect from the latest iPhone Globe plans for both 64GB versions of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus:
|
PLAN |
COST BREAKDOWN (iPhone 8 64GB/iPhone 8 Plus 64GB) |
|
ThePLAN 599 |
Monthly fee: P599 One-time cash-out: P38,000 / P46,800 Total: P38,599 / P47,399 |
|
ThePLAN 799 |
Monthly fee: P799 One-time cash-out: P36,000 / P45,600 Total: P36,799 / P46,399 |
|
ThePLAN 999 |
Monthly fee: P999 One-time cash-out: P31,200 / P40,800 Total: P32,999 / P41,799 |
|
ThePLAN 1299 |
Monthly fee: P1,299 One-time cash-out: P30,000 / P39,600 Total: P31,299 / P40,899 |
|
ThePLAN 1499 |
Monthly fee: P1,499 One-time cash-out: P28,800 / P38,400 Total: P30,299 / P39,899 |
|
ThePLAN 1799 |
Monthly fee: P1,799 One-time cash-out: P19,200 / P28,800 Total: P20,999 / P30,599 |
|
ThePLAN 1999 |
Monthly fee: P1,999 One-time cash-out: P19,200 / P28,800 Total: P21,199 / P30,799 |
|
ThePLAN 2499 |
Monthly fee: P2,499 One-time cash-out: P12,000 / P21,600 Total: P14,499 / P24,099 |
| ThePLATINUM Plan 3799 |
Monthly fee: P3,799 One-time cash-out: P7,200 / P18,000 Total: P10,999 / P21,799 |
| ThePLATINUM Plan 4999 |
Monthly fee: P4,999 One-time cash-out: P2,400 / P10,800 Total: P7,399 / P15,799 |
| ThePLATINUM Plan 7999 |
Monthly fee: 7999 One-time cash-out: FREE / FREE Total: P7,999 / P7,999 |
If you want to get an iPhone 8 contract via Globe, keep in mind that the cash-out plan will be paid upon application. For instance, if you apply for ThePLAN 999 and you choose the iPhone 8 64GB as the issued handset, you must pay P32,999 upfront.
The only way to make the cash-out payment lighter is via credit card. Globe offers an installment for up to 24 months via participating credit cards.
If you’re a cardholder and leaning toward ThePLAN 999, you only must pay around P2,375 every month. If not, maybe this is the best time to get one.
Based on their iPhone postpaid contracts, almost all plans have a one-time cash-out, which diminishes as the monthly contract price becomes more expensive. Only ThePLATINUM Plan 7999 offers both the base models of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus for free.
For the rest, Globe postpaid applicants must pay the one-time payment for the smartphone upon application.
iPhone 8 Smart plan
The Pangilinan-led PLDT subsidiary Smart is making Apple’s newest smartphones available via two types of packages: Smart’s iPhone Plans and the classic All-In Plans. The former is exclusive to iPhone units—with predefined consumables like mobile data, call allowance, and free data —while the latter is Smart’s usual postpaid contracts that are customizable depending on the user’s preference.
To know how much you have to have ready, here are the iPhone 8 prices of Smart for both their iPhone Plans and All-In Plans. The rates are both for iPhone 8 and 8 Plus 64GB models:
Smart iPhone Plans
| PLAN | COST BREAKDOWN (iPhone 8 64GB/iPhone 8 Plus 64GB) |
| iPhone Plan 599 |
Monthly fee: P599 One-time cash-out: P36,300 / P42,100 Total: P36,899 / P42,699 |
| iPhone Plan 799 |
Monthly fee: P799 One-time cash-out: P31,100 / P36,900 Total: P31,899 / P37,699 |
| iPhone Plan 999 |
Monthly fee: P999 One-time cash-out: P28,700 / P34,500 Total: P29,699 / P35,499 |
| iPhone Plan 1499 |
Monthly fee: P1,499 One-time cash-out: P24,000 / P28,800 Total: P25,499 / P30,299 |
| iPhone Plan 1999 |
Monthly fee: P1,999 One-time cash-out: P16,800 / P24,000 Total: P18,799 / P25,499 |
| iPhone Plan 2499 |
Monthly fee: P2,499 One-time cash-out: P12,000 / P16,800 Total: P14,499 / P19,299 |
| iPhone Plan 2999 |
Monthly fee: P2,999 One-time cash-out: P4,800 / P12,000 Total: P7,799 / P14,999 |
Smart All-In Plans
| PLAN | COST BREAKDOWN (iPhone 8 64GB/iPhone 8 Plus 64GB) |
| All-In Plan 500 |
Monthly fee: P500 One-time cash-out: P37,000 / P42,800 Total: P37,500 / P43,300 |
| All-In Plan 800 |
Monthly fee: P800 One-time cash-out: P34,800 / P40,600 Total: P35,600 / P41,400 |
| All-In Plan 1200 |
Monthly fee: P1,200 One-time cash-out: P31,000 / P37,000 Total: P32,200 / P38,200 |
| All-In Plan 1800 |
Monthly fee: P1,800 One-time cash-out: P25,000 / P31,000 Total: P26,800 / P32,800 |
| All-In Plan 2500 |
Monthly fee: P2,500 One-time cash-out: P18,500 / P24,500 Total: P21,000 / P27,000 |
Smart’s iPhone Plan program may allow subscribers to more easily own an iPhone—but it comes with a price. For instance, the iPhone Plan 599 not only has a one-time cash-out fee of P36,899, the meager package includes only 2GB of mobile data allocation and 30 minutes of all-net calls.
In addition, Smart hasn’t announced a plan tier that includes the iPhone 8 for free, albeit they have a premium postpaid service called Smart Infinity. The carrier hasn’t announced its iPhone 8 program for the Smart Infinity contracts as of the moment.
Like Globe, Smart also offers 24-month installment on cashout via credit card for all plans. However, the carrier stepped up their game by offering cardless installment for their iPhone Plans. According to Smart’s website, subscribers of iPhone Plans 1499 and higher can opt for a monthly installment on their cashout.
Getting the new iPhone is never cheap, even in the past. Still this doesn’t stop people from waiting for the newest version of Apple’s smartphone to become available. And there’s no judgment on that.
If you want to spend your money on something that makes you happy, why not? After all, the holidays are just around the corner.
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