Thinking of upgrading from my Galaxy S2

[andymc]

I've had a 16gb Galaxy S2 for just over two years, my phone contracts now expired, so I've moved onto a much cheaper £11 a month contract. I still love the phone but am tempted to upgrade to something a bit faster.

I don't want to go back onto an expensive contract so am considering selling the phone in order to get something like a Nexus4. I do have a spare LG 2x that I could also sell, so I could get £100 for the LG and £110 for the S2, giving me £210 towards a new phone. The Nexus4 costs £239 for the 8gb version or £279 for the 16gb version.

Has anyone else upgraded from their Galaxy S2 yet, was it worth it, what did you go for??? Or am I just upgrading needlessly?

 

[Erel]

Nexus 4 (16gb) is a good choice.

 

[thedesolatesoul]

In the UK most of the phones are very expensive
Of the phones I tried the Nexus 4 was by far the most fast. (I upgraded from an SGS to SG3). However I havent tried the S4 or One, but I guess once you go past one core, it doesnt matter how many cores you have.
I would say the N4 is cheap and fast, but if you can hang on for 3-4 months there might be a new phone and you can get the N4 cheaper?

 

[andymc]

Phones in the UK aren't really any more expensive than anyway else. We do have 20% sales tax, but the overall cost is still about the same.

The price in the US for an off contract 16gb Galaxy S4 is around $600 which is around £400. Add 20% sales tax and you get £480. You can currently buy them for £450 on Ebay so the price between the US and the UK is about the same. If you want to talk about on contract prices. Then you can get an S4 for £49 upfront cost then £33 a month for unlimited data, 500 minutes and 5000 texts. The same thing on AT&T is $199 upfront, then $70 a month for 450 minutes, and unlimited internet. So it actually costs more in the US than in the UK for the same phone.

Americans seem to get sidetracked by teh upfront costs and ignore the total cost of ownership.

 

[thedesolatesoul]

Phones in the UK aren't really any more expensive than anyway else. We do have 20% sales tax, but the overall cost is still about the same.

The price in the US for an off contract 16gb Galaxy S4 is around $600 which is around £400. Add 20% sales tax and you get £480. You can currently buy them for £450 on Ebay so the price between the US and the UK is about the same.

I dont know what kind of maths you are doing, but from a consumer point of view it is clear:
S4 in US=619USD = 400 GBP
S4 in UK=450GBP = 683 USD
Also dont try to compare prices on different websites, compare like for like.
I dont really know though whether the US amounts include sales tax or not.

But also, there are more deals/sales in the US on electronics products like Black Friday etc, which we dont really get here.

 

[andymc]

Prices on US websites don't include sales tax as it's different in each state. You're meant to declare online purchases on your tax return and pay the tax then (I bet no one does though).

Anyway, my point was more that US customers seem to only talk about the upfront cost and not the monthly contract prices. Like when Apple release a new IPhone and announce on stage that it's only $199.

 

[thedesolatesoul]

Prices on US websites don't include sales tax as it's different in each state. You're meant to declare online purchases on your tax return and pay the tax then (I bet no one does though).

Anyway, my point was more that US customers seem to only talk about the upfront cost and not the monthly contract prices. Like when Apple release a new IPhone and announce on stage that it's only $199.

Ah, I see what you mean. Those sales taxes are misleading.