[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Virgin Mobile iPhone 4S VS Carrier Deals (Comparison Chart) here

[JosephTyler]

Why don't we do some fact checking before publishing an article. $70 does not get you unlimited everything with sprint, you get data, text, unlimited any mobile, and 450 minutes. Sprint's unlimited everything plan is 99.99 good one person.

[hawaiiinsomniac]

NOTE... You also have to pay taxes with post-paid carriers.

Also, AT&T is inaccurate, their cheapest plan is $39.99 + $20 for SMS + $30 3Gb/WEB

[BangBangAnnie]

JosephTyler, on 08 June 2012 - 06:33 AM, said:

Why don't we do some fact checking before publishing an article. $70 does not get you unlimited everything with sprint, you get data, text, unlimited any mobile, and 450 minutes. Sprint's unlimited everything plan is 99.99 good one person.

Sprint is actually $80 per month: $69.99 Everything Data Plan 450 + $10 Premium data Add-on (required)

[BangBangAnnie]

What all your comparisons are missing is that Virgin includes the fees and taxes (except for local sales tax) in the price of their quote. The major carriers don't. Last time I was on a contract, the myriad taxes and fees added nearly 33% on top of the monthly bill as originally quoted. So hike your totals by at least 30% for the big three for a more realistic comparison and you'll see how much more you would truly have to pay.

[bekcourt]

Where is the comparison table?

[bekcourt]

Where is the comparison table?

[Roomisonfire]

But people don't factor in the most important part, if your going to buy a 550$ or 650$ phone, You would want to insure it right? I mean it would be really dumb not to

[digital2go]

Sprint advertises the iphone as having everything although the 450 minutes for that plan in this article comes with 450 landline minutes. Virgin Mobile customers will also be throttles on their data speeds so basically you get what you pay for.

[blankp3kh]

Did Mr Ionescu compare the phones with the same talk times and data limits?

Any comparison that doesn't take operating costs is *worthless* -- unless all you're looking for is bragging rights.

[ElizabethHoloman]

What about coverage with Virgin Mobile? With my LG Rumor Touch, there were lots of places with no service and it didn't work at all in other countries. That's why I traded it in for iPhone and AT&T.

[bankerdanny]

Sprint does give you the most for your money, but as another commented points out, smartphones come with a $10 premium, so the $69 plan (which isn't the unlimited everything, cell minutes are limited to 450) is really a $79.99 plan.

Comparing the lowest possible cost of owning an iPhone is not that usefull. For example, the cheapest possible iP plan at AT&T includes minimal data (200mb) and no text messages. However the Sprint plan is unlimited data and text plus free navigation. Upgrading AT&T to max data (3GB, still not as goof as Sprint's unlimited), unlimited texts, and adding navigation would increase the cost to $100 a month. So you can get an iP plan cheaper at AT&T than Sprint, you also get less and an equivalent plan (although still with data limits) would cost $720 more over 2 years.

[bankerdanny]

Roomisonfire, on 08 June 2012 - 07:13 AM, said:

But people don't factor in the most important part, if your going to buy a 550$ or 650$ phone, You would want to insure it right? I mean it would be really dumb not to

I don't think so. I've had a smart phone since 2005 (Treo 650, the Blackberry, then Palm Pre, now HTC EVO 4G) and never once lost or damaged my phone.

My wife did drop her iPhone in the bathtub, but I was able to have it repaired for $50.

[tomthumb47]

Taxes and service fees add a considerable amount (!) to your monthly costs which is not reflected in the comparison chart above. Virgin has a flat fee plus a couple of dollars for local sales tax. Coverage is not as good as at&t or verizon (in my area). Cricket has a very limited market/availability for their iPhone release (see list of cities on their website).

[tomthumb47]

Taxes and service fees add a considerable amount (!) to your monthly costs which is not reflected in the comparison chart above. Virgin has a flat fee plus a couple of dollars for local sales tax. Coverage is not as good as at&t or verizon (in my area). Cricket has a very limited market/availability for their iPhone release (see list of cities on their website).

[DanielSchwarz]

With Virgin Mobile's plan you get 300 minutes (don't know if they have free mobile-to-mobile, free nights/weekends, but I doubt it.) If you want unlimited talk, that's $50/month, and now the price is right in line with Verizon and Sprint

[SierraHotel]

Poorly written article. Not enough info to do an accurate comparison. Probably should have included info on T-Mobile as many are considering them also.

[bankerdanny]

blankp3kh, on 08 June 2012 - 07:32 AM, said:

Did Mr Ionescu compare the phones with the same talk times and data limits?

Any comparison that doesn't take operating costs is *worthless* -- unless all you're looking for is bragging rights.

I wouldn't say worthless. Minimum price of admission is a relevant data point.

Data useage is the big wild card in the cost of an iPhone. Not everyone is a heavy data user. Some people just use it mostly as a phone, gaming device and music player (my wife's pattern). So a 200MB data cap is just fine. AT&T is a better fit for my wife than Sprint (where I have my HTC EVO) because AT&T offers lmited data and Sprint does not.

[bankerdanny]

SierraHotel, on 08 June 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

Poorly written article. Not enough info to do an accurate comparison. Probably should have included info on T-Mobile as many are considering them also.

T-Mobile doesn't offer the iPhone does it?

[tomsj]

This article is ridiculous. Where on earth did you get a monthly quote for Verizon of $70? Maybe $70 for voice, but what about data, which is extra? What about text messaging, which is extra? I'm with several of the other commenters: show us the comparison table, or go back to sleep.