Posted on 09/27/2014 11:06:55 AM PDT by Swordmaker
We stress test Apple's new phones, plus comparable models from Samsung, LG, and HTC
Cell phones
Two days ago, the Internet erupted with photos of bent iPhone 6s, and a very-viral video of a guy creasing an iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands. It seemed like a serious concern, yet everything about the uproar was highly unscientific. We don’t like unscientific, so we promised then that we would use our lab equipment to find out just how delicate the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus really are. We also promised to run the same tests on comparable smart phones. We’ve done that now, and our tests show that both iPhones seem tougher than the Internet fracas implies.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerreports.org ...
Who said anything about unlocked? My contract is with AT&T.
I use about a hundred pound salt block where CU and Apple are concerned. They've had a long standing bias against Apple. . . giving large weight to lower cost "Best Buys" over Apple in computers, and down rating Apple because it didn't run Windows. . . even when the Mac was garnering "Best Windows Computer Awards" from industry magazines such as PC world and PC Magazine. . . because it didn't "ship" with Windows installed. So, in this case I'm tending to believe them.
You were the one who said you paid $299, not me. I wanted to know how you found one for one third of the normal price, and the answer is, you didn’t—you are paying AT&T by the month for your phone.
FYI, these phones are normally unlocked. Yours is locked because you chose to buy it through AT&T.
Only one slight correction, the story seems to be these bender stiffs are putting them in their front pockets of really tight jeans. . .
No, Adorno, you're wrong. There are many reports of other large format PHABLET type phones bending and/or breaking when undue stress has been applied to them. Many such photographs of damaged phablets from pre-iPhone 6 bend gate have been posted showing them. It is not just the iPhone 6 plus. . . nor is it a false test. They even posted photos of an iPhone 4s bent in the same manner. The falseness came in the original YouTube video where there were some games played with timelines.
For the past year iPad Airs have been on the market. They are made of the same material with the same curved sides as the iPhone 6 Plus and they about the same in thickness. Ask yourself this question. Where are all the reports of bent iPad Airs where people have fallen asleep and rolled on them? I've done it myself. Or sat on them? Ditto. Or stepped on them? I've avoided doing that. Broken screens, yes. Not mine, thank goodness. Bent? Nope. No large numbers of complaints. The buttons reach the same distance from the top as the iPhone 6, giving a far longer moment of lever to the bottom, but we have no reports in large numbers of bent iPads. The distance across the width of the iPad Air is about the same as the phone. Then the iPad Mini. . . even thinner. WHERE are all the bent iPad minis???? Apple has years of experience building thin devices. There should have been tons of bent devices before this. Why not?
No, they're not. Apple was not selling unlocked iphones at any of their stores to prevent scalping and gray market phones. While I was waiting in line Monday with my girlfriend three asian got in line and when the concierge inquired which iphone they wished to reserve, they replied they wanted three unlocked iPhone 6 64GB each. They were informed that Apple would not sell any unlocked phones. They were welcome to buy a carrier locked phone of their choice for full retail, but Apple's contracts required the carrier would have to do the unlocking. And at this time, no carrier is unlocking iPhone 6 or 6 Plus until after the China rollout to prevent gray market smuggling. China's customs is aggressively confiscating iPhones as they are brought into China because the Chinese government has dug in its heels about approving them for use on its networks.
The new phone is not free, and you still have to pay for service.
So you buy an unlocked most likely used phone, and still... pay for a monthly service or buy minutes?
What the difference?
Since we are talking about the iPhone 6. Please tell me how much does an unlocked iPhone 6 cost right now? Then please tell me how much does it cost to activate the service and pay whatever your monthly rate is right now?
Right now I’m looking at $31.25 a month for 24 months and a total of $750 over 2 years. I don’t think that’s bad.
However, you are saying the iPhone 6 unlocked is cheaper when you buy it and go activate it and set up a monthly bill with a carrier?
Please elaborate. Thanks.
The new phone is unlocked. That’s how it comes from Apple when you walk into the Apple Store and pay for it. You are getting a locked phone because you are buying through AT&T.
I travel extensively and use local SIMs wherever I go. In the US my average usage is $30 a month. The current price for an iPhone 6 is $700 and up, depending on options. That’s why I wanted to know where you got a price that was so low.
You have bad info. A friend just bought two unlocked and took them back to Saudi. Even Apple’s own website gives the details:
http://store.apple.com/ca/buy-iphone/iphone6
Yes, it is cheaper. Do the math. You are paying $750 towards the phone itself, and a very high $115/month phone bill on top of that. If you went with a $45 SIM from Straight Talk, Virgin, or somebody like that, you would save $840 on service alone during the course of the first year—enough to pay for the phone.
Basically, because you are using AT&T, you are paying for three iPhones instead of one.
And, frankly, Dino, it's none of your business how I'm paying for my phone. I was talking about one way I could have bought my iPhone 6, one most people go with.
The fact is I got a better deal than that. I'm actually not buying on contract, I'm buying on AT&T's Next program, which costs me about $36 a month for the iPhone, which means I get to take advantage of AT&T's off contract rates. . . and with their family plan it's even better..
But a year from now, when the next new iPhone comes out, I can trade (or, I can sell it privately, pay off the balance) this one in and upgrade. I won't have to wait two years until my service contract, which I would have to pay for monthly anyway, expires to get a new phone. My out of pocket cost, if I DID keep it until I owned it, are only $720 plus $56 tax, or $776 for a $950 phone, not counting sales tax. . . And I got $275 back on my old iPhone on a debit card which I first used to pay the sales tax, so it now has $224 left. . . Meaning my iPhone 6, if I keep it until I own it, will cost me only $552. I'm being subsidized by AT&T's buying power and promotion. I suspect, I will upgrade when the iPhone 6s comes out. . . then again, a year later, when the iPhone 7 is released. I can afford it. It costs me no more, in fact even less, than upgrading every two years.
You still miss the point. You are paying $115 a month for your cell service, plus $36 per month for your phone, and you have a contract. You can get much less expensive SiMs, and without contract. By electing to subscribe to AT&T, you are paying a huge premium for your service. AT&T is not doing you any favours, and you would be miles ahead cost-wise with a normal unlocked phone and no contract, if you would do the calculation.
Cellphone contracts are an American phenomenon. NOBODY else around the world (well, except Canada)’ does this. Everywhere else, you buy a phone of your choice, a SIM of your choice, and go.
Not according to Apple. Dinodino is talking through his hat I know what I'm talking about. . . having actually bought an iPhone 6 through an Apple Store with my girlfriend. Apple carried iPhones for every carrier. . . they were sold out of T-Mobile iPhone 6's at the Arden Fair Sacramento Apple Store by 3:30PM on Monday, all out of all carrier 16GB iPhone 6 except Sprint, of which they had a few in Silver and Space Gray, and completely sold out of all 6 Plusses. They were not selling ANY unlocked iPhone 6 at all, by company policy. Period.
Again, your info is bad. The contract-free phones are unlocked. In fact, in two weeks I will be in the ME with my friend and can call you from one of the phones if you like.
Even Apple’s own site confirms this—don’t take my word for it:
I didn’t say you can’t buy one online. . . I said you can’t buy one from an Apple Store. Apple put in place a policy that Apple retail stores would not sell unlocked iPhone 6 models until the official rollout in China to prevent scalping and smuggling. . . and the overwhelming of the lines by resellers trying to arbitrage iPhones. Buying at US prices and selling on the black or gray market in China where, if you could get past China customs, iPhone 6 Plus phones were going for a reported $3600 to $4000.
Apple did not want the false rumors, such as “the first four hundred people in line at New York’s Fifth Avenue Store were all non-English speaking Asians, coming to buy iPhones to take home to China” to be a reality. There were similar rumors about the Soho Store, the London Store, in fact almost every large cities Apple Store had similar rumors of huge numbers of Asians in line to buy up all of the iphones available before anyone else could get any. These rumors flew despite videos showing lines of multi-ethnic Americans in every locality, speaking English. In any case, Apple spread the word that unlocked iPhones would not be sold at their retail stores. The rumors continued anyway. Most likely the idea was a marketing ploy to discourage potential iphone buyers.
In the past, Apple limited purchasers of iPhones to one or two per customer to prevent the resellers from hogging the available supply, but families often want one for all members now. On line bulk straw sales are still limited, and Apple monitors shipping addresses to prevent multiple sales. The key to now avoiding the resellers at the retail stores is to prohibit unlocked sales for the first few weeks until the primary gray market, in this current case China, is rolled out. Apple was planning to rollout China at the same time as the U.S., avoiding the problem, but the Chinese bureaucrats have yet to approve the models for use on the Chinese networks.
In the case I mentioned of the Asians who wanted the unlocked iPhones, they were told they could try on line. Another Arab looking fellow who got in line looking for an unlocked iPhone was told a similar thing but he decided to buy an AT&T model because his country has them as a carrier. He commented later that AT&T was good about unlocking in his part of the world for travelers.
The two phones my friend bought, which are now in Jeddah, were purchased at an Apple Store in OC. Don’t know what to tell you about your local store.
That policy may change as the official China rollout gets closer and the lines of real end-using buyers drop toward normal. Apple may start offering unlocked iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the retail stores for use on secondary networks but not now. Until then, order through store.apple.com. One saving grace though, the demand for unlocked iPhones will be lower than for specific carrier iphones, so most likely the wait will be shorter.
I’ll find out what kind of phones my friend bought. In any event, they were unlocked and he got them the first week the phones were released.
Or were his iPhones previous models bought before the iPhone 6 rollout?
I just know what Apple has said and why, which comports with problems Apple has had in previous rollouts, what they needed to do to prevent those problems, what the Apple concierge explained, and what has been reported happening around the world. iPhone 6 models in the stores are NOT unlocked. In the Apple Stores they have stacks of iPhones by carrier, not just one large unified inventory. My girlfriend's iPhone 6 64GB Gold box, purchased at the Arden Fair Sacramento CA Apple Store, specifies VERIZON on the label, under the shrink wrap, shipped as from FoxConn in China.
You can buy unlocked iPhone 5s and 4s at the brick and mortar Apple Stores. Many people who've sought unlocked iPhone 6 to take to China have been turned away.
Dino, the iPhone 6 was released LAST Friday. If he did not get them this week, they were not an iPhone 6 of any kind. Apple just put this policy in place for this release to prevent resellers from grabbing the limited numbers of iPhones available for the various markets to feed the insatiable a Chinese gray market demand. When the iPhone 5S went on sale Chinese resellers were paying line sitters throughout Asia and Australia to buy-up whatever number they could get their hands on. There were riots in Hong Kong due to line crashes of these CalPers with quotas of iPhones to meet to get paid.
Rumors had large numbers of Chinese flying into major US cities to do the same thing for the iPhone 6 rollout here. Now, do you understand?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.