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Comment by Steko | Hacker News Reader

> you can't ignore the fact that the N4 is half the price of other phones in its class.

You also can't ignore the fact that in the US other phones in it's class are subsidized by $400 or more, upending this comparison greatly. Yes you're locked into a contract but it's not like Nexus 4 users get some special monthly rate. For some use cases being off contract is a god send, for most though, a subsidized iphone 5 or galaxy s3 is a better option at $100 cheaper (and a higher resale in case you want to break that contract).

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This not true for all carriers. T-mobile has cheaper non-contract plans.

No-contract is 50 dollars for unlimited everything ($70 if you want 4G): http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

With a contract it is 90 dollars for unlimited everything (which I believe is roughly standard across the industry): http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/individual-plans.aspx

Yes all 3 people note that you can get a cheaper contract on T-Mobile. However the 500 lb gorilla none of them mention is that T-Mobile's network really sucks:

http://opensignal.com/coverage-maps/US/San%20Francisco/

T-Mobile in San Francisco makes AT&T's network look good and it's a shadow of Verizon everywhere.

> for most though, a subsidized iphone 5 or galaxy s3 is a better option at $100 cheaper

Is it really, though? As an example, T-Mobile prepaid offers $30/month for unlimited data (5gb @4g) & SMS, plus 100min voice. Poking at ATT's site the most comparable contract plan I see for iphone 5 is about $90/month. That's over $700 more out of pocket in a year if you go with the subsidized phone.

> That's over $700 more out of pocket in a year if you go with the subsidized phone.

That's the same savings you get with an iphone on Virgin Mobile/Cricket though [1]. Very few people do this though because Sprint's network sucks and the upfront cost is a turn off. In addition many people do not pay the full plan rate. My monthly AT&T bill is around $59 including fees.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57449345-94/why-a-prepaid-i...

On T-Mobile, yes, yes they do. I save $20 a month on my bill from bringing in my own phone.

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