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BillShrink: iPhone 3G S vs Palm Pre vs T-Mobile G1
  • 35 Comments
by Peter Ha on June 10, 2009

billshrink2

As always, BillShrink breaks it all down for us. Anyone want to guess how much cheaper the Pre is compared to the upcoming 3G S? Hit the jump to find out.

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BillShrink

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  • There is no way that the android has 130 hour standby time. I don’t know about the iPhone or the Pre, but I doubt they have 300 hours, either.

    Also, maybe it’s just because I don’t talk on the phone that much, but I think t-mobile’s “minimum talking plan + unlimited data” comes out to around $55. I don’t know how fair it is to compare the “unlimited” only plans, without at least a mention of the other versions.

    • Especially considering that T-mobile has fav 5.
      I litterally pay $150 for 5 Tmobile phones, including my G1. My wife, kids and I share 1800 min. plus we each have our 5 favorite people. We barely use 1000 of the 1800 minutes.

      They got Tmobiles cost way wrong.

      However my buddies Iphone and his family plan is horrible. He’s constantly going over and fussing at the kids and he pays 190 (not sure how many minutes they share) and they only have 3 phones.

    • Yeah, I’m lucky if I get 24 hours standby on my G1.

  • I Just dont see why the 3GS and the PRE are compared against the G1.

    The G1 is dated now and the others are brand spanking new!!! At least compare to the Magic or Hero…

  • The pre is coming out VERY soon with video recording too. The simply everything plan on a phone like that is unbeatable. Your gonna pay 10 times as much for a stupid iphone.

  • The only downfall to AT&T is their data/messaging plans, which are rediculously priced. The sad thing is that everyone that wants the iPhone is willing to pay it until their able to somewhere else. If Verizon had it, I would just in a heartbeat because of AT&T’s gouging.

    Hopefully once Apples notification service comes out, and a decent SMS/MMS app brings the noise, I can trim the fat on my texting charges.

    Is $30 too much for unlimited data? yes/no, but doing about 500MB a month probably does add up. If they could make a unlimited text/data dundle for $40, that would be fantastic!

  • The G1 has a digital compass, and it has been used in google maps since the phone was released in street view mode…
    Also, unlimited data, text, and 450 minutes a month is just under a 100 bucs, but with google voice and the fav 5 plan, you can have unlimited calling as well…

  • I know every case is different, but I think it would cost me more to go with Sprint.

    I have 3 phones 1 iphone and to other devices and I don’t need unlimited voice.

    Even if I add another iphone it only add $30 to the bill 3 phones would be about $200 per month.

    Or does my logic have a flaw somewhere?

  • The Billshrink info for the pricing on the G1 and the plan is overpriced. It’s 99.99 for unl voice/msg + 24.99 for the data plan. The phone is $149.99.

    • We’ve updated the graphic chart to reflect the pricing of $99.99 for unlimited voice + messaging along with unlimited data for $24.99. We’ve also updated the new T-Mobile pricing for the G1 to the current price of $149.99, this brings total cost down to $3,149). http://tr.im/phonechart

      Just a side note that BillShrink’s actual application with plan pricing is accurate and that the changes were only needed in the graphical chart.

      • Following up with what some other poster said- perhaps Billshrink should also present the comparison with the “cheapest” voice+data option for each carrier. After all if someone wants to save money they may not care for the unlimited plan.

        • branon: That’s definitely a good idea, but in terms of cell phone plan offerings from each carrier, there will be multitude of price points if you consider voice + data + ssm/mms combination — so the chart/graphic will be too complicated to digest. For those that on the fence or wondering what plans may fit their needs, give BillShrink a try to see if you’re using the best plan/phone combination for your usage. (Should be evident from various comments around the blogsphere that not everyone use/need an unlimited plan).

          Just FYI: We’ve updated the chart again to add in a multitasking column based on comments received. http://tr.im/phonechart

    • I have 4 Sprint data intensive phones. 2 Blackberries and 2 Pres. The phones all share a family plan. $175.00 per month(with 15% military discount; which includes;
      3000 minutes shared, unlimited nights and weekends (starting at 7pm), unmilited data, unlimited text/mms/im, unlimited sprint navigation, unlimited blackberry internet service. So it averages about almost $50 per person each month. In the past couple years, I have never come even close to using my 3000 minutes. I tried comparing all the plans from all the carriers and this is by far the cheapest I’ve found. ATT and Verizon are too expensive and T-Mobile is for teenagers.

  • You likely have alternative choices on plans with the iPhone AT&T service. Maybe that won’t be the case with the 3GS, but on my current plan, where my wife and I both have iPhone 3G’s with unlimited data and texting, we are on a family plan thing, and our entire bill for the month for TWO phones is $158. We don’t have unlimited calling, but we never even get close to using up our minutes (I have 200+ rollover minutes showing right now), but we do use the data and texting a lot. So, while the chart above is no doubt correct for a single phone, full unlimited plan, things may be different depending on your own situation, so dig in as appropriate.

  • The pre is great…if you live in a major metropolitan area and never travel more than 30 miles outside of it. Sprint’s network sucks outside of the major metro areas.

    • I beg to differ. When was the last time you used sprint? I have it and get coverage in many areas where my friends don’t. And if you can’t reach a sprint tower, you can usually roam onto verizon (roaming is free on all of sprint’s plans).

    • I have been on Sprint for almost 10 years and for most of that I have always had better coverage than my friends with AT&T. As mentioned in the last year or 2 it has gotten even better and with free roaming on Verizon there is no problem what so ever with Sprints coverage

      • I have been a Sprint user for 8 years and in the beginning it stank but now I get a fast data connection on my Touch and the only time I had issues was driving in front of Fort Ord on Highway 1 near Monterey. But in Sacramento I have never had any issue.

  • What about the Storm?

  • I pay AT&T $85.00 a month for my iPhone 24 month service contract and I paid $299 for the iPhone.

    That comes to a total of $2339.00+tax for 24 months.

    I don’t have messaging, but I do have Voice & Data.

  • Also that is not a picture of the iphone 3Gs, that picture has more icons on the front including a voice record and the compass.

  • Well another list, another check point. Well iPhone is not just the list. But if thats what people want, here is a partial.

    Optical Grade Glass Oleophobic Coating Screen – NOT PLASTIC
    CPU/GPU same as the pre
    Open GL/ES 2.0 Optimized by iPhone OS
    16GB/32GB
    8GB for $99
    Talk time: Up to 12 hours on 2G – Up to 5 hours on 3G
    Standby time: Up to 300 hours
    Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G – Up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi
    Video playback: Up to 10 hours
    Audio playback: Up to 30 hours
    iTunes seamless integration
    Movies
    Video PodCast
    Audio PodCast
    TV Shows
    Music
    Music Videos
    iTunes University
    iTunes Latino
    50 thousand apps and growing fast
    REAL High End 3D accelerated Games
    High End Applications
    Dock Connector API and I can’t wait to see the 3rd party hardware stuff coming this summer. This alone pushes the iPhone way beyond the wanna bees.
    BT API
    MobileMe with Locate me and Remote Wipe
    Apps open and switch instantly now
    Superior battery life by a huge margin
    Video Recording ( Widescreen ) and Instant Editing right on the iPhone, Instant Share to YoutTube, MobileMe and eMail
    Instantly share pictures to MobileMe Gallery
    It’s an iPod!!
    Safari with AI, Multi-Touch controls
    Real Cut, Copy & Paste. Yeah even non editable text can be copied.
    Voice Memos
    Voice Control and yeah not just English, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (UK), English (U.S.), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), Germanm, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish,, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish
    MMS with full copy and paste
    Real Universal Global Search to the Framework/API level. It mean all apps, not just core apps get Global Search
    Keyboard with the best predictive intelligence yet. Has 40 international layouts and growing. Nice to have a virtual keyboard to easily add languages.
    Dictionary supports international languages also
    Character recognition so you can write in Chinese characters!
    Digital compass ( hikers/bikers/campers ) will love this
    Tethering
    Nike + iPod
    Parental Control
    Autofocus and selectable Focus on the Camera!
    Photo and Video Geotagging
    Google Sync
    Exchange Sync
    AGPS – Voice Turn by Turn support
    Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

  • Brandon from Cleveland...... wow... Orlando!! - June 10th, 2009 at 11:04 pm CDT

    Ok I’ve been with T-Mobile since December of 2004. I just upgraded to the Sidekick LX 2009 from the original brown LX. I pay 49.99 for unlimited minutes (loyalty) and 19.99 for unlimites data (grandfatherd). So that’s 1,679.52 for 2 years. I have a 8gb micro sd. Thanks have a great day folks!! Oh and touchscreens been out since the old palms and WM pocket pc’s for sprint so it old to me and not needed.

  • Brandon from Cleveland...... wow... Orlando!! - June 10th, 2009 at 11:04 pm CDT

    Ok I’ve been with T-Mobile since December of 2004. I just upgraded to the Sidekick LX 2009 from the original brown LX. I pay 49.99 for unlimited minutes (loyalty) and 19.99 for unlimites data (grandfatherd). So that’s 1,679.52 for 2 years. I have a 8gb micro sd. Thanks have a great day folks!! Oh and touchscreens been out since the old palms and WM pocket pc’s for sprint so it’s old to me and not needed.

  • Brandon from Cleveland...... wow... Orlando!! - June 10th, 2009 at 11:14 pm CDT

    Oh and if you’re counting tax, I’ll round that to 7 bucks= 1,686.52 for 24 months….. Not that I’m mad because my LX 2009 is faster than my original but I’ll have 3G in about 2 months in cleveland. Peace everyone, have a great morning.

    • Owning the iPhone is on AT&T is just throwing money away. I had it, and was spending $30 for Data and $5 for a lousy 200 SMS/month.

      Now, I own the Nokia E75, pay $10 (family plan) for the SAME unlimited data plan features, and got my AT&T Premier discount back on for another $11 off.

  • funny thing is that almost any windows based smartphone can beat any of this phones…

  • Where is Nokia N97? It has 32Mb storage and 5M pixel camera.

  • Where’s the Nokia 5800 ?
    Afraid it might win against the lot ?
    (also due to almost half the price)

  • I’m not familiar with US plans but everytime I need to consider my plan I check my habits with my current plan against any plan I’m considering changing to. For sure Palm Pre has a great plan but I believe that any AT&T user can get a plan that suits him without needing the unlimited version of everything.
    I would like also to see the current iPhone 3G compared too. It would also be useful to check battery life on some specific uses like listening to music, browsing the web, playing games, etc.
    For sure you don’t have enough information about the Pre but it’s a much fair comparison.

  • This comparison table looks nice, however there seems to be some bias in the sense that the cheapest data and voice plans were not compared.

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