PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Yesterday, Samsung announced details of its eagerly anticipated new Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone after months of speculation. The phone comes in two variations: the 5.8-inch S8, and the 6.2-inch S8+. Both feature Samsung’s new voice assistant Bixby, along with a rather fancy 3D touch home button that’s built into the screen. The phone is set to be a sure-fire hit, but at £689 and £779 for the S8 and S8+ respectively it is on the pricier side. So, we thought we’d scout across UK retailers to see which ones are offering the best deals.
As you’d expect, going directly to Samsung doesn’t get you any fancy extras or discounts, but the vendor has a lucrative offer for the super keen among you. If you pre-order either of the S8 or S8+ by April 19th, the company says that you will have your shiny new phone a whole eight days before its official launch on April 28th.
Samsung is also offering its Upgrade Programme where you can pay a fixed fee each month over the course of two years. The added bonus to this, like with Apple’s similar scheme, is that Samsung offers you the opportunity to bump up to the latest model when it comes out next year for no extra cost. The programme however will set you back a bit more in the long run with an APR of 14.9 per cent. This means that for the S8, you’ll be paying a deposit of £68.90, and then £29.76 per month over 24 months (£783.14, £94.14 more than buying it upfront) For the S8+ you’ll put down a £77.90 deposit, and then pay £33.65 per month over 24 months (£885.50, £106.50 extra). It may be more, but if you’re likely to want to change to a likely S9 when it comes out, this may be worth it.
Carphone Warehouse has a similar sort of deal to Samsung, offering guaranteed delivery by April 20th. But in addition, the retailer is also throwing in a free Samsung Level Box Slim wireless speaker worth £99.99. The speaker deal is on all variations of the phone’s purchase, be it on a SIM-free, pay-monthly, Pay As You Go, or upgrade deal starting from March 29th 2017 to April 27th 2017. The only real downside here is that the speaker won’t come with the phone, and you’ll need to jump through a couple of hoops once you’ve actually received it which will take around about a month.
The retailer also offers a decent fee if you’re trading in your old phone – up to £215 for a Galaxy S7.
As far as any interesting contracts go, the retailer is boasting a Vodaphone one on the S8 which would see you paying £100 upfront and then £42.00 per months for 24 months. That gets you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and a pretty stellar 24GB of data which, as far as we can see, is the best contract around as far as internet usage goes.
A newcomer to the mobile space, Sky is offering a variety of tariffs starting at £36, though these only get you 1GB of data, but include unlimited minutes and texts. The company is also offering the pre-release programme, and all of its tariffs across the S8 and S8+ come with no upfront cost which is pretty unusual for such a high-profile phone release. Sky Mobile also has its Swap12 plan for the higher-tier tariffs that enable users to swap out their phone after 12 months. This may be more appealing than Samsung’s own upgrade programme as you’d have to sort out your network coverage on top of the monthly payments to the vendor.
The big caveat to the Sky Mobile deals is that they are only for existing Sky TV customers, with non-Sky customers paying an extra £7.50 per month to get the unlimited minutes and texts.
In addition to the pre-sale offers seen elsewhere, Virgin Media is also chucking in a free 64GB microSD card (generally costing around £19.99) to boot. Virgin also is offering a £50 Amazon voucher to existing customers if they trade in their current phone towards the S8 with its Freestyle Trade Up scheme.
Virgin’s contracts however are on the pricier side and offer a maximum of 6GB of data per month at £51 (S8) or £55 (S8+). On the plus side there are no upfront costs.
Going direct to Vodaphone, you can see a deal that’s similar to the one through Carphone Warehouse but at slightly different pricing: 24GB of data for £47 per month with £30 upfront. That goes up to £52 per month and £50 upfront for the S8+.
Three is unique in the UK market for its "Feel At Home" roaming that means you can use your minutes and data abroad at no extra cost. Its essential contracts for the S8 start at £35.00 per month with £99.00 upfront, though those don’t include tethering or the roaming. For an advanced plan that’ll bag you 12GB of data and all-you-can eat everything else you’ll pay £45.00 per month, and £99.00 upfront. An extra fiver a month will get you the S8+ on the same contracts.
So those are some of the best deals that we’ve found online this morning, but no doubt more will pop up as we get closer to the launch of the S8 on April 28th. Are you sold on Samsung’s new phone and will you be getting one at launch? Let us know by commenting below, or tweeting us @pcr_online.
