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SmartPhone Upgrades

That Don’t Cost a Fortune

Story courtesy of BrandPoint
W

ith the latest flagship smartphones like the
iPhone 11 and Samsung Galaxy S 10 carry-
ing price tags near $1,000, upgrading to a
premium phone may seem out of reach to someone on a For Android users, the support window is slightly less,
limited budget.
but there are still great deals to be found. Samsung offi-
But it doesn't have to be. The pace of smartphone inno- cially supports its releases for three years with monthly
vation has slowed from the breakneck speed of a few security updates, then a single year of quarterly up-
years back. In fact, the most recent tweaks to brand-new dates. Currently, 2018's Samsung Galaxy S9, with fea-
models have tended to be more about refining existing tures like an infinity edge display, 12 MP camera, and
features than rolling out indispensable new technology. wireless charging can be had for just over $500 several
hundred dollars less than its marketplace successor, the
What that means is that slightly older models - the flag-
Galaxy S 10.
ships of two or even three years ago - can offer a great
deal for users looking for an upgrade that won't break the More ways to save
bank.
Those good deals can get even better depending on the
Older versions priced to sellThink of buying a cellular provider you choose. After all, if you're going to
smartphone the way you would buying a car. Dealers al- be upgrading your phone, why not shop for the best
ways put the latest models, with the biggest price tag, wireless bargain at the same time?
out front. But look around the lot and you'll find plenty of
For example, Consumer Cellular earns consistently great
perfectly good choices from recent model years that have
gone unsold - and that the dealer needs to move. reviews for its low prices and customer service. In addi-
tion, it offers a unique way to make phone upgrades
Smartphone manufacturers are no different than auto even more affordable, with a program called EasyPay
makers. Once they've released their latest flagship devic- financing. On select devices, customers can make a
es, usually in the fall, prices on previous flagships are small down payment often as little as $10 then pay the
slashed some by hundreds of dollars to clear out the remaining bal-ance in installments added to their wire-
backlog of inventory. These phones are in per-fect condi- less bill. These monthly pay-ments are as low as $5, with
tion, have near state-of-the-art features, and manufac- 0% interest.
turers still support them with critical oper-ating system
upgrades. They're just not "the newest model" anymore. The bottom line is, you don't have to spend a fortune to
enjoy a premium smartphone. If you're willing to sacri-
Great features, great prices fice just a few bells and whistles, you can save hundreds
of dollars and still experience very nearly the best that
Here are some recent examples. When Apple released
the iPhone 11 series last September, the price of its 2017 the bril-liant minds at Apple, Samsung, Google, and oth-
flagship iPhone 8 fell to less than $500 and the iPhone 7 er modem manu-facturers have to offer.
from just one year earlier dropped to nearly half that.
Both models still offer terrific performance, top-notch
cameras, and all the perks of Apple's iOS ecosystem. Ap-
ple even supports these older models with as many as
five or six operating system updates, meaning they will
still be running with the latest performance and security
upgrades for upwards of four years.

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