This has been a big week for bargain hunters, summer smartphone decision makers, Nexus fans, prepaid friends, phabulous phablets, lawsuits, logos and Walmart.
The top stories this week surrounded the price wars around the lowest iPhone 5 prices and retailer Walmart's deals.
At first, the Walmart iPhone discounts appeared to have be best for Verizon vs AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile up front when you go to a store, however Straight Talk deals are cheaper over all. Then we released until the end of today that AT&T's online deal with 50%, online, no trade-in, no activation is the cheapest deal for iPhone 5 for a major carrier until the end of today. However, when we calculated the exact numbers since the iPhone 5 was launched on Virgin Mobile with a $100 credit over time it is the cheapest iPhone deal vs T-Mobile, Walmart & Straight Talk.
The release dates for the pure Google editions of the Galaxy S 4 (GS 4) & HTC One is July 9 the price tags are not subsidized and come in over $600 for each smartphone without service. More Google editions may be coming from other makers. There are rumors that the there will be another pure Google Nexus 4-Like Smartphone the Sony Xperia Z, in the future.
The 6.4" Sony Xperia Z Ultra is the biggest, slimmest smartphone for now. For those of you who have been unable to get warranty service of iPhones that were supposedly exposed to moisture or with a broken home button there are class action lawsuits filed and one was won giving money back to iPhone customers.
The Motorola X and Motorola were given a more Google Nexus - colored branding logo.
Verizon customers are wondering if they should stick with the Droid franchise, buy a GS 4 or iPhone 5 now may want to wait for AWS, LTE-A coming later.
Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail Album went live for Galaxy owners.
The next cheapest deal to watch is Freedom Pop free cell phone voice, text and data services coming later this summer. Don't get too excited about the program, yet, Freedom Pop has pushed later launches of some of its other service, including free calling using an iPod sleeve.
Here are the links to all the iPhone 5 deals mentioned above listed with cheapest overall first.
- Virgin Mobile iPhone 5 online and $100 account credit for those who switch to Virgin Mobile before July 7. Read comparison to Straight Talk and T-Mobile.
- AT&T is 50% off the newest smartphones $199.99 with $36 activation fee waived you activate new service. NO TRADE-IN is needed online for the deal.
- Straight Talk more expensive payment up front than Virgin Mobile and slightly higher monthly cost than the lowest Virgin Mobile deal with 300 voice limit. Straight Talk offers unlimited voice.
- Best Buy will give you a gift card worth at least $150 if you trade-in an iPhone 4 or 4S, in store only.
iPhone 5 Deal Charts:
Don't forget that AT&T free activation ends today.