Thunderbolt now, Bionic Later?

[usfjosh]

I continue to read people discuss wether to get the thunderbolt now or the bionic later. It has left me with a question. Let's assume I buy the thunderbolt now on a 2 year contract. Say the bionic comes out 5 months later and I purchase the bionic and sell the Thunderbolt. I am making a guess that it could sell for say $400. So that would make the costs:

2 year contract -

$250 for Thunderbolt?
$350 ETF (5 months x $5/month off $375)
$400 for Thunderbolt off ebay.

By my calculations it ends up costing $200 to have the thunderbolt for 5 months. But with the higher retail cost of the thunderbolt maybe it could sell for 450/500?

 

[sudulgidy]

Why not wait for the D3 or DX2?

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[randy10786]

+1! Im waiting for the D3

 

[sudulgidy]

Same here. I know the obvious differences between the D3 and the DX2 are as far as design, but I'm curious to see what's different on the inside.

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[champaned_out]

for people that want a LTE phone the next generation of droids wont be 4g capable from what im hearing

 

[sudulgidy]

4G isn't going to be coming to my area anytime soon so that wont bother me at all.

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[randy10786]

But I dont want or need a 4G phone. 3G is plenty fast enough for me! They're just gonna jack up the price for 4G data later anyways(im guessing). I live in a non-4G area so why get a phone that I would have to pay 4G for and not be able to use it?

 

[Beka27]

If you're going to get the Bionic regardless, why don't you just buy the TB retail rather than having to screw around with ETFs and stuff? Save the upgrade. Get the Bionic, then sell the TB.

 

[usfjosh]

I have been reading that full retail price would be $749. Again assuming that you could sell it for $400, that is a $349 price different, $149 more than purchasing it on contract and breaking it with an ETF. I don't understand the reasoning behind buying it off contract. Not only does your ETF drop every month, but the off contract price is so much higher than on contract, $550, that even at a full ETF you are better off. The only reason it would make sense would be if they changed the 4G pricing when the bionic comes out, but even in that scenario I would be better off on a 2 year contract with the thunderbolt and buying the bionic for full retail.

I want LTE because I live in an LTE market and have been on ATT for the past 3 years, and I am used to the 3g speeds which is faster than Verizon. I can barely stream netlix on ATT 3g, I don't know how it would be done on 3g Verizon.

 

[Jessesmith888]

Had the same situation with incredible/DroidX. What I ended up doing was buying the dink straight up. I used it until about a month after the x came out, then put an ad on Craigslist for a straight up traid. I had quite a few calls the first week, and made the trade. See, he wanted the dink because their wasn't a locked bootloader and I wanted the battery life and large screen. No contracts and preserved the new every two. And also there are other sight for selling,trading droids.

DX Liberty 1.5 ftw!

 

[bendystrawboy]

why are you factoring in an ETF seeing the bionic is on verizon and so is the thunderbolt.

do you mean the atrix?

or do you not understand the concept of an early termination fee?

 

[hoppermi]

Why would you have to pay the ETF if you are buying a Bionic @ full retail? You're not changing your contract, just phone. You'll just have to pay an activation fee($35?), I believe.

 

[kodiak799]

Also, the $350 ETF was when phones were $600 retail, so quite possibly it could be increasing (though haven't seen where it's more with the IPhone, with the 32gig also $750 retail).

And that fee only decreases $10 a month.

Plus, you are cancelling your contract with the ETF. I think you can't come back for a new contract/discount for 3 months, which is a problem unless you want to switch carriers.

If you want to play games, you can suck it up paying retail and then sell that phone for 50-60% off on with EBAY or Best Buy buyback, in between bi-annual upgrades and pay an average of about $350-$400 a year for the latest phone, or get on 1-yr contracts and pay, again, about $350-$400 a year. Remains to be seen if Verizon will offer 1-yr contract pricing for these new phones (they didn't for the IPhone).

 

[Martin030908]

as others have said, there would be no eft. you can't cancel and then sign a new contract the same day. doesn't work that way.

so you'll be buying the bionic at full retail which is going to be right on par with the tb since they're claiming the lte radios are what drove prices up (horse in my book. telling me they cost on average of 200 dollars more. full retail on past phones was around 550 or so.)


*DroidForums app DOES*

 

[cpjr]

as others have said, there would be no eft. you can't cancel and then sign a new contract the same day. doesn't work that way.

so you'll be buying the bionic at full retail which is going to be right on par with the tb since they're claiming the lte radios are what drove prices up (horse in my book. telling me they cost on average of 200 dollars more. full retail on past phones was around 550 or so.)


*DroidForums app DOES*

Yeah thats certainly horse crap....for example and sorry Im using the iphone...but the full retail is $699 for example and I know actual manufacturing cost was somewhere around $220 or so. Markup is crazy on cell phones and there is no way the LTE radio costs AS MUCH as an entire phone's production cost.