Do all major on contract smartphones cost the same amount?

[David Towson]

I was wondering how smartphones are priced? I checked out the nexus 5 and it said off contract it costs $350. That's a lot less than the iphone or samsung galaxy. Is is less on contract as well? It looks like all high end smartphones cost $200 on contract, would the nexus be lower?

My contract on my gs3 is gonna run out in the next few months and I was wondering what I should get. From what I can see the gs5 looks like total overkill (1440p display, 2.5ghz q-core wtf?) I'd rather stick with a modest nexus if it saves me a couple hundred bucks.

What do you guys think?

 

[RocketGoose]

I'm not sure about other countries, but here in the UK handset costs differ. Add to that the fact that some carriers may subsidise the cost when you take out a contract.

Smartphones have really come a long way, and it's easy to get lost in the specs. Read through the features, how much of that do you actually need? You may find that you don't actually need a high end handset, even mid range handsets now offer a plethora of features.

The iPhone has one of the highest handset costs, and the Galaxy isn't too far behind. Of course it will depend on the carrier and how you take out the contract (in store or online etc) but the Nexus will generally be significantly cheaper.

Hope this helps

RG