T-Mobile Offers Zero-Down On Flagship Phones, Still an Amazing Deal

You have to applaud for T-Mobile doing something that no other company has done before. Ditching the two-year contract model and adopting a financing option instead, and having an upgrade plan unlike any other (and pushed other providers to make an upgrade plan, though the plans are junk). Now they are going even deeper into the phone-hole.

While T-Mobile has done these types of deals before, we have not seen it done with smartphones. Starting tomorrow, T-Mobile will start offering its high-end smartphones for nothing down. Under the deal, you can pick from the Phone 5, Galaxy S4, HTC One, Galaxy Note II, Lumia 925, and BlackBerry Q10 and not make a down payment. But in return for not making a down payment, the monthly cost of the phone will be higher than their down payment option (by a couple of dollars).

Even though the monthly rate is higher to compensate for the zero-down on the phone, the overall cost of the phone is about the same or even lower than its initial down payment pricing. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One can cost as much as $50 less than their initial payment plans. The only phone we saw that did not have much of a discount is the iPhone 5 (with only $1.99 savings [the cost of one or two paid apps]) and the Samsung Galaxy S3 (with paying $28 more); but the

Even though T-Mobile is offering the deals without placing anything down on the phone, don’t expect it to last. T-Mobile is saying that the deals are a limited time offer but has not placed an end date to the offering.