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The Samsung Galaxy S4 is here at last! You can take your pick of shops and phone networks to snap up the new Android smart phone powerhouse, as every major network and retailer sells the S4 — but which one should get your cash?
O2, EE, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, Vodafone, Virgin Media and Tesco Mobile are all selling the S4. Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U have it too, as well as online retailers. If you’ve ordered already, it could arrive today, but if not most will have the phone on shop shelves tomorrow.
For the best deals, check out our special mobile deals calculator or read for some of our picks.
Best deals
Deals for the S4 with a respectable amount of data and calls mostly cost £35-£45, usually over two years. With a Web-connected Android smart phone like the S4, data is a big deal. Three is the only network to offer contracts with unlimited data, costing £35 per month for two years, and the phone is free.
If you don’t want to be tied down for two years, Vodafone’s 12-month contracts cost around £43 plus the phone costing around £120 up front, with 500MB of data.
And if you want more freedom, O2’s new Refresh tariff and Tesco’s Anytime Upgrade deal allow you to pay for phone and minutes separately, so once you’ve paid for the phone you can change to another network without having to cough up a huge fine.
You can pay less on a monthly basis, but you won’t get as much from your contract and the phone still costs £400 or £500 up front, so it’s not always worth it.
On selected contracts, Orange and T-Mobile are also throwing in a Google Nexus 7, Xbox or other gadget, but the minutes and data allowances are low to non-existent, so you will end up paying for this ‘free gift’ over the length of the contract.
SIM-free and PAYG
If you want to buy the S4 on its own and stick in your own cheap SIM — GiffGaff does unlimited data for just £12 per month — you can buy it for £580 from Carphone Warehouse.
At the time of writing, none of the networks are offering the S4 on a pay as you go basis, so you either need to pony up that £580 or lock into a contract.
4G
The S4 has 4G built in and should work on each phone network when they launch 4G services this summer. From day one you’ll be able to use the S4 with 4G speeds on EE, Britain’s first LTE network, with 1GB of data costing £41 per month and the phone costing £80 up front.
Unlike EE, Three has promised it won’t charge extra for 4G. So when you buy the S4 on Three, you’ll seamlessly connect to 4G when its LTE service launches a month or two later without having to switch to a different contract.
Show us your deals
Have you seen a stone-cold bargain? Who’s going to win your cash? Tell us the best deal you’ve seen in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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