"Free" iPhones Cost More Every Month, Don't They?

Yesterday I posted about how Hawk and I bought new iPhones (the new 16 Pro) Thursday night. The deal was practically a steal. Verizon and Apple (I assume they're subsidizing it on the back end) offered a whopping $1,000 credit, each, for trading in our old phones. Normally the trade-in value for our older, mid-range phones would be $100 or less.

"Where's the catch?" you might wonder. With an eye-popping deal such as this, there's always a catch. Would it be higher monthly fees? Expensive contracts with long lock-in? Often something that's free up front costs more in the long run. That's how they get you.

We went into this deal very much aware of the ways we might have to pay more for "free" iPhones. To our pleasant surprise, there's really no funny business with Verizon's deal. Yes, we did have to agree to a new service plan with Verizon, and yes it is more expensive than our old plan— but only by a little bit, and we also get more for the money.

Pay More, Get More

The salesman's initial quote for our new monthly bill was a lot higher, almost 50% higher than we're already paying. Aha! That's how they get you. But the salesguy shared an itemized breakdown the moment I asked and answered all my questions without dodging. One big cost increase was coming from paying for a phone insurance plan he stuck in there. I challenged him on that. He defended it, pointing out to us the value of the insurance plan. When we said firmly we don't want it, he took it off the quote with no further discussion.

Paring off the insurance we don't want, the base price of the new plan increases by $15/month. As our old plan was already over $200/mo (for 2 phones plus wireless home internet) this is an increase of less than 10%. And the new plan is better than the old plan. Not by a huge amount, but by a bit. A key difference is that we'll pay no international roaming charges. If we take just one overseas trip a year we'll come out roughly even. (In case you're wondering, "Are you really going to travel that much?" I'll point out that we've taken three foreign trips in the past 10 months.)

I note base price above because we did also choose to buy a few of the add-ons that Verizon offered. Aha! That's how they get you. Except we picked things that were bargains. For $10 per bundle we chose a Disney-Hulu subscription and a Netflix-Max subscription. We already have Disney-Hulu and it costs more than $10/month, so that's a savings right there. And we've been wanting to get Netflix and or Max, but their price at well more than $10/month has made us hold off. So this is another respect in which yes, we are paying more, but we're also getting more.

The X-Factor: A Better Camera

As I wait for my new iPhone to arrive— they have to ship it to me; expected late next week— one thing I'm eager to explore is how well the camera system works. The iPhone 16 Pro has a trick, 3 lens camera. In addition to the standard sorta-wide angle lens there is also a super-wide lens and a moderate telephoto lens. I'll be keen to see what kind of picture quality these produce. I mean, on an absolute scale it won't be as good as I get from my dedicated stills camera, a Fujifilm X-T3, with nice lenses I've invested in. But on a relative scale I expect it'll be close. Close enough that maybe I won't carry a bulky dedicated camera so often when I go hiking? That's what I'm keen to see.

Hawk's "Nest" Packed Up, Recovery Going Well

A week ago Friday Hawk had outpatient surgery on one of her feet. The doctor's guidance for recovery was "Your foot won't be weight-bearing for several weeks." Interpreting that as "You'll need to keep walking, even inside the house, to an absolute minimum and you won't be able to do stairs," we set up a nest for her in the dining room. The idea was that on that level of our three-storey townhouse she could have a place to sleep, to sit up, to use a tablet and watch TV, to get food, and to use the bathroom, all without having to climb stairs.

The nest was a good idea. Hawk was happy to have it for the first 36 hours or so. The good news is that she quickly found she could get around inside the house, including using the stairs. Of course, with her foot wrapped in a big bandage and weight only able to be placed on the heel, she moves slowly and clumsily. She uses two canes when she walks. And stairs are still hard. She limits herself to going up or down only a few times a day. But she's able to get around to all levels of our very vertical home.

Friday night we packed up the nest. Hawk really hadn't used it since last weekend. We folded up the sheets and blankets, piling them to be washed; deflated the air mattresses and folded them to go back to the garage; and folded up the memory foam cushion that previously had been under our bed for several years. (We bought that mattress topper years ago thinking our new bed might be too hard. Instead our bed was fine and the memory foam was way too soft. Now we're Craigslisting it.)

The good news is we've got our dining room back. 😅 The really good news, of course, is that Hawk's recovery is going so well. I figured it would; she almost always recovers from acute problems way faster than doctors estimate. Part of it she pushes hard to regain mobility. Her foot is still really tender around the surgery site. Even a bit of pressure there still really hurts. But she's moving around way, way better than the doctor cautioned her to expect.