The new iPhone has arrived, and just happens to be the most expensive it has ever offered.
Apple showed off a whole host of new features in its launch event: upgraded camera smarts, a stunning new gold colour, and improvements to the speed and performance of the phone. But they come at a cost, and one that is not easy to swallow.
And they've now opened for pre-orders, meaning that networks are rushing to be the most attractive way of buying an Xs possible.
The phones will finally be released on Friday. If you're ordering before, you should get yours sometime around the release date, since the Xs and Xs Max do not seem to have supply constraints.
(The iPhone Xr, which might offer considerably better value for money, is not going to be released until October. It might be well worth waiting for: it has many of the same features as the Xs, but starts at £749 rather than £999.)
Here are the various ways to buy an iPhone Xs now.
You want to buy outright
Buying a phone is not necessarily the cheapest way of buying an iPhone, and it requires you to have the most amount of money to hand. But the flip side is that you get everything sorted out in one go, you won't have payments hanging over your head, and you're free to do what you want with the phone.
The best way to get the new phone outright is to head to the Apple Store – either the website or the real one, next week. You can pick your size – Xs starting £999 and Xs Max starting at £1,099 – as well as choosing your colour and storage and then get onto buying it.
You want the best deal overall
While that approach has its advantages, you are still going to have to have a contract anyway. So it can be worth going through your network, and paying upfront for the phone with them while still committing to a phone plan.
The best way we've found to get that is to go with EE, which is offering the phone for just £22 per month if you pay £700 for it at the beginning. That makes it very cheap over the 24 months, keeps your payments down and even gives you a relatively chunky allowance of 4GB data as well as unlimited minutes and texts.
You want to pay as little as possible upfront
If you're on the other side of that situation – you don't want to pay upfront at all, and offset the cost through the length of the plan – then there are plenty of ways to do that. Obviously, you will pay for it in that the price over the two years will add up to significantly more, but you'll also have the benefit of never having to make such a significant outlay.
There are plenty of networks offering limited upfront payments, such as Vodafone. You'll only have to pay £29 with them to get hold of the new iPhone Xs – but the trouble is that you'll then end up paying £66 per month, even if that is for a relatively generous package.
You want something in between
The least painful way to get the iPhone Xs or Xs Max is probably to go somewhere in between. Which is best will depend on how much you want to pay upfront and what sort of allowances you want, of course, but the networks are falling over themselves to offer you deals on the new phone.
Three, for instance, is asking for £59 for all you can eat data with a £99 payment at the beginning. It's not the cheapest deal, but unlimited data is rare, and it is decent.
The Max is £5 more from Three. And you can add another £6 on top per month to get some AirPods, too.
If you're concerned about committing for two years – especially when next year's iPhone is likely to offer more spectacular upgrades than the Xs – then you might want to consider Sky Mobile, which allows people to upgrade every year with its "Swap12" plan. The Xs starts at £59 per month on that plan, with a £99 upfront payment.
