Nokia's Comes With Music premium in the $150 range?

We put "free" in quotes for a reason, and now it seems the dark, nasty truth could be upon us. While pre-order prices on a retailer's website should be taken as pure speculation and nothing more, a couple of notable examples reveal £70 to £85 premiums on the Comes with Music version of two phones. For instance, Expansys offers up Nokia's N95 8GB for £394.99, but the CwM edition is a stiff £479.99. It's hard to say if the prices are jacked up by Nokia's directive, but again, we aren't getting too riled up until these things launch for real.

[Big John @ Sep 10th 2008 10:36PM]

As long as the selection is expansive, I'd absolutely pay for it.

[Vanillacide @ Sep 11th 2008 5:58AM]

Assuming you change your phone once per year, almost everyone here in the UK does that so I'm sure the US is the same or similar, that's a premium of $12.50 per month to listen to "free" music.

That's like buying 12 tracks a month from iTunes, or 150 in a year, but then not being able to use them after your "Nokia comes with music" is swapped for the latest model for a different handset.

That sounds expensive "free" to me.

[PCIV @ Sep 11th 2008 7:42AM]

I don't know about US, but due to the way contracts work here, people tend to change phones less often than, let's say, Hong Kong. In HK, when they say they give you a price for a phone if you stick with them for 2 years, you pay the full price, then they give some back each month. Over here, it's 20 bucks each month you have left in your contract withdrawl fee, causing quite some pain to back out of a contract...

[amby @ Sep 11th 2008 8:22AM]

@Vanillacide: my understanding from the previous Engadget posts is that you can keep it after one year - whatever you have downloaded in the first year. Also - it was said - that you can transfer music to a total of 5 clients (phone, PC - no Mac so far).

That's still $12.5 per month, but you keep what you have bought.

[Nick @ Sep 10th 2008 11:11PM]

not surprising

[PeterF @ Sep 10th 2008 11:20PM]

These things dont look nice at all! They cost almost as much as the Touch Pro!

[Flashpoint @ Sep 11th 2008 2:03AM]

These things look cool but at those prices? I wouldn't pay more than $250 for one of these. I got my iPhone for just $319. How does a nokia justify those prices?

[amby @ Sep 11th 2008 8:44AM]

@PeterF: Touch Pro is £514.99, the phone above (5310) is £145.99 (£214.99 with unlimited music for one year).

@Flashpoint: those prices are unlocked, network-free, not tied to 2-year contract options. I assume that your $319 is a locked one.

[Colin Potter @ Sep 11th 2008 12:12AM]

Your mom comes with music too. But she prefers to come without.

[Flashpoint @ Sep 11th 2008 5:05AM]

I see what you did there.

[gary @ Sep 11th 2008 5:52AM]

The article is all in Sterling (£) then why do you have to put the headline as US/CDN/AUS Dollars? PUT IT IN POUNDS!

That phone isn't the N95 8GB there are several phones with the CwM including the N95 8GB which is a far superior phone to the iPhone.
Nokias more than justify their price technologically but iPhone only justify's itself with the 'look at me factor' which is going away now anyway seeing as more and more people are getting them :)

[sockatume @ Sep 11th 2008 6:29PM]

Most of the readership, including those of us who use £, have a good idea how much one US dollar is and how it converts into our local currency. So it's a diplomatic measure.

I'm personally pretty sceptical of the service, especially as you have to buy a new CwM phone after a year to keep access to your music (you can still listen to it on a PC, though).