Laptops bundled with mobile telephony contracts rarely arouse
our penny-pinching passions, but UK carriers are getting pretty aggressive with pricing for the Samsung NC10. Vodafone takes the lead by offering the
extraordinarily well-reviewed netbook for free with a £25 ($40) monthly tariff over two years, which makes for a total contract cost of £600 ($972), or just over twice the retail price of the device -- that, dear friends, is a good deal. Packages from the other carriers are similarly stonking, coalescing around the £30 ($48) per month mark, with Three standing out by asking for only an 18-month commitment. We'd prefer even shorter contracts, but can't quibble too much with the value on offer.
Read - O2 (£29.38/month for 24 months, 3GB limit)
Read - Three (£30/month for 18 months, 5GB limit)
Read - T-Mobile (£30/month for 24 months, 5GB limit)
Read - Vodafone (£25/month for 24 months, 1GB limit)
posted Jul 13th 2009 3:46PM
1gb for £25? That's AWFUL value. Three offer 15gb for £15/month so basically they are all asking you to pay over the odds (as expected). These deals are rarely much better value than buying outright.
So, if the netbook sells for £300, that's asking for a contract of £12.50/month for TWO YEARS for just 1gb of data. That sucks as hard as an iphone buyer on an O2 contract.
I know in the US you get bottom raped by mobile internet carriers, but really, don't go telling people over hear a mediocre deal is "a good deal"
Vodafone also have terrible customer support. And the staff in their shops are just lousy. Took them three different attempts at supplying a USB modem before they could supply one that worked. And if you post ANY form of complaint on their support forums your posts are deleted and your account banned. That's what happened to me. Should have gone with O2, as their customer support for my ADSL has been outstanding - and UK based, not India.
It's not so simple for businesses. With the monthly tariff package, you can write-off the entire amount against tax. But if you buy a machine, it's an upfront cost for an asset which depreciates over several years. The package from Three is actually a pretty good deal.
I'll admit that 1GB is pretty lousy given that you're only saving a meagre fiver over the other offers. That said, I've always found Vodafone to have really good, consistent 3G coverage and the customer support has only ever been good to me. Sure, I'll concede the point on the Vodafone store staff but that isn't limited just to them. Have you been in a Carphone Warehouse lately?
It should be worth noting though that the Vodafone deal would appear to be the only one of the four which uses an internal 3G modem rather than a dongle - though for the life of me I can not fathom why.
Seriously, I sometimes wonder if the folks at Engadet are inept at math or simply disconnected from the real world because the live in a world where money grows on trees. The fact that they would even consider a plan costing 40 bucks a month with any bandwidth restrictions short of a 100 GB limit is ridiculous. The reason that these prices are so high is because people listen to sites like this and buy into the fact that 40 bucks a month is a great deal. It won't be until mobile broadband gains widespread use that people will start to question the costs of such plans much the same way texting charges are now being reviewed.
Vodafone's deal is the cheapest, but it also gives you the least data per month. For the extra £5/month, each of the other providers will let you use your connection much more, and Three has a 6-month shorter term than the others. Three's plan is also the cheapest over the course of the term by £60. If I were to make a choice based on this data, they'd be ahead, with T-Mobile not far behind.
If you shop around in the UK, and know the value of the hardware you are getting "free", the there are some good deals to be had on both mobile internet and phone contracts. Then when the contract is coming to an end you can screw them for all they are worth.
the article is a joke. vodafone is offering a poor deal with so little data compared to 3....
So if the laptop is about £250-£300 you're paying about £17-£20/month for 3GB of data. Not too bad I suppose.
How is Vodafone a good deal? 1GB of data is awful. For £5 more and 6 months less 3 is clearly the best choice.
Not to mention they vastly outstrip Vodafone in 3G coverage (see Ofcom coverage maps).
Awful article.
These are MUCH better deals then you get here in the US. I might actually sign up for a separate data plan if US carriers offered something similar. Especially since I'm been looking for a light laptop / netbook for simple travel.
Is it just me, or is 3's offer six months shorter, 5 GBP more expensive for a total of 540 GBP (uh, less than Voda) /and/ they give you five times more data?
Or did Engadget's sarcasm fly over all of our heads?
Erm... Vodaphone: £25 for 24 months, 1GB per month = £600 total cost
Three: £30 for 18 months, 5gb per month = £540 total cost.
If we deduct £300 as the price of the machine, we get:
£300 for Vodaphone = £12.50/mo for 1GB data
£240 for Three = £13.333/mo for 5GB data
I think I know what I'd prefer :)
It depends on your point of view. I have used Vodafone for over 2 years, and I rarely exceed 1Gb/month, although I have a limit of 3Gb/month. If I'm surfing from home then I'm using wifi/DSL. If I'm away from home then I'm working and therefore not downloading movies.
I have found Vodafone to have excellent coverage in the UK and Europe, and I've used their data-card and USB stick.
So, if someone is happy with 1Gb/month, then the logical decision is to go with the lower cost Vodafone option.
I would rather have flat data. You can get that — for example — from O2 for €21,25/£18 here in Germany.
3 obviously has the better value for the money. Vodafone is cheaper per month, but 1gb, seriously they should consider shooting whoever decided that was a good idea. As for the netbook, it does seem to be one of the best at the moment (looks good), the specs hardly set it apart much.
O2: consistently and ( as for a very recent survey )persistently the worst > 3G carrier in UK ever ( and has iPhone + Palm pre exclusivity..... yes correct) P.S. I f***** hate u!!!!
Vodafone: who on earth are you trying to sell this thing?? 1GB limit? Go and have a cold shower. We ll talk later.
O2 worse than Vodafone. I work in London and Manchester. Vodafone's 3G rarely stays 3G for long; usually drops back to GPRS afetr a few minutes. And even when it manages to get a 3G connection, it moans about "poor signal", usually lighting up on one or two bars on the 5 bar signal strength meter.
Nope, Vodafone are a poor connection and a rip-price for the limited capacity they offer.
Nomadd
My mate just picked up a free NC10 from carephone warehouse with just his phone contract.
Think i may do this as mine is up next month, and tbh I am a firm believer wifi should be free and everywhere.
I needed it today in a bar that never had it (why!), and saw BT Openzone, they wanted £3 for 1 hour! WHAT!!
So I just plugged in my pay as you voda 1g stick i use for emergencys.
Am i alone in really really not wanting to commit to 2 monthy contracts ( phone and internet) ?
A 1 to 5 GiB per month limit is just plain crazy. That's like a few hours of use, totally worthless.
I'd rather stay at true 6 Mbit/s flatrate from Telenor in Sweden for 199 SEK/25 USD a month, when there's no special campaign.
This isn't news - Carphone Warehouse have been stocking the NC10 for months now.
Vodafone are the only network here offering the NC10 with an integrated HSDPA modem (7.2 / 2.0mbps). This isn't mentioned in the article.
All the other networks are offering the NC10 with one of their standard USB modems (all of them being Huawei's cheapest model). Bear this in mind when making price comparisons, as the integrated-HSDPA version of the NC10 is ~£100 more expensive than the standard (take a look at play.com for example). This makes Vodafone's deal more attractive, and makes up for the price difference (as the laptop is more expensive).
Three may have the cheapest deal, but they have terrible customer service (based in India) and a lousy network in some places, backed up with cheap (and rubbish) modems. Given that T-Mobile are the same price, they have the better deal (despite being a 24-month contract).
Three also have a ridiculous charging scheme if you exceed your inclusive allowance - it works out to over £100 a GB.
Same with o2 - 19.6p / MB at the time of writing, making nearly £200 per GB. (Check out the small print at the bottom of the link page.)
T-Mobile and Vodafone are fairer - T-Mobile having 'fair use' (i.e. no automatic charges), and Vodafone with a £15/GB flat rate.
I have a 3 contract (use most of it in London), and never had any problem. Customer service is much better than say, orange or vodafone. And you also get 25% discount every month if you already have another contract with 3.
Got to agree - this deal sucks the boaby. The 3 deal is probably the best, despite them being one of the worst for customer service (just try and cancel them!!).
About time this netbook got bundled, but is it the version with built-in modem (which, oddly, I've only ever seen on the BT store) or just the regular one with a dongle?
This is a rubbish deal... NOT because it's 18 months or 24 months contract coz there is no way anyone can take full advantage of it. The problem is the NC10 is built so badly, they are just not reliable. I'm willing to bet that majority of them will need a repair just after 12 months (just out of warranty) then you will be left with the remainder of the contract to do fxxk all with.
hmmm! This is a good deal, so was the AT&T and Verizon deals where you actually pay something for the Netbook, but the Sprint deal of 99cents was bad. Engadget FAIL.
Next: buy an iPhone, get a netbook free. Engadget declares it the best deal on the planet.
Watch out though if you're considering getting the NC10 netbook package from Vodafone - it only comes with a 3-cell battery unlike the 6 cell version the retail Samsung is packaged with, meaning you will barely get 3 hour's use, unlike the 7+ hours all the reviews rave about and one of the NC10's strongest selling points.