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– My swap is over, what mobile phone should I have?
I worked about half of my working life in a store. I like trying to find out what people need. So when friends, family, and readers ask me what people should choose, I always try to answer if I have the time and knowledge.
But one question that makes me shake my head almost every time has to do with the way Telenor, Telia, and many others sell mobile phones with their Swap and Switch subscriptions.
– My swap is over, what mobile phone should I have?
– You don’t have to Galaxy S21 Ultra You bought last year, then?
– Yes, but now I can get a new one.
– … Stop! Just stop.
This specific conversation took place more than once with almost the same content. The Galaxy S21 Ultra cost about 14,000 kroner last spring, and now many will replace it, and similar phones.
why? Because the subscription has expired.
Give me strength!
I have always loved technology in general and mobile phones in particular. Tools on the go can be very useful for us.
From the time I spoke on MSN Messenger over 2G and Edge via MP3 group streaming at Bergen student residence over 3G, until now, cell phones have constantly improved.
But the pace has slowed. Prices have gone up. And mobile phones became very good.
They weren’t before.
Before, you changed cell phones to get rid of harassment, and you can get rid of new ones every year. Occasionally up to every six months. You can go from simple tones to polyphonic and eventually normal sounds. We went from not having a camera, by owning a camera with specs like a potato to having a threatening portable SLR.
and so on.
This pace does not apply today. This doesn’t mean cell phones are no longer exciting – because a lot is happening now, too. Especially in the extreme: where it is cheaper and where it is most expensive.
But this means that you don’t need to change your pet’s phone and you don’t have to change it every year.
The majority of us have realized that this annual exchange process is outdated. Cell phones now have a replacement rate that decreases every three years. Thus, many phones last much longer than that, while it is understood that the cheapest and slowest at the time of purchase may run out a little sooner.
But if you buy an iPhone 13 or Galaxy S22, or something else for 10,000 kronor or more now, it will not be used in a year. It is rarely used in two parts. Apple phones in particular have a very long life, up to 6-7 years before they stop updating. For Samsung, it’s shorter, but it’s still about four years old.
If you’re a cellphone geek and want the latest, I would probably understand that you trade and sell your old device every two years. But even for people like you – and me – an annual replacement for the most expensive cell phone on the market isn’t very rewarding.
While one of Telenor and Telia’s swap-and-switch agreements can make it tempting to change annually and look cheap, it isn’t.
Swap and Switch is in a gray area where it is very difficult to determine what is affordable and what is not. It would be more like renting a car, at the same time the agreements are relatively shorter for products that are not worth as much.
It’s also important to note that at the top of Swap and Switch, you must have a subscription.
The only thing that is included in the agreements is a mobile phone insurance that covers a broken screen. More expensive insurances that cover, for example, moisture damage or loss are not included. Moisture can still occur inside the IP-certified mobile phone and tight, so things can go wrong during the contract period.
The phones that are topped by different campaigns are the best expensive models. We are talking about eight to ten thousand sheets and above. Phones over one year old.
For example, the Galaxy S22 Ultra now costs 589 NOK per month at Telenor. It will be 14,136 kroner over two years and continue to “repay” for the phone, which today has fallen somewhat from the new price this spring to 12,000 kroner if you buy it in one go. Previously, Telenor’s monthly price was 649 NOK for the same phone, 15,576 NOK over two years, or 13,500 NOK to buy directly.
In any case, the price is a little more than 2,000 kronor over the two years compared to the cost of the phone on a regular purchase.
At Telia, Switch conventions are somewhat cheaper – perhaps especially on the S22 Ultra, which is currently on offer there as well. But we find, for example, the new Sony Xperia 1 IV at 629 NOK per month or 15,096 NOK over two years. The new price of the phone alone is 13,500 crowns.
You might not think this is a mistake – and compared to a credit purchase, it’s not hopeless. You get light insurance when you buy, and you don’t have to be responsible for the sale when you want to change phones.
But these schemes trap you. After one year, you can choose to change the phone, if you continue the agreement for another two years. This is where it gets tricky.
If you don’t choose to change phones after one year, these schemes will make you feel like you’re paying for something old.
You can refrain from replacing your phone with something new and cool that has new features and a better camera and screen.
But then you keep paying for the “old” phone when it was new.
Swap and Switch makes it seem like a bad option to use a more than good enough phone.
For the record – if you’ve actually needed to change phones every year, these deals wouldn’t be that bad.
But for every month beyond the life of a year and a half on the phone, you will probably benefit from regular free payment, since there are many cheap operators, and to some extent also from the adults themselves.
The common answer I get if I criticize updates for Swap and Switch agreements is that the phone has become sluggish, or the battery life is shorter than before.
Each of these little considerations – praise. Cell phones don’t really slow down. But you fill it with junk which can make it slower in some cases. If you clean up a bit, the phone will be as healthy as a cod again.
And weaker battery life is a phenomenon that happens, but more importantly is the app that you forget in the background that uses GPS all the time so you get better personalized ads than Facebook and the rest of the world. You can also fix it if you clean up a bit, or just backup and reset your phone.
So there is no reason to buy a new phone worth 15,000 kronor just one year after you bought the previous one.
If cell phones were as bad today as they were in 2005, I would have realized. Paying half the price of a new phone over the course of the year you own it, before you can move on, would have been a good deal at the time. Today, it does not reflect the need.
Let’s say you have a phone for the next three years. If you choose the S22 Ultra with Swap today, it will cost you 589 kroner per month for at least two years. But you’ll probably choose the S23 Ultra, or something else next year, and maybe the S24 the year after that. You may have paid 589 kroner a month for 36 months after three years had passed.
The total mobile phone consumption is NOK 21,204. Almost 10,000 more than you’d pay for an S22 Ultra if you bought it today, either with cash or with interest-free payments.
put another way; Just to buy the phone and keep it for three years, it should cost 333 kr per month versus 589 kronor in the end on Swap.
This has the advantage of being in the trend of mobile operators. But they should have bragged that many of them only have interest-free payments and market leading rates on mobile phones if you buy them third-party solutions like Swap and Switch.
But 256 kr per month equals 3072 kr per year. Nobody needs extra money nowadays, right?
Swap parts!
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