iPhone 12 Pro Max - Current Best Price for Oz Release Stock? Either Outright or Contract

LPred8r on 17/03/2021 - 22:07
Last edited 17/03/2021 - 22:28

I'm looking to get an iPhone 12 Pro Max 128GB (Graphite).

Everyone seems to have it for ~$1850, except for Costco (at ~$1800).

My mobile plan costs are $120/yr, non-contract with Amaysim, which suits me.

Can anyone else find better outright pricing for Oz released new stock? I'm not interested in refurb/grey imports

Alternatively, a 1yr or 2yr contract would be fine as long as they're financially beneficial i.e. cheaper than $1800+$120/$240.

edit I do have access to 5% off JB/TGG Giftcrds via Suncorp, which would bring it down to ~$1775

Mobile Apple Mobile Phone

Comments

  • USER DC on 17/03/2021 - 23:58
    -7

    my advice chuck the apple thought in the bin

    • iforgotmysocks on 18/03/2021 - 17:42

      I prefer Androids personally but the aggressive Apple vs Android fandom is boring.

  • moto on 18/03/2021 - 01:22
    +2

    Sorry if it’s a personal question but what made you go from a ROG2 phone to a iPhone 12 Pro Max? I own a iPhone12Pr512 myself (Optus 3yr plan) because my last phone which was a Meizu (Samsung S7 guts + OLED) had very small storage, had screen burn-in and wasn’t good for gaming so I went to a iPhone7 32GB for gaming up to now.

    • Pred8r on 18/03/2021 - 09:40
      +1

      It's more than 1 thing, here goes;
      My last iPhone was a 3. Everything else has been android.
      Every single android phone has had an issue or other (crap battery life, hardware fault, no updates or bad/nonexistent support) that made it unreliable, frustrating or disappointing.
      Android flagship phones have become expensive/on par compared to iPhone, so it's not like it used to be.
      I used to justify it by allowing myself a good phone at ~$400/yr to own.
      Most of my androids's never lasted 2yrs.
      My ROG was $800 iirc, power button doesn't 'click' anymore, random freezing and then power off, sometimes taking 15mins before itll boot properly. I can't update it (grey import, weird rom arrangement and I'm not interested in 'work arounds' anymore).
      I have an issue with my google account where I am unable to purchase or set up any kind of payment method, due to charge back I did 10yrs ago relating to someone's scam app, unless I send them ID. They are not flexible on their position. This means no purchases using Google, of any kind, ever, unless I comply.

      My friends who have iphones seem to have them last 4yrs before issues.

      tldr: android makes me sad, I want to give iOS some love.

      p.s. I'll get it from Costco, I should be able to return it under their change of mind policy. I'll ask first and If not, it'll be JBs and vouchers.

      • Brianqpr on 19/03/2021 - 10:10
        +1

        I've had a huawei nova 3i (cost me $400) for two and a half years and its been brilliant. Only now am I noticing the battery isn't lasting as long as it used to but its still pretty good. Before that I had a redmi note 4 for about the same amount of time. Again no issues beyond one short period where it started randomly overheating and the battery was draining really fast. Turned out, after a bit of googling, that it was an app update causing it and as soon as I removed that it was fine again.

        My wife and kids all have iphones. My wife's iphone 11 had to have the camera replaced after one year and now she's complaining that the screen is becoming unresponsive. My son's first 6s had to be returned as it was malfunctioning. The replacement however has been fine. My daughter has just upgraded from an 8 to an 11 and I'm struggling to get more than $200 for the 8 (the mythical Apple holding value thing). In my experience iphones have plenty of issues too, but you can take easily them back to Apple within two years for repair. Although they refused to fix my son's ipad due to a tiny crack in the screen (they said this voids the warranty) which had absolutely nothing to do with the software issues that were making it impossible to use. So there is now a unuseable brick in the drawer. From the outside the Apple experience is made to look perfect in every way, partly by the media always being nice because they know loads use Apple and want to appeal to their confirmation bias, but that's not been our experience. Their products are good, and the warranty service is good (when they can't weasel out of it), but are as prone to issues as most other brands. And of course you are paying a lot of money for the products.

        If anyone has any phone for 4 years with no issues they are pretty lucky. At the very least they will probably need to be on almost constant charge by then unless the battery has been replaced. I also find that Apple users in particular want the latest devices and can't imagine there's too many people hanging on to them for 4 years. Most plans are no longer than 3 years so why wouldn't anyone on a plan upgrade at that point?

        I've been more than happy with andriods at a fraction of the price and notice little difference in day to day performance between them and my family's iphones. I have a redmi note 10 pro on the way which I paid $360 for. Agreed that Android flagships are no cheaper in general than iphones now, I just don't see a need to have a flagship phone in either form. 3 times the price or more and I'm certainly not seeing 3 times the experience, not even close.

    • Pred8r on 18/03/2021 - 23:41

      Your username makes me sad.

      It reminded me of one of the best phones I've owned; the Moto X Force.
      Great specs for the time, decent battery life. Solid and well built.
      The influencer/review vids about it were awesome. They involved, hammers, helicopters, bricks….

      I retired it due to becoming unstable with an intermittent memory fault at ~2yrs.

      Then Moto killed the Force line altogether.

  • brokenglish on 18/03/2021 - 15:05
    +1

    20% off Eligible Items with Afterpay ($50 - $2000 Spend, Max Discount $300) @ eBay
    The mobileciti store is AU stock: https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/mobileciti_estore/m.html?_armrs=…
    Stack with the gift cards hack, read the comments.
    Hope you haven't gone to Costco yet…

    • Pred8r on 18/03/2021 - 23:16
      +1

      Yep, oh well.

      I suppose the benefit of getting it from Costco is that I can still return it if I find iOS isnt my thing.

      I spoke with multiple staff about Costco's refund policies;
      For change of mind, I can return it within 90 days, no issues.
      After 90 days it needs to be faulty in some way (not through abuse) to get a refund, no time limit.

      That makes it a good deal, IMO anyway.

  • kfcfatfat on 18/03/2021 - 16:56
    +2

    +1 on iphone.

    Still have my iphone 6s. Two battery replacement and still going strong. Battery is cheap from ebay too, like $15 with toolkit……

    Apple is still pushing software update to it. Name a android phone from 2015 that is still getting update. NONE!

    I'll look at replacing mine if Apple decides to drop firmware update this year.

    • brokenglish on 18/03/2021 - 20:00

      Is your 6s on iOS 14?
      My 7 is super slow on iOS 14, sometimes it crashes (restarts) even when opening Messages.
      The battery health is 79%. Not sure if replacing the battery will fix the sluggishness. What prompted you to replace yours?

      • kfcfatfat on 18/03/2021 - 21:22
        +1

        Yes i'm always on the latest iOS!

        Replacing the battery will help because iphone limits the processor speed base on the battery health and % of charge to prevent crashing and sudden power off (you can turn this function off from the battery setting page). Normally you will see this happening more often when the battery health dip below 80%.

        The other way is turn the on the auto unload app function. This way the iphone will auto uninstall unused apps (but retain the user data), and reinstall the app if you need it again (when you click on the app icon). So only the app that you frequently use will run in the background for location service, data fetching etc. Also save tonnes of storage.

        Sluggish is normal. You can't expect iphone 12 speed on a 6s. But compare to the 2015 android phones, 6s beats them in user experience no doubt. I don't play games. Only a few calls a day with several emails and news web site visit (and ozbargin).

        Replacing the battery on the iphone 6s is simple-ish. The toolkit comes with the battery from many ebay list will do the job. The hard things are 1st getting the screen off and 2nd pull the adhesive strip off the battery. Check out ifixit.

        • brokenglish on 18/03/2021 - 22:05
          +1

          Thank you for the detailed reply 🙏

        • Brianqpr on 19/03/2021 - 10:12

          But how many people are really still using 2015 phones? Can't imagine its a lot. Even if you get 3 years out of an android and then buy another it can still be not much more than half the price of one iphone in total.

    • cobrakai07 on 21/03/2021 - 00:50

      Where did you get the 6s replacement battery from (which eBay supplier)?

      • kfcfatfat on 21/03/2021 - 10:37
        +1

        No particular. Just find one with got rep ish will be fine. Typical battery with full tool kit and adhesive strip cost about $15 for diy. Or go to one of those phone repair booth in the shopping centre. There are like ~$40 ~$50 last time I checked. So I decided to have a go myself after watching ifixit.

        It took me 1-2hrs. Those pro will do it in 10 mins.

        • cobrakai07 on 21/03/2021 - 17:02

          Will give it a go on the 6 first. If it works I’ll try it on my 6s

          Cheers

  • Pred8r on 18/03/2021 - 23:19

    Opinions/thoughts on the apple care warranty?

  • QUAGI on 25/03/2021 - 14:16

    So you went with the outright purchase with CostCo.

    Did you find any decent contracts during your research worth sharing?

    I dont want to buy the phone outright, budget doesn't allow it, and looking to pay off over 12/24 months

    • Pred8r on 04/09/2021 - 00:40

      Sorry I missed your comment.

      5mths on, yes, outright via Costco.
      I like the phone a lot, love the battery life (and charging speed, genuine charger).
      I dont game on it, but use carplay often.

      iOS; I miss a few of the android customisations (pretty much just icon placement (ie anywhere) and the one calendar app I loved, that the author has no interest in porting).
      I do not like that you can screenshot so easily, the amount of lockscreen snaps ive taken putting/removing the phone from my pocket is annoying. I hate that theres so many subscription based apps, just give a free demo and charge a reasonable amount.

      I dont bother looking at contracts anymore, theres no real benefits last I looked. I occasionally swap between MNVO's, but stay within the Optus network.
      Currently with Amaysim, have been for years (not as good as they were, customer service experience isn't anywhere near what it was, but if anything serious happens Ill just port out).

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