If you missed my ‘Wallop of the Week’ on the new series of the Gadget Show, March 29, 2019, about the cheapest way to buy a Samsung Galaxy S10+, here goes…

 

In all cases, we have presumed that the model is a 128GB model, and that you want at least 1GB of data each month and a decent amount of texts and calls. And we also worked out the costs of owning the phone over two years, the length of most standard contracts.

1. If you want a free handset

• If you really want a free handset, or can’t afford to pay for a chunk upfront, this is going to cost you a lot of money. But you do at least get a huge 50GB of data each month on this deal, which is with O2.

Handset: £FREE,

Monthly Cost: £58

Total Over 2 Years: £1,312

2. Cheapest monthly cost

• If monthly outgoings are your main concern, then this is the best deal, but you do need to pay a large chunk upfront. This EE deal is just £15 a month.

Handset: £715.99

Monthly Cost: £15

Total Cost Over 2 Years: £1,075.99

 

3. Paying for a handset upfront

• Very few people feel comfortable — or have the resources — to pay for a handset in full upfront. But this is invariably the cheapest option. You then need to find a SIM-only contract to put in the phone. This deal, using iD Mobile as your Sim provider only gives you 1GB of data, but it works out considerably cheaper than the ‘free handset’ deal. And iD is a perfectly reputable provider. It is a subsidiary of retail giant Carphone Warehouse and the service is based on Three’s network infrastructure.

Handset: £899

Monthly Cost: £5

Total Over 2 Years: £1019

 

4. The cheapest method

• In this case, however, uSwitch (the comparison site) are offering a fractionally cheaper deal. And doesn’t involve handing over a huge sum upfront – just £100. Again, it’s with iD Mobile, but you get 2GB of data every month. You can find more details of the deal here.

Handset: £99.99

Monthly cost: £37.99

Total Cost over 2 years: £1,011.75