[geekmaster]

buying an unlocked smartphone the price of building a decent gaming pc is getting really ridiculous. It seems like google got it right with the galaxy nexus on google play. But yeah i am not going for android again.

The reason I am going unlocked is because carriers are becoming a huge ripoff. When your not making much money $150 on AT&T for unlimited talk & text + shared data is not reasonable. Its a luxury i cant afford anymore. so I am going to straight talk until the carriers in the US get their act together.

So now its time to guess the unlocked price ranges for the first batch of the windows phone 8 devices. I have a bad feeling they will be overpriced. budget windows phones starting at $350 unlocked and the most expensive being $700.

Now i am never one to settle for a budget device because i need it to last me a decent amount of time. That is why i was giving into subsidized phones previously. Sure you get a high end phone for a decent price but then you deal with the overpriced contracts in the end.

Any idea's on pricing? will it hopefully be galaxy nexus competitive for flagship windows phones?

[theefman]

They wont be packing anything thats not available today so I dont expect the prices to be much different from what you get today.

Unless there's some special pixie dust that gets sprinkled over WP phones that makes them more expensive that I dont know about....:dry

[sentimentGX4]

Google didn't get it "right" with the Galaxy Nexus. That thing is on old hardware!

I expect the introductory WP8s to be expensive because the minimal hardware requirements for WP8, Snapdragon S4 I believe, should be rather high (faster than Galaxy Nexus).

I'm just going to wait it out. A year in and WP8 will be $200 unlocked on the secondary market. Either that, or we have a second Smoked By WP event from an even more desperate Microsoft.

Come WP9, I predict x86 WPs and Microsoft will refresh the entire WP OS again

[freestaterocker]

Google didn't get it "right" with the Galaxy Nexus. That thing is on old hardware!

I expect the introductory WP8s to be expensive because the minimal hardware requirements for WP8, Snapdragon S4 I believe, should be rather high (faster than Galaxy Nexus).

I'm just going to wait it out. A year in and WP8 will be $200 unlocked on the secondary market. Either that, or we have a second Smoked By WP event from an even more desperate Microsoft.

Come WP9, I predict x86 WPs and Microsoft will refresh the entire WP OS again

Troll it up, trollington...

[alpinestars1z]

Google didn't get it "right" with the Galaxy Nexus. That thing is on old hardware!

I expect the introductory WP8s to be expensive because the minimal hardware requirements for WP8, Snapdragon S4 I believe, should be rather high (faster than Galaxy Nexus).

I'm just going to wait it out. A year in and WP8 will be $200 unlocked on the secondary market. Either that, or we have a second Smoked By WP event from an even more desperate Microsoft.

Come WP9, I predict x86 WPs and Microsoft will refresh the entire WP OS again

You mean our smartphones will only be offered with Intel processors?

[geekmaster]

even though its old hardware. you might say google has a good record for software updates on the nexus devices along with, Ultra Value


jokes aside intel atom coming to windows phone 8 would be nice in the near future.

[based_graham]

There needs to be a phone for 349$

[geekmaster]

There needs to be a phone for 349$

essentially it is the sweet spot for prepaid consumers. your paying for something similar to what an ipod touch does. but throw in some GSM + EDGE band radio's, Gps, NFC, decent camera's, and larger screen and it all but justifies it being $150 more than a baseline ipod touch. but like the ipod touch no contract.

[theefman]

There needs to be a phone for 349$

Why wouldnt there be? A single core S4 with 800x480 screen, small storage, low MP cam, should be possible easy.

Where is the assumption coming from that WP8 devices are using hardware that is so advanced that it will make them prohibitively expensive? How much are the OneX and SIII going for on contract, isnt it the same $200 as current devices? Really, this is a non-issue, the S4 chip is already in use, and other chips with Quad cores are in other phones yet none of them are at ridiculous prices. WP8 should be no different.

[geekmaster]

Why wouldnt there be? A single core S4 with 800x480 screen, small storage, low MP cam, should be possible easy.

Where is the assumption coming from that WP8 devices are using hardware that is so advanced that it will make them prohibitively expensive? How much are the OneX and SIII going for on contract, isnt it the same $200 as current devices? Really, this is a non-issue, the S4 chip is already in use, and other chips with Quad cores are in other phones yet none of them are at ridiculous prices. WP8 should be no different.

They could squeeze a little more into a $350 unlocked device. sure the galaxy nexus is old but for a cheap unlocked phone it has 720p amoled hd, duel core, nfc, 32gb

[dkp23]

ATT typically does 349, 449, 549, or 649. 649 being the 16 gb iphone. Obviouslly, bigger the storage higher, but most phones fall within the 349-649 range.

Lumia 900 were $449, i would guess the new nokia will probably be the same at $449. everybody else $549.

[sentimentGX4]

Why wouldnt there be? A single core S4 with 800x480 screen, small storage, low MP cam, should be possible easy.

There's no such thing as a single core S4! That's the biggest problem. The minimum hardware specs will be akin to that for the American One S/X and Galaxy S III.

Where is the assumption coming from that WP8 devices are using hardware that is so advanced that it will make them prohibitively expensive? How much are the OneX and SIII going for on contract, isnt it the same $200 as current devices?

We're talking about off contract, unlocked prices. The One X and Galaxy S III are ~$600. The OP and others are calling for a $350 off contract device. -.-

The only hope for WP8s to hit that $350 price point will be from technological obsolescence, which may happen. The high end HTC device is rumored to have a quad core Krait, which should be twice as fast as any of the phones currently on the market.

[jimski]

There needs to be a phone for 349$

And there will be. WP8 will offer a full range of high and low and devices. Thinks it's already been proven than WP8 does not need much horsepower to run. But you do get what you pay for.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro