The Cheapest iPhone 5 Deal

The most sought  iPhone 5 is now available to most retailers, but sometimes the shelves are dried up empty  and could not cope up with the overwhelming demand, so ordering it is not straight forward. It test your patience and how well you plan for it's delivery. It also test your wallet.The lowest tariff at the moment without paying for the phone is £39 a month for 2 years contract. This translates into £936 for the 16GB model. If you want to pay for a lower tariff, you need to pay a contribution of owning it. The lowest upfront payment is £49 and £37 monthly or a total of £937 for 2 years. The difference in tariff is just a pound, but if you take a look closely, the £1 difference means a lot in terms of what you'll get, the free minutes and data bundle. See the deals here.

 Advantage of Buying Direct From Apple

 If you have the available cash to get this product, no doubt the cheapest way to get the iPhone 5 is through apple store. The lowest spec is priced £529 upfront. This is the 16GB model which you can have it on colours black slate or white silver. The price already includes delivery and packaging. It is almost one half cheaper than getting it with a contract.

The advantage of getting it direct from apple rather than from auction sites is you  are sure the product is authentic. You are sure about the warranty of the product that you can send it back in case there's a problem with it without necessarily shouldering the bill of sending and again, delivery back to you after repair or replacement.

Another advantage is, your iphone 5 is sim free. This means, you can pop in any compatible sim card from any network and from any country.


The only hassle that you will encounter when buying from apple store is the waiting time for the delivery of the product. For those who want the phone straight away, getting it from apple may not be suitable. That is because you need to wait about two to three weeks before your order is delivered. In my case, it took exactly three weeks. My advice is to calculate the day you are home before ordering because you need to sign for it and may need to show any identification card. If you will not be home, make sure to leave an identification card to whoever at home to receive your order. But just in case no one is around and you missed the delivery, you will be given a notice when they'll be coming back or a number to call to arrange a delivery. Buy iPhone 5 from apple.

Using an Existing Contract for the iPhone 5

What if you have an existing older iphone contract and hasn't ended yet? Can you buy a sim free iPhone 5 and put your existing micro sim in it?

The iPhone 5 takes a smaller form,  nano sim, and the existing micro sim won't be compatible to the tray provided. But still you can use your existing contract to use it with the phone. What you need to do is to request a nano sim card from your network. O2 is good at this. When I placed the order from the apple store, I did contacted them through their website, and the nano sim card was delivered two days after. Get your O2 nano sim card here.

Setting up your Sim Free iphone using existing credentials.

On O2, using your existing and current tariff to your iphone 5 is easy. Once you have your phone and nano sim, you just need to contact O2 that you want to transfer your existing credentials into the nano sim for your iPhone 5. You can do this online or through a text in four simple steps. You will need your existing phone number and the number of the nano simcard located at the back of the sim carrier. 

To do it online go to http://swapmysim.o2.co.uk/. Alternatively, send a text swap to 20220 from the existing number you want to use and O2 will send you a code for the sim swap process. The swap will take at least two hours up to 24 hours, but in my experience it was under 2 hours.

Is there any problems using a contract from a non iPhone sim card?

There was no problem making and receiving a call, sending and receiving messages, surfing the net via wi-fi or data bundle during the first two weeks, but I  noticed the other day that there was an error saying "You are not subscribed to data service" when it can not connect to the internet using the data bundle.

There was nothing wrong with the existing APN settings for iPhone when I compared it with the O2 website. Then I realised  that the existing APN is from a non iPhone unit. So I changed it with the credentials, APN and user name, of the original contract, and did not changed the password.

This resolved the problem!

Getting it Sim Free From Resellers

The 32GB, however, is available to their certified resellers at the same apple price of  £699. The advantage of buying your iPhone through them is the readiness of the product. You can get it the next working day after you order or you have the option to pick it up at their store later if you buy online. Another advantage is you can choose which day you want your item delivered. See further details here!

The Round Up

No doubt, like the past models, the price of the iPhone 5 with contract will drop, but I guess not any sooner. When the next model will be out, might be an iPhone5 S or 6, will be the start to get it at a lower price if you have the patience enough to wait for sometime.

If you can not wait that long the cheapest way then to get it is to buy sim free from apple for the lowest spec, or from their re sellers  for the higher specs and want it ASAP.