Black Friday Deals From The Cell Phone Carriers
Los Angeles, CA (FOX) - ‘Tis the season for Black Friday deals which means that you may be thinking about a new smartphone for yourself, a loved one, or the tweens and teens. Well, we have you covered with a look at all that’s new at the major carriers this week. We’re looking at smartphones, services and service plans on the big four and if it’s a phone you’re trying to decide on, you can always check out the reviews we’ve posted on foxla.com or the video reviews we produce on our YouTube channel to help you decide which phone is right for you.
T-Mobile
First up, we’ll take a look at what the magenta carrier is up to this holiday season! T-Mobile put on yet another of their Uncarrier Events and released their new Binge-On program, along with updates to their Simple Choice plans. With Binge On you can now stream video free if you’re a subscriber of the following services: Crackle, Encore, ESPN, Fox Sports, Fox Sports Go, HBO Now, HBO Go, Hulu, MLB, Movieplex, NBC Sports, Netflix, Sling TV, Sling Box, SHOWTIME, STARZ, T-Mobile TV, Univision Deportes, Ustream, Vessel, Vevo, and VUDU. Just like their streaming music program, Binge On doesn’t count against your data allotment. T-Mobile says that more services will be added in the coming months.
If you’re a Simple Choice customer you can redeem an offer for 30% off a full year’s subscription to Sling TV’s “Best of Live TV” package and for those customers with unlimited smartphone LTE, you can pick up a free streaming standard definition movie rental every month in 2016 with Binge On. Caveat emptor, Binge On “optimizes” all the video you’re streaming to stream at around 480P, which for you videophiles may sound horrible but you can deactivate the feature on each line and go back to enjoying your full 1080P fix. Of course that means that streaming those HD vids will count against your monthly data allotment once again.
Speaking of Simple Choice perks, T-Mobile has updated that plan by doubling the data allotment for subscribers. If you’re an Unlimited Smartphone LTE data subscriber, you’ll get double the amount of tethered data. That means you're now getting 14GB instead of 7GB. For those with business Simple Choice plans, small businesses will get double the data as well, up to one thousand employees.
AT&T
If moving over to AT&T is more your speed, they’re working to sweeten the pot with a bevy of deals. Beginning November 27th, you can get 40% off the LG Tone Pro Bluetooth headset, select Belkin charging products and any OtterBox Defender Series case. Beginning December 1st, you can get 40% off Goal Zero’s Torch 250 and Plantronics’ BackBeat FIT Bluetooth headphones. If you’re going to be reupping with AT&T any way, it’s good to know these offers are available: from November 27th-30th get Samsung’s Gear S for $0.99 with a 2-year agreement, the Note 5 in Gold and the 64GB Galaxy S6 Active are both available for $0 down on an AT&T Next plan. Since AT&T just bought DirecTV, you’ll also find some benefit there if you’ve also been looking at Samsung’s new 18.4” Galaxy View with 4G LTE and 64GB of storage. You can get that for $99 when you sign up for that 2-year agreement on both AT&T and DirecTV.
Sprint
Sprint recently launched their new LTE Plus network, and to mark the occasion they also launched a new promotion that is available to new customers now through January 7, 2016. Sprint will pay up to $650 for anyone switching, but that isn’t where the carrot stops. You can move to Sprint and get 50% off the price of most Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile rate plans. Now, that only applies to the base monthly service plan you’re currently paying for on another carrier, so any premium content or add-ons aren’t part of the deal. This new 50% off deal applies only to consumer plans. When you jump over to Sprint you can pick up a new device using one of their current pricing options like the Sprint Lease, iPhone Forever, Sprint Easy Pay installment billing, or simply bring your own device.
In terms of Black Friday deals, when you activate service on a new Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ or Note5, you’ll get a year of Amazon Prime on the house. Still a great phone, if you’re looking at picking up an LG G4 on Sprint you’ll also get a free 24-inch LG HD TV. You can get that LG G4 on lease for $0 down and $18 per month. If you’re looking for fitness accessories that tether to that smartphone of yours, Sprint is offering $20-$80 savings off various fitness watches like the Fitbit Charge HR, Garmin vivoactive and Withings Active Pop. If it’s headphones you’re after, the LG Tone Pro 750 is available for $30 off, at the cost of $39.99.
Verizon
This week may be Thanksgiving but Verizon is going at it again this year with Thanksgetting. This promotion offers a suite of gift to help you with holiday travel. Whether you’re a Verizon customer or not you can hit their site on November 25th you can get a $5 iTunes gift card, get free music, movie, TV and app downloads from Amazon, get a 30-day free trial from Pandora One, get up to $20 off a Lyft ride, get free airport Wi-Fi from Boingo or free 30-minute Wi-Fi session on select airlines from GoGo.
They’re also offering Black Friday deals on various smartphones and tablets like $500 off when you switch, trade in your smartphone and buy a specific device like the new Droid Turbo 2 or Galaxy S6. On their next level of offers, you can get $100 of the retail price of any Android smartphone $400 or above. Then get $300 when you combine that with switching from another carrier and trading in your old smartphone. Right now that means you can get $100 off the LG V10, Galaxy Note5 or S6 Edge+ which are all great phones (phones I’ll have review up on shortly)!