The Nokia Lumia 800 is finally launched in Malaysia today with the 3 major telcos – Celcom, DiGi & Maxis bundling the device. For the Nokia Lumia 710, Maxis is the only telco offering it on contract from RM499.
Outright, the Lumia 800 retails at RM1,650. So how much does it cost to get a Nokia Lumia 800 from the telcos? It’s time for another round of comparison where we compare the minimum cost of ownership under each different plans available. Head after the break for the full comparo.
The 3 telcos have different ways of bundling the Lumia 800. On Celcom, there’s just 3 Celcom Exec plans which comes bundled with voice, sms & data. For DiGi, their SmartPlan comes with bundled data but calls and SMS are charged separately. As it is likely that you would actually make calls and SMS, the cost of ownership is more than what is listed here but we’re compared based on minimum cost alone.
Meanwhile for Maxis, they are making it more flexible by giving you a wide choice of postpaid plans from Value First (RM30/month) to the higher commitment Value Plus plans to suit your voice call needs. On top of that, you can choose the data plan with a choice of 1GB, 3GB and 6GB options. For minimum comparison sake, we based our calculation for Maxis on the entry level Value First (RM30/month) postpaid plan.
12 months (click to enlarge)
18 months (click to enlarge)
24 months (click to enlarge)
Another thing to look out for is the extra savings. Both DiGi and Celcom offer extra rebates if you opt for their auto-billing via credit card. For DiGi, they are giving RM5 off each month while for Celcom, they rebate 5% off your month bills.
If you sign on with Celcom and DiGi, both telcos require some form of advance payment which will be used to offset your bills. For DiGi, the advance payment will be used entirely to pay off your first few months bill until it is used up but for Celcom, it is rebated back to your bill evenly across 12 months. On Maxis, there’s no hefty advanced payment required but they would require you to pay the first month subscription fee upon signing.
As usual, not all telcos are the same. Before you decide on a Nokia Lumia contract, you would need to consider beyond just the ownership cost but also other factors such as data coverage and service quality. If you spot any errors above, do alert us in the comments below.
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