Telstra and Optus plans
Fresh off its official unveil at Mobile World Congress this week, Samsung’s 2016 flagship phones, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, are set to hit the Australian wild on March 11.
And now, all of the country’s leading telcos have announced the different plans they are offering for each of the devices.
The good news is that there are plenty of options for customers hoping to pick up either member of the S7 family on a contract. Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile all have their own plans built around the handsets.
Of course, if you prefer to own your phone outright, you can grab the Galaxy S7 for $1,149 while the S7 Edge will set you back $1,249.
And don’t forget, if you pre-order your Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge early enough, you’ll get a bonus Gear VR thrown in.
Telstra plans
As always, you’ll pay a premium to pick up the Samsung handsets through Telstra, but there are certain advantages. For a start, you’ll get to enjoy the Cat 9 speeds the Galaxy S7 and Telstra’s network can provide, with theoretical download speeds up to 450Mbps.
Telstra’s plans for the Galaxy S7 start at $79 a month, including 1GB of data and $550 worth of talk and text.
$84 a month brings $1000 of talk and text plus 2.5GB, and if you want unlimited phone calls, you can get the $99 a month plan that also delivers 6GB of data.
For the truly data hungry, the $135 XL plan has 15GB to use each month with unlimited talk and text.
The S7 Edge is available on the same collection of plans, although with an ever so slightly increased monthly repayment.
So the 1GB plan will set you back $86 a month, the 2.5GB jumps to $91, the 6GB plan costs $105 and the 15GB offering costs $141 a month.
Optus plans
If you prefer your plans to include unlimited talk and text regardless of the data allowance, Optus has got you covered.
Pricing for the Galaxy S7 starts at $64 a month on Optus, which has the unlimited talk and text but only includes 500MB of data.
$76 a month increases the data allowance to 3GB and includes 150 international minutes, but if you move up to the $85 offering you’ll get 8GB (6GB plus 2GB bonus) and 300 international minutes.
If that’s not enough, $100 a month jumps the data to 12GB a month (10GB plus 2GB bonus), and 400 international minutes.
But you probably won’t want to pick up that last plan, given Optus is offering a discounted version of its $130 plan for the exact same price of $100 a month, which boosts data to 18GB, offers unlimited international calls and up to 10 days of Optus travel packs.
For the S7 Edge, the plans are the same though the handset repayments are a bit higher. So plans start at $71 a month for 500MB of data, jump to $83 for the 3GB plan, grow to $92 for 8GB (6GB plus 2GB bonus), and $104 a month for 12GB (10GB plus 2GB bonus).
Bizarrely, Optus is offering the $130 plan for the S7 Edge with $30 off, so you can grab the curved phone on a 18GB plan for less than the $100 plan, which has a $4 a month handset repayment.
Vodafone and Virgin plans
Vodafone plans
Vodafone’s $5 a day roaming charge makes it a very enticing choice for frequent international travellers. You’ll also get unlimited talk and text across all plans.
Pricing for the Galaxy S7 start at $75 for 500MB a month. That would be a crazy decision though, as the next plan up offers 3GB for $80 a month. But even crazier is that the next plan up from that, which includes 6GB of data, only costs $77 a month.
$88 a month will deliver 8GB of data (6GB plus 2GB bonus), $105 brings 12GB (10GB plus 2GB bonus) while the top of the line plan has 20GB for $130.
As with the other carriers, the S7 Edge has a slight price premium on the handset repayments, so 500MB costs $83, and 3GB jumps to $95. Just like the S7 plans though, the 6GB option is cheaper than 3GB at $90 a month, or you can get 8GB for $95.
12GB will set you back $111 each month, while the curved screen phone with 20GB a month will set you back $133 each month.
Plus, you can claim some bonus Qantas frequent flyer points on the 8GB, 12GB and 20GB plans.
Virgin Mobile plans
The budget Optus telco also has a full suite of plans for the Galaxy S7 family, with the cheapest plans on offer (although also with the lowest data inclusions on the low price tier).
For $60 a month for the Galaxy S7 or $65 for the S7 Edge, you get 300MB of data and $300 worth of talk and text.
$65 (or $70 for an Edge) will bump up bundled talk and text to Unlimited, while included data jumps to 1.1GB (500MB plus 600MB bonus).
$70 ($75 for the Edge) pushes the data allowance up to 1GB, though you’ll get a bonus 1GB for the first 3 months.
The next level sees the Galaxy S7 cost $75 a month ($80 for the Edge) with 3GB of data (plus a bonus 1GB and an extra 3GB for the first 3 months).
You’ll get 6GB (plus 2GB and a bonus 6GB for three months) on the $85 plan for the Galaxy S7 (or $91 for the Edge), while the $100 plan for the S7 gives 10GB (plus 3GB bonus and an extra 10GB for the first 3 months) of data (and the Edge plan costs $104 a month).
For $130 a month, you can get either phone thrown in the plan, and have a whopping 15GB plus 6GB bonus included and an extra 15GB for the first three months.
For all those plans, you will need to either get a new number or upgrade or switch to the Optus network to get the bonus data figures, though.
Source: techradar.com