We now know how much the new iPhone additions will cost, and we’re not surprised in the slightest. The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will be available in stores starting 28 September 2018 (with preorders starting tomorrow on the iStore website), and this is how much you’ll have to withdraw from your retirement fund.
Earlier today iStore announced pricing for the Apple Watch Series 4 that will be available for pre-order from tomorrow. A day that should be marked on your calendars, because the brand new iPhones can also be pre-ordered from tomorrow, 21 September (aside from the ‘cheaper’ iPhone XR, which we don’t have a release date for yet). South Africans can at least look forward to some perks following the mini heart attack they’ll have after witnessing the pricing on these devices — if you get your device from the iStore before the end of 2018, you can register for a voucher that gives you free iCare Plus (worth R2,000).
Naturally, the 512GB iterations are the most expensive — with the max-storage iPhone XS priced at R30,000 and the iPhone XS Max coming in at a mind boggling R32,000. On the ‘I don’t want to bankrupt myself’ end of the spectrum, the 64GB iPhone XS will cost you R22,000 and the same capacity iPhone XS Max is priced at R24,000. Apple obviously doesn’t know that South Africa is in a recession. That rand-dollar exchange rate can’t be helping us either.
Cash or credit?
If you have to have one, iStore offers a payment plan with FNB, which allows you to pay off iPhones at a reduced interest rate via your FNB credit card. Checkit.
*FNB Credit Card Payment Plan, price per month over 37 months, a 40% trade-in value after 24 months
So… if you’d like to snap up an entry level iPhone XS and a shiny new (also entry level) 40mm Apple Watch Series 4 to go with it, you’re going to need a cool R30k floating around. It’s a good thing even Apple’s entry level devices feel (and behave) like pro-level ones, isn’t it?
