T-Mobile has officially opened up preorders for the iPhone 5. Buyers can choose either to make a down payment and a series of monthly installments, typically $20 per month for two years, or pay in full right away. The cost of paying in full is $580 for a 16GB phone, $680 for 32GB, or $780 for 64GB.
The prices are relatively close to those for fully unlocked iPhones from Apple. T-Mobile phones can, however, still be used with AT&T given the correct SIM card. AT&T phones can likewise be used with T-Mobile, but older models will need an over-the-air update, and will still only be able to run on LTE, and not T-Mobile’s AWS HSPA spectrum.
The first batch of T-Mobile iPhones should be delivered on or around April 12th. Monthly service plans cost $50 per month with 500MB of unthrottled data, or $70 per month with unlimited data.
