After a bit of a delay for the event that usually happens in September, Apple today announced its latest round of iPhones. There are four this year, the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. When the iPhone 12 and 12 mini were announced, the Cupertino firm proudly exclaimed that they start at $799 and $699, respectively.
That should have come with an asterisk. As it turns out, those prices are exclusive to AT&T and Verizon. For T-Mobile customers or those that just want a SIM-free variant, you"ll be paying $30 more. That"s not just for the base model either; that"s for all storage tiers.
At this point, you"re surely wondering why there"s a premium on the T-Mobile model. Surely there must be some extra value for this particular variant.
There isn"t. On Apple"s cellular band page, it"s pretty clear that there"s only one model of the iPhone 12 and only one model of the iPhone 12 mini, at least for customers in the United States.
It"s more likely that Apple struck a deal with AT&T and Verizon, hence all of the Verizon fluff during the event, where the company repeatedly hyped up Verizon"s 5G.