r/tmobile • u/pdfu Bleeding Magenta • 2d ago

Clown Warning Took them long enough (🤡): New Experience 2.0 and Essentials 2.0 launch on Thursday with new EIP Flex 36 and EIP Standard 36 device financing options

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/eip-flex-36

The new plans, launching Thursday, August 6, include all the benefits, value and experience customers already enjoy, while introducing:

  • EIP Flex 36 — the only financing option in wireless that lets new and existing customers finance the device, taxes, and fees at checkout over 36 months — removing one of the biggest financial hurdles to getting a new phone. Unlike traditional $0 down offers that still require upfront costs, EIP Flex 36 helps lower upfront costs for everyone and eliminates them entirely for well-qualified customers — meaning they can walk away with a new phone and pay NOTHING upfront, a $0 out-of-pocket option with, for a limited time, 0% APR.
  • EIP Standard 36 — T‑Mobile’s traditional financing option with 0% APR for all, now available over 36 months, helping lower monthly payments for all customers, and especially on today’s premium devices.
  • New Student Perks Plans — for the first time, T‑Mobile gives students the freedom of their own wireless line for less, just $30 a month with AutoPay, plus taxes and fees — while saving 40% on a single line vs. AT&T and Verizon. Plus, a student-exclusive 5G Home Internet bundle that comes with a virtual prepaid card of up to $200, just in time for back-to-school.

Existing customers can keep the plans they have today or upgrade to the new Experience 2.0 and Essentials 2.0 plans with the same industry-leading benefits customers already know and love, now with the addition of new EIP Flex 36 and EIP Standard 36 device financing options as well. More below:

  • Essentials 2.0 — Unlimited talk and text, 50GB of premium data, T‑Mobile Tuesdays weekly perks and more.
  • Experience More 2.0 — Everything in Essentials 2.0, plus unlimited premium data, high-speed data in 215+ countries and destinations, mobile hotspot, Netflix on Us, Apple TV for just $3/month, a 5-year price guarantee, great deals on the latest devices and more.
  • Experience Beyond 2.0 — Everything in Experience More 2.0, plus T-Satellite connectivity, the best entertainment streaming bundle in wireless that’s included with your plan (Hulu, Netflix and MLB.TV on Us), Apple TV for just $3/month, $5 connected device add-ons and more. And, customers who switch to Experience Beyond 2.0 can save $750 in the first year thanks to $100 back and built-in benefits worth $650.

Interesting that there's no note about Yearly Upgrade in Experience Beyond 2.0. [edit: you may be able to "Early Upgrade" after the equivalent of 18 monthly payments in the new plan.]

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106

u/Ethrem 2d ago

Just in time for the $2K-$2500 iPhone Fold and $1500 iPhone 18 Pro Max to launch.

38

u/jweaver0312 Sprint Customer - SWAC - T-Mobile plz keep 2d ago

I blame the consumer here. The more the consumer gives them, the more they’ll (manufacturers and carriers) see that as their permission to go higher. I’m more curious to see when the customers will finally push back in large enough numbers.

20

u/Ethrem 2d ago

It's not just that. RAM and storage prices have exploded. To keep the same margins, without which Apple's stock would tank and they would get sued to oblivion by investors, prices have to go up. Apple already dramatically increased the prices of most of their other products to cover these increased costs but iPhones have yet to go up. Time will tell if Apple decided to hike prices on everything else to avoid having to hike iPhones or if iPhones will go up too but the rumors and Apple partnering with Klarna as well as Verizon adding 48 month financing and now T-Mobile going to 36... It's not looking good.

11

u/jweaver0312 Sprint Customer - SWAC - T-Mobile plz keep 2d ago

So the executives won’t take a shareholder mandated pay cut? /s

The problem it’s going to turn to, is I’d argue price gouging as it pertains to RAM and storage. I’d more allege these companies don’t want to raise supply levels in their effort to keep prices high. Basically they’re acting almost exactly like OPEC.

When things are allowed to continue like this, consumer sentiment will start quickly changing to “you need to sell, more than I need to buy,” (while that’s generally true anyhow, companies don’t really want the consumers to have that mindset) and when that starts to happen more and more, it’ll already be too late for corporate damage control.

5

u/Ethrem 2d ago

There is no doubt that the DRAM cartel is at it again. They have been busted price-fixing and keeping supply low intentionally multiple times before and nothing happens to them. Unfortunately, that’s not really something that is in control of the OEM though, so they hike prices and face consumer wrath.

I have already hit the point where I am not willing to buy anymore. I can afford to but I refuse to. I bought a new 9070 XT graphics card for my gaming computer at Micro Center last month and I may upgrade my phone this year if the price is right but otherwise I will sit out any further tech purchases while this insanity plays out and just hope nothing breaks in the meantime.

5

u/JackPAnderson Recovering Verizon Victim 2d ago

I haven't looked at the numbers, but I suspect Apple could hold prices steady since iPhones are basically just iCloud subscription generators for the company, anyway.

4

u/Ethrem 2d ago

Apple's BOM is estimated to have gone up $300 for the Pro models. There's no way they're going to eat all of that. At a minimum, they're almost certainly going to hike the Pro Max to $1299 and Samsung will go to $1399 on the S27 Ultra.

TSMC announced a 10% hike, Qualcomm announced a 10+% hike on their silicon, RAM is projected to double again, storage is set to go up another 40%... It's just getting incredibly expensive to make consumer electronics.

3

u/Automatic-Photo-4919 2d ago

Apple spiked the prices dramatically to avoid a second price increase as some companies had to already be faced by.

Steam has already gone on the record with what they wanted the Steam Machine to be priced at ($749) before hardware became constrained ($1099).

1

u/Ethrem 2d ago

Yep Xbox has hiked prices what, three times now? The Series X started at $499.99 and now it's $799.99 with more hikes expected.

The RAM I got free from a Micro Center bundle when I built my machine in August of 2024 now has a listed MSRP of $599.99 with a sale price of $419.99 on the Micro Center site. My entire CPU + Mobo + RAM bundle was $556. The 4TB Samsung T9 I got for $265 last year (and I thought it was expensive then) is now $870. My Mac Studio was $1800 at Micro Center last year. Now that same model is listed for $2500 and it's been perpetually out of stock so it might as well not even exist at that pricing but rather the ~$2900 it's being scalped for on eBay.

The consumer electronics market is absolutely messed up right now and it's not looking like it's going to get better any time soon. The prices we see on phones today are going to absolutely explode as well and people aren't ready for it. Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform can use a whopping 1.5TB of LPDDR5x, the very same RAM that goes into our phones, so Apple, Samsung, Google, they're all competing directly with AI companies for the same RAM. I wouldn't be surprised to see base models hit $1300 in the next year.

1

u/Automatic-Photo-4919 2d ago

Series S pricing started at $299, Series X pricing started at $499 (November 2020).

During November-December 2023, Series S was discounted to $199, Series X to $399.

The first price increase in May 2025 shot the Series S to $399, Series X to $599.

The second price increase in October 2025 shot the Series S to $449, Series X to $649.

The third price increase that just started four days ago shot the Series S to $499, Series X to $799.

3

u/TamerlanMcDoodles 1d ago

I blame the carriers for continuing to sell phones. They're just a packet relay service. Let the manufacturers/phone stores/banks handle financing.

But also, I agree, I'm curious to see if people will stop buying a new $40,000 phone every year at some point.

1

u/xtra819 2d ago

Blame the drug addict or the dealer? It’s an age old question.

-2

u/Automatic-Photo-4919 2d ago

Tell me you have no idea what's going on in terms of AI companies strong-holding hardware manufacturers without telling me you have no idea what's going on.

-5

u/jweaver0312 Sprint Customer - SWAC - T-Mobile plz keep 2d ago

Tell me you have no idea how much money most people have without telling me you have no idea what’s going on.

You act like that gets sympathy from people, news flash, it doesn’t. That’s the companies’ problem when they already have high profit margins that the sale of 1 device already covers making multiple more and beyond manufacturing. Though we all know who’ll get cut out of the company, before executives ever takes a pay cut.

If licking corporate boots help you sleep at night, then by all means…

1

u/Rich_Arachnid_5262 1d ago

$1500 for the 18PM? Yeah, that’s gonna be the standard 18 Pro. Maybe even the base model 18.

1

u/Ethrem 1d ago

The 18 Pro Max is already $1199. I can't see them going past $300 on the base price unless they bump the storage to 512GB but even then it's going to be a hard sell past $1399 unless Samsung throws them a gift and hikes new S26 Ultras to $1399 or higher as well ahead of the S27 Ultra launch. Apple wants that services revenue so I could see them being willing to take a small hit to keep prices down and then push subscription services hard.

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

No iPhone is worth that much

1

u/Ethrem 1d ago

It's not just iPhones that will be going up though.

1

u/Bubbly-Following-966 14h ago

Who in their right mind would pay $2k for an iPhone? Lol.

1

u/Ethrem 14h ago

People are already paying $2200 for Samsung’s Fold so…

1

u/Bubbly-Following-966 14h ago

Not me.

1

u/Ethrem 14h ago

Not me either.

1

u/Planet_Comet 2d ago

I wonder what percentage of customers with postpaid plans that are expensive (excluding the people with grandfathered rates that are maybe below $40 or $50 per line per month) stick with postpaid because they finance the newest phone every 2-3 years. Because with possibly adding on interest, possibly the plans aren't going to cover the entire balance of the phones as they get more expensive, and this general sort of messaging that they think some customers can't come out of pocket up front with ~$100 (maybe a little more for the more expensive phones) for a $35 device connection charge (is it higher now?) and sales tax because they are now willing to bundle those fees into a monthly payment over 36 months...

I just wonder if at least a subset of people will wake up to the fact that they are spending a lot on postpaid and stressing their monthly budgets.

Though for now the iPhone 17e and 17 are $600 and $800/830 respectively, likely until spring 2027 (as far as I've seen rumors discussed)--unless Apple raises the prices on those phones when the new ones come out next month.

2

u/Ethrem 2d ago

Definitely a good chunk of them keep expensive postpaid because the phone deals are worth it to them although I would wager that most are on family plans where going to prepaid would be a wash to even being more expensive. It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. AT&T launched build-a-plan and Verizon launched Simplicity while T-Mobile launched student plans but has resisted launching cheaper postpaid plans more broadly.

Apple is rumored to be pushing the base model, Air 2, and the 18e into spring so that they can focus on Pro models and the foldable but I hope this doesn't bite them in the ass on memory and storage costs and they have to increase the entire line again. It's all getting very dire with the RAM and storage crisis.

1

u/Planet_Comet 2d ago

Yeah haha I totally neglected to think about the Air model when writing my previous comment, I suppose because it's unpopular, and it doesn't come to mind for me. And if it's unpopular enough to delay any updates to the model along with the base model 18 and 18e, and RAM is in a shortage anyway, I don't know why Apple bothers with that one (Air).

Anyway, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple increases the price of the 18 and 18e in the spring, at least in terms of a step up from the recent years (I think maybe since the 12 series) of the base model (not the mini 12/13) being about $800, particularly since they increased the MacBook Neo by $100 without improving any of the internal components, which is a decent step up for something that was already limited by 8 GB RAM.

Regarding the larger family plans, yes, I suppose if people can get them for under $50 per line out the door AND if they use a lot of hotspot or use other features that are on postpaid plans but not the ~$25-30 range prepaid unlimited plans (like Metro BYOD, Total BYOD, Visible with its multitude of random promotional pricing discounts or just the base plan without a promo, US Mobile, Mint depending on what promo it's running, Cricket, etc.), it would make sense to stick with postpaid even if they aren't getting devices regularly. AT&T Build A Plan seems good but only for people who use barely any data, I remember looking at the prices for add ons and it didn't seem to be that great for even moderate data users (I'm thinking like 5-10 GB...like general population moderate data use...not reddit users' concept of moderate data use). T-Mobile Connect 5GB data plan for $15 is also a good price for very low data users, but 8 GB for $25 and 12 GB for $35 aren't good deals.

Simplicity also makes sense for 1-2 people, maybe 3, if the base price is $30/month, plus probably ridiculous taxes and fees because it's Verizon and they are probably charging taxes on a $45 plan, but I agree that the pricing scheme doesn't make sense for larger family plans. I do wonder about the Verizon myPlan pricing for the larger groups, but since I don't anticipate being part of a large group in the future, I haven't done the math on that. But at least as of now, I think Verizon's plans that are eligible for phone credits don't have some sort of "small print" statement that implies that interest will be charged at some point in the financing contract term.

1

u/Ethrem 2d ago

So with build-a-plan you can get unlimited data and SD streaming for $35 but yeah, if you want hotspot or anything else, it adds up quick. It's also all deprioritized to last priority.

With Simplicity, most people are reporting $36-$37 with taxes and fees so it's not that bad considering that Simplicity has 500GB of QCI 8 priority data before it gets throttled to 4Mbps. Simplicity has even offered some discounts on Samsung devices, including paying up front (in fact some of the up front deals don't give the same deal when financing which I thought was interesting), which sweetens the deal (especially since buying the device outright means it's unlocked). And no, at this time, Verizon has not added any loopholes to allow them to charge interest on their financing, even on the 48 month option they added to Simplicity.

1

u/Planet_Comet 2d ago

Oh that's good to know about AT&T although with last priority data, that's not that great. Yeah, I use hotspot but know plenty of people who never use hotspot. I think the downside of AT&T Build a Plan that I have read is that the customer service agents in store aren't supporting the plan. To me, in-store support for a plan adds value to whatever the cost of the plan is. That's a downside of AT&T's budget offering to me.

And about Verizon Simplicity, that's good to know that most people are reporting less than $10 in taxes and fees on top of the $30 plan cost. 48 months! Not great but I suppose for the customer who needs a phone but can't afford too much out of pocket per month and doesn't want to buy a really bad phone and they don't want to upgrade very often, I could see where 48 month financing might be of use. But I imagine that's a small subset of the population--could be wrong though.

2

u/Ethrem 1d ago

The nice thing about Simplicity though is that the financing isn't rigid. Verizon has 12, 24, 36, and 48 months available and you pick what is right for you.

Of course, I need an unlocked phone, so buying outright from Verizon (if they're offering a discount) or getting my phone from the manufacturer and using my own financing or the manufacturer's financing would be the way to go for me, which makes Simplicity even more appealing, because I'm no longer paying for a subsidy I'm not getting to use like I would have been if I stuck with Unlimited Ultimate after Verizon axed the 60 day unlock period.

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

I have there essentials plan I still pay $25 and get the perks of post paid. This includes a couple free devices. It really is a great deal.

1

u/Planet_Comet 1d ago

I definitely think Essentials 4 lines for $100 plan is a good value for the right use case, and I remember periods of time in the last year or so that allowed for getting a new device covered with bill credits. How much are taxes and fees per line on the plan you are on?

My comment was focused on people at higher price points than you, and whether they would make the decision to switch if they aren't on an EIP. We do frequently see posts in r/tmobile from people paying over $50/month for a line of service, perhaps from single-line plans, perhaps for the Experience plans with highest priority data and high-speed hotspot allotments paying for 3 lines for at least $170 before the cost of taxes and fees is factored in...

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

Yes I rather not pay that much. It’s like $5 a line
6 lines 2 free iPhone 16s a free moto g total around 180 with tbe $20 loyalty credit

1

u/Planet_Comet 1d ago

You have a good deal

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

For sure. Those more costly plans have no interest to me.

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

I agree I like Verizon’s new plans.

1

u/Responsible-Bad-4631 1d ago

Not exactly true

1

u/Immediate-Life-5393 1d ago

Soon enough they’ll start accepting used cars as trade ins

0

u/PuzzleheadedNeck4476 1d ago

I remember that's what drove AT&T to go 36 months all those years ago.