Samsung Galaxy Note 3: Smart All-in 1800 or Unlimited Data 2000?

Smart Communications revealed their postpaid plans for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 over the weekend. We were a bit worried that it wouldn’t be affordable considering the Php36,990 SRP (we were thinking it would only be free under Plan 2500). The good news is that you can actually get it with zero cash out under their Unlimited Data Plan 2,000 (30 months lock-in) and you can get it with very minimal cash out under their All-In Plan 1,800 (24 months lock-in).

All-In Plan 1800 vs Unlimited Data Plan 2,000

At zero cash out, the Unlimited Data Plan 2,000 offers you unlimited data (free LTE up to end of October), 200 messages, and 150 call minutes to all networks. The lock-in period for this particular plan is 30 months. That’s considerably a long time considering there are phone refreshes every year and you would want to take advantage of the retention/phone upgrade offers.

All-in Plan 1800 requires a monthly cash out of Php199 which basically puts it on the same amount of monthly cash out as the Unlimited Data Plan 2,000. The good thing with the Smart All-in Plans is that you can be more flexible with their Flexibundles. For All-in Plan 1800 you have Php1,800 worth of bundles every month. Here’s how we would use it:

1,000 Unlimited Data
400 Tri Net 400: 500 minutes to Smart, SUN, TNT, PLDT + 2,000 SMS to ALL networks
250 All Net Talk: 80 minutes to all networks
Total: 1650, 150 consumable

For a full list of the different bundles, click here.

So which of the two plans make more sense to us? In terms of over-all value we think the All-in Plan 1800 trumps the Unlimited Data Plan 2,000. It actually gives you more SMS and minutes plus you can change it depending on your usage via the bundles. The lock-in period is also shorter at 24 months which means you can take advantage of retention offers earlier than the Unlimited Data Plan 2,000.

There’s one wild card in this entire scenario though. Smart’s LTE service is free until October and we’re not sure if they will still extend it (it’s been extended numerous times. If it doesn’t get extended the only way to avail of it on the All-in Plan is to top up another 995. I’m not sure if this is already included in the Unlimited Data Plan 2,000 later on. We’ll try to get a comment from Smart re: this.

See other plans where the Galaxy Note 3 is available here.