Australia will be the first country in the world to see Apple’s new metallic iPhone 5s, which goes on sale from Friday 20 September across all three major carriers (Optus, Telstra and Vodafone) as well as outright. Here’s what we know so far.
Picture: Getty Images
As expected, the iPhone 5S comes in three colours (gold, silver and “space grey”). It uses the A7 chip and an M7 motion coprocessor, which Apple says can improve battery life. It runs iOS 7 and includes a built-in fingerprint sensor within the home button (a feature Apple has labelled Touch ID). It also sports an 8MP camera with an enhanced ‘ True Tone flash’.
[related title=”JUST THE FACTS” tag=”iphone5s5c” items=”1″]The 5S supports LTE and hence will work on all of Australia’s 4G networks. Optus, Telstra and Vodafone will all be selling it, as well as Apple stores, but we don’t yet have plan pricing from any carrier. Expect that to be announced closer to 20 September.
For an outright buy, you’ll pay $869 for the 16GB model, $999 for the 32GB model and $1129 for the 64GB version.
Leather cases for the phone will be available in six colours (beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and red) for $48. One other small bonus? iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS are bundled with the phone. Australia gets the phone the same day as the US, UK, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Puerto Rico; no such luck for New Zealanders.
Comments
4 responses to “Apple iPhone 5s: Australian Pricing And Availability”
So, 16GB is AUD869, but USD649? Rorted much???
As this post points out, you haven’t factored in tax, currency conversion or the fact the $US649 model has an inferior radio with no 4G . . .
Thanks for the reply, didn’t realise that the USD649 one did not have LTE.
So whilst Apple is a major US company. The US are more “behind” and being “ripped off” more than the Aussies. We seem to be getting a better deal and better devices than the US.
As far as I can tell, the US ‘GSM’ model is the same as our LTE model. Looking at the tech specs, this is what model A1533 supports:
Model A1533*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)
That would seem to have us covered, yes?
For now yes. Our model gets: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 38, 39, 40. A1533 does not include 7, 38, 19, 40.
Telstra use 3 (main), 8.
Optus use 3 (main), 40 (in Canberra, maybe more capital cities, up to 98MHz there!).
Both will have 7 available (for use, no idea on deployment) from October next year and 28 from 2015 (neither model supports this anyway). I may try and pick up a A1533 CDMA when I’m there in a couple of weeks (if they’ll sell me one outright, which could be a challenge…)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G_Australia
That post is incorrect, the $649 one does include LTE. Every model of iPhone 5/5c/5s supports LTE.
A1533 (GSM) is the AT&T/T-mobile/Various Canadian carriers GSM+LTE device. Labelled as such to differentiate it from the A1533 (CDMA) which is the Verizion CDMA+GSM+LTE variant.
Exactly the same as the iPhone 5, except there AT&T/T-mobile/Verizon/Sprint all the same model number (Sprint now gets its own that it shares with Japan)
Well the iphone5S 32GB is 749 usd but in Australia it’s 999. After I get it shipped with extra warranty I’m still saving 150 aus…. How can apple explain this rip off???
But the price in USA is excluding tax. So on top of the 749 you have to add about 9-10% tax. Roughly it will be about 820-830 usd. on any price that you see in america you have to add the tax on top unlike ours in australia everything includes tax
Yea but if you are to ship this product outside of the US, you don’t need to pay the tax. Under $1000 AUD shipped from the US and you don’t need to pay any duty when it lands here either.
Apple warranty is international, and the new iPhones are ‘world’ phones except for one variant.
Makes it much cheaper to drop ship from the US, but you will need a converter for the charger.