Planhacker: Every Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Plan In Australia

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 officially launched in Australia today. As befits a new flagship smartphone, all major telcos have released a range of plans for the device. If you’re contemplating a new mobile phone contract and have your heart set on the Galaxy Note 7, this comprehensive plan breakdown will help you make the right decision.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (or “Note7” if you prefer) is the biggest phone release of the season and — according to Gizmodo — the best phone Samsung phone ever. Here’s a recap of the device, along with a full rundown of plans from Telstra, Vodafone, Optus and Virgin Mobile.

Product recap

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 shares a lot of the same hardware as the Galaxy S7 but what separates it from its predecessors are the additional features. These include fingerprint scanner, a front camera sensor for iris scanning, infrared LED, a better battery, rated IP68 water resistant and it’s the first Samsung phone to use the USB 3.1 Type-C connector. As with all the other devices in the Note series, the 7 comes with a S pen stylus.

Other noteworthy specifications include an octa-core Exynos 8890 processor with four 2.3GHz and four 1.6GHz cores, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, a 12 megapixel f/1.7 rear camera (plus a 5-megapixel f/1.7 front camera), a microdSD card slot and 64GB of onboard UFS 2.0 flash storage. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes in three colours: Onyx Black, Silver Titanium and Gold Platinum. For more details on the product, check out Gizmodo Australia’s in-depth review.

Chief specifications:

Buying outright

The Galaxy Note 7 will cost $1349 to buy outright in Australia. There may be slightly cheaper offers available from the likes of Mobileciti and Kogan, but pricing will be largely the same for the first few months after launch.

For anyone who prefers pre-paid plans over mobile contracts, this is definitely the way to go — provided you have a wad of disposable cash on hand, of course. As we’ve said in the past, phone contracts tend to be bad value for money and they also deny you the ability of switching telcos whenever you like. With that said, here are the plans currently being offered by Telstra, Optus, Virgin and Vodafone.

Telstra

Telstra’s starting price for the Galaxy Note 7 on a 24-month contract is $95 per month. As per usual, this is significantly higher than the competition although you do get a bit more data than Vodafone and Virgin’s entry level plans. It comes with $550 worth of free text and calls per month (Optus and Virgin, meanwhile, are unlimited.)

Telstra’s top-end $123 plan comes with unlimited free national calls per month and 20GB of data.

Here is the full list of plans. [Note: Tables are automatically updated to reflect current pricing and may change over time.]

Our pick: Most users will be better off with the $110 plan. This nets you unlimited calls/SMS and 6GB of data. Heavy data users may want to plump for the next plan up which offers 15GB per month, although you need to pay an extra $35 per month for the privilege.

Optus

Optus’s cheapest plan for the Galaxy Note 7 is $71 per month which nets you unlimited national calls/SMS and 1GB of data. This is the best entry level plan in terms of bang-for-buck, although most users will still struggle on a monthly data allowance of 1GB.

The top-end plan packs in 20GB of data for $120 which is just $3 cheaper than Telstra’s most expensive offering. It also comes with unlimited calls and text.

Here is the full list of plans. [Note: Tables are automatically updated to reflect current pricing and may change over time.]

Our pick: If you’ve got the cash, go for the 15GB $104 plan which provides more than double the data of the $96 plan.

Virgin

Virgin Mobile is starting its Note 7 pricing at $67 which gets you $300 text/calls and a measly 300MB of data. The top-tier plans comes in at $120 and “only” provides 16GB of data.

Here is the full list of plans. [Note: Tables are automatically updated to reflect current pricing and may change over time.]

Our pick The $105 is probably your best bet here. It comes with a generous 15GB data allowance and unlimited call and text. If you don’t have crazy data demands, the $85/month plan if also worth a look.

Vodafone

Vodafone’s starting price for the Galaxy Note 7 is $74 per month. It comes with 500MB of data and unlimited calls/text. The most expensive plan will set you back $123. It comes with 20GB of data.

Here is the full list of plans. [Note: Tables are automatically updated to reflect current pricing and may change over time.]

Our pick: If your monthly data demands don’t exceed 8GB, the $95 plan would be our pick. (It’s only $3 more expensive per month than the 6GB offering.)

Conclusion

As you’d expect from a flagship phone release, plan hunters on a budget are going to struggle here: the cheapest plan is $67 per month and that nets you a useless 300MB of data. If money is tight, you might want to consider a plan featuring the previous Notes instead.

For everyone else, Virgin’s $92 plan probably provides the best value for money. You get unlimited calls and texts and 8GB of data which should be enough for the majority of users.