Virgin Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint, has discounted contract-free iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c to just $385 and $315, respectively, representing significant savings over Apple’s respective asking prices of $649 and $549 for the entry-level models with sixteen gigabytes of storage.
If you do the math quickly in your head, that’s $264 off the iPhone 5s and $234 off the iPhone 5c. You’ll need to sign up for one of Virgin’s unlimited data plans starting at $35 per month ($30 if you choose to auto-pay by PayPal or your credit/debit car).
These deals are web exclusives and valid for a limited time only…
As noted by Seth Weintraub, the discounted contract-free iPhone 5c is available in all colors and now starts at $315 for the 16GB model, or $385 for the 32GB variant.
Virgin’s contract-free iPhone 5s is available in Gold, White and Space Grey and fetches $385 for the entry-level 16GB model, $455 for the 32GB iPhone 5s and $525 for the flagship 64GB model.
That’s a nice 30 percent discount on Apple’s $649/$749/$849 price points for the 16/32/64GB iPhone 5s right there. These are probably the lowest prices for the contract-free iPhone 5s/5c right now.
One thing to keep in mind: both iPhones come locked to Sprint’s 3G/4G network that Virgin Mobile uses.
However, places like Chronic Unlocks will unlock your Virgin iPhone for use with any carrier for about $130, “giving you a new, unlocked iPhone 5s for just over $500,” as the author notes.