Guide to purchasing the iPhone 5 from du and Etisalat

After weeks of speculation, Apple’s iPhone 5 finally officially landed in the UAE today and is available for purchase and we have reviewed it right here.. While both Etisalat and du made the iPhone 5 available for pre-ordering through their websites since the 9th of December, Etisalat rolled out the highly anticipated device through a midnight launch at many of it’s business centers across the UAE. If you are interested in getting the iPhone 5, we hope the following guide is useful in selecting which carrier and plan to go with.

First up, you need to decide if you want to simply purchase the iPhone 5 outright without any contracts or take up a package. The following table compares prices of the iPhone 5 between Etisalat and du for purchasing the unit without any contracts.

The price is similar across both telcos however, Etisalat has slightly better pricing on the 32GB and 64GB units saving you 50 Dirhams. However, du provides you with 100MB of data per month for the first six months completely free and if you have an existing plan with them for which you pay AED 250 Dirhams or more, you get 1GB data per month free for a year.

Etisalat on the other hand offers you a plan for AED 225 per month that includes 8GB of data per month, 200 national SMS per month and 800 minutes of local or 200 minutes of international calls per month. This plan is contract-free meaning you are not restricted to stay on this plan however, it expires after a year of your purchase meaning you will have to get another standard plan with them after 12 month. Alternatively you can purchase a 1GB data from Etisalat at AED 99 per month which is offered for any phone.

If you prefer paying for your iPhone 5 in monthly installments instead of a full upfront payment, then you have the following offers available from du and Etisalat

So which plan should you go for? We think that you should purchase the iPhone outright and go with Etisalat’s package of AED 225 per month which is a steal since you’re getting 8GB of data along with lots of local or international minutes and 200 local SMS.

However, if you don’t want to pay that much outright then both du and Etisalat offer attractive payment plans. We wouldn’t chose the AED 499 package from Etisalat as du has better packages through their Elite Super plans that start at AED 100 per month. We also suggest getting a 12 month or 18 month contract instead of a 24 month contract as data prices will continue to go down and you don’t want to be locked in a contract for two years.