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Looking to upgrade your smartphone and leaning towards the iPhone? There's a lot of stress associated with the impending end of a phone contract, but if you're Team iOS all the way, then you should check out the iPhone 13.
The latest Apple flagship phone is very much an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 12, improving the display, camera lens, and chipset to make this the most powerful and snap-happy handset from the tech giants yet. In case you didn’t know, iPhones are the most popular smartphone in Europe (by quite some way) which means there are plenty of deals, discounts and offers to help make all of them slightly more affordable, whether you’re looking to buy one upfront or on a pay-monthly SIM-only contract.
The biggest choice you have to make is which mobile network you’re going to swear allegiance to, as there are quite a few in the UK that offer competitive prices. The likes of EE, Vodafone, O2, Sky Mobile, and Three are all keen to pull you into a two-year contract, offering a mountain of monthly data allowance, unlimited texts and calls, and possibly a free gift or two to sweeten the deal.
We all know how much of a headache buying a new phone contract can be, which is why we’ve pulled together a selection of the best prices from across the internet that are well worth your consideration. Cutting through the noise, our top picks on the best iPhone 13 deals might help you save a heap of cash on upfront costs, reduce your monthly bills, or get a few extra perks on top of your tariff, but before we get there, you’ll want to know if the iPhone is the right phone for you.
Shop GQ’s pick of the best iPhone 13 deals in 2023…
EE’s best contracts give you a choice of one to three extra benefits on top of getting a spanking new phone. These ‘swappable benefits’ can sign you up to Apple Music, BT Sport, or Amazon Prime Video for free for as long as you have the phone. They’re also swappable so if the Premier League action stops during the summer months you can turn to binge-watching some sports documentaries on Prime instead.
EE’s best-selling offer right now gets you 40GB of data and unlimited texts and calls for £50 upfront and £57 a month, though if you want a swappable benefit with that it will be £80 upfront and £56 a month.
Want to knock some money off the upfront cost? Trade in your old model for a few extra pennies on the latest iPhone, though be warned your handset will lose value if it’s been dented or dropped a few times.
You’ll often find some great deals with Three, particularly on its unlimited data packages that keep costs low so you can carry on downloading on the go. However, if you get the iPhone 13 with the network right now, it will give you a £100 Amazon gift voucher for free, and it also guarantees the prices will be up to £11 cheaper than anywhere else. Our own research shows it’s rarely by that much, but it is cheaper than the EE offer above, so you’ll collect unlimited data for £50 upfront and £54 a month. Oh, and the provider will also give you a three-month free subscription to Apple TV+ just for buying the phone. Lovely job.
Rather than giving you set prices for tariffs, Vodafone lets you build your own contract to get the data, minutes, or price you want, and we are all for the flexibility. Set a contract length (up to 36 months), choose how much you want to pay upfront, and then select your data plan to get your monthly bill.
While this is great for matching up your needs, it makes it hard to recommend specific deals, but we have a baseline offer that gives you an indication of what to expect. You’ll get 6GB of data and unlimited texts and calls across a 36-month contract for £29 upfront and £43 as a monthly cost.
For a bit more variety, O2 lets you choose from either a set data plan or the ability to customise your own contract deals, so for the sake of brevity, we’ll just be talking about the set plans here. The mobile network’s best pick comes with unlimited minutes and texts as standard across a 36-month contract, a chunky 150GB of data (with the ability to double this if you have Virgin Media broadband), and the option to get a six-month free subscription to either Disney+ or Amazon Prime video, all for £30 upfront and £46 a month.
In our opinion, 150GB is probably enough for most people who don’t spend all month downloading Netflix shows and massive playlists to listen to offline, so this is a handsome offer to consider.
Sky Mobile is currently advertising the iPhone 13 at its lowest price ever, which is a reasonable claim at lower data plans but we’ve seen the new iPhone be this price on its website when buying unlimited data packages before. Much like O2 and Vodafone, you create your own contract deal yourself, adding data, contract lengths, minutes, and then deciding how much money you’re willing to part with as an upfront fee.
Baseline costs for the iPhone 13 with 10GB of data over a 24-month contract are £24 a month and no upfront fee. The more you add, the pricier it becomes up to £59 a month and £60 upfront for up to 150GB.
Is the iPhone 13 worth buying?
If you’re really curious to know what we think about the iPhone 13 you can read our full review here, but our general thoughts are that, while this might not blow you away with advanced new features, it’s a solid upgrade on an already excellent device, with a few more fun additions that build on that rock-solid legacy we’ve come to expect over the last 15 years.
So what’s been improved? Well, the tech boffins at Apple tinker with the processor every year, but this latest A15 Bionic chip is a free-flowing wizard that helps you bounce around apps at pace, take great-looking photos, and receive those lightning-fast 5G download speeds.
Everything has been bolstered by this new processor, including elongated battery life, AI enhancements for your pictures, and more storage to hold onto everything that’s important to you.
As for everything else, you get the same water resistance, durable design, and top-spec snapping features utilising the wide and ultra-wide camera lens. Colourwise, there are also the new green and starlight options on top of the old space grey, black, Product Red and white shades which is always nice to see.
If a slightly dented iPhone 12 or 12 Pro is sitting in your pocket right now, it probably isn’t worth making the jump up to this latest Apple iPhone –just hold out a few more months for the new one to inevitably arrive later in the year. However, if you’re working with an older model –say the iPhone 11 or something more than two years old– then you might be easily tempted to pay up for one of the new models.
The 13 isn’t the only phone released by Apple this last year though. Those on a budget should check out the iPhone 13 Mini which has similar specs to the standard 13 but for a considerably lower price (pay just £53 a month and £50 upfront with EE right now for 40GB).
Hobbyist smartphone photographers will enjoy the upgraded lens set up on the iPhone 13 Pro (find unlimited data across two years for £35.50 a month and £69 upfront with Three), or if you love having massive phones in your hand, the iPhone 13 Pro Max might be more your speed (available from EE with 40GB for £50 upfront and £71 a month).
- Display: 6.1 inch Super Retina XDR Display OLED
- Dimensions: 5.78 x 2.81 x 0.30 inches
- Weight: 174g
- Rear camera: 12MP wide and 12MP ultrawide dual lens
- Selfie camera: 12MP wide
- Battery life: 3,227 mAh (19 hours)
- Processor: A15 Bionic
- Internal storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
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