Ignoring OS, there are other phones that are getting much cheaper. Example is the new Lumia 920 that is $449 on ATT w/o contract. While it is $100 more expensive than the the 16GB Nexus you do get the following in addition:

* 32GB (+16GB)

* LTE

* [Removed]

Is this worth $100? I think probably so, but in any case, I think it shows that phones in this class (flagship like devices) are actually more price competitive than people may think.

Edit: To remove wireless charging per comment.

But again, ignoring OS which is generally not a good idea when making a phone purchase.

GBP 554 Nokia 920 GBP 279 16G Nexus 4

Out of interest, would buyng the phone outright from AT&T mean it's unlocked? Also is the phone available in the US from a non-carrier shop?

I wonder why the phone is so much cheaper (both in absolute and relative terms) in the US than it is here in Sweden. Here it's exactly the same price as the SGS3 and the iPhone 4S and quite a bit more than the HTC One X.

"Lining those pluses and minuses up against those for the Nexus 7 – which garnered four stars – there's no doubt that this is indeed a five-star device. The 70% difference in comparative price is more than made up by the difference in build quality and software selection" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/31/ipad-mini-r...)

Not arguing one way or the other but this and a few other recent reviews have made me wonder why tech reviewers seem to pay so little attention to price.

Moreover, google and amazon do NOT sell below cost. They are near cost, for the cheapest version, at launch. Go look at how much tablets sell for in China if you think their tablets are below cost. (or miumiu phones).

Cool phone, LTE is a non issue for me since its not widely available here anyway and with the tiny amount of data your get here (i have 300Megs included in my contract after which it gets slowed down to dialup speeds) its kinda useless.

And a difference of 7% is substantial for a product with no margins.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

I am on the $30/mo unlimited text, 5GB of HSPA+ data and 100 voice minutes plan and it's great. I reduced my monthly bill by 60%.

I'm on the $30/mo "walmart" prepaid plan, but I'm considering switching back to post paid because you can't use any data roaming at all on T-Mobile prepaid.

At least here in Canada, we also have a few niche players (WIND, Mobilicity) who differentiate themselves with slightly lower costs than the big three, but no subsidy on phones. In this case, I can buy a $300 Nexus 4 and switch, saving about ~$35 a month on my bill. My prorated subsidy from Telus is $14 a month, so I still save $21 a month over buying a subsidized phone. Even the iPhone, which is very heavily subsidized, doesn't cover the price differential between these carriers and the big three.

In conclusion: find a small, regional carrier that doesn't offer subsidies, save big money.

You also can't ignore the fact that in the US other phones in it's class are subsidized by $400 or more, upending this comparison greatly. Yes you're locked into a contract but it's not like Nexus 4 users get some special monthly rate. For some use cases being off contract is a god send, for most though, a subsidized iphone 5 or galaxy s3 is a better option at $100 cheaper (and a higher resale in case you want to break that contract).

No-contract is 50 dollars for unlimited everything ($70 if you want 4G): http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

With a contract it is 90 dollars for unlimited everything (which I believe is roughly standard across the industry): http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/individual-plans.aspx

http://opensignal.com/coverage-maps/US/San%20Francisco/

T-Mobile in San Francisco makes AT&T's network look good and it's a shadow of Verizon everywhere.

Is it really, though? As an example, T-Mobile prepaid offers $30/month for unlimited data (5gb @4g) & SMS, plus 100min voice. Poking at ATT's site the most comparable contract plan I see for iphone 5 is about $90/month. That's over $700 more out of pocket in a year if you go with the subsidized phone.

That's the same savings you get with an iphone on Virgin Mobile/Cricket though [1]. Very few people do this though because Sprint's network sucks and the upfront cost is a turn off. In addition many people do not pay the full plan rate. My monthly AT&T bill is around $59 including fees.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57449345-94/why-a-prepaid-i...