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Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge pricing: Vodafone vs Optus vs Telstra vs Virgin

Find out which telco has the best Galaxy S6 plan for you

Anticipation is high for Samsung’s upcoming flagship duo. The Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge have gone on pre-sale and will be in stores on 10 April. Australia’s four largest carriers have announced pricing and are bundling video-on-demand services of all sorts with generous 'bonus data' allowances.

This feature will serve as a cheat sheet to the plans on offer from Vodafone, Optus, Virgin and Telstra. It studies both the Hero plans and the cheapest plans being championed by all four telcos. We crunch the numbers on handset instalments, charges for excess data usage and list what bonuses are on offer.

Our comparisons focus on the 32GB variants of the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge over 24 month contracts. Pricing tends to fluctuate by $5-$10 for the 64GB version, and another $5-$10 for the 128GB version.

Be sure to check network coverage before committing to any carrier. A great deal will be wasted if the coverage at your home and work is sub-par.

And double check all offers before committing to any carrier. Pricing and offers constantly change. Feel free to post updates in the 'comments' section below.

Hero plans

Telstra

Telstra is championing its Large plan, which will cost $95 per month with a Galaxy S6 and $99 per month for the S6 Edge.

The plan comes with:
• $950 of national calls and MMS
• Unlimited texts
• 5GB of data — this is a limited time offer with no end date set yet. The allowance will revert back to 2.5GB
• And the choice of either $1000 extra credit to be used on national calls and MMS messages, or an additional 1GB of data per month.

What happens if I go over my data allowance? Every megabyte in excess of your data allowance is charged at 3 cents, which works out to cost $30.75 for every additional gigabyte.

Telstra is in the middle of revising these charges and, as of 12 May, its customers can choose to be charged $10 for every additional gigabyte.

Bonuses: Bundled is a six month subscription to the video on demand service Presto. Note that using Presto will come out of your data allowance and, if you go over the allowance, you will incur additional charges.

Vodafone

The red telco is waging its $80 Red plan, with the Galaxy S6 costing an additional $3, and its Edge variant costing an additional $8. This pushes the monthly totals up to $83 and $88 respectively.

Vodafone is throwing in an extra 2 gigabytes of data on its $80 Red plan, pushing the total to 6GB per month, though the offer ends on 5 May, 2015

Inclusions in the $80 Red plan are:
• Infinite national calls, SMS and MMS
• 6GB of data — though it reverts to 4GB after 5 May
• 300 minutes to be used on calls to overseas countries

How much does extra data cost? Vodafone charges $10 extra for every gigabyte of data over your allowance. This works out to cost one cent ($0.01) for every megabyte you go over.

Bonuses:

• The carrier is offering another 1GB of extra data on all Red plans if you order online. Do this before the 5 May and you can have a monthly data allowance of 7GB.

• 12 month free Spotify Premium access or smh.com.au access. Using these services will come out of your data allowance and can result in excess charges.

Optus

Optus’ hero pricing of the Galaxy S6 is arguably the most aggressive as the carrier is not charging a handset repayment on its $80 My Plan Plus. Keen S6 Edge owners will have to pay a $5 instalment pushing their monthly total up to $85.

The plan proves exceptionally competitive because it comes with 6GB of data, though this offer ends ahead of the smartphones in-store launch on 6 April, 2015. The data allowance thereafter reverts to 3GB.

Plan inclusions:
• Unlimited national calls, SMS and MMS
• 6GB of data — though it reverts to 3GB after 6 April
• 300 minutes to be used on calls to select overseas countries

How much does extra data cost? Optus charges $10 extra for every gigabyte of data over your allowance. This works out to cost one cent ($0.01) for every megabyte you go over.

Bonuses: Sign up to Optus’ $60 My Plan Plus and above and Optus will bundle six months of free access to Netflix. Using Netflix comes out of your data allowance, and if you’re not careful, the data intensive service will result in extra data charges.

Virgin

Boasting noteworthy value-for-money is Virgin's $80 plan. There’s no handset repayment for the S6 on this plan, though the S6 Edge is an extra $5 per month.

Plan inclusions are:
• Unlimited standard national calls and text
• $300 of international calls and text
• 4GB of data

How much does extra data cost? Virgin’s excess data charges are outrageous compared to its rivals. The telco charges five cents ($0.052) per megabyte, which works out to be $53.25 per gigabyte.

Bonuses: Separating Virgin from the big three Australian telcos is its data rollover policy. Any data you don’t use will be added to your data allowance in the coming month. This is a first in the Australian telco market and it ensures the data you’re paying for gets used.

Check out the cheapest plans on the next page

Page Break

Cheapest plans

Telstra

The carrier’s cheapest plan remains pricey compared to its competition. The S6 will cost $80 per month, while the S6 Edge will cost $86 per month. The plan comes with:

• $550 of national calls and MMS
• Unlimited texting
• 500MB of data
• And the choice of $500 extra credit to be used on national calls and MMS messages, or an additional 500MB of data per month

What happens if I go over my data allowance? Every megabyte in excess of your data allowance is charged at 3 cents, which works out to cost $30.75 for every additional gigabyte.

Telstra is in the middle of revising these charges and, as of 12 May, its customer base can choose to be charged $10 for every additional gigabyte.

Bonuses: Bundled is a six month subscription to the video on demand service Presto. Note that using Presto will come out of your data allowance and, if you go over the allowance, you will incur additional charges.

Vodafone

Vodafone is offering the Samsung flagships on its $30 plan, with handsets instalments of $32 for the Galaxy S6 and $37 for the S6 Edge.

This plan caters to the bare essentials. It includes:
• $300 of included credit for national calls, SMS and MMS messages
• 300MB of data.

How much does extra data cost? Vodafone charges $10 extra for every gigabyte of data over your allowance. This works out to cost one cent ($0.01) for every megabyte you go over.

Bonuses: Students who take one of these phones on this plan get an extra 500MB of data every month for the first year if they order online.

Optus

Optus is offering the Galaxy S6 duo on its $35 My Plan Plus. Handset instalments are $25 for the Galaxy S6 and $31 for the S6 Edge.

Plan inclusions are:
• 300 minutes worth of national calls
• 500MB of data
• Unlimited national and international SMS and MMS messaging

How much does extra data cost? Optus charges $10 extra for every gigabyte of data over your allowance. This works out to cost one cent ($0.01) for every megabyte you go over.

Bonuses: Optus is hoping the low cost of this plan is enough to entice prospective customers.

Virgin

Virgin is offering the Galaxy S6 range on its $30 Plan. The monthly instalment for the Galaxy S6 is $29, while the S6 Edge is a tad more expensive at $34 per month. Ultimately the total monthly repayment will be $59 and $64 respectively.

These plans aren’t for intensive smartphone users — or for regular smartphone users. Virgin is targeting light users here, or those who will go over and yield to paying extra in charges. And those who do go over will be slugged in data costs.

Plan inclusions:
• $300 credit, to be used on standard national calls and texts
• 300MB of included data

How much does extra data cost? Virgin’s excess data charges are outrage compared to its rivals. The telco charges five cents ($0.052) per megabyte, which works out to be $53.25 per gigabyte.

Bonuses: Separating Virgin from the big three Australian telcos is its data rollover policy. Any data you don’t use will be added to your data allowance in the coming month. This is a first in the Australian telco market and it ensures the data you’re paying for gets used.