I used to work in a phone shop many many years ago. It’s actually when I started Goosed.ie because I realized so many people had questions around phone plans and phones and there weren’t many answers online. When I see people searching online to see if Sky Mobile is offering a good price on the iPhone 18 Pro, I’m left stumped as to how people don’t realize how bad a deal it is. If you’re thinking of buying the iPhone 18 Pro with Sky Mobile in Ireland and you’d like to not waste nearly €500, keep reading.
Sky Mobile promises fairer, more transparent pricing
When Sky Mobile entered the Irish market they entered with a promise of fairer and more transparent pricing. They did this by separating the cost of the phone and the cost of your monthly price plan. When they launched they said that transparency and fairness were at Sky Mobile’s core.
The problem is that this is largely marketing and that, by saying this out loud and by doing something that the market doesn’t normally see, to a certain extent there’s a bit of hope that the consumer might stop asking certain questions. For example, “Am I getting a good deal?” or “Should I just take Sky at their word that they’re trying to be fair?”.
The launch of the new iPhone 18 Pro is a great case study to show that fairness very rarely finds its way into the path of the Irish consumer.
Buying the iPhone 18 Pro on Sky Mobile
I’ve already looked at the cheapest way to get the iPhone 18 Pro and I’m not surprised Sky Mobile didn’t feature because typically speaking, buying from a network is never the best deal. What networks like Sky Mobile offer you is convenience and a quick route to the iPhone 18 Pro, where the next payment you make won’t be full price for the iPhone. Instead mobile networks know they’ll make their money over the duration of a contract.
If you were to buy the iPhone 18 Pro with Sky Mobile on a 24-month contract, you would pay €15 per month for your data plan and €80 per month for the device itself. That means a total of €95 per month for 24 months. After 2 years of mobile usage with your iPhone 18 Pro, you will have spent €2,280.
But what’s your alternative?
Buying the iPhone 18 Pro outright – yourself
Generally speaking the cheapest way to get an iPhone is to buy it directly from Apple or an authorized Apple reseller, or, as that article discovered, don’t buy the new iPhone 18 Pro at all and go back a generation.
But if you were to buy the iPhone 18 Pro directly from Apple, it would cost you €1,489. Now a critical part of doing the maths on this purchase is remembering that that is just the cost of your device and you still need to buy your monthly usage.
The Irish market is honestly one of the most competitive in Europe, with the likes of 48 Mobile on Three Ireland’s network and Clear Mobile running on Vodafone’s network, leaving Ireland with some of the cheapest mobile plans in any European country, with plenty of usage. For the sake of some clearer maths let’s assume both of them offer the same thing for €12.99.
Typically you would assume any long-term contract that involves a device will be 24 months long. Again this is an assumption that we’ll make for the sake of calculations. That now means that if you wanted to buy an iPhone 18 Pro today from Apple, it would cost €1,489 for the device and €311.76 in total for your mobile plan usage over 24 months. In total, that’s a little over €1800 for two years with the iPhone 18 Pro and most likely all the EU plan usage you could need, within reason.
Buying the iPhone 18 Pro is nearly €500 cheaper direct versus Sky Mobile
The gap between buying direct at €1,800 and €2,280 from Sky Mobile is eye watering. While I say “nearly €500”, the specific number is €479.24. That’s €479.24 back into your pocked for two years. The guts of a holiday or nearly €20 per month for the duration of the contract.
And don’t be hoodwinked by other providers. While the iPhone 18 Pro is cheaper over 24 months on Three versus Sky Mobile by a little over €80, overall you’d spend nearly €400 more on Three over 24 months than you would buying direct with a cheap SIM only deal.
Now I always have to pause and say it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that a 24-month contract might be the only way some people can afford to get the new iPhone 18 Pro. This also isn’t a hit job on Sky Mobile. All Irish mobile networks make money over 24-month contracts by baking in some extra profit on how much you pay during that period.
I just want you to know the maths. I would also implore you to ask yourself if getting the iPhone 18 Pro is only possible for you if you take a route that costs nearly €500 more than it should to get the phone, can you really afford to get it? And does the phone offer you more than the iPhone 17 Pro would or another device on the market, including the one you already have?
I just want people to make good decisions and spending €500 more than you have to on a phone that does more or less what the older version does just never seems like a good decision to me.
What about trade-in value?
Sky Mobile says they’ll offer up to €520 on an iPhone 16 Pro if you have one to trade in. This offers great convenience, but not the best value for getting rid of your old phone. Your iPhone 16 Pro could fetch over €700 on Adverts.ie, increaseing the value gap for your maths, not decreasing it. It’s a little more work to sell a phone yourself, but surely it would be worth it for another €150 or so in your pocket.
