Technologies

AppleCare Plus vs. Phone Insurance: Which Is the Better Deal?

We do the math to see if Apple or your wireless carrier offers the best value.

Your phone is essential, and losing access to it — whether it gets lost, stolen or broken — feels like quickly getting cut off from the rest of the world. I learned this the hard way when I lost my phone while riding a roller coaster and the staff let me know the chances of it being recovered were slim to none. At the time, I had a cell phone insurance plan through my wireless carrier. That plan allowed me to pay a deductible fee to replace the phone, saving me hundreds of dollars compared with having to buy a brand-new device.

Now, there are several options for insurance to protect your device from damage or loss. On top of that, Apple makes it very easy to set up the Find My app for free, which should allow you to track your phone down in most situations including when it is turned off. That said, for slightly more money you can opt for either an AppleCare Plus plan or a phone insurance plan through your wireless carrier that covers theft or loss incidents too.

But what’s the main difference between these phone insurance plans, and which one will save you the most money? For CNET’s We Do the Math, we took a closer look at both kinds of programs, comparing AppleCare Plus to Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T’s respective phone insurance plans to determine which one is best for you.

While AppleCare Plus is typically the cheapest option, another may better fit your needs and save you more money in the long run. (For more We Do the Math, check out if streaming is really cheaper than cable, and if Xbox Game Pass costs less than buying the games.)

AppleCare vs. wireless carrier insurance plans (iPhone 14 prices)

	Monthly/2-year cost	Screen repair cost	Accidental damage repair deductible	Replacement deductible for theft and loss
AppleCare Plus	$8/$149	$29	$99	$149
AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss	$11.49/$219	$29	$99	$149
Verizon Mobile Protect (Single Line)	$17/$408	$29 ($0 after April 27)	$229 ($99 after April 27)	$229
AT&T Protect Advantage (Single Line)	$17/$408	$29	$0 when repairing battery, $275 when replacing device	$275
T-Mobile Protection 360	$18/$432	$29	$99	$249

And just a note: You should not sign up for both AppleCare Plus and your wireless carrier insurance. It can be easy to do so by accident. I was once erroneously signed up for T-Mobile’s Protection 360 plan for my Apple Watch SE when I added it as a new line to my account, resulting in a $13 charge that was initially placed on my bill.

That extra charge was eventually refunded after making it clear to customer service that I never signed up for the service. As a precaution, keep an eye out for any similar mistakes when signing up for service at any wireless carrier.

AppleCare Plus: When you want Apple to handle everything

When you buy an iPhone, AppleCare Plus will be heavily advertised as a protection option. You can sign up directly from your phone’s settings menu for 60 days after you purchase the device.

The benefits of going with AppleCare Plus come down to whether you’d prefer to work with Apple over your carrier should anything happen to your iPhone. If you live near an Apple retail store, you can use that location or a provider authorized by Apple for local assistance. Otherwise, you’ll work with Apple’s customer support team to arrange mail-away repairs.

AppleCare Plus plans come in two varieties: A base plan that covers device repairs, and a slightly more expensive one that covers theft along with loss. The actual cost of your plan varies based on the type of iPhone you own and whether you decide to buy a two-year plan or go monthly.

Under the current AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss plans, a monthly plan for an iPhone 14 Pro or an iPhone 14 Pro Max costs $13.49 per month, or $269 over two years. For an iPhone 14 Plus, you’ll pay $12.49 a month or $249 for two years. The base iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini and iPhone 12 are $11.49 per month, or $219 for two years. And the cheapest is the iPhone SE at $7.49 per month and $149 for two years.

If you don’t need Theft and Loss coverage and are only interested in phone repairs, AppleCare Plus prices are slightly cheaper. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max plans are $10 per month or $199 for two years. The iPhone 14 Plus is $9 per month or $179 for two years. The base iPhone 14, 13, 12 and 13 Mini are $8 per month or $149 for two years. And the iPhone SE comes in at $4 per month or $79 for two years.

Both types of AppleCare Plus plans cover unlimited repairs for accidental damage to the iPhone itself, the battery inside of the iPhone and the included USB-C to Lightning cable. You should note that a repair will still incur a service fee or deductible. These costs range from $29 for screen or back glass repairs to $99 for most other accidental damage incidents or $149 to replace a stolen device.

The plans also include customer support for iOS issues, including assistance using iOS, help connecting to Wi-Fi and questions about other Apple services like FaceTime.

AppleCare Plus is also included with the iPhone Upgrade Program, Apple’s monthly payment program that allows for yearly trade-ins toward the next year’s device. Under that program, you’ll either pay for your phone over the course of 24 months or make 12 payments to upgrade early. This begins at $39.50 per month for the iPhone 14 and costs as much as $74.91 per month for the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage.

The most obvious downside to relying on AppleCare Plus is that Apple’s plans focus solely on the phone itself, with limited access to supporting you through changes to your wireless service. If you would prefer to work with your wireless provider on all things pertaining to your device, carriers themselves also offer a series of insurance options that provide comparable coverage for repairs, theft and loss.

AppleCare Plus vs. AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss

	AppleCare Plus monthly/2-year prices	AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss monthly/2-year prices
Apple iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max	$10/$199	$13.49/$269
Apple iPhone 14 Plus	$9/$179	$12.49/$249
Apple iPhone 12/13/13 Mini/14	$8/$149	$11.49/$219
Apple iPhone SE	$4/$79	$7.49/$149

Phone insurance from your wireless provider

Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T all offer phone insurance plans similar to AppleCare Plus — and sometimes will even process your repair through Apple. The wireless carriers also have multidevice insurance options, which allow you to bundle together coverage for other devices like a cellular-connected smartwatch or tablet.

Some carriers include additional benefits beyond just repair and replacement services. For instance, the program could include subscriptions to security software or a hardware upgrade option.

Broken screen corner on iPhone XS Max. — Verizon’s Mobile Protect plans will include unlimited screen repair after April 27.

Angela Lang/CNET

Verizon Wireless protection plans are getting better in April

Verizon includes an extensive list of device insurance and phone protection plans, but its best offerings aren’t arriving until April 27. Starting at that date, the carrier will reduce or eliminate some of the service fees associated with device repair and add data recovery services (more on that below). Existing plans and prices will remain the same.

The sheer number of paths you can take for device protection at Verizon will vary. The most basic is the Wireless Phone Protection plan, which covers lost, stolen or damaged devices. The step-up Total Equipment Coverage plan includes extended warranty coverage. And the most expensive insurance packages are Verizon’s Mobile Protect plans, which can be purchased for a single device or in a multidevice bundle for three to 10 devices.

The Mobile Protect plans include the carrier’s Mobile Secure apps for services like identity theft monitoring and blocking robocalls. Also included is access to Verizon’s Tech Coach support team, meant for help with device setup, optimization and ongoing support.

The monthly rates are roughly the same across most recent iPhone models, starting at $7.25 per month for Wireless Phone Protection. This goes up to $11.40 per month for the Total Equipment Coverage plan, $17 per month for Verizon Mobile Protect Single Device and $50 per month for Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device. For the latter, each additional line after the first three devices will cost another $11.40.

Deductibles however vary between models, with the iPhone SE costing $129 per incident and the iPhone 14 Pro Max reaching $249 per incident. Both deductibles are substantially cheaper than buying a new phone, but they are still fairly expensive. Starting April 27, Verizon’s Mobile Protect plan is reducing deductibles to $99 and removing the screen repair deductible. The cheaper Wireless Phone Protection plan will continue to offer higher deductible prices for loss and theft after April 27. But that plan will also offer the $99 deductible for damage, along with including cracked screen repair for no additional cost.

If you have a particular habit of breaking your screen regularly, Verizon’s plans could be appealing after April 27 when that service is essentially made free. The multidevice plans are also notable since they include coverage for smartwatches and tablets in addition to phones. However, if your primary concern is device recovery after accidental damage beyond a cracked screen or a theft, the AppleCare Plus plans appear to be cheaper on both the monthly fee price and the deductible price.

AppleCare Plus vs. AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss vs. Verizon Mobile protect single device (iPhone 14 prices)

	Monthly/2-year cost	Screen repair cost	Accidental damage repair deductible	Replacement deductible for theft and loss
AppleCare Plus	$8/$149	$29	$99	$149
AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss	$11.49/$219	$29	$99	$149
Verizon Mobile Protect (Single Line)	$17/$408	$29 ($0 after April 27)	$229 ($99 after April 27)	$229

AT&T Protect Advantage plans

AT&T offers device insurance through its Protect Advantage plans, which include perks alongside device repairs and replacements. The carrier offers Protect Advantage as either a single-device plan or a multiple-device plan, with the former pricing at $14 or $17 per month depending on your device. The multiple-device plan supports up to four phones, tablets, smartwatches or connected laptops at $45 per month.

For each eligible device, the carrier will do repairs or replacements relating to the device itself, the battery, the charger and the SIM card. Services include next-day delivery and setup for replacement devices, unlimited screen repairs at $29 per occurrence, unlimited battery replacement and unlimited out-of-warranty malfunction claims. Battery replacements do not have an additional cost. Each approved repair claim will come with a service fee or replacement deductible, ranging from $25 to $275 depending on the device and if a replacement is necessary.

AT&T’s plans also include services that are being offered by Asurion Tech Repair and Solutions and uBreakiFix stores, promising that subscribers can use in-store services like device cleaning, data recovery and performance optimization. In-person support for data recovery and performance could be useful for those who don’t consider themselves tech-savvy, but I put less stock into the device sanitizing service. You can easily do that yourself with cleaning wipes or a microfiber cloth.

The Protect Advantage plans also include unlimited photo and video storage, which could be an alternative to subscribing to a different cloud service (though your photos would be stored with AT&T).

All four models in the iPhone 14 series standing on a desk — From left to right: iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

New York state residents get the option to purchase AT&T’s Protect Advantage services individually. For instance, a subscriber in that state could choose between device insurance starting at $2.25 per month, an extended service contract starting at $6 per month or the in-store ProTech services starting at $6 per month. This could be particularly useful for a New York-based subscriber who does not expect to ever handle these replacements by visiting a physical store, since you can choose to opt out of that ProTech cost.

Another wrinkle to AT&T’s Protect Advantage plans is that they work similarly to signing up for health insurance: You can enroll either within 30 days of activating a new device or during an open enrollment period — one’s currently running until March 15. After March 15, you’ll have to wait until the next open enrollment to register. An AT&T rep said the enrollment periods take place sporadically, with no set schedule.

Like Verizon’s Mobile Protect Plans, AT&T’s options could be useful for people who want their device insurance to encompass a wide variety of devices under the same plan. However, some of the perks offered might not be of immediate use or interest, which is worth considering if deciding between AT&T’s offering or an AppleCare Plus plan.

AppleCare Plus vs. AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss vs. AT&T Protect Advantage single device (iPhone 14 prices)

	Monthly/2-year cost	Screen repair cost	Accidental damage repair deductible	Replacement deductible for theft and loss
AppleCare Plus	$8/$149	$29	$99	$149
AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss	$11.49/$219	$29	$99	$149
AT&T Protect Advantage (Single Line)	$17/$408	$29	$0 when repairing battery, $275 when replacing device	$275

T-Mobile Protection 360 and Basic Device Protection

T-Mobile offers two phone insurance plans that cover the device itself. The Basic Device Protection plan is exclusively focused on repairing a damaged phone or replacing it in the event of theft, while the Protection 360 plan throws in early device upgrades along with some security software. That latter Protection 360 plan even includes AppleCare Plus for two years, which might be an option if you like the idea of getting support from both your carrier and Apple.

The Basic Device Protection plan is available across the US except in New York state and provides coverage in the event of hardware failure, accidental damage and theft. However, the plan’s terms do not cover cosmetic damage like scratches and dents or damage caused by «normal wear and tear.» This is notable, as screen repair isn’t listed as a guaranteed benefit for this plan.

T-Mobile’s Protection 360 wraps together T-Mobile’s Jump program — where you can trade in an enrolled device for a new one after either 12 months of device payments or paying half of a device’s cost — alongside repair services provided by AppleCare Plus for two years. If AppleCare isn’t part of the repair, Protection 360 will provide device repairs handled through Assurant or replacements by T-Mobile.

Deductibles under Protection 360 are similar to Verizon and AT&T’s offerings. When calculated using an iPhone 14 Pro Max, there’s no charge for hardware service repairs such as defects or a battery holding less than 80% of its charge capacity. But there is a $5 processing fee if you exchange a device through T-Mobile. Most accidental and damage incidents will have a $99 deductible, while screen repair incidents will have a $29 deductible. A replacement will cost $249.

Basic Device Protection costs $14 per month when calculated on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Like with AT&T, customers in New York have the option to purchase the individual benefits offered within Protection 360, which include the option to get device insurance only at a similar price.

Protection 360’s monthly pricing is between $7 and $25 per month, depending on your device. These prices can be found when buying a device on T-Mobile’s website and is $18 per month for the iPhone 14.

AppleCare Plus vs. AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss vs. T-Mobile Protection 360 single device (iPhone 14 prices)

	Monthly/2-year cost	Screen repair cost	Accidental damage repair deductible	Replacement deductible for theft and loss
AppleCare Plus	$8/$149	$29	$99	$149
AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss	$11.49/$219	$29	$99	$149
T-Mobile Protection 360	$18/$432	$29	$99	$249

AppleCare Plus is cheaper, but make sure it works for you

In nearly every price comparison, AppleCare Plus is the cheaper device protection plan, primarily due to the lower monthly rates in comparison to the carriers. However, when it comes to deductible costs per incident, most of the carriers match AppleCare Plus prices. This includes the $99 deductible for accidental damage and $29 for screen repair. Device replacement deductibles, however, cost more at the carriers compared to AppleCare Plus, with Verizon’s $229 per incident coming closest to Apple’s $149.

If you already subscribe to Verizon and are prone to breaking your screen, the carrier’s $0 screen repair policy is an appealing bonus. But the $17 per month cost of Verizon’s plan is higher than the $13.49 per month cost of AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss for an iPhone 14 Pro Max.

While Verizon and AT&T’s device insurance plans are bundled with services, it’s unclear whether those perks are actually useful. In particular, AT&T’s bundled performance optimization and device sanitization services can be easily duplicated with a couple of quick guides to decluttering your phone and cleaning wipes, respectively.

Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T logos on phones — When it comes to the monthly cost, AppleCare Plus is generally cheaper than wireless carrier insurance. Deductible prices however are about the same.

Sarah Tew/CNET

T-Mobile’s offering, however, does at least include AppleCare itself, which could be a compelling option for someone who is already looking to upgrade their phone more often.

And despite Apple and the carriers offering various insurance programs for the iPhone and other devices, you should also be aware of protection programs that are included with your iPhone purchase. Apple includes a one-year warranty that covers many repairs with every new iPhone as well as for refurbished devices sold by Apple.

Plus, if you buy your phone using a credit card with an extended warranty benefit, you could get an additional year of coverage by filing a claim with your credit card company. Some cards also provide for cell phone protection — usually up to $800 per claim — as long as you pay your wireless carrier bill using that credit card.

Yet for some people, having direct access to repairs and customer service from either Apple or a wireless carrier could provide some peace of mind. In all cases, make sure that you know how to use these benefits and that an Apple or carrier store is nearby should you need them.

Technologies

The Future’s Here: Testing Out Gemini’s Live Camera Mode

Gemini Live’s new camera mode feels like the future when it works. I put it through a stress test with my offbeat collectibles.

«I just spotted your scissors on the table, right next to the green package of pistachios. Do you see them?»

Gemini Live’s chatty new camera feature was right. My scissors were exactly where it said they were, and all I did was pass my camera in front of them at some point during a 15-minute live session of me giving the AI chatbot a tour of my apartment. Google’s been rolling out the new camera mode to all Android phones using the Gemini app for free after a two-week exclusive to Pixel 9 (including the new Pixel 9A) and Galaxy S5 smartphones. So, what exactly is this camera mode and how does it work?

When you start a live session with Gemini, you now how have the option to enable a live camera view, where you can talk to the chatbot and ask it about anything the camera sees. Not only can it identify objects, but you can also ask questions about them — and it works pretty well for the most part. In addition, you can share your screen with Gemini so it can identify things you surface on your phone’s display.

When the new camera feature popped up on my phone, I didn’t hesitate to try it out. In one of my longer tests, I turned it on and started walking through my apartment, asking Gemini what it saw. It identified some fruit, ChapStick and a few other everyday items with no problem. I was wowed when it found my scissors.

That’s because I hadn’t mentioned the scissors at all. Gemini had silently identified them somewhere along the way and then recalled the location with precision. It felt so much like the future, I had to do further testing.

My experiment with Gemini Live’s camera feature was following the lead of the demo that Google did last summer when it first showed off these live video AI capabilities. Gemini reminded the person giving the demo where they’d left their glasses, and it seemed too good to be true. But as I discovered, it was very true indeed.

Gemini Live will recognize a whole lot more than household odds and ends. Google says it’ll help you navigate a crowded train station or figure out the filling of a pastry. It can give you deeper information about artwork, like where an object originated and whether it was a limited edition piece.

It’s more than just a souped-up Google Lens. You talk with it, and it talks to you. I didn’t need to speak to Gemini in any particular way — it was as casual as any conversation. Way better than talking with the old Google Assistant that the company is quickly phasing out.

Google also released a new YouTube video for the April 2025 Pixel Drop showcasing the feature, and there’s now a dedicated page on the Google Store for it.

To get started, you can go live with Gemini, enable the camera and start talking. That’s it.

Gemini Live follows on from Google’s Project Astra, first revealed last year as possibly the company’s biggest «we’re in the future» feature, an experimental next step for generative AI capabilities, beyond your simply typing or even speaking prompts into a chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It comes as AI companies continue to dramatically increase the skills of AI tools, from video generation to raw processing power. Similar to Gemini Live, there’s Apple’s Visual Intelligence, which the iPhone maker released in a beta form late last year.

My big takeaway is that a feature like Gemini Live has the potential to change how we interact with the world around us, melding our digital and physical worlds together just by holding your camera in front of almost anything.

I put Gemini Live to a real test

The first time I tried it, Gemini was shockingly accurate when I placed a very specific gaming collectible of a stuffed rabbit in my camera’s view. The second time, I showed it to a friend in an art gallery. It identified the tortoise on a cross (don’t ask me) and immediately identified and translated the kanji right next to the tortoise, giving both of us chills and leaving us more than a little creeped out. In a good way, I think.

I got to thinking about how I could stress-test the feature. I tried to screen-record it in action, but it consistently fell apart at that task. And what if I went off the beaten path with it? I’m a huge fan of the horror genre — movies, TV shows, video games — and have countless collectibles, trinkets and what have you. How well would it do with more obscure stuff — like my horror-themed collectibles?

First, let me say that Gemini can be both absolutely incredible and ridiculously frustrating in the same round of questions. I had roughly 11 objects that I was asking Gemini to identify, and it would sometimes get worse the longer the live session ran, so I had to limit sessions to only one or two objects. My guess is that Gemini attempted to use contextual information from previously identified objects to guess new objects put in front of it, which sort of makes sense, but ultimately, neither I nor it benefited from this.

Sometimes, Gemini was just on point, easily landing the correct answers with no fuss or confusion, but this tended to happen with more recent or popular objects. For example, I was surprised when it immediately guessed one of my test objects was not only from Destiny 2, but was a limited edition from a seasonal event from last year.

At other times, Gemini would be way off the mark, and I would need to give it more hints to get into the ballpark of the right answer. And sometimes, it seemed as though Gemini was taking context from my previous live sessions to come up with answers, identifying multiple objects as coming from Silent Hill when they were not. I have a display case dedicated to the game series, so I could see why it would want to dip into that territory quickly.

Gemini can get full-on bugged out at times. On more than one occasion, Gemini misidentified one of the items as a made-up character from the unreleased Silent Hill: f game, clearly merging pieces of different titles into something that never was. The other consistent bug I experienced was when Gemini would produce an incorrect answer, and I would correct it and hint closer at the answer — or straight up give it the answer, only to have it repeat the incorrect answer as if it was a new guess. When that happened, I would close the session and start a new one, which wasn’t always helpful.

One trick I found was that some conversations did better than others. If I scrolled through my Gemini conversation list, tapped an old chat that had gotten a specific item correct, and then went live again from that chat, it would be able to identify the items without issue. While that’s not necessarily surprising, it was interesting to see that some conversations worked better than others, even if you used the same language.

Google didn’t respond to my requests for more information on how Gemini Live works.

I wanted Gemini to successfully answer my sometimes highly specific questions, so I provided plenty of hints to get there. The nudges were often helpful, but not always. Below are a series of objects I tried to get Gemini to identify and provide information about.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for April 26, #1407

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,407 for April 26. Hint: Fans of a certain musical group will rock out with this puzzle.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough. The letters are fairly common, and fans of a certain rock band might get a kick out of the answer. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is one vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: Start letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter C.

Wordle hint No. 4: Rock out

Today’s Wordle answer is the name of a legendary English rock band.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a violent confrontation.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is CLASH.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, April 25, No. 1406 was KNOWN.

Recent Wordle answers

April 21, No. 1402: SPATE

April 22, No. 1403: ARTSY

April 23, No. 1404: OZONE.

April 24, No. 1405: GENIE

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Don’t be afraid to use our tip sheet ranking all the letters in the alphabet by frequency of uses. In short, you want starter words that lean heavy on E, A and R, and don’t contain Z, J and Q.

Some solid starter words to try:

ADIEU

TRAIN

STARE

NOISE

Technologies

T-Mobile Adds New Top 5G Plans, T-Satellite and New 5-Year Price Locks

The new top unlimited plans, Experience More and Experience Beyond, shave some costs and add data and satellite options.

Just two years after expanding its lineup of cellular plans, T-Mobile this week announced two new plans that replace its Go5G Plus and Go5G Next offerings, refreshed its prepaid Metro line and wrapped them all in a promised five-year pricing guarantee.

To convert more subscribers, the carrier is also offering up to $800 to help customers pay off phone balances when switching from another carrier.

In a briefing with CNET, Jon Friar, president of T-Mobile’s consumer group, explained why the company is revamping and simplifying its array of mobile plans. «The pain point that’s out there over the last couple of years is rising costs all around consumers,» Friar said. «For us to be able to bring more value and even lower prices on [plans like] Experience More versus our former Go5G Plus is a huge win for consumers.»

The new plans went into effect April 23.

With these changes, CNET is already hard at work updating our picks for Best T-Mobile Plans, so check back soon for our recommendations.

More Experiences to define the T-Mobile experience

The top of the new T-Mobile postpaid lineup is two new plans: Experience More and Experience Beyond.

Experience More is the next generation of the Go5G Plus plan, which has unlimited 5G and 4G LTE access and unlimited Premium Data (download speeds up to 418Mbps and upload speeds up to 31Mbps). High-speed hotspot data is bumped up to 60GB from 50GB per month. The monthly price is now $5 lower per line than Go5G Plus.

The Experience More plan also gets free T-Satellite with Starlink service (the new name for T-Mobile’s satellite feature that uses Starlink’s constellation of satellites) through the end of 2025. Although T-Satellite is still officially in beta until July, customers can continue to get free access to the beta starting now. At the start of the new year, the service will cost $10 per month, a $5 drop from T-Mobile’s originally announced pricing. T-Satellite will be open to customers of other carriers for the same pricing beginning in July.

The new top-tier plan, Experience Beyond, also comes in $5 per line cheaper than its predecessor, Go5G Next. It has 250GB of high-speed hotspot data per month, up from 50GB, and more data when you’re traveling outside the US: 30GB in Canada and Mexico (versus 15GB) and 15GB in 215 countries (up from 5GB). T-Satellite service is included in the Experience Beyond plan.

However, one small change to the Experience plans affects that pricing: Taxes and fees, previously included in the Go5G Plus and Go5G Next prices, are now broken out separately. T-Mobile recently announced that one such fee, the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee, would increase up to 50 cents per month.

According to T-Mobile, the Experience Beyond rates and features will be «rolling out soon» for customers currently on the Go5G Next plan.

The Essentials plan is staying in the lineup at the same cost of $60 per month for a single line, the same 50GB of Premium Data and unlimited 5G and 4G LTE data. High-speed hotspot data is an optional $10 add-on, as is T-Satellite access, for $15 (both per month).

Also still in the mix is the Essentials Saver plan, an affordable option that has ranked high in CNET’s Best Cellphone Plans recommendations.

Corresponding T-Mobile plans, such as those for military, first responders and people age 55 and older are also getting refreshed with the new lineup.

T-Mobile’s plan shakeup is being driven in part by the current economic climate. Explaining the rationale behind the price reductions and the streamlined number of plans, Mike Katz, president of marketing, innovation and experience at T-Mobile told CNET, «We’re in a weird time right now where prices everywhere are going up and they’ve happened over the last several years. We felt like there was an opportunity to compete with some simplicity, but more importantly, some peace of mind for customers.»

Existing customers who want to switch to one of the new plans can do so at the same rates offered to new customers. Or, if a current plan still works for them, they can continue without changes (although keep in mind that T-Mobile earlier this year increased prices for some legacy plans).

Five years of price stability

It’s nearly impossible to think about prices these days without warily eyeing how tariffs and US economic policy will affect what we pay for things. So it’s not surprising to see carriers implement some cost stability into their plans. For instance, Verizon recently locked prices for three years on their plans.

Now, T-Mobile is building a five-year price guarantee for its T-Mobile and Metro plans. That pricing applies to talk, text and data amounts — not necessarily taxes and other fees that can fluctuate.

Given the uncertain outlook, it seems counterintuitive to lock in a longer rate. When asked about this, Katz said, «We feel like our job is to solve pain points for customers and we feel like this helps with this exact sentiment. It shifts the risk from customers to us. We’ll take the risk so they don’t have to.»

The price hold applies to new customers signing up for the plans as well as current customers switching to one. T-Mobile is offering the same deals and pricing to new and existing subscribers. Also, the five-year deal applies to pricing; it’s not a five-year plan commitment.

More money and options to encourage switchers

The promise of a five-year price guarantee is also intended to lure people from other carriers, particularly AT&T and Verizon. As further incentive, T-Mobile is offering up to $800 per line (distributed via a virtual prepaid Mastercard) to help pay off other carriers’ device contracts. This is a limited-time offer. There are also options to trade in old devices, including locked phones, to get up to four new flagship phones.

Or, if getting out of a contract isn’t an issue, T-Mobile can offer $200 in credit (up to $800 for four lines) to bring an existing number to the network.

Four new Metro prepaid plans

On the prepaid side, T-Mobile is rolling out four new Metro plans, which are also covered by the new five-year price guarantee:

• Metro Starter costs $25 per line per month for a family of four and there is no need to bring an existing number. (The cost is $105 the first month.)

• Metro Starter Plus runs $40 per month for a new phone, unlimited talk, text and 5G data when bringing an existing number. For $65 per month, new customers can get two lines and two new Samsung A15 phones. No autopay is required.

• Metro Flex Unlimited is $30 per line per month with autopay for four lines ($125 the first month) with unlimited talk, text and 5G data.

• Metro Flex Unlimited Plus costs $60 per line per month, then $35 for lines two and three and then lowers the price of the fourth line to $10 per month as more family members are added. Adding a tablet or smartwatch to an existing line costs $5. And streaming video, such as from the included Amazon Prime membership, comes through at HD quality.

See more: If you’re looking for phone plans, you may also be looking for a new cell phone. Here are CNET’s picks.