Next-gen smartphone prices revealed

The Gadget Show  Friday 25 February 2011

Yours for £520 SIM-free

We saw a lot of exciting new phones at Mobile World Congress last week, but for the most part it’ll still be a good few months until we start seeing them on the shelves.

However, that hasn’t stopped a few online retailers from starting to put the latest smartphone contenders up for pre-order, giving us a clearer picture of just what we’ll be required to pay down the line.

One of the highlights of MWC was undoubtedly the Samsung Galaxy S II, and it’s made an appearance on Play.com priced at a formidable £650 SIM-free, with the proposed launch date listed as March 31.

Motorola’s powerful Atrix won’t come in nearly as pricey, with Expansys having listed it at £475 – though it later removed the price from the Atrix’ pre-order page.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, meanwhile, will set you back £520 from Play, and has a launch date of March 28, while the LG Optimus 3D will be out a month later and is slightly cheaper too at £515 on both Play and Expansys.

The latter is also the place to go if you want to put down a marker on the white iPhone 4. Apple’s long-promised handset didn’t appear at MWC, of course, and hasn’t been spotted anywhere else for that matter, and it’s been given a whopping £920 SIM-free pre-order price. As you’d expect, the proposed launch date remains listed as unknown.