Pay Apple's RRP, or maybe £30, £50 less.

Contract. Pay a small premium over the phone's value,

but effectively get interest-free benefits and a mobile plan.

That means the total cost of ownership is often very similar.

The iPhone Air isn't behaving like that.

Apple still wants £900 for the 256GB model,

but Costco is selling the same phone for £979.99.

And there have been even steeper discounts from some retailers over the past few months.

The problem is that EE and the other networks don't finance Costco's discounted price.

They finance something much closer to Apple's list price.

So you're effectively paying monthly for a £999 phone

when you could have bought it for £889.80, or even less during promotions.

That's why the maths suddenly looks terrible.

For someone like you,

I'd be looking for a phone that's worth £999.

I'd be looking at it this way.

Buy the phone outright.