Back in October, Sprint announced a slightly upgraded “iPhone for Life” plan where it allowed customers to essentially lease the new iPhone over the course of a year before being eligible for an upgrade. This allowed users to upgrade annually as opposed to every two years. Well the good news is that if you wanted an iPad, Sprint has recently announced an “iPad for Life” plan.
Basically this will work in the same way as the iPhone for Life plan in which customers can lease themselves an iPad Air 2 or the iPad mini 3 from as low as $17 a month and will run for 24-months, with the pricing increasing depending on which model you are going for and how big of a storage you’re after.
At the end of the 24-month period, customers can choose to turn in the device for a newer model and continue the leasing plan, or hold onto the current model and just keep leasing it on a month-to-month basis. Alternatively they can always choose to keep the model by buying it outright from Sprint, or turn it in and end their contract.
Given that tablets are upgraded less frequently than smartphones, it’s actually a pretty intriguing idea. As it stands leasing the 16GB iPad mini 3 will cost you $408 over 24 months, versus buying it outright from Apple where it will cost $399. It’s a little bit more expensive to get it from Sprint, but if you like the idea of spread out payments, it’s one way to go about it.
Filed in . Read more about iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and Sprint.