Boost Mobile has launched a deal on the newly announced Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. The device was announced by Samsung on March 17th with a suggested retail price of $449.99. Boost Mobile has it available on pre-order right now for just $199.99. But that's not all, Boost Mobile may be throwing in several extra freebies for that price, including a free month of service on an unlimited plan. Let's take a closer look at the offer details.
$199.99 Samsung Galaxy A53 5G With A Free Month Of Service Offer Details
The $199.99 Samsung Galaxy A53 5G offer is an online-only deal that can be found by visiting Boost Mobile's homepage and scrolling down a bit. This looks like a new lines only deal. Boost is advertising the phone as being available for $250 off plus shoppers get a free $50 e-gift card. Boost says the e-gift card can only be used towards a monthly plan service fee. I just went through the checkout process for the deal to see exactly what it includes. Here's what I found:
- The deal requires the use of the promo code $250OFFSAMSUNGA53, but it gets applied automatically when you start the checkout process
- Boost is supposedly throwing in a free SIM card, normally valued at $9.99, but more on this later. Boost does not specify if it's an AT&T or T-Mobile based SIM
- The eGift card may automatically be applied at checkout to Boost Mobile's $50 service plan that includes 35GB of high-speed data before throttling (more on this in a moment)
Boost Mobile's $50 plan also includes unlimited talk and text with 12GB of hotspot usage. On the checkout page, Boost says after the high-speed data allotment gets consumed, data speeds are throttled to 2G. I believe this is incorrect though. Months back, Boost increased the throttled data speeds on the plan to 512Kbps. Boost Mobile also has an FAQs page up that specifically states speeds are at 512Kbps once throttled.
Going through the checkout process I experienced a huge discrepancy. When I first started the checkout process, on page one, I was shown the total price of the offer would be $207.99. However, when I filled out my shipping and billing information and clicked next, I was shown a price of $283.78 (see images below) and was being charged for the full price of the $50 plan. Despite what was shown to me on the first checkout page, it appeared I was also being charged $9.99 for the SIM card on the final checkout page. So I'm not sure if Boost's offer is partially broken right now, or a flat-out mistake by Boost as the offer just went up. I've emailed a Boost representative for comment on the discrepancy and will update this post once it all gets straightened out. Update: 03/21/2022 - A Boost Mobile representative has stated that the site and discrepancy have been fixed. The picture shown below on the left is correct. The SIM card and first month of service are both free at checkout, and there is no longer a discrepancy in what is seen between the two checkout pages.
The prices include additional charges for sales tax and shipping.
Boost Gets Aggressive With Online Deals
Despite whatever is going on with the SIM card and plan charges, this is still at least a pretty good launch deal from Boost. Boost Mobile is starting to become more aggressive with its online offers. Just yesterday, BestMVNO reported that Boost Mobile is offering the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G online for free to switchers. Boost does not have much of a history of offering free phones online or other aggressive deals. The brand has been bleeding customers ever since DISH took it over. These moves may be an attempt to buck that trend.
I pre-ordered from them and it still hasn’t shipped yet and I’m wondering why they charged for shipping when they have free shipping. It’s not like the phone will get here any faster than normal
Is it known if the phone will be locked? Also, may this be combined with their new customer $100 / year deal?