Australian iPhone 8 plans compared: what price should you expect to pay?

We should be well and truly unsurprised when this time of year rolls around and the tech world starts flipping its lid about Apple's next big iPhone release. The iPhone 8 is on its way.

Just to add a little bit of jazz to the mix, the hype has been confused and intensified by expectations of an iPhone X being released around the same time. While plenty of what we "know" of the iPhone X, it's looking to be a bit of a wildcard, but it's the iPhone 8 and its Plus-sized sibling the iPhone 8 Plus that represents the annual incremental upgrade of the flagship series.

At this stage, we're fairly certain that what we thought would be the iPhone 8 will now be called the iPhone X, and what we had assumed would be dubbed the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus will instead jump straight up to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

If you're after all the rumours and hype in one neat place, you can check out our iPhone 8 news page, but in short, we think it's going to be a curvier, sharper-screened, wireless charging version of the existing iPhone 7, but with a back-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Well, how much will this upgrade set you back? As per usual, we've been told nothing at all by Apple themselves so far, so we've taken a look at previous years prices and market trends and brought to you our best guess as to what you'll be expected to pay for the iPhone 8.

iPhone 8 price: how much will it cost?

We've seen a steady climb in iPhone flagship prices, excepting the budget iPhone SE they offered up last year, and we can only expect this trend to continue.

While we're not expecting the new iPhone 8 to sport the same tremendous price as we are with the iPhone X, we're likely to still see a bump on top of the iPhone 7's $1,079 starting cost. On launch, the iPhone 6 price started at $869 and the iPhone 6S after it opened at $1,079, which is about a 24% increase, although this may be attributed to a somewhat turbulent US and Australian dollar.

While we're not expecting quite as big a jump as 24%, we think there's a good chance it will rise, and start somewhere in the $1,099 - $1,199 range. If this is sounding too steep for you, it could be worth waiting for Australia's Black Friday sales to roll around and (hopefully) knock down the prices on some of Apple's newest handsets.

When can I buy the iPhone 8?

Ever since 2012, the newest iPhone has been launched in September, and based on the growing hype and upcoming keynote scheduled for September 12, this year is looking no different. What's more, our retailer insiders have told us that pre-orders should kick off on the following Friday, September 19, and we imagine stock should flow soon afterwards.

The only glitch in the system this year around is that ominous iPhone X prospect that's loitering around. If Apple is keen on launching all three devices at once, then there's a chance we could expect delays to the regular September punctuality that we've experienced thus far.

TechRadar predicts the best iPhone 8 deal

While there will always be hordes of people keen on rushing out to grab the latest handset outright, a good amount of us will still want to wait for a reasonable contract plan to score our latest Apple prize. Based on what we've seen so far and what we expect, this is our best call on what the cheapest iPhone 8 plan will be.

iPhone 8 | 1GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $79 per month Considering iPhone 7 plans are only now hovering around the $65 a month mark for the lowest-tier plans, we're not expecting the cheapest iPhone 8 plans to drop much below $79 a month. There's always going to be carriers offering slightly different perks here, but based on current iPhone plan pricing we're going to assume that either Optus or Virgin will be offering the lowest contract rate. Total cost over 24 months is $1,896

Obviously this plan won't suit everyone, 1GB doesn't stretch far, even if you do have a plan that provides you with data cap-free music entertainment like the major carriers do. But expect to be paying plenty more for the premium plans, exponentially so as the data cap climbs.

As always, there are usually better deals on SIM-only plans combined with an outright handset, so if you're able to buy the phone for its $1,099 - $1,199 cost, then that is an investment worth making.