May 24, 2016

iPhone 6S Plus and Other Apple Smartphones Coming to Tracfone

List of Apple iPhone Devices coming to Tracfone

Update 9/16 - Tracfone has released the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6 Plus for use on their prepaid network. See the links below to learn more.

For several years now consumers who wanted to use an iPhone with Tracfone had to go through the BYOP program. But that appears to be changing as Tracfone may be releasing several Apple phones in the near future!

iphone with tracfone
Apple iPhones are Coming to Tracfone
A number of new smartphones have shown up on Tracfone's tutorial site where they list interactive tutorials for current and future phones. Among the new phones listed are several Apple iPhones, including the latest and greatest model, the iPhone 6S Plus

We recently shared details on a number of new LG and Samsung Smartphones Coming to Tracfone, which you can check out to learn about those new phones, and Tracfone has already released several of them, including the LG Treasure and Samsung Galaxy S6 (follow the links to see our reviews of these phones).

Along with the Apple iPhones coming to Tracfone, there are a number of other phones from ZTE, Alcatel and Huawei also listed. We've already seen the ZTE ZMAX 2 available on HSN. We'll be working at sharing more information on these phones soon!

Let's take a look at which iPhones will be coming to Tracfone.

Apple iPhone's Coming to Tracfone:

There are at least six iPhones coming to Tracfone and they are the following:
  • iPhone 5S - Now Available (learn more)
  • iPhone 6 - Now Available (learn more)
  • iPhone 6 Plus - Now Available (learn more)
  • iPhone 6S
  • iPhone 6S Plus
  • iPhone SE
Instead of just one or two options, Tracfone appears to be delivering all of Apples smartphones going back to the 5S, which is the oldest model in this list. We are really impressed that Tracfone is going to be offering so many options, and we want to quickly cover some of the differences between the iPhone models listed above.

tracfone iphone
Size comparison for iPhones
The iPhone 6 brings a number of improvements over the iPhone 5S, most noticeably a screen size of 4.7" while the 5S only has a 4" screen.  When comparing the 6 to the 6S, there are more subtle changes and improvements. The camera on the 6S features 12 MP and can capture 4K video while the 6 is only 8 MP. Both the iPhone 6 and 6S have a 4.7" screen.

The 6 Plus is just about the same as the 6, but with a larger, 5.5" touchscreen that also has a higher resolution. The 6S vs the 6S Plus has the same setup, with the 6S Plus using a 5.5" screen.

 The last phone in the list is the iPhone SE, which was released about the same time as the 6S and shares various parts from the 6S, 6 and 5S. The SE has a 4" touchscreen, the same size as the 5S, but offers better resolution. It comes with the same fingerprint technology as the iPhone 6, but also has the same 12 MP camera as the 6S, which is one of the best in any smartphone.

While the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus may be the most impressive of the new Apple phones, the iPhone SE coming to Tracfone is what we are most excited about. Why? Because it is a 'budget' iPhone with most of the performance and features of the 6S, but with a much lower cost. An iPhone 6S retails for $649 for the 16GB version, while the iPhone SE starts at $399.

Buying one of these new iPhones from Tracfone isn't going to be cheap, and we suggest that those who are on a tight budget, but still want an iPhone with Tracfone, consider buying a refurbished iPhone on eBay and bring it to Tracfone's BYOP program. You can currently get a refurbished iPhone 5S for $189 on eBay. (It seems unlikely any of the Tracfone iPhones will retail for less than $200, and the iPhone 6S will be closer to $700)

Not all Tracfone customers are willing to try the BYOP program, which is why it is so exciting that Tracfone is releasing these Apple Smartphones. We know that for many, the BYOP program is just too confusing, or they don't want to deal with trying to find a compatible phone. Tracfone has made improvements to they BYOP program over the last year, but there are still occasional issues our readers report about phones that just won't work for one reason or another.

Buying an Apple smartphone directly through Tracfone will likely be much easier, although any long term Tracfone customer knows it is not always easy with Tracfone.

Tracfone is really speeding up their process for introducing new phones to use with their prepaid service, and we will be doing our best to keep you up to date with the latest news.

We hope you found this information useful, and leave a comment with any thoughts or questions.

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We recently posted the results to a survey we conducted, which included a question about our readers biggest complaint about Tracfone, so take a look if you're interested.

Thanks for visiting!

15 comments :

Disgruntled College Grad said...

Still waiting for the ZTE Scend and ZTE Citrine reviews :/

Katmandu said...

Are any of these new phones 3G compliant ?? If so, which ones ? TIA

Anonymous said...

November 2015, I did get an iPhone 5 refurbished from ebay, price was good, battery was half dead. My workaround is a battery+case where it doubles the thickness of the iphone, but has extra battery for backups, just push the button and the iphone is recharged in 30 minutes. Problem with my refurb 5 was that the battery sensor was always off, it would go from 85% to 5% and jump all over the range. Keeping a charging cable in the car is very important in these situations.

Anonymous said...

Walmart is NOW, right now selling the Tracfones' Total Wireless iPhone 6s for $649.00

Unknown said...

Just got the iPhone SE working yesterday! glad Tracfone is finally getting it all together and keeping up with the times!

Pat said...

I hope to hear from Tracfon Reviewer on the ZTE Max Duo that is coming to Tracfone. It has a 6" screen, Lollipop 5.1.1, Octa-core processor, 13mp cameraand 4G LTE.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/Turk/topic/5983708/1/

Unknown said...

so how, exactly, does this work? I read and read and I'm not understanding. How much does the phone cost to upgrade from the tiny LG phone I'm using now?

TracfoneReviewer Team said...

Well, these phones aren't available yet, so we don't know the pricing. But we expect it will be more than $600 for the iphone 6, 6s, 6 plus and 6s plus because these are all high end devices that retail for $600-900.

Mick B said...

Finally! I tried the BYOP (even through the SaveOnTracfone site - supposed to be compatible in my area) with 3 different 5s's. One was completely noncompatible. the two others required 2-3 hours on the phone with Tracfone support, resending me new sartup kits (twice!) to activate BYOP only to end with, "yes that phone is technically compatible with your network, but there's no towers in your area that we can use to support it" What???? I see Samsung S6 comes up as available for my zip code,I'm temped to save up some money and try it.

Paul W said...

We have two iPhone 4s models that we use thru TracFone's BYOP. Both are 3G compliant, as long as there is a 3G tower.

Paul W said...

Any reason why I can't upgrade to an iPhone SE now? Amazon has refurbished unlocked models now. Would they work? The 5 available via Target is a nonstarter; out of stock.

Paul W said...

Your note implies problems. I have an iPhone 4S and am considering upgrading to the SE. Was it difficult or the normal, occasional glitches with Tracfone?

Anonymous said...

Hi I know this comment is a whole year later. The iPhone SE has been released and it is available for $150 on tracfone.com. I am wanting to get this but I have 2 questions.
First, does the iPhone SE from Tracfone.com include triple minutes for life?

Second, will the iPhone SE from Tracfone.com be able to update to the latest ios?

Thanks,

Isobel Bibi said...

Supporting TracFone through the BYOP program is too confusing and too cumbersome. It is best to buy Apple's smartphone directly through TracFone.

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