Best iPhone 16 Pro Max Deals

Apple said you can get up to $1,000 off the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

But which iPhone deal is the best?

I analyzed all the deals from Apple, AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, and Verizon to find you the best deal that will save you the most money on your new iPhone 16 Pro Max.

And I found the #1 best deal.

But before I tell you what the best deal is, you need to understand that getting the best deal on the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts by getting the most money for your old phone. 

Getting the most money for your old iPhone

You have three options for getting money for your old iPhone:

1. You can trade it to Apple.
2. You can sell it online on sites such as Swappa, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace.
3. You can trade it in to a carrier. 

Which option gives you the most money?

Here’s a breakdown of the different values you can get for your old phone by trading it in to Apple, selling it on Swappa, or doing a trade-in deal with one of the carriers:

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And you can clearly see the carrier deals give you the most money for your old phone. 

Take the iPhone 13 Pro Max, for example. You’d get around $400 from trading it in to Apple or selling it online. 

But from the carriers, you’d get between $800 and $1,400 of total credit, which is double or triple the value of your old phone. 

Boost Mobile’s deal specifically gives you the most amount of total credit. 

That’s because Boost Mobile is giving all new customers $1,000 off the iPhone 16 Pro Max with no trade-in required. 

And if you do decide to trade your device in, you get $1,000 off PLUS the trade-in value for your device from Apple. 

That’s how you can get the most money for your old phone, and how you can get enough credit to fully cover the cost of your new iPhone 16 Pro Max from Boost Mobile.

And here are the trade-in values for older phones, going back to the 7-year-old iPhone X.

So the carrier deals are clearly best, right?

Wrong.

Whenever someone gives you something for free, you have to ask, “what is the catch?”

There are two catches with the carrier deals.

Catch number one is these deals require you to be on specific plans. And not just any plans –– the carriers’ most expensive plans. 

Catch number two is you don’t get the trade-in credit up front. No. It turns out that on T-Mobile and Verizon, you will get Apple’s trade-in value for your iPhone up front, and then you get the remainder of the credit applied as monthly bill credits over 24 or 36 months. 

And with AT&T and Boost Mobile, you will get all of the credits applied as bill credits over 36 months. 

So to get your full $1,000 dollars of trade-in credit, you are effectively trapped as a customer on the carrier’s most expensive rate plan for the next three years.

You need to ask yourself, is it worth it? How much would I pay over those three years? And if I am going to pick a deal, which deal is best?

I told you at the beginning of the video I found the best deal on the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

And I will show it to you in just a second. 

But first, here are the three year cost totals for one line on AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile and Verizon. I’m using an iPhone 13 Pro Max as an example trade-in device. 

And of these deals, Boost Mobile is easily the most affordable offer. It saves you between $500 and $1600 over 3 years compared to the other carriers. 

But it’s not the best offer. 

Because what would happen if you traded your phone in to Apple and purchased an unlocked iPhone 16 Pro Max instead?

An unlocked phone is any phone that isn’t tied to any carrier or contract. 

You’d be free to use the phone on any plan from any carrier you choose. 

And suddenly, instead of being tied to one of the big carrier’s most expensive plans, you trade in an iPhone 13 Pro Max for $400 of credit from Apple and then pick a more affordable plan.

And this is where you can unlock some real savings. 

For example, you may consider Visible’s $25 unlimited plan. 

This comes with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, truly unlimited high-speed data, and truly unlimited hotspot data at 5 Mbps.

Visible is owned by Verizon and uses the Verizon network to provide coverage.

And suddenly if you go with a plan such as Visible’s $25 unlimited plan, you save yourself an extra $500 over the Boost Mobile promotion.

In fact, any cell phone plan you choose that is $39 or less per month will save you money over Boost Mobile.

And any cell phone plan you choose that is $54 or less per month will save you money over AT&T.

What are the best cell phone plans at those price points?

It turns out I just uploaded a video going over the best plans at every price from $5 to $100, so watch that video for some excellent picks. 

But this still isn’t the best deal here.

It turns out there is one even more affordable option. 

And that is Boost Mobile’s “New 5G Phone. Free 5G Service” promotion.

The deal is if you buy an iPhone 16 Pro Max from Boost Mobile at full price, it comes with a free year of service on Boost Mobile’s $25 Unlimited Plan.

The best part, and the reason I am mentioning this at all, is the iPhone 16 Pro Max will be able to be unlocked immediately after you activate it on Boost Mobile.

So worst case scenario, you just got an unlocked iPhone that came with a free year of service on Boost Mobile. You can test out the Boost Mobile network if you want to, or you can phone on whichever other carrier you prefer.

And best case scenario, you use Boost Mobile as your primary carrier, you sell your old phone for cash and suddenly you save around $220 over the Visible Base plan.

This makes Boost Mobile’s free year of service promotion the most affordable option here.

Before we move on to family plans and the best options for 2, 3, 4, and 5 lines, I can already hear you typing… “But Stetson, these prepaid plans are worse than the postpaid plans. They don’t have unlimited data, they are deprioritized, and they have worse coverage.”

You bring up some good points. 

It’s true that many prepaid plans come with a set amount of high-speed data before slowing your speeds to 512 Kbps. 

However, you can also find prepaid plans that do give you truly unlimited high-speed data. 

And yes, it is true that many prepaid plans are deprioritized, which means you may temporarily have slower data speeds when the network is busy. That said, you can also find prepaid plans with priority data. 

US Mobile includes priority data on Verizon and offers a priority data add-on on AT&T. There are also prepaid prepaid from Visible, AT&T, and T-Mobile that all include priority data.

And yes, it is true that prepaid carriers do have less coverage than the big carriers. But not much that much less. The areas prepaid carriers miss out on are areas with partner coverage. These typically small pockets around the United States where instead of building their own cellular networks, the big carriers partner with regional providers to offer service in that area.

For example, AT&T partners with UScellular for coverage in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin.

For some people, such as those living in Iowa and Wisconsin, having access to these partner coverage areas may be important. 

But for others, the vast coverage of the native network will likely be enough. 

So which of these single-line deals is actually is the #1 best deal I touted at the beginning of this video?

Well, “Best” is subjective.

If you prefer to finance your phone and don’t want to pay a large upfront cost, then Boost Mobile’s $1,000 off deal is your most affordable option. AT&T’s deal is a great runner up. 

If you prefer the most affordable option, then you may consider trading your phone in to Apple, getting an unlocked iPhone 16 Pro Max, and using it on an affordable plan such as Visible Base or even US Mobile’s $15 5GB plan.

As for my personal #1 pick, and the deal I will be signing up for, it is Boost Mobile’s free year of service deal. 

I was going to buy an unlocked iPhone 16 Pro Max from Apple anyway, and the fact that Boost Mobile’s deal effectively gives you an unlocked iPhone with a free year of service included makes it a no-brainer for me. 

But what about family plans? We know the carriers offer great multi-line discounts, so how do the promos stack up when you have two, three, four, or five lines? 

It turns out something surprising happens when we get to five lines. 

For two lines though, the best deals remain the same.

Your most affordable options are Boost Mobile’s free year of service deal, getting an iPhone unlocked from Apple and considering a prepaid carrier such as Visible, Boost Mobile’s iPhone deal, and AT&T’s iPhone deal.

For three lines, things change. 

Boost Mobile’s free year of service deal is still the most affordable, and getting an unlocked iPhone from Apple is still in second, each saving your family between $600 and around $3,800.

But your third most affordable option now going with AT&T deal on the Unlimited Starter SL plan. 

Moving on to four lines, and while Boost’s offer is still the most affordable, AT&T’s deal is now the second most affordable. 

If you have a family with four lines, considering going with AT&T is definitely not a bad idea. 

And in third place, for around a couple hundred dollars extra over 3 years, you have the unlocked option from Apple. 

However, when we get to five lines, something surprising happens. 

AT&T’s deal with the Unlimited Starter SL plan suddenly jumps up and becomes your most affordable option. 

The combination of AT&T’s 5 line discount and getting $1,000 off with a trade-in make this promo the best option available. 

Now, some of you may even be thinking of switching cell phone carriers to take advantage of an iPhone 16 Pro Max deal. 

Maybe this is because you want to get a special offer for new customers, maybe switching will lower your cell phone bill, or maybe you simply want to switch to a new carrier for better coverage and faster data speeds.

But before you switch, how can you tell what carrier provides the best coverage and the fastest speeds in your area?

And how can you compare the new carrier you’re thinking of switching to to the one you currently have?

The answer is to use the free Coverage Map application. 

If you go into the Search tab, you can enter any state, city, county, or ZIP code, and instantly see how the big three carriers compare. 

You can see what percentage of your area each carrier covers, what their median download speeds our, and a calculated reliability score. 

Scrolling down on the page and you will find a more detailed breakdown of great, good, and poor reception, as well as the option to view the exact percentages.

You can even see a breakdown of the median download and upload speeds in your area so you will know which carrier has the best performance.

You can also use the Maps tab to browse the crowdsourced speed test map. This shows you exactly what data speeds people are reporting on the different carriers in your area. And the Best view instantly colors the map by the carrier with the fastest speeds in each square.

And there is also a signal strength map that allows you to compare the coverage footprints between the carriers and see what reception quality will be like in your area.

Download the free Coverage Map app right now at the link in the video description. 

Please do me a favor and share this video with one friend if you enjoyed it because it supports my channel.

I’m Stetson, and I hope that’s helpful.