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How much Passion will cost?

Phydeaux

Android Enthusiast
Nov 28, 2009
393
67
Lake Oswego, Or.
Here is a site that is offering a pre-order for a T-Mobile HTC Touch HD2 Passion Dragon Unlocked GSM Cell Phone - Popular Electron for the low-low price of $899.

Granted it is hard to use this as an accurate comparison for Passion, however I think it's fair to assume that Passion won't be sold for less than Droid or Eris, and will likely cost more.

With contract, Eris is $100, Droid is $200. The actual cost of the phones without contract reflect this $100 difference. The best price I found for Eris and Droid are $419 and $529 respectively.

Based on this it's fair to say that Verizon values a new contract at around $330 (very close to their new early-termination fee... coincidence? ;) )

So nailing down Passion's actual cost will give us an idea of how much we can expect to pay for it with contract. No doubt the $900 price-point for the GSM Dragon is inflated, but by how much?

For the sake of argument, let's assume that the cost is half way between Droid and the GSM Dragon. That will put the Passion at around $720. Subtracting the contract "rebate" we're looking at close to $400. That's pretty steep, but comparing that cost to what the iPhones were when they first released, it's not impossible to imagine.

On the other hand, it's not hard to imagine Verizon going with a $100-$200-$300 scale for their 3 Android phones.

I'll be the first to admit that I am basing these numbers on several speculations, but my guess is the Passion will be offered for around $350 w/contract. Any higher could turn away a lot of people.

What say you? Am I close or way off base?
 
I'm purely speculating, but I think it will cost in the $250-350 range on release day. That may help them ward off a bunch of droid returns, and increase their profits as many of us would sell a kidney to get it, so price isn't going to stop us. Once people like us have purchased the phone, and the first month of Droid purchases can no longer be returned, they will lower the price so it will appeal to the average consumer who goes into the store not knowing what the Passion is before it is shown to them.
The other possible scenario, in my mind, is they lower the price of the Droid to $100 or $150, and then price the Passion $200-250.
 
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I would say the same price as the Droid, $199 after mail in rebate. Being that the Passion seems destined to come out after the 30 days window for Day 1 (maybe even week 2) Droid buyers there is no worries about mass Droid returns as it will be beyond 30 days. Heck it might even be cheaper due to the lack of a physical keyboard. The Imagio and Touch Pro 2 are the same price. TP2 has a keyboard while Imagio has the newer operating system. If they price it above the Droid it probably wont sell.
 
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I think $100 over the Moto DROID is a safe bet (wherever the Moto DROID happens to be priced at). I don't think VZW will have a problem with mass returns because the estimated 300,000 Moto DROIDs that will be purchased by then were mostly people who watched the DROID commercials and other marketing or went into the store and saw attention drawn to it. They are not the people like us who check daily for information on new phone tech. So, as long as VZW doesn't have an equally large marketing campaign for the Passion and say it's better the DROID, there should be no return worries. Given the almost zero marketing of the Eris I think it's pretty clear there will be minimal Passion hub bub.

About the HD2 price, keep in mind T-mob (Uk) is somehow offering the $899 device for FREE with 2 year contract. Crazy huh?
 
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I haven't even thought about how much the Dragon/Passion will cost, until I walk into VZW.
If its a big enough monster, I will shell out the dough.
I handed over $400 for an iPhone 2G (this was before the big Apple pricecut)

I guess I could say I would be surprised to walk into VZW, and see the Dragon/Passion for 199.99.
Don't expect this to happen since its suppose to have a bigger screen/processor etc than the "Droid"
Again,
Don't know what to expect. I will just find out.
 
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I tend to agree. The Passion will likely be closer to the $400 mark than the $200 mark.

Verizon's market share is such that it doesn't need to offer a deep price cut for their flagship smartphone.

Imagine how many ticked off Droid owners would be out there if the phone is offered for $199.

Android_LIFE, what price would it take for you to reconsider buying the phone? $500 or more?
 
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It really comes down to what this future hTc device brings to the table.
I can't put a price on a device if it has a knockout architecture between the software & hardware. I'm really looking to see how well hTc makes the two work together.
I myself would shell out $400.00... (I did when the iPhone 2G first came out)
(ONLY if it came down to it, not that I want to pay that much again or anything)

If I were to walk into VZW, and start playing with it, and it just BLOWS the top of my head off...I won't even be thinking of the price, but instead I would be thinking, How could I live without this device? I must have it.

As long as the price doesn't get too wild, I won't even hesitate.
My brother has the Moto Droid.
for $200.00, I think that is a deal for what that device delivers.
 
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Any site doing "presales" right now is not legit at all. They are preselling them for ridiculous amounts and then when the phone is sold they buy it and sell it to you for like a $200 profit.

Not sure what you mean by "not legit". These sites are selling unlocked phones for use in the US. Sure they'll cost more, but that's the premium you pay for getting a phone ahead of its US release.

HTC announced that HD2 is scheduled for US release early 2010 but didn't mention which carrier would get them (the phones are GSM so it can only be AT&T or T-Mobile).

If you're right about the $200 premium, then that would put the phones at around $700, very close to my estimate of what the Passion will retail for.
 
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I think this device will cost $199. I can't really see it costing more considering it'll want to compete with the droid as well as the 3gs.

I agree. At most...$249 (after rebate). Anything above that and I think it will turn people away. They would not release this phone just to satisfy a tiny niche (us), who would be willing to spend more. They would want to sell as many as they can, and at $249 it would still attract Moto Droiders.

You would have to figure most people going to vzw.com or into a corporate store would not be aware of the features of this phone and a high price would immediately turn them away. We on this forum (well informed buyers) are definitely in the minority as far as phone purchasers go.
 
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I agree. At most...$249 (after rebate). Anything above that and I think it will turn people away. They would not release this phone just to satisfy a tiny niche (us), who would be willing to spend more. They would want to sell as many as they can, and at $249 it would still attract Moto Droiders.

People who purchased the Moto Droid will not get it at the reduced price. They locked themselves into a new contract when they bought the Droid and would have to pay full retail for Passion.
 
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Well, you know because it is an HTC, it will likely be near the $300 mark. The Sony phone with the same specs was aiming to be at least $300 w/ contract. We'll have to wait to see if it's better than the DROID. One thing going for it already is the Sense UI mated to Android 2.x. I'm not convinced about the Snapdragon. On paper, it looks robust, but the Acer shipping with the Snap is under-clocked for battery life. I doubt that the HTC will come with the full 1 GHz, since Android isn't that intensive (the HD2 running WinMo has a 5-6 hour talk time tops?)

It is unlikely that the HTC will come with a 4.3" screen either. There's some speculation that the next HTC Android phone will not share the HD2's hardware other than the processor. Even if it did, wouldn't make sense to pitch an 800x480 screen (no matter how big) against the DROID's 854x480 which is a truer 16:9 format (and more resolute). The fact that it's 3.7" display makes the image appear more crisp (just like screen sizes of 1080p TV -- a 42" 1080p is going to look sharper than a 55".)

That being said, GLBenchmark tests for the HD2 running the Snapdragon/Imageon GPU was blasted out of the water by an OMAP3/SGX GPU, doubling the Snap's frames result, with Snap being only superior in the integers test for CPU performance. Everywhere else though, OMAP3/SGX was hands down, clearly better at rendering. Don't know why, even though Snap looks good on paper. And HD2 is supposedly running at the full 1GHz, I believe. Might be worse for an under-clocked Snap.

We'll have to wait and see. Tests of the QSD8250 (HD2) showed 300% improvement over the 7201 (TouchHD). The Sense UI and other apps tended to bog down the other HTC Android phones. So, a 300% improvement would be welcomed for Qualcomm powered Android phones.
 
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People who purchased the Moto Droid will not get it at the reduced price. They locked themselves into a new contract when they bought the Droid and would have to pay full retail for Passion.

I gave in & got the Moto Droid. My Storm was driving me up the wall.

I plan on adding a line to my primary plan and just sharing the minutes between the Moto Droid & Passion. That way, I still get the Passion at the 2yr contract price, & not full retail...which I wouldn't even want to imagine.
 
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That being said, GLBenchmark tests for the HD2 running the Snapdragon/Imageon GPU was blasted out of the water by an OMAP3/SGX GPU, doubling the Snap's frames result, with Snap being only superior in the integers test for CPU performance. Everywhere else though, OMAP3/SGX was hands down, clearly better at rendering. Don't know why, even though Snap looks good on paper. And HD2 is supposedly running at the full 1GHz, I believe. Might be worse for an under-clocked Snap.

Lack of optimized drivers?

I plan on adding a line to my primary plan and just sharing the minutes between the Moto Droid & Passion. That way, I still get the Passion at the 2yr contract price, & not full retail...which I wouldn't even want to imagine.

That's not a bad idea for the add-a-line price of $9.99/month, but you have to carry the $30/month data plan on each line. Ugh.
 
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That being said, GLBenchmark tests for the HD2 running the Snapdragon/Imageon GPU was blasted out of the water by an OMAP3/SGX GPU, doubling the Snap's frames result, with Snap being only superior in the integers test for CPU performance. Everywhere else though, OMAP3/SGX was hands down, clearly better at rendering. Don't know why, even though Snap looks good on paper. And HD2 is supposedly running at the full 1GHz, I believe. Might be worse for an under-clocked Snap..

Most every app does not use glx it uses CPU. Anything from making a call to browsing to multitasking. And in these tasks CPU benchmark (MIPS) is king. Unfortunately, I believe it's also the case that Android has very very few 3d accelerated games.

Take a look at the CPU benchmarks for snapdragon vs. iphone etc
SNAPDRAGON @ 1GHZ = 2100 MIPS

Samsung Omnia @ 624 MHZ = 800 MIPS

Iphone 3GS @ 600 MHZ = 1200+ MIPS

INTEL ATOM @ 1.6 GHZ = 3800+ MIPS

source: http://www.modaco.com/content/toshi...ow-powerfull-is-snapdragon-very/#entry1037998

Also take a look at this unbiased database of CPU performance benchmarks: GLBenchmark 1.1 Result Database

The top phones are ALL snapdragons. Personally, I have a 46" Samsung local dimming LCD and a PS3 for my gaming needs. I want my phone to kick butt at apps.
 
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Most every app does not use glx it uses CPU. Anything from making a call to browsing to multitasking. And in these tasks CPU benchmark (MIPS) is king. Unfortunately, I believe it's also the case that Android has very very few 3d accelerated games.

Take a look at the CPU benchmarks for snapdragon vs. iphone etc
SNAPDRAGON @ 1GHZ = 2100 MIPS

Samsung Omnia @ 624 MHZ = 800 MIPS

Iphone 3GS @ 600 MHZ = 1200+ MIPS

INTEL ATOM @ 1.6 GHZ = 3800+ MIPS

source: How powerfull is Snapdragon? Very! - WinMo @ MoDaCo

Also take a look at this unbiased database of CPU performance benchmarks: GLBenchmark 1.1 Result Database

The top phones are ALL snapdragons. Personally, I have a 46" Samsung local dimming LCD and a PS3 for my gaming needs. I want my phone to kick butt at apps.

The rate-limiting steps in making a call or connecting to the internet is not the processors. You really need a 1 GHz processor to help you make a call or connect to the internet? I agree that the integer performance of the Snap is unrivaled. But at the end of the day, whether you're playing a 3-D game, a 2-D game, rendering the widgets for Sense UI, etc. you're asking the phone to push graphics. That's why these phones have enormous screens. Any animation that the phone is required to do is a product of CPU/GPU performance. But hey, if you want to do multiplication all day, or figure out what the tip is for your dinner bill, yeah, I'll take a 1 Gig Snap for that!
 
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