So, are you still pondering whether or not to get an iPhone 4? Or were you unlucky enough to queue overnight and not get your hands on one?

Well those early adopters might be paying a high price with an 18 month contract and limited data, some of you who have chosen to wait might find a slightly better deal on the high street (and online) so which ones best so far? (hint: Tesco)

For ease, we’re only going to look at 18 month or less contracts. Unlike some people, we don’t like being tied in for two years, neither do we like the fact that apple updates these things every 12 months (ok we kid, we love it when apple does that, but not being able to upgrade is a harsh mistress!)

Vodafone

Vodafone have come in strong offering customers a range of plans from £35 a month to £50.

So lets break it down

You’ll notice we haven’t put three into the mix. Thats because the contracts three offer are 24 month, and not 18 month. Although three have put up a handy guide comparing the 24 month contracts of all carriers on their site, so if your interested, go on over to the three iPhone tariff comparison

Now the sweet spot for people tends to be around the £35 a month mark. With o2 that gets you the phone for £279, on Orange £319, on Tesco £299 and vodafone £269. So the cheapest phone is with Vodafone. But hold on, do you really want only 300 minutes with Vodafone and O2? Orange will give you 600, Tesco, 750.

Suddenly Vodafone drops out of the mix, 300 minutes is great, if you don’t use them. Unlimited texts on all but Orange make this a very alluring deal. If your a big texter, Vodafone comes back into the pot, and Orange drops out, since it doesn’t offer unlimited (although a respectable 750!)

The clear winner for the texter in you, is Vodafone

But what if you like making phone calls? With Vodafone gone, we also drop o2 thanks to the low minutes on offer from both leaving Orange and Tesco. £299 for the phone with Tesco, and £319 with Orange. Tesco offer both more Minutes, and Data than orange and have a lower upfront phone cost making them the clear winner.

What about an all rounder? Like to text, chat and surf? don’t really want to spend big bucks?

As an all round plan, O2 offer 500mb of data, Unlimited texts and 300 minutes. Thats fine as an all rounder, except you need to pay £279 for the handset! We’re not even going to throw Orange into this mix, it may offer more minutes, and data but £319 for the phone (considering what you don’t get for that!) make it a sore looser in this game.

Vodafone on the other hand take joint first place with Tesco. The same number of minutes as O2, but Unlimited texts and 1GB of data and the lowest initial purchase cost of £269 for an 18month contract.

But why joint first I hear you ask? Actually theres a really simple answer for this.

Did we mention the contract with Tesco is actually only 12 months?

Yup, you read that right, Tesco offer the largest number of Minutes too for a paltry £31 more than Vodafone, 1GB of data and that golden 12 month contract.

Tesco wins outright!

So, in short :
Big Texter – Vodafone (£35 a month with £269 for the phone)

Big Talker- Tesco (£35 a month with £299 for the phone)

Best all rounder (18 Month) – Vodafone

Best overall – Tesco (12 Month)

Update: We’ve noticed the image for the tables isn’t working – we’ll have it fixed soon!

Update 2: Fixed!