T-Mobile’s free iPhone 16 Pro deal may have leaked early

Almost everything about the iPhone 16 leaked repeatedly in the past few months, with one big exception. We hardly got any iPhone 16 price leaks, which is actually good news. The lack of rumors warning of imminent price hikes suggests that Apple will keep the iPhone 15 price structure in place for another year.

There is one wrinkle in all of this. Apple might change the iPhone 16 Pro’s starting price without technically increasing it. There might not be a $999 128GB iPhone 16 Pro available this year. Instead, the cheapest iPhone 16 Pro may be the 256GB model, which would remain at $1,099.

Apple did the same thing with the iPhone 15 Pro Max last year, and the handset is one of the most popular models in the iPhone 15 lineup.

With only a few days to go until Apple unveils the iPhone 16, T-Mobile accidentally published a placeholder deal for the new handsets. It suggests that the carrier will continue to offer qualifying buyers a free iPhone 16 Pro once preorders start. This would be in line with T-Mobile’s “iPhone 15 Pro on us” offer from last September that let you save up to $1,000 on a new iPhone.

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A Redditor shared T-Mobile’s message that indicates the “iPhone on us” offer is returning for the iPhone 16 series.

This is seemingly a mistake from the carrier, as the offer contains placeholder information. According to the leaked placeholder, the iPhone “NPI” will be available for preorder on “September XX at Xam PT.” The promo also uses iPhone 15 Pro imagery instead of official iPhone 16 images.

This indicates that T-Mobile will be ready to send out the actual “iPhone 16 Pro on us” deal to its customers as soon as Apple announces the new handsets on September 9th.

The iPhone 15 Pro promo lets you save up to $1,000 on an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max with an eligible trade-in. You must also be a Go5G Plus or Go5G Next subscriber, as the savings will apply as bill credits.

Under last year’s terms, you’d get a free 128GB iPhone 15 Pro, assuming you qualified for the full $1,000 discount. Buying any other iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max storage tier would have meant paying the difference over 24 months.

That means only one of the seven iPhone 15 Pro options would technically be “on us,” the 128GB iPhone 15 Pro.

If T-Mobile is offering the same deal for the iPhone 16 Pro, it implies that at least one iPhone 16 Pro option will be available for free to buyers trading in a device that nets them the full discount. Therefore, we’re looking at two possibilities. If the iPhone 16 Pro price starts at $999, T-Mobile will offer buyers a maximum discount of $1,000. If the iPhone 16 Pro starts at $1,099, as explained above, the max discount should go up to $1,100.