The biggest iPhone 13 feature isn't on a spec sheet. It's in the trade-in offers - CNET

Sep 16, 2021

Apple went so far as to acknowledge carrier discounts during its presentation on Tuesday with Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of iPhone product marketing, noting that there are "some fantastic offers from Apple and our partners" when mentioning the pricing of the iPhone 13. .

AT&T is offering up to $1,000 off the iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max and up to $700 off the iPhone 13 and Mini, essentially making the iPhone 13 Pro or 13 Mini free.

Both carriers will need you to trade in a fairly recent phone and be on an unlimited plan (in Verizon's case, one of its current higher-tier unlimited offerings such as Do More, Get More and Play More or older Above Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited plans) to get full credit.

If you're buying from Apple and trading in an iPhone X or newer, the company will give you a credit of at least $200 from Apple towards the price of the phone and a minimum of $200 back from T-Mobile.

If you have Magenta Max and are trading in an iPhone 12 Pro Max you'll get $790 back from Apple, with T-Mobile kicking in an additional $500 through bill credits for a total savings of $1,290. 

More directly, T-Mobile is offering up to $500 off the price of any iPhone 13 series phone, so long as you finance on an installment plan and trade in an eligible device

On top of the upgrade offers today, some carriers like T-Mobile have added new incentives to keep people tied to their networks for even longer periods of time, well past the iPhone 12 or 13. 

And because so many of these deals require a higher-tier unlimited plan, Sag notes that the carriers are "happier to keep these customers rather than letting them go to someone else who has more aggressive iPhone offers."