Ruslan's Gadget Corner

Why the phones got more expensive in March

Many customers ask me this since the 17th of March and I answer it forty times a day, so here it is once for everybody.

Phones come from abroad and they are bought in dollars. Before March the dollar was 5 som. Now it is 8.40. A phone that cost our boss $60 at the wholesale was 300 som, now it is more than 500. The boss did not become greedy, the arithmetic became bigger.

Here is what I tell people at the counter:

• The cheapest new phone in the shop today: 520 som. A simple Nokia, no camera, a torch.
• The mid range with 2 MP camera and a card slot: 900-1,100.
• The one with the slide and the click: 1,300 (yes, I know).
• Second-hand: from 250, but ask me first, I check it with a magnet and a screwdriver.

If your salary is in som and your phone is in dollars, buy the simple one and keep it for five years. It will survive. The shiny ones are for people who are paid in dollars (and I see them, they pay and don't look at the price, like in a dream).