Poll: Would you buy a phone with ads if it were cheaper?

Android smartphones are usually available to purchase prepaid or on a contract. The former makes sense if you don’t want to be tied to a cellular network and don’t mind spending a big chunk of cash, while the latter route involves monthly payments that might be more manageable for some.

But what if you could buy a smartphone at a cheaper price, albeit with system ads? That’s the topic of our featured poll today, so cast your vote below and leave a comment if you’ve got more to say.

For the sake of this poll, let’s just say that the ad-supported phone has ads on the lock screen, in the notification shade, and in system apps. We’re also gonna say the ad-supported phone is ~20% cheaper than an otherwise-identical model without ads. So a phone that normally retails for $200 is $160 if you opt for ads, while a phone that usually sells for $400 would drop to $320 with ads.

We’ve seen this strategy play out before in the tech space though, as Amazon sells ad-supported Kindle ebook readers and Fire tablets at a cheaper price. For example, the Fire HD 8 tablet with ads retails for $89.99 versus $104.99 without ads. But are you okay with companies pulling this trick in the smartphone space?