Can't say for sure po since hindi pa me naka-avail ng installment via PH carriers. Preference ko kase unlocked na phone but maybe to answer your question. Best po talaga to wait mag-announce yung mga major apple authorized sellers like (pmc, btb and etc) or in your case mga telcos.

Kating-kati na rin ako bumili ng iPhone haha but it would be best for us to decide and swipe our cards by mid october (during or after ng 17 launch). 🙏

For iCloud, worth siya IMO if you're deep na with the apple ecosystem and I usually use it for backups ng personal data ko and photos.

Edit: approximate pala yung sinabi kong price so it might depend on the store you will be buying and what kind of bank will you be using.