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Not the same thing. The equivalent is: buy an i5 but unless you pay a monthly fee, it only runs at an i3 speed.

my point is that you buy an i3, it's an i5 with features artificially turned off because they have to sells i3 to justify the higher model prices.

so I'm saying it's even WORSE than being able to pay to upgrade. as it's more wasteful

Or it is low-grade crystal which cannot run on i5 speeds. Who knows.