Mobile Phone

[Electric_Andy]

I would echo the unlocked handset and then buy a SIM that best suits your usage. Many people pay for far more than they actually need. A standard smart handset with a good camera can be had new for about £100. If you are in a strong signal area, you have more choice as to which provider you go with. But maybe check first what the coverage is like. You can also get good deals with contract SIM deals (12 or sometimes 24 months) which might be better if your usage is fairly constant. The advantage I've found with this is, when the contract is up for renewal, you can phone the provider to cancel and they'll usually give you a better deal than standard advertised ones, just to keep you as a customer.

For example I get 600 minutes, 8GB data and unlimited texts for £13/month. I was only offered this because I threatened to leave 3 mobile due to more attractive offers elsewhere.

 

[swee'pea99]

Motorola, eBay, Basic 321 package from Three:

(This does assume you're a relatively light user. I barely use the phone, do all my messaging via Telegram or Facebook Messenger and don't browse much when I'm out & about. A tenner top up lasts me three or four months.)

 

[Glasgow44]

Thanks everyone so far for their response. I've been shopping around but haven't signed up to anything yet. I'm definitely just going to get another handset as the one I have has a broken screen and the camera doesn't work. Is anyone with three?

J

 

[Andrew_P]

Thanks everyone so far for their response. I've been shopping around but haven't signed up to anything yet. I'm definitely just going to get another handset as the one I have has a broken screen and the camera doesn't work. Is anyone with three?

J

EE will still be charging you for the phone call them and find out what deal they will do to stay on sim only. I got a great deal 50% off their normal price

EE are expensive for phones my £150 phone would have had an end of contract price of £430.

If you need credit for the phone Tesco Mobile charge full Retail but zero interest over the number of months you want.

Easily get a couple of Gig data and decent minutes for a tenner or under

 

[PaulSB]

Thanks everyone so far for their response. I've been shopping around but haven't signed up to anything yet. I'm definitely just going to get another handset as the one I have has a broken screen and the camera doesn't work. Is anyone with three?

J

I’ve been through this agony for the last few weeks as my five year old iPhone is failing badly. My experience is this.

1. Unlocked and sim free is the best option

2. The three best value smartphones on the market are the Huawei P Smart, the Moto G6 play and the Moto G6 Plus. All my research heads in this direction.

The Which? review of the Huawei is rather average

“If it cost any more, the Huawei P Smart would be an outright disappointment. As it is, it's simply an unimpressive (but certainly not terrible) phone at a sensible price. It's not going to set pulses racing, but it might tempt you if you're on a budget - we'd suggest you look somewhere else, though.

Should I buy it?

Not really. While the P Smart doesn't really do anything wrong, there's just no ignoring the fact that we've tested better handsets at the same price - or even cheaper. By all means have a look at it, but our tests found little reason to opt for it over some of its more impressive budget rivals.

On the other hand this is the Moto G6 Play review:

“The Motorola Moto G6 Play is an incredible smartphone, not because it's the best we've seen but because we weren't sure a handset this good was possible at such an incredibly low price. It even outscores the Moto G6, its more expensive sibling. This handset is terrific value.

Should I buy it?

Motorola has got its priorities spot-on with the Moto G6 Play. It won't appeal to real technophiles, but its performance is better than the sum of its parts. Combine that with an incredible battery and you have one of the best-value phones on the market.”

3. To keep call costs down I’d suggest Tesco mobile or O2 (Tesco uses O2 network). Try Rocket packs which allow you to buy monthly in lumps of £5 to £20 in £2.50 jumps. This means you can vary your purchase depending on what you need that month.

I’ve done this for five months now. Generally the £5 pack is more than enough.

After two months of agonising over this I’m going to buy a Moto G6 Play next week.

 

[Lonestar]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-Galaxy-S4/263860061940?hash=item3d6f4906f4:g:a9QAAOSwg5VbZuE0

This is a pretty good phone and quite cheap.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Last time I did this I found out what model I wanted and got it sim free from Carphone Warehouse.
They were the cheapest option at the time.

 

[midlife]

Last time I did this I found out what model I wanted and got it sim free from Carphone Warehouse.
They were the cheapest option at the time.

Have to read the small print at carphone warehouse as some of their unlocked phones lock themselves to the first SIM that is used....

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-Galaxy-S4/263860061940?hash=item3d6f4906f4:g:a9QAAOSwg5VbZuE0

This is a pretty good phone and quite cheap.

I'm using an S4 now. It's good and fast and not given me any trouble.
It won't get Android updates any more as they make it slower so Samsung have blocked them
Apart from a few Facebook background task error messages every so often it has no problem with installing apps.

If the battery runtime seems crap just run it flat then charge. Usually that sorts it.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Have to read the small print at carphone warehouse as some of their unlocked phones lock themselves to the first SIM that is used....

Good point. It's been a while since I did it

 

[midlife]

Good point. It's been a while since I did it

Just had a check, they stopped the nefarious practice in July 2017....

 

[Lonestar]

I'm using an S4 now. It's good and fast and not given me any trouble.
It won't get Android updates any more as they make it slower so Samsung have blocked them
Apart from a few Facebook background task error messages every so often it has no problem with installing apps.

If the battery runtime seems crap just run it flat then charge. Usually that sorts it.

Yes I have ordered an S4 as I want to play about with roms for the phone.I have an S3 which has been very good but haven't managed to get a decent android 7 operating system for it.

No I didn't buy that remote control in the picture.

 

[marinyork]

I loved my S4. If the screen hadn't broken after two years I might still be using it. There does seem to be an enthusiastic base of users still using them. Imho once android 5.0 was installed it was pretty decent.

 

[simonali]

I'm with 3 and have been buying unlocked phones for years and get a SIM only deal every 12 months or so. I was a heavy data user and went for a 30Gb + unlimited minutes and texts deal which is £18 a month. I only use about 1-2Gb now, so it's a bit OTT, but it's cheap enough that I don't need to work myself up about it.