Recommend a reliable PAYG phone?

[beanzontoast]

Could use some advice here please!

I have an old and very basic mobile that makes calls and does texts - that's all it does. Son and heir lent me his cameraphone a while back, and I'm thinking it might be time to look into one for myself. Got to be PAYG, (we don't use enough to warrant a contract), reliable, decent battery life, nice camera and I'd like to be able to send emails. Not worried about internet access for web browsing otherwise - just email.

Called into a couple of phone shops, but they don't tell you the full story of course, esp on reliability of the phone. (My daughter went through 4 of her last contract phone model - all just packed up working. Son's been through 3 of his to date).

Anyone also on PAYG with a decent phone they'd recommend? Any lemons to avoid?

 

[marinyork]

What constitutes a good camera? By what most people regard as a "nice camera" don't tend to exist on phones for less than about £100. Most importantly what network?

I have a barebones phone after a series of breakages from sony ericsson ones. I have a nokia 2630 . Advantages - bloody cheap, I could have got it for £22. It's very thin, very dinky, large buttons, goodish screen in the sense of the brightness and colours, even though it's only 128x160 res (shows how much things have improved since 2005 when I had a 128x128 screen that was nowhere near as good). It has a very good battery life. The only thing it doesn't have is a nice camera, it's only 640x480, however it's a damn sight better than the vga camera in again you guessed it the phone I had 3 years ago!

If you are bothered about mod cons, its big brother (of sorts) the nokia 5000 has a much better camera (still only 1280x1024) and the screen on that is gorgeous for a budget phone. I'd go to the shop and have a play. I only got the 2630 after seeing it in person and it's been the best value phone I've ever bought. Someone else on the same network wanted a new barebones phone to replace his nokia 3410 and I recommended it.

 

[beanzontoast]

Thanks for that.

Current phone is also a Nokia - I've dropped it a few times and it lives on, battery lasts a week or more. Just finding the screen a bit small nowadays

...and, being into photography, missing the convenience of having a cameraphone from when my son lent me his. Wouldn't exactly want to tote either of my decent cameras along on the bike, but it was great having the cameraphone when we were buzzing along the High Peak trail last year. Balanced the thing on fenceposts, took photos of the scenery, did some grainy b+w of us reaching the end of the trail - magical. Printed out ok too for the album my daughter gave us.

The email thing is for keeping in touch with the office mainly. I know nothing about email on PAYG phones. Do you pay to read your emails or just to send them?

 

[Willow]

I had a nokia for years and it just about lives on. On the basis it was on it's last legs I bought a motorolla earlier in the year £30 on virgin. Unfortunately I dropped said phone (as I have done many times with nokia) and it died. I spend average about £8 pm on pag. couldn't really see anything cheap I fancied (to stay with virgin). Noticed they do £12 a month contract. With cost of phone that was about break even for me so I now have an LG550 and a £12 pm contract where I am using phone in day time to reduce my home phone bill so overall I think it will work out quite well.

 

[another_dave_b]

Thanks for that.

...and, being into photography, missing the convenience of having a cameraphone from when my son lent me his.

If it's the camera part that most attracts you, wouldn't that push you towards Sony's Cybershot range?

(I use a 'dumbphone', like yourself, so I couldn't comment on reliability )

 

[iLB]

nokia 6300

 

[beanzontoast]

Am I going to notice much difference between a 1.3 and a 3.2 megapixel phone camera? My son's that he lent me was only 1.3, but seemed ok. A little softer and darker at the corners, but fine for screen viewing and small prints. I know that there's a difference between a phone camera and a 'normal' camera of the same megapixel rating, but just wondered if within the world of phone cameras the 3.2 would produce results noticably better than the 1.3.

 

[marinyork]

Am I going to notice much difference between a 1.3 and a 3.2 megapixel phone camera? My son's that he lent me was only 1.3, but seemed ok. A little softer and darker at the corners, but fine for screen viewing and small prints. I know that there's a difference between a phone camera and a 'normal' camera of the same megapixel rating, but just wondered if within the world of phone cameras the 3.2 would produce results noticably better than the 1.3.

It's age really. When cybershots were first knocking around they were head and shoulders above everything else, now on most brand new premium phones the cameras are brilliant. The camera on the k750i I had was 2MP and that was a decent camera. Some of the newer 1.2/3 seem to be about as good as this. 1.2 on a new phone should be all right. Like I said this isn't the common definition of "decent camera" and it'd cost you getting on for £100. It's a toss up really if you want something like the k770i it'll be more but you will have a better camera,if you want to pay quite a bit less you'll have a nice basic phone that does everything you ask and is about equivalent to your sons camera.

 

[yenrod]

Vodafone 533 - which I've now got: 30 quid and you get 5 quid calling credit !

MP3-radio-camera...etc..AND fantastic sound out of the headfones too

Could use some advice here please!

I have an old and very basic mobile that makes calls and does texts - that's all it does. Son and heir lent me his cameraphone a while back, and I'm thinking it might be time to look into one for myself. Got to be PAYG, (we don't use enough to warrant a contract), reliable, decent battery life, nice camera and I'd like to be able to send emails. Not worried about internet access for web browsing otherwise - just email.

Called into a couple of phone shops, but they don't tell you the full story of course, esp on reliability of the phone. (My daughter went through 4 of her last contract phone model - all just packed up working. Son's been through 3 of his to date).

Anyone also on PAYG with a decent phone they'd recommend? Any lemons to avoid?

 

[yenrod]

I've found the less good the cam. the worse it is for getting light into the lens = dark shots.

Difficult to find a good phone now with good features on...other than the main 3/4 manufacturers (S.E/Nokia/Samsung/motorlol/LG)!

 

[Mr Pig]

I have a Nokia 6300 and to be honest I'm not wild about it. Nice looking phone, and Nokia's are very reliable, but the buttons are set too far down the front of the phone making one-handed texting a pain. The fact that the phone is quite slippy doesn't help, I've dropped it a couple of times.

When you do drop it the ridged case means that it's going to get chipped, plastic is a good thing to make phones out of. Screen is good though. Pity the 2Mp camera is crap. Forget taking pictures in anything other than bright sunshine and even then the quality is not great.

My wife has a Sony 810i and it beats the Nokia hands down. It is a good shape to use and the camera is great. You can get other Sony phones that have much better cameras on them for around £60, my son has one but I can't remember the number.

Want a simple phone that won't break? buy a Nokia. Want one with tricks? Buy a Sony.

 

[gbb]

+ 1 for the Nokia 6300.
Been around a while, reliable as you like, none of ours have let us down (we've had 3). Camera at 2 Mpixel is 'average' but quite functional.

The good thing with the 6300 is its been around a little while, reliable, still looks good and was one of Nokias better phones...they've sold millions...and now its a good price.

We've since tried the 6500 Classic and Slide, one or two of the N series, Sony Ericsson K850i...and had problems with the phones.

We keep going back to the 6300

 

[gbb]

I have a Nokia 6300 and to be honest I'm not wild about it. Nice looking phone, and Nokia's are very reliable, but the buttons are set too far down the front of the phone making one-handed texting a pain. The fact that the phone is quite slippy doesn't help, I've dropped it a couple of times.

When you do drop it the ridged case means that it's going to get chipped, plastic is a good thing to make phones out of. Screen is good though. Pity the 2Mp camera is crap. Forget taking pictures in anything other than bright sunshine and even then the quality is not great.

My wife has a Sony 810i and it beats the Nokia hands down. It is a good shape to use and the camera is great. You can get other Sony phones that have much better cameras on them for around £60, my son has one but I can't remember the number.

Want a simple phone that won't break? buy a Nokia. Want one with tricks? Buy a Sony.

Thats a fair point....but i use both thumbs and can text really quite quickly with it. But the keys are small, i wouldnt disagree.

 

[marinyork]

The 6300 is very overpriced on my network, which was why I never got one. Really, really pricey for what you get.

 

[beanzontoast]

This is tricky! Reading reviews of some of these phones on Tesco and Amazon makes me wonder if there is one where good battery life and a good camera quality are combined, but without reliability issues.