Thinking about a Smartphone - hardware and 'contract' advice please!

[Arch]

I'm pretty much in the dark ages with my current phone, and I'm starting to have a yen for something Smart, that I can go online with. Thinking about Christmas presents... I use a laptop with mobile broadband at home, which is fine. I'm thinking of being able to access forums, tweet, or google while out of the house.

Two strands to my question. Any especial recommendations of actual brand/model? I'd like it to be as robust as possible. I actually use my phone relatively little to actually make and receive calls, do a bit more in the way of texting. It doesn't want to be too big, as I want to carry it in trouser pockets most of the time. Doesn't have to have a mega mega good camera, most seem to be a huge step up from my current one anyway.

Secondly, contract, or PAYG? I'm currently on PAYG, which suits me as I use so little credit (probably less than £10 a month). I wouldn't want to commit to a contract at too much over £10 a month if it were possible. Will PAYG give me enough data? I don't need hundreds of free minutes or thousands of free texts, because I don't use that much.

One other reason for thinking about PAYG is that I could ask for money for Xmas and buy the phone, whereas going onto a contract it's harder to get that as a present, since it's ongoing and the phone is often free or very cheap.

There's just so much out there!

 

[MrJamie]

They are much more fragile than what you're probably used to, although I take mine running and cycling and dropped it a couple of times its been fine aside from the volume button falling out recently (HTC Desire HD). Plenty of people I know have cracked screens, broken buttons etc when theyve dropped their phones. It's not that theyre terrible, but compared to older phones youd want to throw/drop them about as much as you would a laptop. The other issue you'll notice, is that battery life tends to be pretty poor in most smartphones especially if you plan to make use of the features and needs charging daily. Very different to the old nokias you could leave on standby for a week and that ive seen dropped from a 3rd floor onto concrete and work fine when put back together. Dont confuse this with me saying theyre bad, I love mine I just have to take care with it.

You need to cost it out really, contracts do tend to work out quite cheaply especially with an expensive phone and on PAYG you might need to buy a data bundle or something so you can actually use the internet on the phone without eating the credit in 5 mins. Also if you can make use of the free minutes to not use your landline or let your other half make calls on it, it can offset the price a little

 

[JoeyB]

If you have cash upfront I would recommend buying a sim free handset and then going for something like a GiffGaff sim card and whichever goodybag meets your usage requirements. My contract ended on my iPhone so I have cancelled it and gone down to £10 with everything I need (including data) included. When my iPhone 4 dies I might treat myself to a 5.

 

[marinyork]

Two comments general in nature that may not be very useful due to what you're used to now. If you find mobile broadband 'fine' then I would think you'll be all right expectations wise with pretty much anything. Secondly mobile phone contracts have been galloping away in recent times and are unfortunately often 18 or 24 months now.

 

[ColinJ]

If you have cash upfront I would recommend buying a sim free handset and then going for something like a GiffGaff sim card and whichever goodybag meets your usage requirements. My contract ended on my iPhone so I have cancelled it and gone down to £10 with everything I need (including data) included.

I was going to suggest that!

I was tempted myself, but I have heard rumours that the O2 reception is very patchy here (the network that GiffGaff uses). I struggle to get an Orange signal indoors at times and I wouldn't want anything worse than that.

 

[The Brewer]

I just got THIS one for my son, £7.50 a month and 5000 texts a month. Okay the download limit is crap, but he mainly uses wifi anyways

 

[deanE]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Europa through 3. I pay £13 a month for 300 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data. Battery life is a bit limited and screen size smaller than the best, but otherwise It is fine as an entry model smartphone. It would be more than fine if I took my reading glasses with me. Keep up to date with facebook, emails and search internet if not near my laptop. Have watched Youtube music videos and have music stored and occasionally listen to radio. Camera adequate but haven’t managed to upload direct to facebook. Also use GPS and Google maps for location and route. It is supposed to act like a sat nav but haven’t tried that yet. Don’t need all the texts but i use the mobile instead of a landline and minutes adequate for me. I use Skype to phone my son in USA. Biggest drawback is the battery life. On a busy day I need to recharge at laptop. Can connect to WiFi but doesn’t tether. Handset was free on a 24 month contract. I haven’t looked to see what other handsets are available at this rate. I don’t have enough experience of smartphones to make recommendations but posted just to show there are cheaper packages available on contract.

 

[summerdays]

I've had my Smart phone for about a year now. I found that I couldn't cope with the touch screen keypad so ended up getting one with a keypad. You do need to have a play with them and see if you are fine with the touch screen features. That said I don't use my phone for anything other than texting, emails (fantastic being able to access them on the move), maps, phone calls and weather being the main uses, though it's good to be able to look up information on the internet at times too. I'm not into lots of apps and games. I did find I have to charge mine either daily or every other day now. A friend can't read the type on my phone as it is too small for her (only a year or two older than me but I'm at that age where friends and I assume myself in the future are starting to get reading glasses).

 

[HovR]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 (Android), for £15 a month on T-Mobile (Now EE or T-Mobile/Orange, so excellent signal) which gives me 300 minutes, 300 texts and unlimited internet.

The phone itself is excellent in terms of speed, features etc (you can find a full list online) and is the best battery life of any smart phone I have used. I normally recharge it every 2 days, and that includes with high-battery usage applications such as Strava being run - And you could probably get longer still out of it if you use it less than me. The phone also fits in the pocket nicely.

Yes, smart phones are a bit more fragile than older phones, but I personally haven't had any issues with this. I put my phone in a small neoprene pouch/case (called a "ShockSock") which has protected it from occasional small bumps and even a fall from body height on to coarse gravel. Try and pick a phone advertised as having "Gorilla Glass" if you don't want the screen to be scratched or broken - It's truly excellent.

If you think you're going to use a lot of data I'd recommend a contract. My personal experience with PAYG data is that it is quite limited, and normally only available as a reward after you have topped up - But if you're not going to use much data this could suit you.

 

[coffeejo]

 

[RhythMick]

I'm pretty much in the dark ages with my current phone, and I'm starting to have a yen for something Smart, that I can go online with. Thinking about Christmas presents... I use a laptop with mobile broadband at home, which is fine. I'm thinking of being able to access forums, tweet, or google while out of the house.

Two strands to my question. Any especial recommendations of actual brand/model? I'd like it to be as robust as possible. I actually use my phone relatively little to actually make and receive calls, do a bit more in the way of texting. It doesn't want to be too big, as I want to carry it in trouser pockets most of the time. Doesn't have to have a mega mega good camera, most seem to be a huge step up from my current one anyway.

Secondly, contract, or PAYG? I'm currently on PAYG, which suits me as I use so little credit (probably less than £10 a month). I wouldn't want to commit to a contract at too much over £10 a month if it were possible. Will PAYG give me enough data? I don't need hundreds of free minutes or thousands of free texts, because I don't use that much.

One other reason for thinking about PAYG is that I could ask for money for Xmas and buy the phone, whereas going onto a contract it's harder to get that as a present, since it's ongoing and the phone is often free or very cheap.

There's just so much out there!

Firstly, look at GIFFGAFF for contracts. There are many cheap contracts but the data limits are ridiculous. On GiffGaff you can get 250 minutes with unlimited texts and data for £10 per month.

Secondly, as regards phone, first choose your OS. Do you like to be able to make the phone do what you want it to do (even if its occasionally less stable) or do you "just want it to work"? The former means choose Android, the latter choose Apple.

Finally, look at second hand (unlocked) phones for the decent models and decide whether its worth the saving / risk for you. Personally I like my Samsung Galaxy S2 a lot. I'd get the extended battery from Samsung which takes it from 1650 mAh to 2000. Also put the Juice Defender app on it (costs about £5). That way it's got a great chance of lasting all day without a charge.

 

[Sca1ey]

Thumbs up for GiffGaff although the 250minutes/unlimited texts /unlimited data is going up to £12 soon. The £10 a month option is going to be 500MB of data I think - still plenty for me.

Loads of good Android phones from the last couple of years which can be got on EBay SIM free; I've got an original HTC Sensation which is very good and previously had a Nexus One.

 

[cyberknight]

If you have cash upfront I would recommend buying a sim free handset and then going for something like a GiffGaff sim card and whichever goodybag meets your usage requirements. My contract ended on my iPhone so I have cancelled it and gone down to £10 with everything I need (including data) included. When my iPhone 4 dies I might treat myself to a 5.

+1
If your o2 reception is good they are supposedly at least half the price of most payg and you can buy goody bags on top .A few folk at work have them and say they are very good.

 

[JoeyB]

No coverage issues with mine so far. In fact, I can surf these forums whilst in the loo at work where previously with Vodafone I had no signal.... What more could you want?!?

 

[ianjmcd]

Thumbs up for GiffGaff although the 250minutes/unlimited texts /unlimited data is going up to £12 soon. The £10 a month option is going to be 500MB of data I think - still plenty for me.

Loads of good Android phones from the last couple of years which can be got on EBay SIM free; I've got an original HTC Sensation which is very good and previously had a Nexus One.

the £10 goodybag will be updated with a 1GB Mobile Internet allowance and a new £12 goodybag will be introduced with unlimited Mobile Internet