yes.. it's another what smarthpone thread!

[MontyVeda]

I'm thinking of upgrading my old Nokia 6230i...

looking at the current £7.50 a month deals on carphone warehouse, the LG Optimus L3 comes with 500mb data a month as opposed to the 250mb a month the Samsung Galaxy Y & Ace, Sony Xperia tipo and HTC Desire C come with. and what exactly does 250mb or 500mb give me? I probably wont be using it for email and definitely not FaceBitch, so would that make much difference to data usage?

My main concern is battery life... so has anybody got or had an LG Optimus, and what's power consumption like? it has a 'sizeable' 1,540mAh battery... is that good or bad for a smart phone?

I know the battery will last far longer if i turn off the GPS and such.

Just wondering if this is good, bad or average (for the money)... plus any comments on any of the other phones mentioned would be appreciated.

this is all very new to me.


ps... all the kids are saying 'smarthpone' these days, from Dizzie to Westwood, it's the dench term of the moment... honest!

 

[Dangermouse]

Take a look at the Huawei phones, stonking phones for not a lot of buck and blow lots of big names into the weeds

 

[vernon]

Have a look on the u-switch web site. There's some stinking deals there.

 

[MontyVeda]

cheers for the replies Vernon & Dangermouse... had a quick look at the Huawei phones, but they seem to be all PAYG... U-switch website is great... still looking like the LG Optima L3 is the cheapest contract of the lot.

Anybody got one? is it sh!te? ... for the cost, not in comparison the an iPhone.

 

[The Jogger]

I wouldn't

http://m.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-l3-1080249/review

 

[marinyork]

I wouldn't

http://m.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-l3-1080249/review

It's a fair enough point, but many reviews do point out decent battery life which was a key quality above. That's because it is not particularly function rich.

Android non-upgrades is such a big problem on so many phones though. I think the biggest criticism is actually the res. A phone released 7 years earlier with a res of 208x208 being replaced with one with 320x240.

 

[MontyVeda]

aye it's a minefield... the £7.50 a month deal is affordable, but having read the reviews of all the phones on that deal, they're all pretty crap, which isn't surprising.

I'm currently on PAYG and a tenner lasts me about two or three months and don't really want to spend much more.

The only reason i want a smart phone is for that app which you can point at the sky and it'll tell you what stars you're looking at... and google maps... other than those it's just a phone and little else.

 

[marinyork]

Are you envisaging the phone lasting a 'long time' i.e. 2-3 years + ?

 

[MontyVeda]

well i've had my Nokia 6230i for a decade... so I'd like it last that long

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Avoid the Tipo it's shite if you're a big app user or have big hands, or working eyes. I got one as my contract upgrade and honestly, It was a downgrade 10x over from my Xperia Neo. Hardware is crap, screen response is crap,feels and looks cheap.

Although it will be on ebay soon enough

 

[Rob3rt]

well i've had my Nokia 6230i for a decade... so I'd like it last that long

Don't hold your breath.....

 

[marinyork]

well i've had my Nokia 6230i for a decade... so I'd like it last that long

The original 6230 and not the i version? Even the i is pretty old now by mobile phone standards c. 2005. Whichever quite impressive.

In the US some of the original iPhones are still knocking around, much to the annoyance of some mobile phone networks (who want to turn off 2G there in a few years time i.e. rendering them 'not phones'). Apart from that it's quite difficult to assess how old a lot of the old phones are apart from people occasionally mentioning nokias even older than yours.

It's quite hard to gauge how long the things last. I think my Samsung S5620 would have lasted 5 years + but I can't say the same of various other phones I've seen had. I think a lot of flip top and slide phones or ones with joysticks had a lot of issues. In the touchscreen era now we're back to essentially widened out bar phones that quite a few phones will last longer. I can't envisage an Optimus L3 lasting for as long though. It's one of the things I find so amusing about 24 month contracts.

If lasting a long time quite apart from the physical function aspects is a biggie, I would try and get something with a newer version of android. So many complaints about people wanting to do xyz and stuck on 2.2 and 2.3 and whatever it is either doesn't work, didn't work or has/had issues.

How much did you pay for the 6230? I don't think a circa 2003-2005 colour phone is a like for like comparison with an nth generation budget smart phone.

 

[MrJamie]

You need to think how you're likely to use it - the mobile web browsing, email, facebook/twitter, various apps, mapping, or just phone/txt. If you're mainly just after phone/txt features and coming from a Nokia, the battery life will seem terrible and itll be much much more fragile, a drop onto concrete can easily mean a visit to the repair centre.

Battery size is kinda meaningless without knowing how much power the screen etc draws. A lot of manufacturers skimp on battery size to save weight and phone size at the expense of them barely lasting 24hours per charge. The physical keyboard, small screen phones like Blackberries tend to be much better than the big touchscreens, but its all relative. It's hard to explain a data limit, but most apps and features are very conservative. I had 1gb for 24 months and i don't think i ever used more than about 200mb in a month but would really prefer the 500mb as a buffer since if you go over charges are crazy. Theres apps to monitor usage though and if youve got wifi at home/work you can set your phone to wait until it has wifi to upgrade apps, sync stuff etc.

I was never into the whole must have the latest phone thing, so hung onto my old Nokia until 2 years ago when a smartphone caught my eye and walking around with a mini PC is awesome and a huge upgrade, but you do have to expect to charge it overnight every night and take care of it. I still cant get my head around people upgrading every 18 months to a phone that does all the same stuff just marginally better.

 

[Rob3rt]

You need to think how you're likely to use it - the mobile web browsing, email, facebook/twitter, various apps, mapping, or just phone/txt. If you're mainly just after phone/txt features and coming from a Nokia, the battery life will seem terrible and itll be much much more fragile, a drop onto concrete can easily mean a visit to the repair centre.

Battery size is kinda meaningless without knowing how much power the screen etc draws. A lot of manufacturers skimp on battery size to save weight and phone size at the expense of them barely lasting 24hours per charge. The physical keyboard, small screen phones like Blackberries tend to be much better than the big touchscreens, but its all relative. It's hard to explain a data limit, but most apps and features are very conservative. I had 1gb for 24 months and i don't think i ever used more than about 200mb in a month but would really prefer the 500mb as a buffer since if you go over charges are crazy. Theres apps to monitor usage though and if youve got wifi at home/work you can set your phone to wait until it has wifi to upgrade apps, sync stuff etc.

I was never into the whole must have the latest phone thing, so hung onto my old Nokia until 2 years ago when a smartphone caught my eye and walking around with a mini PC is awesome and a huge upgrade, but you do have to expect to charge it overnight every night and take care of it. I still cant get my head around people upgrading every 18 months to a phone that does all the same stuff just marginally better.

I used to do this and I can tell you why.

The lifespan of phones is getting shorter, yet contract length's are getting longer, so the lifespan of the phone is often pretty much over by that point (most of my phones in the past years have been exhibiting either detrimented performance, usability or all but bricked by this point). Or, after a few weeks or months you realise you don't actually like the phone (had this with a Nokia, which also had some extremely irritating faults too before my current phone) and have just tolerated it until the contract run's out. Both of these have been quite evident in my experience.

However my last and current phone, HTC Desire has not only outlived it's contract length of 18 month's, it has outlived a second 12 month contract and I still enjoy using it! Shame it is now having issues and will need to be replaced because IMO it is the best smartphone I have ever seen or used. I will replace it with a Nexus 4.

Some people do just want the latest and greatest, but personally, my reasons for upgrading were not in line with this. I hate getting a new phone, it is an inconvenience I would prefer to do without but have always felt it necessary on the occasions I have done it.

 

[albion]

Small resolutions are not good for the web, but battery life should be great.

Uses an A5, the lowest wattage ARM chip available.