Mobile phones AKICOLJ

[philmophlegm]

One unfortunate side-effect of my soon-to-be-reduced circumstances is that I'll have to actually buy a mobile phone. This is something I haven't had to do this millennium because my soon-to-be-former employer was nice enough to buy me one (most recently an iPhone 4, before that a pre-3G Blackberry Curve and before that a Motorola Razr V3 (remember them?)).

I make very infrequent calls. How infrequent? Put it this way, when I had to separate out personal calls on my monthly bills, they usually came to less than £1. Still, it's useful to have a mobile phone handy for emergencies like old ladies collapsing and falling off walls as you're driving past*.

I quite like the portable internet browser and ability to play games while sitting waiting for stuff to happen when out and about of my iPhone, so some sort of smartphone would be preferred.

So how do I get a decent smartphone without spending lots on line rental? Tariffs? Network? Handset?

One option would be to pay off my work iPhone. I think I can do this for £100. And then presumably get a SIM-only deal.
A second option would be to dust off the ancient Blackberry and use that, although I don't know how good the battery is, and it's old enough to not have 3G.



* Something that happened in Tavistock a couple of Saturdays ago.

Comments

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a smartphone on a budget, I can recommend the Huawei Ascend G 300. I've recently got one, and it's very good, with better spec than many more expensive smartphones.

[purplecat]

We got both our iPhones through eBay. B. reckons that if you make sure you get one from a buyer with a decent long-term history, which comes in its packaging with the manual, then its unlikely to be dodgy. EDIT: Though also unlikely to be less than the £100 you can gets your work one for. IIRC my iPhone 3 cost £120.

I have Vodafone's pay-as-you-go SIM in my iPhone (as does B) which comes with a "free-text-and-web pack" which gives you free texts and data access for a month every time you top up £10. It must be said I didn't do the research on this tariff but B. reckons its pretty competitive if you are a low use person. We tend to top up monthly to keep the data rate going on the assumption we will spend through the accrued balance when we are abroad - though their travelling rates aren't too bad either.

I also have an internet dongle thing and, at the moment, I have a giff gaff SIM in that on their data only tariff, which is competitive (especially since I avoid 3 after a horrible customer service experience) but I don't know what giff gaff's other tariffs are like. They'll send you a free SIM at the click of a mouse button (and they keep sending us free SIMs to give to friends so we could send one of those on to you but it's probably as easy to order it from the website).

[andrewducker]

You probably won't get a better deal than £100, to be honest. And if you like your iPhone then stick with it.

If you make almost no calls then going Pay As You Go is probably your best bet. For pay-monthly, I use GiffGaff, who charge £10/month for 250 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet.

[phina-v.livejournal.com]

I can second the recommendations for both the Huawei Ascend G300 and GiffGaff for Pay As you Go. I think you can get a £5 a month data package if your usage isn't going to justify topping up £10 per month. Haven't done this yet though - still just using WiFi for data.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Not relevant to the phone thing, but what was the old lady doing on the wall in the first place? Pretending to be Humpty Dumpty?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Waiting for a bus.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It was only a small wall, a little over 2 foot tall.

Philmophlegm was impressively heroic. He saw her topple sideways as we were sitting in traffic, and while I still had my mouth open from saying 'Hey! She fell off!' philmophlegm had abandoned the car in the middle of the road and raced to her aid.

[chainmailmaiden]

That would be the first aid training kicking in :-)

[chainmailmaiden]

I loved my Motorola Razer, Flip phones were the best, I wish they were still a popular style. I like my Blackberry, but I know it's not as good for the internet as other smartphones. However I don't have the latest model and I know the newer ones are better. Mine was free with a £15 a month deal.

I've always been with Vodafone & they've been reliable and helpful.