The "what Phone Shall I Get?" Question

[Ali C]

Right, my shitty £4.95 phone needs to go! It's a pain in the arse to do anything on it.

I have done a little research, but it's all pretty alien to me, some of the stuff I have read may as well be french.

I am traveling around the country quite a lot at the moment, I need to be able to send txts with as little hassle as poss, view and send emails and use it as simple entertainment when living in my van.

I have rounded it down the 3 phones

1) I Phone

2) google Nexus

3)HTC Desire

Out of those 3 The Nexus seems to be my fave, I can easily link up with my Gmail account, battery life seems decent and there are some handy apps I can download plus I can put my Spotify on it too (not sure how yet, but I understand it's possible). My least fave is the I Phone, it's over priced, can't view Flash and it's a bit slower.

Does anyone have any feedback? I have never had a contract before so it's a bit worrying forking out a lot per month for something that I may end up hating.

also, how does the internet work on phones? The Nexus has contracts with unlimited use, but it usually ends up being 500mb I think. That sounds like not a lot to me, how much usage is that in simple terms?

Does anyone have any idea where's best for insurance too?

Cheers guys, any help is apreciated

Ali

[Muel]

My Mother's bloke has a Desire, I love it, but after a lot of research I've decided to go for a Samsung Galaxy S over it. Similar price and several better features, plus it looks hotter IMO.

Not an iPhone fan at all, I just prefer the Android OS to the iPhone one.

I'd try to steer clear of Windows Mobile powered phones as well, I don't know anyone who is happy they went for it over Android or an iPhone.

----

Bit more info on the Galaxy S, as that's the only one I really understand. Here's the one I've been looking at:

No down payment, £30 a month, 600 minutes, unlimited texts, 500mb of data.

On the Galaxy S, I believe you can set up a number of wireless networks, so if it comes in range of any of these networks, it will connect to that and use it, so you don't have to use up any of the 500mb data limit.

Also, I'm told it's best to buy from either mobiles.co.uk or the carphonewarehouse, because you can get some really good deals on them. (8 1/2 months half price on the example above at mobiles.co.uk).

However, mobiles.co.uk have had some shocking reviews....

Edited August 3, 2010 by Muel

[Wrayvon]

Right, my shitty £4.95 phone needs to go! It's a pain in the arse to do anything on it.

I have done a little research, but it's all pretty alien to me, some of the stuff I have read may as well be french.

I am traveling around the country quite a lot at the moment, I need to be able to send txts with as little hassle as poss, view and send emails and use it as simple entertainment when living in my van.

I have rounded it down the 3 phones

1) I Phone

2) google Nexus

3)HTC Desire

Out of those 3 The Nexus seems to be my fave, I can easily link up with my Gmail account, battery life seems decent and there are some handy apps I can download plus I can put my Spotify on it too (not sure how yet, but I understand it's possible). My least fave is the I Phone, it's over priced, can't view Flash and it's a bit slower.

Does anyone have any feedback? I have never had a contract before so it's a bit worrying forking out a lot per month for something that I may end up hating.

also, how does the internet work on phones? The Nexus has contracts with unlimited use, but it usually ends up being 500mb I think. That sounds like not a lot to me, how much usage is that in simple terms?

Does anyone have any idea where's best for insurance too?

Cheers guys, any help is apreciated

Ali

I'm sure I read the other day that the nexus has stopped being produced now. But =anyway the Desire was created to be very similar to it but slightly better iirc.

Out of the 3 I'd chose a desire.

Muel's choice is also a good one

On the Galaxy S, I believe you can set up a number of wireless networks, so if it comes in range of any of these networks, it will connect to that and use it, so you don't have to use up any of the 500mb data limit.

Any phone with wifi does that I think. All the phones I've had with it did anyway

[liam n]

i don't know what phone you should get...BUT i know where you can get cheap contracts

http://www.e2save.com this company has some real cheap contracts

In the next link look at the nokia 1661 black...this contract is free aslong as you remember to redeem at the end of each month. you could use this contract then just buy a different phone seperately,put the contract sim in the phone and it won't cost anything for the contract

http://www.e2save.com/mobile-phones/contract.html?PHPSESSID=p97jjiasg5sadq0blgtdqp4v21&sortOrder=orderByEffectivePrice

hope this helps

[omgnoseat]

I´ve been doing some research in phones because I need a new one aswell.

I have no personal experience, but specification wise the HTC is best.

The HTC and nexus one both run on android, which is becoming a very nice mobile operating system. It even supports flash in web browser in their latest version (available for both the nexus and HTC).

There also is a marketplace with very nice apps, there aren't as much as on the iphone tough. I think that the HTC is better in basicly every aspect than the nexus one, so the real battle is between the iphone and the HTC.

I would take a look at these reviews, they cover pretty much everything:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/htc-desire-review/

[DrEvil270183]

I've got the Desire Ali. It's nice. Pretty easy to figure use. My flickr, gmail, facebook etc are all linked to it and very easy to use. Plenty of apps, plays flash fine, speed is good. Had no upsets yet in 3 months. Battery can die with heavy use pretty fast but you can lower the screen brightness, turn off gps and wifi and it's a lot better. Free sat nav too with the android phones.

[Tomm]

In my opinion (having played with both), there's nothing that's as slick and nice to use as the iPhone 4. It's fast, the screen is amazing and there's a million apps for it. The screen was a minor selling-point for me and indeed when I first looked at an iPhone 4 in the flesh it didn't seem that big a deal. But when you compare new vs old, the new one is much better to look at - the new screen is definitely a big plus. Google are catching up but the iPhone is still in front for me. Whether Google will ever overtake the iPhone I don't know, although Google's development seems to be a lot faster than Apple's so maybe they will one day in the not-too-distant future.

I just bought an iPhone 4 to upgrade my 3G - Very happy with it.

I few random bullet points I can't be arsed to formulate into a decent paragraph:

1) My iPhone syncs my google mail / contacts / calendars perfectly, constanly updated. Very impressive adding an appointment on my calendar on the PC and it appearing a few seconds later magically on my phone

2) Spec means nothing at all - I went from a Windows Mobile phone to the iPhone 3G which was a "downgrade" in terms of CPU power. But oh my god sooo much better in every way. Perhaps you can compare different Android phones that way, but for Android vs iPhone, forget it.

3) I'm not sure what you need flash for - yes Apple's ban on Flash is annoying but genuinely I don't miss it at all. I think you could get flash via jailbreak anyway.

4) There's a Spotify app for iPhone

5) Re the video above: Comparing the Desire vs the iPhone 3GS is stupid - you'd be a fool to buy a (new) 3GS now (rather than iPhone 4) with the price difference being what it is.

6) All the phones you mentioned are pretty similar in terms of what they can do - any of them will be a huge step up from what you've got. There is no bad choice really.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

3) I'm not sure what you need flash for - yes Apple's ban on Flash is annoying but genuinely I don't miss it at all. I think you could get flash via jailbreak anyway.

It seems less annoying and more like Apple being retarded, ignorant, power hungry numpties. However I guess that sums up Apple in general doesn't it- being restrictive and awkward is, after all, what they do best!!

[Token]

I know this isn't really a worthwhile comment, but I hate everything that has to do with the Apple customer experience and feeling like a non-conformist emo kid. However, I can't really fault the iPhone 4 and I've never noticed there was even a lack of Flash player support (I only just realised now that youve mentioned it) as the only web app that I go on that uses Flash is Youtube and you've got an App for That (excuse the pun).

Not to mention the screen resolution, the HD video and the sensitivity of the touch screen which as Tomm said are all pretty amazing.

I think it just boils down to what you like, have you been into a phone shop and had a play about with each of them?

[Wrayvon]

Also worth noting is that the Desire is due a firmware upgrade in the next few weeks. This will give it HD video etc just like the iphone 4.

Not to mention the new app-share facility (sharing apps with your mates etc!).

And for some reason, the ability to sync it with itunes. Why you'd want to however is beyond me...

Edited August 4, 2010 by Wrayvon

[konstant]

Also worth noting is that the Desire is due a firmware upgrade in the next few weeks. This will give it HD video etc just like the iphone 4.

That happened on Sunday. I've rooted my Desire and have been running an Android 2.2 (Froyo) ROM since June. At the moment I'm giving the new, official HTC ROM a try and might stick with it for a while.

While the camera is perfectly decent, 720p video isn't as good as the new iPhone's due to lower framerates, but 800x480 in daylight is really nice and smooth. The iTunes sync thing is a bit overrated. It doesn't actually sync with iTunes, but syncs your iTunes library through HTC's own software... which only runs on Windows.

If both were the same price, I would probably have gone for the Nexus, but the operators are basically giving away Desires and you get so much phone for your money. The Hardware of the Desire and Nexus is almost completely identical (Desire actually has extra RAM).

I prefer the hardware of the iPhone 4 if I'm honest, but Android OS and the very active developer community made it an easy choice. The standard HTC software is good but if you don't like it you're free to root your phone and change it. The total cost of ownership for the Desire is less than half that of an iPhone 4 on contract. It's not as polished as the iPhone, but the Desire is considerably more versatile.

Youtube, iPlayer, TV catchup etc all works fine. 500MB is a lot until you start watching TV and lots of Youtube without WiFi. There's an app called 3G watchdog that lets you see how much data you have left.

Edited August 4, 2010 by konstant

[manuel]

it is the iPhone all day long.

I hate apple with a passion - but would go as far as to say I could not imagine my life now without my iPhone. It is that good. nothing else I have tried comes even a little bit close.

Flash ? HTML5 baby - who cares.

Id even go as far as to say get a 3Gs over a 4 and get a cheap contract.

EDIT : Limited data contracts blow.... not sure if there are any unlimiteds left ?

[Rob_P]

it is the iPhone all day long.

I hate apple with a passion - but would go as far as to say I could not imagine my life now without my iPhone. It is that good. nothing else I have tried comes even a little bit close.

Flash ? HTML5 baby - who cares.

Id even go as far as to say get a 3Gs over a 4 and get a cheap contract.

EDIT : Limited data contracts blow.... not sure if there are any unlimiteds left ?

I recently looked at getting the 3Gs on O2 and the price was exactly the same per month, all they were going to give me was a 8gb phone for free. So I dished out the £119 for the phone and got the iPhone 4. Amazing bit of kit, feels well made in the hand and is very smooth. Having played quickly with a few HTCs they just arn't as smooth and nice to use. According to O2 about 90% of it's customers will never reach the 500mb limit per month so don't worry about that.

It tends to be routine to hate the iphone because it seems like every tom dick and harry has one but it's popular for a reason, it's a great bit of all round kit.

[PeanuckleJive]

Another vote for the iphone here, I used to have a blackberry, and when it came to upgrade I spent ages in the shop trying out HTC phones, motorolla dext, etc. Nothing even came close to how easy yet powerful the iphone really is

The lack of flash support is lame, but to be honest who actually wants to run flash things on their phone? If you wanna play crappy flash games, you can get the exact thing you want in the app store for free usually.

And as somebody else said, youtube has it's own app so you can still watch videos

500mb fair usage policy does sound really limited, but it takes a lot of internet use to actually get over that, I reckon the only time you're likely to do it is if you get REALLY app happy and download a ton of crap

[manuel]

According to O2 about 90% of it's customers will never reach the 500mb limit per month so don't worry about that.

Im in the top 10% for sure

[Tomm]

It's easy to check your data usage (Settings > General > Usage). I've had mine a month I've used 186Mb. Some of that is definitely due to having a new phone to play with too - In the last 3 months of having my iPhone 3G, I used 60mb / month.

[Token]

If you had of done abit of shopping around prior then you would of seen that 3 probably have the best deal when it comes to the iPhone 4, the phones are cheaper, you get 1gb internet unlike o2's 500mb and I think the contract is cheaper per month. I've had an iPhone on both 3 and on O2 and the 3G internet coverage is exceptional on 3, I don't think I've ever not had 3G internet whereas when I was with O2 I only got 3G signal in major cities.

[weirdoku]

Just wondering, I'm on O2 contract with an iphone and have unlimited internet. When I upgrade to an iphone 4 in a few months, would they make me change my plan as well? As in cap my limited internet but still the same amount of minutes and texts?

But yeah another vote for iphone. Handy little b*****d.

[Tomm]

Just wondering, I'm on O2 contract with an iphone and have unlimited internet. When I upgrade to an iphone 4 in a few months, would they make me change my plan as well? As in cap my limited internet but still the same amount of minutes and texts?

But yeah another vote for iphone. Handy little b*****d.

I think it stays the same until the end of September, then they switch to the 500mb data cap. I think this applies to all contract renewals - soon no one will be able to escape the data quota I think you should be able to stay on the same plan though, although you'll have to make that choice again.