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Help choosing a smartphone

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Glyn Davies27/02/2018 11:51:45
146 forum posts
56 photos

My wife has been pestering me recently to buy a smart phone – i.e. one that I can access the internet with. I have a mobile phone but the 8 key is a bit sticky, which makes texting words that have T,U or V difficult.

My normal method for accessing the internet is via my desktop PC with its 22” screen. My wife’s smart phone is too big to easily fit in my pocket and still doesn’t seem to have anything like the capability of my PC, but is that a sacrifice I need to make if I am to move with the times?

I’m looking for advice on how to proceed from anyone of a similar outlook to myself. What physical size phone have others gone with? 16Gb or 32Gb or more – or less? SIM only or pay as you go? How much to spend? Etc. Any advice welcomed!

Thank you.

Clive Hartland27/02/2018 12:25:32
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2929 forum posts
41 photos

My phone recently went, 'Bonk' so i had to get a new one, did not like the large phones that everyone seems to have nor the price, so i went to Vodaphone and asked and they had a smaller version so I bought that one. It is P as You Go and is roughly 80mm x 120mm. Has all functions but I only use it for texting as i am deaf to voice freq. has good battery life and lasts more that a week for me.

Clive

sean logie27/02/2018 12:32:16
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608 forum posts
7 photos
It all depends on what you want out of getting a new smart ,do you take photos,do you text a lot or make a it of phone calls . I dont do a lot of txing or make a lot of phone calls, but I do use the internet a lot and I like taking photos and video of whatever lol . I personally use a samsung s7 had the s5 before it great handset . Only you can decide 😉

Sean
Journeyman27/02/2018 12:32:43
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1257 forum posts
264 photos

Thats distinctly a "How long is a piece of string?" question. A mobile phone is never going to do all that your PC will but they are getting close. It is mainly getting used to a different way of working. You can spend anything up to a £1000 on a top range smartphone these days, which personally I think is way over the top. The other thing to remember that you will not get maximum benefit from a smart phone unless you have many contacts and are into "Social Media" in a big way! First major decision is Apple or Android then you can decide on a model. Android has many more manufacturers with a wider range of styles to choose from.

For a starter phone you could do worse that go with a Motorola G5 just to test the water. It is not the smartest of smart phones but it does most of the things that an Apple or Samsung will do but you can get one for about £150 sim and contract free. The Motorola also has a fairly standard Android interface with no manufacturers rubbish apps. I have never had a phone on contract as I simply don't use it enough, so it is Pay and Go for me but that is a matter of choice. You can pick up one of the top range phones "free" on a £30 a month contract.

Good luck with whatever you choose to get. You will need to spend at least a month getting to know it and finding all the useful apps for it once you have it.

John

Harry Wilkes27/02/2018 12:41:54
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1613 forum posts
72 photos

At heart I,m a Samsung fan but at the moment I,m using a iPhone 5, there are some good deals to be had at the monument on both the iPhone 4 &5 both quite 'pocket sized'. As to why i'm not using a Samsung it's simply that the one I had would not 'talk' to my car's hands free !

H

Neil Wyatt27/02/2018 12:53:12
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19226 forum posts
749 photos
86 articles

Do what I did, buy a V11 android smartphone off the bay for £39.

It may well suit you (I've been using mine for about 9 months).

It does everything you probably want, plus voice recognition, bluetooth handsfree and music (over my £11 car radio!) and GPS.

If you find some things a bit frustrating (poor camera, no internal compass) then you can decide what you want out of a better phone rather than paying through the nose for an all-singing all-dancing one.

I will get around to buying a better one some time, but I know what features I want and I won't be paying a few hundred quid or getting a long contract.

Neil

Muzzer27/02/2018 13:01:41
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2904 forum posts
448 photos

iPhones are OK if you can get past the "I hate Microsoft / Apple / Google etc" thing. My eldest son has a Samsung Galaxy S7 which is amazing and he prefers it to his previous iPhone.

No point getting one of these if you just phone and text. But with a smart phone, you get free sat nav (voice guided, turn-by-turn - free), Google, news (when waiting / on train / queue etc), emails, social media, ebooks, ME / MEW digital editions(!!), music etc etc.

I also use my phone to stream music to my workshop hifi, it's my alarm clock, I don't use a camera now (the iPhone is better then most compact cameras), online banking (the banks consider it safer than a PC), Apple Pay (unlimited, unlike contactless cards with only manage £30), remote control of the central heating, remote access to my NAS storage, remote control of the sockets in the workshop (turn them off automatically at 11pm each day), Find Your Friends shows where the kids are (if they let you),

Most of the couriers send updates on deliveries through email / text / apps which is handy.

Abroad you can use Google Translate to translate voice and text (from your camera) in real time from live video (try it - it's amazing and even works in places like China).

But if you want to make calls and texts, get a simple phone. Horses and water.....

If you don't want to spend a lot, get an older model iPhone or Samsung. Yo could get something pretty decent for £200 or so. You only need large memory if you want to store loads of music and video.

Murray

peak427/02/2018 13:18:27
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2207 forum posts
210 photos

Similar to Neil's suggestion, but if you prefer a face to face purchasing experience, albeit a more expensive one, try someone like CEX for a guaranteed second hand phone and then pick up a SIM only deal from one of a variety of sources.

Mine's from Tesco, but I keep meaning to change it to Plusnet Mobile as it's only 1/2 the cost.

I'm in 1Gb Data + 250 mins of calls, which from Plusnet, who provide my phone and broadband, is only £5 per month for current customers; it's a bit dearer for "outsiders".

Ask around your friends and see who gets the best reception signal in the areas you use, and work from there.

e.g. Tesco buy their airtime off O2, Plusnet off EE etc.

Bill

Gary Wooding27/02/2018 13:48:09
1074 forum posts
290 photos

I bought my first Smartphone about 4 years ago (powered by Android 5). Up until about a year ago everything was fine, but then I started getting an error message every day saying "Cannot update apps - insufficient storage)". The phone had 4GB of main storage plus a 32GB SD card. I moved everything I could to the SD card and deleted everything I could from main storage that I didn't need or want. But the message continued everyday. Unfortunately, everything I didn't want couldn't be deleted or moved to the SD card, so I was stuck. There was only 500MB left of the main storage and 26GB on the SD card, but the updates wouldn't use the SD card.

The point of posting this is to warn you about getting a cheap phone that doesn't have enough main storage. Maybe later versions of Android are prepared to use an SD card as an extension to main storage, I don't know, but it's certainly something to consider.

Fowlers Fury27/02/2018 13:55:49
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446 forum posts
88 photos

Fully endorse Journeyman's "For a starter phone you could do worse that go with a Motorola G5 just to test the water. It is not the smartest of smart phones but it does most of the things that an Apple or Samsung will do but you can get one for about £150 sim and contract free etc..."

Ir consistently comes out of reviews as excellent value. The G5 also has finger-print recognition which I first thought was a gimmick but now really appreciate (not having to sign in with a PIN etc all the time).
OK, other phones have it but at ca. £150?

I'd recomment you look at this guy's website for non-sponsored, unbiased information on current SIM offers and phones:-

**LINK**

DMB27/02/2018 13:59:10
1585 forum posts
1 photos

I had a Samsung G2 on contract but now contract finished, continue using it as a pocket camera and an alarm clock.I was persuaded to upgrade to an S4mini also on contract. Both phones on 02 system.When the S4 went out of contract, I obtained a free card from 02's subsidiary and you get a choice of 1 month @ a time allowance of txts,calls and broadband, in what they call "goodybags", starting @ £5,£7.50, and so on, the prices increase with the size of goody bag, e.g., £5 =500MB. I find that even the above 2 phones with big screens not very good for texting or internet.Last year I bought a Samsung 10" tablet, ideal for what I am currently typing, bigger piccies.The mobs have removable backs so I can fit a fully charged spare battery obtained cheaply from Hong Kong.I understand that you cannot do that with Apple products.I have 2 cheap batteries for both phones, since they are diff. sizes.The tablet doesn't appear to open to allow me to carry out the same cheapskate trick, so I will probably have to get a new tab eventually.At least everything is auto back up so I won't loose it all like when desktop computer hard drive went t-up. I savve on internet allowance in the goodybag by only using that when out but switch to wi fi at home, as its a bigger allowance bundled with house phone on Plusnet, who I cannot praise highly enough.Hope the forgoing is of some guidance to you, Otley and others.

John

John Haine27/02/2018 14:05:08
5563 forum posts
322 photos

There is an Android bug that prevents phones on older OS versions properly using the SD card - infuriating!

My two latest smartphones have been Motorola, currently a 2 year old G3. Which? reviewed mobiles late last year and I think there was an economical Motorola which did very well. Motorola phones used to be the pits for user interface, but now they are made by Lenovo and use Android they're OK, rugged, good radio performance and waterproof (guess how I know). I may well get another Moto when I upgrade (to one with much more memory so avoid the SD card bug).

You may well find that you use the phone for a lot more than you think at first so don't get one that is too limited. I do recommend that you make sure that whichever one you get has 4G connectivity as this is being rolled out very quickly, replacing much of the old 2G and even 3G networks. I'd recommend a contract and possibly a SIM-only deal. Having a paid for a phone I get 2Gbytes/month for ~£12, and I've seen better deals than that.

I.M. OUTAHERE27/02/2018 14:12:53
1468 forum posts
3 photos

I purchased an LG X240 about a year ago and am very happy with it , its a little smaller than the samsung but looks very similar - measures 147 mm x 73 mm x about 8mm cost around $240 au and us unlocked so i can use what ever carrier i wish . One thing i do like is it has a removable battery so if it dies i can replace it easily enough . Forgot to mention 16 mp camera in the back and 8 mp in the screen so it takes nice clear pictures . I had the apple , samsung and a few others right in front of me at the store i bought it from so i could compare the specs and for the price this thing had just about everything the newest ( at the time ) apple and samsung units had , it is a little less on battery run time , runs Android 6 OS and had less onboard storage which is of no concern to me as i don't use it as a media storage device anyway .

I'm not sure what network type you get where you are , we currently have 4G but in the news yesterday that 5G is set to be up and running by the end of this year . A lot of people will rush out and buy new phones to keep up with the joneses so there may be some bargains in 4G phones early next year . Just watch out buying really cheap or fairly old models of phones ( even if they are brand new ) as they recently closed down the 2G network here and 3G will be next so older phones that use those older networks will cease to work . We had purchased some mobile barcode scanners that use the 2G network about 2 years ago and once they shut it down they were useless ! Cost about $3k au each - had to buy 6 of them and only got a year out of them before having to replace them !

Samsaranda27/02/2018 14:13:30
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1688 forum posts
16 photos

I have an IPhone SE on contract from Sky, it costs me £15 a month with 1GB download and free calls and text, does everything I ask of it and is small in size only 60 mm by 125 mm, has a camera which comes in very useful and a huge memory to store information.

Dave W

Muzzer27/02/2018 14:29:42
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2904 forum posts
448 photos

Obviously if you buy the phone on contract it's going to cost you more. You often get a choice of how much down payment (if any) vs monthly payments, so you can easily work it out and compare to the SIM-free cost. So I always buy a SIM-free phone for cash from Amazon or Apple. If you can't afford to buy outright, perhaps you shouldn't be buying one?

I use Giffgaff which is part of O2 but the tariffs are the lowest as far as I'm aware. Even unlimited data and voice is only £20 but there are more modest plans and you can change up or down at any time. The kids manage fine on 2GB and of course, phones use wifi first if it's available.

Murray

Edited By Muzzer on 27/02/2018 14:30:38

John Haine27/02/2018 14:43:59
5563 forum posts
322 photos

...."5G is set to be up and running by the end of this year"....

There may be the odd demo "5G" network by the end of 2018 but think early 2020s before it will influence any phone buying decisions!

Glyn Davies27/02/2018 14:52:27
146 forum posts
56 photos

Thanks for the replies - just what I was after! My trembling finger is now hovering over the Pay Now button on the Amazon site for a Motorola G5S. The casing is CNC-hewn from a solid billet of space ship grade aluminium, apparently, and that's what's persuaded me.

Quick supplementary question - my current phone is on a Tesco pay as you go tariff. Will I be able to transfer the number to my new phone?

Journeyman27/02/2018 15:01:01
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1257 forum posts
264 photos
Posted by Otley on 27/02/2018 14:52:27:

Quick supplementary question - my current phone is on a Tesco pay as you go tariff. Will I be able to transfer the number to my new phone?

Yes no problem, you may have to go into Tesco ( a super store) and get them to give you a new sim card, the Motorola will probably take one of the new micro-sims. They simply transfer the number from one sim to another.

John

Edited By Journeyman on 27/02/2018 15:02:24

Fowlers Fury27/02/2018 15:18:38
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446 forum posts
88 photos

Re: "Motorola will probably take one of the new micro-sims"
I think you'll find the one you need is called a "nano" SIM. Whichever phone you opt for, check the relevant SIM card size you'll need (quote):-

"Nano SIM is both smaller and approximately 15% thinner than the earlier Micro SIM (3FF) standard as well as the Mini SIM (2FF) cards that were ubiquitous for many years and people commonly refer to simply as SIM cards. ... These days, it is not difficult to obtain a Nano SIM card directly from a carrier."

Nothing confusing there then dont know

Journeyman27/02/2018 15:42:14
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1257 forum posts
264 photos

Ah well! that's me then out of date as usual! "Micro-SIMS are so last season..."

(As I recall (now) all size SIMs come on the same card you just pop out the one you want. However I am sure Tesco will sort it out for you.)

John

Edit: Typo

Edited By Journeyman on 27/02/2018 15:46:09

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