Mobile phones & tablets thread

...............and access my email. I forgot. :(

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Originally Posted by Jag_Warrior

I saw an ad for a smaller carrier in the U.S. and they're offering the 3GS for $0... but they tie purchasers to a 3 year contract (where the typical contract here is 2 years).

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3 years! :eek:

18 or 24 months is becoming the norm in the UK for subsidised handsets, but a few providers are moving back to 12 months on cheaper phones. I'm on a 24 month deal but it does have an option at 12 months for an upgrade or a discount.

I've never had longer than a 12 month contract and have no intention of doing so either. Certainly whenever my wife has had an 18 month contract she's been very frustrated with the phone in the final 6 months.

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Originally Posted by Dave B

3 years! :eek:

18 or 24 months is becoming the norm in the UK for subsidised handsets, but a few providers are moving back to 12 months on cheaper phones. I'm on a 24 month deal but it does have an option at 12 months for an upgrade or a discount.

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I think I'm on a 24 month contract but tbh I only did so as no one offered WP7 phones on PAYG. I did have money set aside just to buy the phone outright but no one wanted to sell one to me! :p Next time I think I'll just buy the phone outright as it ends up being cheaper :) When Nokia release their Windows Phones in 2012 I will probably upgrade if they offer any big improvements over my Omnia 7. That said I did get a better deal on my contract by haggling a bit :)

Contract? Don't deal with any of that rubbish. Seriously though my use of a phone is so light that it would be silly for me to go contract. I have PAYG with o2 and if I top up by £10 I get 500mb internet and 300 free texts for the a month, I haven't yet exceeded either of those limits. Also I phone people so rarely that I never really eat into the £10 either, so after two months I've usually got about £18 unused that I'll spend on texts and internet for a bit, when that runs out I bung on another £10 and get the free texts again.

There's one particular issue with the iPhone 4, in that it uses a micro-SIM card. As far as I know no other phone uses that type of SIM, therefore mobile providers know it's for an iPhone and hence will charge extra for it!

I'm on a 30 day rolling contract which suits me fine. I might go on another fixed contract when my phone dies but I'll just worry about that when the time comes. Especially seeing as we recently sold most of our old mobiles phones on Mazuma mobile. The ones we didn't manage to sell must be well over 10 years old now. :s

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Originally Posted by henners88

I remember Nokia lol. :p
The last Nokia I had was a 5800 Express Music phone and it was reliable but not the best for internet, email and social networking sites. I found their OS laggy and it crashed alot towards the end of its use. I actually sent it off to fonebank a couple of weeks back and they gave me £71 for it!! I don't think I'd have another Nokia unless they also joined the Android market rather than pouring money into the failure they seem to be pursuing now in regards to their own version. Its good to hear they've bit the bullet and invested in Windows mobile, but I can't help but think they have let their competitors overtake them by investing in an OS that is so much better elsewhere. :)

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Nokia dropped the ball a couple of years ago and have never really picked it back up properly. The N8 seems to review well in terms of the hardware, but the OS seems to let it down a little. I think the WP7 Nokia's will be cracking phones tbh. I think they should have gone Android as well but if they can make WP7 work well it'll be good.

It's certainly my intention to hold onto my phone for the whole of this year and well into 2012. And then see what Apple comes up with in terms of the iPhone 6 (or whatever the one after the next one will be)

And I don't mean that I will just buy an iPhone 6 - I may well do, however I'll make a choice based on what's on the market at the time, as I expect NokiaWP7 will be established by that point and Android etc will have evolved. However unlike previously the apps situation will likely be a strong pull for me to stay with Apple, the likes of 59p games doesn't matter so much, however when you've got the likes of TomTom £60ish and Viewranger - £200, then you have to think long and hard about switching. Not to mention other things you have such as chargers, windscreen mounts etc.

I've always found so far that phones go in 2 year cycles, i.e. a year after you get your phone the others on the market will only be a slight improvement, but after 2 years the improvement will be massive.

Having said that, I tend to be quite hard on my phones, as they spend most of their time in my pocket, getting scratched etc, and they end up in the shower room at work etc, so tend to get wet (no matter how much I try to avoid it), they are tending to be going wrong after a years use anyway!

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Originally Posted by Mark

It's certainly my intention to hold onto my phone for the whole of this year and well into 2012. And then see what Apple comes up with in terms of the iPhone 6 (or whatever the one after the next one will be)

And I don't mean that I will just buy an iPhone 6 - I may well do, however I'll make a choice based on what's on the market at the time, as I expect NokiaWP7 will be established by that point and Android etc will have evolved. However unlike previously the apps situation will likely be a strong pull for me to stay with Apple, the likes of 59p games doesn't matter so much, however when you've got the likes of TomTom £60ish and Viewranger - £200, then you have to think long and hard about switching. Not to mention other things you have such as chargers, windscreen mounts etc.

I've always found so far that phones go in 2 year cycles, i.e. a year after you get your phone the others on the market will only be a slight improvement, but after 2 years the improvement will be massive.

Having said that, I tend to be quite hard on my phones, as they spend most of their time in my pocket, getting scratched etc, and they end up in the shower room at work etc, so tend to get wet (no matter how much I try to avoid it), they are tending to be going wrong after a years use anyway!

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My phones always tend to look really good :p I carry my Omnia 7 with me everywhere but the screen is completely unscratched and there's the tiniest of dents in the side. I have a strict policy of always keeping my phone in my top pocket away from keys and so on. I should buy a screen protector for it but in the 5 or so months I've had it it's not been necessary! :)