New mobile contract

robt_2

mercurystar999 wrote: »

The e71 seems a good phone and the deal on 3 is unbeatable, for £20 a month i'd get 200 mins, unlimited web and texts. My only concerns are that its an 18 month contract and i've only ever had 12 month deals and that it is on 3 network.

Bear in mind you can upgrade after 15.

parallax_20

Upgrade at 15 months doesn't quite help once you get roped into signing a contract with 3 and you find out you get a crap signal in your area regardless of what is reported by their coverage web page. Theres plenty of reports of this happening and people are unable to cancel their contracts.

I would suggest you pick up a 3 Sim for £2 and use it for a while to see if you are happy with the signal and connection speeds before taking out a contract. As once you've unwrapped the phone and put the sim in, its bye bye 14 days return.

robt_2

parallax_20 wrote: »

Upgrade at 15 months doesn't quite help once you get roped into signing a contract with 3 and you find out you get a crap signal in your area regardless of what is reported by their coverage web page. Theres plenty of reports of this happening and people are unable to cancel their contracts.

I would suggest you pick up a 3 Sim for £2 and use it for a while to see if you are happy with the signal and connection speeds before taking out a contract. As once you've unwrapped the phone and put the sim in, its bye bye 14 days return.

Same as every other network then.

Samtex9

Yes be careful when getting a phone you are not sure about. If you look at the bottom of most of the mobile phone sites they will have a link to the T&C's. If in doubt call them up and explain your problem before hand. Not wanting to point any figures they will stick to the T&C's !

mercurystar999

Went into town today to check out all the phones. In the 3 store they assured me that signal strength will be no problem and that they use the orange network if 3 is unavailable. So the e71 deal seems good.

The magic android phone seems good but with it being white it'll not last 5 minutes with me without being ruined! According to the carphone warehouse its also not a very good phone and is only classed as a midrange handset.

At the carphone warehouse i spoke to someone who seemed to know what he was talking about, they had the new E75 in and basically said that i should choose between the touch diamond 2, the E75, or the iphone. It seems that the E75 i an update of the E71 but not much has been updated other than a slide out keypad, it now offers push email and also higher speed internet.

So bearing everything in mind i can get the E75 via orange for £30 a month including internet, 600 mins and unlimited texts and the phone costs £30. The E71 ia also available with orange for, the same tariff but with 11 months half price line rental so is effectively a much better deal

The e71 is £20 a month for 200 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet with 3 and £25 a month for 500 mins.

As long as i remember to claim the cash its a better deal with orange.

robt_2

mercurystar999 wrote: »

At the carphone warehouse i spoke to someone who seemed to know what he was talking about, they had the new E75 in and basically said that i should choose between the touch diamond 2, the E75, or the iphone. It seems that the E75 i an update of the E71 but not much has been updated other than a slide out keypad, it now offers push email and also higher speed internet.

Push email that the E71 has and the same HSDPA that the E71 has? Sounds like he wanted a sale of an E75 so made up some fibs about it being better than the E71.

bigbulldog

If you need bluetooth voice control dont get the Magic as it does not have it,but for internet its very quick.:)

parallax_20

robt wrote: »

Same as every other network then.

Yes, same risk with other networks, but what I was trying to emphasise was 3's 14 day guarantee policy which is totally unreasonable. With other networks as far as I can remember you are able to test the phone and the sim to ensure you are completely satisfied with your purchase. This seems to be the standard amongst 14 day distance selling policies, but with 3, they state clearly that you cannot customise the phone or use the sim. i.e. not set the date, use it to make a call or text. So in that respect how is one to determine if 3 is right for them if they cannot test the handset or 3's services without signing your right to return? So in effect 3's 14 day guarantee is nothing more than looking at the phone in the box to make your decision. How ridiculous is that?

So as I've said before, better to test their services using a PAYG sim first to ensure you get a good signal in the areas you will be using the phone most before agreeing to an 18 month contract.

On a side note, consider how often you will be using the qwerty keypad on the E75 to reply to emails and texts. As the action of sliding the keypad and rotating the phone can get tiresome overtime. I had to change my MDA Pro a few years back for this very reason to a Treo750v where the qwerty was always available on the front like the E71. As said before, there isn't much difference between E71 and E75. E75 slightly small, has FP2, dual keypad, everything else remains pretty much the same.

mercurystar999

The girl i spoke to instore said that the phone would be returnable under the 14 day guarantee if signal was he reason for return. I then asked even if i put the sim in and she said yes.

mercurystar999

The camera although the same megapixels is better on the E75 which is another reason for me maybe going for that.