iPhone in the UK - Sums and play?

reech

H'lo peoples.

I'm considering grabbing an iPhone in August when my 3 contract is up. Now, I don't *really* need an iPhone, but my old iPod is starting to lose battery power quite rapidly, so I'd actually be killing two birds with one stone - so I think I'm justifying it correctly

I know there's likely to be some new models later in the year, but I'm doing my research now. Currently, I'm trying to figure out what type of use I can make of the iPhone for the best cost.

At the moment, I've got a cheapy Nokia on 3, with a £15 a month contract which has 300 minutes - and I rarely use that many minutes. I've also got a broadband 'dongle' for my laptop, which costs me 7.50 each month for about 3 Gig data; again I tend to use about 1Gig on a busy month, and some months don't use it at all. It's useful when I'm using my little netbook from hotel and need to catch up with emails from work.

Looking at the iPhone with O2, there are a couple of options.

I could buy the iPhone on pay monthly, and pay about £29 per month contract cost for about £170 outlay. With an 18 month contract, that will mean a total cost over the 18 months of about £700. That works out to 400 mins\500 texts a month; again, well within what I use. Internet is totally covered.

On the £35 contract, the model I want is about £60 outlay, so with 18 month contract that will mean a total cost over the 18 months of about £690 - so not much difference in cost there (actually works out very slightly cheaper, but not by much!) - bit of a surprise that - not! More minutes and texts, but then again, the above package suits fine for my phone use. Internet is totally covered.

On Pay as you Go, the phone costs about £400, and then I can top up for about £10 to give me about 40 minutes talk time (without texts). Although you get 500 'free minutes' from a nominated postcode. Not quite sure how that works, or how much use it'll be, since I'm working 'around the country'. Internet is fully covered for the first 12 months, then you need to pay £10 a month to keep it. However, with PAYG there exists the option of persuading the iPhone to work on another network, that might have a better internet package (I'm looking at Virgin Mobile with it's 30p a day *when you use it*, but I'm going to guess it won't work with iPhone.)

So I'm torn; really, to get an effective use of the iPhone you'll spend the same no matter what over 18 months (£700!) which seems like a big sum - considering I'm getting when I'm getting for around £400...

Has anyoen got any moneysaving tips with using an iPhone? (Don't! is also a valid one *grins*)

parallax_20

This is just my opinion but I think the iPhone is very overrated. The phone part isn't great but the rest of it is pretty good. My personal suggestion would be to get something like the E71 £20 deal from 3 and grab yourself an Ipod Touch. There is free software out there that will enable the Nokia S60 to act as a WIFI hotspot so you can tether it to use the Touch for internet access. Or simply grab any S60 Nokia PAYG phone and stick an IPhone 3G sim in it to get 12 months free internet. Either way would work out slightly cheaper than just getting an IPhone alone on O2. Yes, you will have to carry two devices, but sometimes its better to have two devices that do their jobs well rather than one which doesn't, if you know what I mean.

I have this setup currently and when my son gets irritable I give him the Touch to watch his videos on whilst I continue to do my stuff on the Nokia 5800.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

reech

Useful - I'll remember that; the convenience of having an iPhone could be outweighed by the cost, so if you can piggybank internet off a more reasonable tarrif that'd be fantastic.

To be honest, I'd be happy with a 'phone that's just a phone'. I'll look up that software for the Symbian 60 platform - will this work with any phones; or does anyone else have experience with that?

parallax_20

JoikuSpot is the software for S60 phones. Check the website for phone compatability. Good luck.

LeeSouthEast

I use JoikuSpot on my N95 for my Touch in the car Works great. Bit of a battery hog tho, so only really use it when I'm near a power point.

Bella_b

Apparently you can get iphone's unlocked so you could use it on any network, payg or contract. Any simcard! Simple instructions on how to do it online. I've seen vids of people on youtube doing it. I would like an iphone but can't afford it.

lynzpower

Ive got one on the £45 deal and tbh I totally love it and all the apps.

For a moneysaver theres a brilliant spending diary app on there, also recipes, unlimited interent is so useful.

I personally think the only thing thats crap about it is the battery life. You cant surf the internet for long without it draining the battery.

lucy1000_2

Um, a new iPhone is expected to be announced tomorrow. I think it's a fantastic phone - in fact, I don't see it as a phone, it's more like a wonder device! - and it should come out in July if released tomorrow, which would be perfect timing for the end of your Three contract.

reech

Fantastic advice all; I think I'll dive nearer the time; however a new ipod touch and a cheapy handset is the hover I'm doing at the moment. Still, I've got two months to go gadget crazy...

stokefan

i dont get the i phone hype, i have had series 60 smart phones for years, and there is so many apps out there for them anyway that basically nearly everything you can get on the iphone you can get on s60, plus on my n95 i have got a decent camera and video, can send mms, and also has a better quality mp3 playere (down to opinion), if i was up for a new contract i would go for the samsung i8910 hd, but you can only get the phone on orange at the moment

samba

As this is a money saving forum I would recommend you check out the many smart phones on the market before investing in an iphone. My colleague at work has an iphone, and over the course of his contract he will pay almost triple what I pay for my G1, yet his phone cannot do anything that mine can't.