Cheapest/Best place to buy a HTC Hero?

desidoh

Hi all

My current mobile contract expires shortly, I'm with O2 and fancy changing to a smartphone for my next contract. I'm after an android phone and have decided upon the HTC Hero. Although it's not their latest model, it ticks all the boxes for the things I'm interested in. I know there's the new Nexus 1 coming from Google but I don't want to wait that long..

I started with O2 retentions and the best smartphone deal they offered was a refurb 16 GB iPhone 3GS with on an 18 month contract for £35 per month with 500 texts / 600 mins. To be honest I'm not really that interested in the iPhone, especially not a refurb model.

My budget is around £30/35 and the maximum length of contract needs to be 18 months. Based on my present usage I need a minimum of 400 mins and 450 texts plus I will need an internet bolt on.

I've also had a T-mobile phone in the past so know their reception is very patchy in my home (the same applies to 3 mobile, as a friend has a phone on this network and struggles to get a signal in my home).

So where do people recommend? I'm trying to avoid any companies with bad reputations, E2save, mobiles.co.uk etc

I've looked at dialaphone, their best 18 month contract seems to be:
Orange Racoon 45 + Internet (500mb limit), 1200 mins + 500 texts, which is £45 a month but works out as £35.76 as there's £170 cashback by redemption. I've used dialaphone in the past so I know they do pay redemptions promptly but £45 a month initial payout seems steep.

From the research I've done. I think buymobilephones.net seem to have the most favourable deal:
Orange Dolphin 30 + Internet, 400 mins + Unlimited texts + 500MB Anytime Mobile Internet Browsing, 18 months contract @ £35 a month and 3 months free by redemption.

Does any of you knowledgeable people out there know of any better deals?

Many thanks :j