Need help with new phone

khw01

I've never been that big on mobiles - I currently use an Orange Rio, which I'm not enamoured with to be honest. Since my iPod of four years has died, it seems logical to upgrade to a phone that has a decent capacity for music storage - something similar to what an iPod would manage because of the volume of music I have.

I'm not wedded to the idea of the iPhone/iTunes for this, mainly because I know how expensive it will be. I also would prefer to buy a phone outright rather than a calls/text/Internet package because I would never use it enough to justify £20pcm plus over a couple of years.

Assuming my budget for a phone is around £200 but willing to go slightly over. what would be best. I would like the option to access email, Facebook, Internet but combine this obviously with music storage and performance. Am I being unrealistic? If something does much of what an iPhone does but without the cost of the Apple brand, that would suit me. I'm not too clued up on Apps but presumably there are other phones that do these - I mean things like translation (for when I'm abroad) - practical things rather than games.

Phew! Can anyone help? The budget is flexible but I don't want to go nuts.

grumbler

If you don't mind a redemption deal, HTC Desire white is available for £175ish after all cashbacks (may be even £130ish if you downgrade after 9 months) from dial-a-phone with 18x£20.42 O2 contract, 100 min p.m.
You will have either to pay extra for internet access or use some other SIM.

jennyfive

I think the HTC Wildfire goes for about £150 for about these days, if you want to avoid a contract. It's a lower specced version of the HTC Desire but I suspect it would fit your needs in terms of music as the memory can be expanded up to 32GB and there's lots of music apps to choose from on the Android Market. If you could couple this with a decent PAYG deal, or maybe a rolling 1 month contract (whichever's better), you're set.

Link to spec from the HTC site - http://www.htc.com/uk/product/wildfire/specification.html