Advice on best way to go please!

sghughes42

Tried this on the article discussion thread but that doesn't seem to get much traffic so I thought I'd repost here:


Advice on best way to go please!
My old mobile died and while I have a backup it's a pretty basic Nokia so I'm trying to work out what is the best upgrade path.

Currently I send maybe 50 or so texts a month but make very few calls. However, I've struck lucky in that a good few years back I bought an Orange 5-texts-a-day-for-a-year upgrade which I gather due to some error on their part they can't remove. Therefore, I only top up maybe £15-20 per year at best. I'm on a very old Orange tariff though so calls and excess texts are fairly expensive.

I am interested in upgrading to a smart phone. It would be useful to me to have mobile internet but it is unlikely to be something I would use a lot. It is hard to tell when I don't have it but I suspect at first I'd use it for the novelty value but then only for checking emails etc when I'm away from home.

What I can't decide is whether to go contract or stay PAYG as well as working out what looks like a good, basic phone for what I want. I'd like a reasonable (3M or so) camera but other than that I don't need bells and whistles. Basic mobile internet would be more than good enough.

If it makes any difference I'm a Virgin Media customer so can access their special offers.

I would probably avoid the more complex cash-back deals as I'm quite likely to forget to claim.

Any suggestions most appreciated!

grumbler

sghughes42 wrote: »

I am interested in upgrading to a smart phone. It would be useful to me to have mobile internet but it is unlikely to be something I would use a lot. It is hard to tell when I don't have it but I suspect at first I'd use it for the novelty value but then only for checking emails etc when I'm away from home.

For a basic internet and texting do you really need a smart phone?

jenniewb

I am fairly similar to you in that I rarely used my last mobile for calls, mainly for texts but was quite taken with the internet, mainly checking emails, prices and sending emails. I did find though that the more I used it the more I wanted to use it!

As I am not used to using calls or texts that much (3 mobile, poor/no signal and they only gave me 50 mins a month, 50 texts a month for £15!! anyway-this is their version of loyalty, I had been a customer since 2005 and had always called them to upgrade/cancel each year, they scammed me into this deal, it had been sold to me as much more then this but I had no proof...but thats a whole other story!)

I am thinking about the Orange San Francisco handset, then using a Giff Gaff sim on it. The Giff Gaff sim offers a few different packages, not sure how often you need to top up but the offers last for a month and it has 250 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £10 a month (someone correct me if thats wrong!). There are web pages on how to unlock and de-Orange the handset as it is an Orange exclusive and seems to be a fairly popular option. It is a smart phone.

It has to be said though that other brands which offer handsets and many more times the price (like £400+) will obvioulsy do better in the operative stakes but when it comes down to weather or not you actually even have the money to buy something like an I-phone or an HTC handset its fairly easy to see there are few if any choices and the SF seems to offer value for money, it being £89 from Argos and £100 elsewhere.

sghughes42

Erm. Truth be told, I don't know if I need a smart phone! I used to be up with all the latest gadgets, that was about 10 years ago...

Internet usage would be mainly eBay, facebook and things like railway timetables, plus webmail. I've noticed some phones come with sat-nav which would be useful but I do have a basic one anyway so not essential. I don't know if there is such a thing as BASIC or the equivalent for phones, I do like to dabble so it would be fun to have. Again, not essential. I'd not miss any of these if they weren't there though, really all I'd use it for is texts and internet, as a standby camera rather than taking my proper one and occasionally as an MP3 player.

The Orange SF was one I'd spotted myself but not sure on the best tariff. Virgin have a few cheaper ones but not sure if their tariff is worth going for. One option I suppose is to carry two, my old Nokia with my existing SIM in for the free texts and A.N.Other phone for everything else.

lizziebabe

sghughes42 wrote: »

Tried this on the article discussion thread but that doesn't seem to get much traffic so I thought I'd repost here:


Advice on best way to go please!
My old mobile died and while I have a backup it's a pretty basic Nokia so I'm trying to work out what is the best upgrade path.

Currently I send maybe 50 or so texts a month but make very few calls. However, I've struck lucky in that a good few years back I bought an Orange 5-texts-a-day-for-a-year upgrade which I gather due to some error on their part they can't remove. Therefore, I only top up maybe £15-20 per year at best. I'm on a very old Orange tariff though so calls and excess texts are fairly expensive.

I am interested in upgrading to a smart phone. It would be useful to me to have mobile internet but it is unlikely to be something I would use a lot. It is hard to tell when I don't have it but I suspect at first I'd use it for the novelty value but then only for checking emails etc when I'm away from home.

What I can't decide is whether to go contract or stay PAYG as well as working out what looks like a good, basic phone for what I want. I'd like a reasonable (3M or so) camera but other than that I don't need bells and whistles. Basic mobile internet would be more than good enough.

If it makes any difference I'm a Virgin Media customer so can access their special offers.

I would probably avoid the more complex cash-back deals as I'm quite likely to forget to claim.

Any suggestions most appreciated!

I am with Virgin and pay £10 a month for a bundle which is not under a contract. I get unlimited texts and 200 minutes a month. I use up the minutes - instead of using my home phone and text quite a lot.

I was pay as you go and found that I was spending more than £10 a month.

If I thought it was too much I would contact Virgin and see if they had any advice.

pompeyfaith

Carphone warehouse do the Nokia c3 for £49-95 plus £10 top up on paug it is the cheapest around the phone has wi-fi so will connect to you broadband router and comes with communities i.e facebook,twitter and flicker

It has a qwerty keyboard which is surprisingly easy to use.

The phone is also unlocked so you are free to switch to the cheapest operater when ever you choose

A nice phone for the price

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/NOKIA-C3/PPAY

PixelPound

T-mobile have a £10-odd Sim-only contract that has 100 minutes, 100 texts, plus free add on, which could be 1GB web. Its a 1-month rolling contract, so not tied in long term. You could then get yourself a lowish cost smartphone for reasonable amount. looking at smartphone contracts the lowest they go £20 for 24months and that usually doesn't include web, so if you can get a phone for less than £240 you're saving.
A 1 or 2 year old smartphone will probably be fine. The Nokia Symbian phones like 5800 and N97 come with Nokia maps that work well as a satnav, have a decent web browser and allow apps to be added (including Opera web browser if you want an alternative to the inbuilt one). Older Android phones like HTC wildfire or Hero also support apps (though you may want to check what version of Android they support) including Google maps for satnav.
Don't see why you can't get one of these fairly cheap whether 2nd hand or new, just checked and seen PAYG prices of under £150 and that's for a new phone.

fiendishlyclever

nic_c wrote: »

T-mobile have a £10-odd Sim-only contract that has 100 minutes, 100 texts, plus free add on, which could be 1GB web. Its a 1-month rolling contract, so not tied in long term. You could then get yourself a lowish cost smartphone for reasonable amount. looking at smartphone contracts the lowest they go £20 for 24months and that usually doesn't include web, so if you can get a phone for less than £240 you're saving.
.

You thinking of this one - ChitterChatter do it for £6 (never dealt with them so don't know how the discount works)

If you use higher volumes of texts or internet GiffGaff can be cheaper with a Goodybag, or if you use very low quantities it might still be better if the O2 signal is better than the T-mobile one (although now you get Orange network included too).

I bought my last two phones SIM free and then choose my own SIM to go in. I like having the freedom to change handset whenever I want, and my phones are free of carrier branded rubbish!

xBubblesx

Giffgaff is the best in my opinion. Free extended internet untill 1st april now.

sghughes42

Thanks to all, giffgaff does indeed seem best.

However, any suggestions on a handset? The Orange SF looks good but is there anything available a bit cheaper that would meet my needs? Anything second-hand worth looking for?

flashg67

pompeyfaith wrote: »

Carphone warehouse do the Nokia c3 for £49-95 plus £10 top up on paug it is the cheapest around the phone has wi-fi so will connect to you broadband router and comes with communities i.e facebook,twitter and flicker

It has a qwerty keyboard which is surprisingly easy to use.

The phone is also unlocked so you are free to switch to the cheapest operater when ever you choose

A nice phone for the price

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/NOKIA-C3/PPAY

+1 on the Nokia C3 - bought one for my partner at xmas and she likes it a lot. Like you she's only a low user. She's on Virgin PAYG and internet is 30p per day. My suggestion would be to go the PAYG or rolling 1 month 'contract' route for now and see if you're going to use the internet a lot. The C3 uses Nokia's 'OVI' store for apps - not as many as Android or Apple but as above, has Facebook etc. Being a Nokia, seems well built & is easy to use