Help with a phone for a teenager £200 budget

Spencer_Li

If she likes the BlackBerry, then I'd go for another one.

I've got a BlackBerry Torch, but that might be out of budget if you're looking to buy it sim free.

Would it seem pointless in buying another Curve?


Otherwise, I'd recommend getting an Orange San Fransisco (for ~£100). Just because your budget is £200, doesn't mean you have to reach it.

There's no keyboard (only touchscreen), and no BBM (as it's not a BlackBerry) - but all the kids seem to be using WhatsApp these days.

splashproof

Spencer_Li wrote: »

If she likes the BlackBerry, then I'd go for another one.

I've got a BlackBerry Torch, but that might be out of budget if you're looking to buy it sim free.

Would it seem pointless in buying another Curve?


Otherwise, I'd recommend getting an Orange San Fransisco (for ~£100). Just because your budget is £200, doesn't mean you have to reach it.

There's no keyboard (only touchscreen), and no BBM (as it's not a BlackBerry) - but all the kids seem to be using WhatsApp these days.

I looked at the BlackBerry Torch, but, that I did feel was a bit too much. She would be ok with another curve, but it's a chance to give her something a little better. She's had a pretty hard time of late, so it's some kind of reward as well. She never asks for anything, so I'm prepared to go for something special.


I'll look into your suggestion. The only other thing I need to consider is the network. If she dont go for a blackberry, then I can get a Giff-Gaff sim - but that would limit phone choice unless it was unlocked or 02.

Spencer_Li

splashproof wrote: »

I looked at the BlackBerry Torch, but, that I did feel was a bit too much. She would be ok with another curve, but it's a chance to give her something a little better. She's had a pretty hard time of late, so it's some kind of reward as well. She never asks for anything, so I'm prepared to go for something special.


I'll look into your suggestion. The only other thing I need to consider is the network. If she dont go for a blackberry, then I can get a Giff-Gaff sim - but that would limit phone choice unless it was unlocked or 02.

There's a BlackBerry Bold. I've not used one personally, but it looks as though that's in the appropriate price range.

These days, it seems that it's easy enough to get phones unlocked.

(I do like your attitude wrt said teenager by the way)

Niv

Rather than buying a phone outright for £200. Is it worth considering getting a phone on contract for a year? Depending how much she uses it, it may work out cheaper to get a contract phone? Just a thought

As for the phones you mention the HTC wildfire does not seem to have akeyboard so I dont think that is a good choice if the qwerty keyboard is what she likes. Touch screens are never (in my experiance) as good as 'proper' keys.

Whats bbm? All I could think was big bummed men but I am sure thats not it? .... or is it

jbainbridge

Your original question says she uses BBM - you can only do this on a Blackberry. The Curve 9300 is still a nice handset.

Also you need to pay for Blackberry services either on contract or PAYG. I don't think GiffGaff offer a BB service yet.

lufcgirl

I love how people start questioning someones motives for buying their child a phone. Surely the budget is up to them rather than people to comment on?

Anyway, personally I like the Blackberry Curve 9300. It still feels quite plasticy (I know, not a word!) but it does the job. The downside is only a 2mp camera but it's the only real Blackberry you could get within the price range. And the only main difference with the 8520 is the fact the 9300 has 3G on.

The HTC Cha-Cha looks horrible IMO! For some reason to me it just doesn't look right but if your daughter isn't too bothered about a phone asthetically then it has just been launched and is quite good in terms of features.

If I was going to choose a phone I'd probably be going for the HTC Wildfire S. I'm sure Android has some sort of App like Whats App on the iPhone where you can BBM people using a non Blackberry handset or it's similar to that anyway. It looks nice, isn't too big, runs the latest Andriod OS and has a 5mp camera. A good all round phone I think.

T_T_2

The Wildfire S is barely better than the original Wildfire, and markedly worse than the cheaper Orange San Francisco and Galaxy Ace that I referred to.

The Wildfire S has a processor that is only 70MHz more than the original 530MHz of Wildfire and it has a low pixel density screen. I wouldn't waste my money on it.

splashproof

Niv wrote: »

Rather than buying a phone outright for £200. Is it worth considering getting a phone on contract for a year?

A contract would be ideal, but it would need to be capped and all I can find is Tesco's capped deals which are really poor value. She would never go over use on purpose, but I've set my phone off in my bag before now when I thought it was locked

jbainbridge wrote: »

Your original question says she uses BBM - you can only do this on a Blackberry. .

She would like BBM, but its not critical, I think she's aware of the apps that allow BBM access from other phones.

lufcgirl wrote: »

The HTC Cha-Cha looks horrible IMO! For some reason to me it just doesn't look right but if your daughter isn't too bothered about a phone asthetically then it has just been launched and is quite good in terms of features.

.

She's not seen it in the flesh yet, but its something I'll let her know about.

lufcgirl

T_T wrote: »

The Wildfire S is barely better than the original Wildfire, and markedly worse than the cheaper Orange San Francisco and Galaxy Ace that I referred to.

The Wildfire S has a processor that is only 70MHz more than the original 530MHz of Wildfire and it has a low pixel density screen. I wouldn't waste my money on it.

Could you tell me where you got the information relating to a lower density screen from?

From my understanding they both have a TFT Capacitive touchscreen with 256k colours and 320x480 pixels? Both the Galaxy Ace and Wildfire S have the same 5mp camera with auto flash on. And yes the Galaxy Ace has a slightly bigger processor however doesn't come with Andriod 2.3 preloaded.

I'm not for or against either handset, they both look nice and have very similar features (bar the processor) so I would personally be looking at which one looked the best. Processor doesn't really sell a phone for me, as like most people, my phone is used for occasional internet calls and texts.

T_T_2

lufcgirl wrote: »

Could you tell me where you got the information relating to a lower density screen from?

From my understanding they both have a TFT Capacitive touchscreen with 256k colours and 320x480 pixels? Both the Galaxy Ace and Wildfire S have the same 5mp camera with auto flash on. And yes the Galaxy Ace has a slightly bigger processor however doesn't come with Andriod 2.3 preloaded.

Happy to tell you where I got my information from, but you have kind of answered your own question! :rotfl:http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_wildfire_s-3777.php

As you state, the wildfire S has a screen made up of 320x480 pixels in an area of 3.2", this is deemed to fall into the category of MD (Medium Density). Typically an HD screen (such as the one on the Orange San Francisco) will have a pixel construction that exceeds 480x800 in a screen size of 3.5" or less.

Whether it is LED or TFT certainly has implications but has no bearing on screen density which is defined only by the number of pixels in the active screen area.

The Galaxy Ace comes with a 2.2 stockrom and the ability to officially upgrade to a 2.3 stockrom for free. The Orange San Francisco comes with 2.1 but has a massive support base where you can upgrade to 2.2 or 2.3 quite easily (I'm using an OSF right now with 2.3 on it).