confused with choice. contract or payg? and which phone has decent camera?

hazz48

I've only ever had a £5 payg phone (not internet capable) which I top up £10 on orange about every 5/6 weeks ish.
Now I'm thinking of getting a smartphone, and despite being 22 have no idea about it...
My friends all have top of the range models and admit I'm jealous, but not sure if I need that. I want it mainly to be able to check email + facebook on the move but also because I often get annoyed about not having a camera on me (it having a decent camera is fairly important).
I also would like to use langauge learning apps on it and radio/ ability to play music would be nice.
- What is battery life like for smartphones?
- Payg or contract? - I've never been on contract before so slightly wary but would consider it if free phone + contract of £15 or less a month worked out good value.
- On payg is it possible to get a smartphone with decent camera for under £150?
- I know I won't use more than 300 texts a month, don't really know about minutes but I guess not that many.
I have no idea about internet usage never having had a phone with internet before - I want to be able to check fb and email regularly, but doubt I'll watch many videos.
- Also what is whatsapp? - does that use internet data allowance?
thanks for advice!

grumbler

hazz48 wrote: »

- What is battery life like for smartphones?

Very poor. Be prepared to charge it daily, sometimes even more often.

- Payg or contract? - I've never been on contract before so slightly wary but would consider it if free phone + contract of £15 or less a month worked out good value.

It's a difficult question. PAYG gives you more freedom and more protection. Contracts are often cheaper in terms of the total amount over 1-2 years.

- On payg is it possible to get a smartphone with decent camera for under £150?

'Decent' is a little vague term. In terms of MP 5+ is decent IMO and yes, you can get it even for about £100.

- Also what is whatsapp? - does that use internet data allowance?
thanks for advice!

It's an app (like a programm for a PC) that allows sending texts over mobile internet to other people with smartphones and this app installed. I don't think that you need it unless for using abroad on free wifi to avoid paying roaming charges.

Sim-free phone: Huawei G300 is believed to be the best value for money. It costs about £100, but you can get it cheaper if you search the board for 'g300'. Locked to Vodafone, but costs a fiver to unlock.

PAYG: giffgaff, £10 'goodybag'

Sim-only contract: Virgin Mobile £7, one month.

Good value contracts with free basic smartphones: CPW 24x£7.5
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/special-offers/super-value-smartphones?intcmp=HP_Oct_SuperValue.
Nokia Lumia 710 and Samsung Galaxy Ace have 5Mp cameras.
If you go for a contract make sure that Talkmobile (Vodafone) signal is good in your place(s).

Herongull

I generally agree with Grumbler's points.

You can go even cheaper. There are very nice Android phones to be had for around £50.

You can get a free bundle each month from Ovivo (PAYG on the vodaphone network) (50 minutes, 50 texts, and 100 mb). If you are a light user this is more than enough. If you are a medium user you can top this up. If you are a heavy user go for Giffgaff if you want PAYG.

PAYG is stress-free and low hassle. Suppose your phone is stolen and you don't notice immediately. With contract phones you can lose thousands of £. With a cheap PAYG android phone, the maximum you can lose is the value of the phone plus whatever you have topped up.

If your previously good reception turns rubbish you can just move to another network with PAYG.

Some people are happy with contracts, but for others contracts = hassle/stress/financial losses.

Why not spend your hard earned cash on enjoying yourself rather than pumping it into a phone.

zagfles

Definitely go PAYG if you're a smartphone newbie. Certainly till you get used to how much data you need and how to control the behaviour of the apps etc. Just read the weekly horror stories here about people running up bills in the thousands.

Don't believe this "free phone" rubbish, TANSSAAFL. You only get free phones with overpriced contracts that tie you in for a long time, basically they're a loan for the purchase of the phone.

PAYG will give you far greater flexibility - all the networks offer "packs" or "bundles" which you can buy as and when you need them, rather than trying to predict your usage now for the next 24 months.

grumbler

zagfles wrote: »

Don't believe this "free phone" rubbish, TANSSAAFL. You only get free phones with overpriced contracts that tie you in for a long time, basically they're a loan for the purchase of the phone.

This is over-categorical statement. Try proving that it is correct for the above CPW contracts, even ignoring £35 cashback.

24x£7.50 - £35 = 250m+500t+500Mb+(free phone)

zagfles

grumbler wrote: »

This is over-categorical statement. Try proving that it is correct for the above CPW contracts, even ignoring £35 cashback.

24x£7.50 - £35 = 250m+500t+500Mb+(free phone)

OK. I'll ignore the cashback as you suggest, as I can't see it on the website and don't know whether you could get any cashback on PAYG.

So 7.50x24 = 180.

On the same site you can buy the Galaxy Ace for 79.95 on a PAYG upgrade.

So that leaves £100 to pay for usage. Now if you happen to use exactly 250m+500t+500Mb every month then you'll unlikely get better on PAYG. But this isn't very likely - with wi-fi being available in so many places and at home for most people. The OP is a low user so is unlikely to use anywhere near that. His PAYG bill could even go down - it did when my kids got smartphones, since they started using instant messaging type apps to talk to their friends (almost always via wi-fi) rather than texts. A £10 top up generally lasts about 3 months, mobile data is rarely used and when it is in bursts (so costs £1 for a day), except when on holiday in the UK - there we tend to time the top-ups to get the "text & web" freebie from Vodafone which gives 500MB free for 30 days. Holidays abroad we only ever use wi-fi.

So it depends on the pattern of usage, but certainly for the way my kids use their phones, they are better off on PAYG than even the contract you highlight. Plus no worries whatsoever about a massive bill.

Daz2009

I've just been looking at some basic 12 month contracts....
Virgin sim only £7 per month gets you 150 minutes,unlimited texts and 500mb data while Vodafone for £10.50 (£8 after cashback) gets 300 minutes,unlimited texts and 500 mb data.
I would have thought both would be a better option than going payg for a light user

zagfles

Daz2009 wrote: »

I've just been looking at some basic 12 month contracts....
Virgin sim only £7 per month gets you 150 minutes,unlimited texts and 500mb data while Vodafone for £10.50 (£8 after cashback) gets 300 minutes,unlimited texts and 500 mb data.
I would have thought both would be a better option than going payg for a light user

Unlikely. A light user would almost certainly be better off on PAYG with sensible use of packs/bundles/freebies, unless their usage was very consistent and predictable and it just happened to fit a contract tariff.

Daz2009

zagfles wrote: »

Unlikely. A light user would almost certainly be better off on PAYG with sensible use of packs/bundles/freebies, unless their usage was very consistent and predictable and it just happened to fit a contract tariff.

The OP is already spending around £90 per year without any internet access so both the options I listed would be cheaper for him/her

diamonds

For a smartphone internet on payg no one beats 3, every top up bags a free 30 day 150MB bundle, 11p per MB outside it.

You can convert a top u balance of £15 to 300 mins, 3000 texts & UNLIMITED internet.

Top up 3 x £5 the same day and you have 450MB of data for 30 days, 11p per MB after 30 days/450MB:

Prices and add ons:
http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Article,varset_cat=payasyougo,varset_subcat=4124,Case=obj(4101)




For contract, Virgin & T-Mobile do the best data for a £15 a month, I'd advise on Virgin - buy a second hand Blackberry:

http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/paymonthlySimOnly.do

Blackberry service 30 day contract sim :
Unlimited minutes to landlines
2500 minutes
Unlimited texts
Unlimited Mobile Web

£20 a month, if you are a Virgin Media Customer (if you know anyone whos is and will get a 30 day sim contract for you in their name) you get unlimited Virgin calls thrown in.

I have put friends on this who then binned the landline and saved at least £10 a month doing so, BT line rental is £15.45 from Jan 2013 :eek: adding unlimited landline calls to BT is then £20.60, with NO mobile calls, internet or texts included, Virgin includes tethering as this part of it is routed over Virgin Media not resold T-Mobile bundles like Virgin mins & texts.

T-Mobile reseller do the best T-Mobile sim only 1/12 month contract offers:

http://www.chitterchatter.co.uk/simonly.php

zagfles

Daz2009 wrote: »

The OP is already spending around £90 per year without any internet access so both the options I listed would be cheaper for him/her

How do you know? They may be spending on stuff which wouldn't be included in inclusive packages, such as non-geographic, international, roaming etc. They may spend intermittantly, rather than the same every month.

If it's worth buying packages then PAYG packages tend to be better value than contracts with inclusive mins etc, unless usage is very consistent.