Please help with basic smartphone choice

Bettingmad

Hello peeps, hope someone can help and advise a suitable smartphone for my wife.

I will be purchasing outright, the phone does not have to be feature packed. The phone will be mainly used for calls and texts. Internet won't be used much but would like a decent camera and good battery life. I realise that most smartphones are power hungry. The battery is the biggest consideration. Android or Windows, matter not which type.

I am trying to convert wife away from her current phone which is a Motorola Razr and shes had it for about 10yrs.
I am looking to spend as little as possible for a phone with a good battery and camera. Thanks

Guys_Dad

If you do manage to find a basic Android smartphone with a decent battery life, then please post it here. I have yet to find an Android that has a battery life of much more than 1 - 1.5 days.

If you are looking for a really cheap Android, though, then CPW have them from £29.95 upwards. 3.5mp camera, but Android 2.3

Don't know what spec of camera you are looking for as a minimum or what your budget is. Might help if you indicate.

sillygoose

To add to Guys Dad suggestion, it would be useful to know what network. Do you currently have a contract SIM running or PAYG? any preference for networks or any that don't give good signal in your home?

It makes a difference because various handsets are subsided by the networks and it saves a few quid if you don't need to unlock it to use it on the network you want.

If she is not using mobile internet or a lot of wifi and playing with it using a lot of screen power smart phones can give quite good battery life but by nature people buy smartphones to use internet, apps on the screen so get short life.

Used as just a phone, texts most should do several days.

Bettingmad

She is on a Tesco sim only, I don't really have a budget, my budget is what it will cost to get a smart phone with camera to take decent photos and battery that will not run out during the day. I am a heavy user of web on a HTC Mozart and have to charge my phone back up during the day. There is no way I will convert her to a smartphone if the phone does not guarantee to last her all day as a minimum.
As I said she would hardly use the internet.
If you really ush me on budget I would assume that with the credentials I am after I would not need to spend much more than a £100 but as I said the budget will be whatever it takes.

balletshoes

this might be a really stupid question - but does your wife want a smartphone? I mean is she happy with her old phone? Its just that I have an old phone, not a smartphone, my daughter and husband both have smartphones and any time I have to do anything with either of them I just want to chuck them out the window, they frustrate me so much.

Bettingmad

She does want one but is cautious of moving on with technology. A bigger screen would be a huge benefit. I t also appears that to get a decent camera with screen size will require a smart phone.

Bettingmad

From trawling around, the Nokia 610 and Samsung Galaxy seem decent enough but I have not idea if the battery is decent or if they take good quality photo's. There may be similar phones around which may be better.

Silk

Bettingmad wrote: »

She does want one but is cautious of moving on with technology. A bigger screen would be a huge benefit. I t also appears that to get a decent camera with screen size will require a smart phone.

It won't be long before someone puts this one up :rotfl:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4165069

Bought two, both not used much other than for calls and texts which lasts about 3/4 days before charge is needed

Decent 5mp camera with flash and large screen etc etc

You will need to get it unlocked though but no hassle

sillygoose

Bettingmad wrote: »

From trawling around, the Nokia 610 and Samsung Galaxy seem decent enough but I have not idea if the battery is decent or if they take good quality photo's. There may be similar phones around which may be better.

Galaxy Ace on Tesco does seem to fit your bill and would make life easy with a simple SIM swap. A few comments about battery life but it sounds as if this phone is popular with teens that probably hammer it a bit. Probably be good for a couple of days at a time at least with your wife's usage. Gorilla glass 3.5" screen and a LED flash go in its favour too

sillygoose

Silk wrote: »

It won't be long before someone puts this one up :rotfl:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4165069

Bought two, both not used much other than for calls and texts which lasts about 3/4 days before charge is needed

Decent 5mp camera with flash and large screen etc etc

You will need to get it unlocked though but no hassle

I resisted the temptation to.. people already think I work for Huawei! :whistle:

My reservation in this case is its a 4" screen phone and a bit of a smart phone lovers phone really and involves a bit of fettling to get its best, op may be better off with something off the shelf in this case.

Emy1501

I got the G300 and apart from the unlock its pretty much out of the box with a few Apps. I surf for about 1-2 hours a day and normally have about 30-50% battery life at the end of the day.

My parents have the Nokia 610 and if your not too bothered about APPs or flash player etc then its a decent quick phone which is not as big as the G300.

In my opinion battery life falls down on smartphone mainly due to internet use. I have a Sony x10 mini which used to die after 12 hours each day from 1-2 hours internet use but will go a couple of days if the internet is not used.