Half decent Android phone for £19.95 on PAYG; no topup required

Kernel_Sanders

The Alcatel One Touch 903 is available as a PAYG upgrade for an amazing £19.95 (no cashback involved) instore-only at CPW. It even comes with a 2GB micro SD card and a USB tethering cable! It's got some surprisingly good write-ups on the major review sites. You'll qualify just by having a PAYG SIM with a major carrier (not Asda Mobile, GiffGaff etc.) which has some credit on it; just text/make a call if not used recently and it should qualify. I bought one yesterday and I'm quite impressed.
The phone is the little brother of this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4333851 . It's half the price, so some features will be inferior, but most aren't. OK I'll list the main ones here:
# It runs Gingerbread (still the most widely used Android flavour, I believe); the build is 2.3.6
# The screen's only 2.8", so it's not so easy hitting the characters on the keyboard. Also the pixel count is about 2 thirds in both dimensions but still usable as an E reader (just enlarge the type; page turning is a simple tap).
# The processor is 650 MHz as against 1GHz , but still quite nippy.
# The cam is 2 MP.
They all have a black front with a surround/back choice of white, black or a pinky-purply colour. The one with the white back looks particularly smart when up against your ear; the contrasting black elongated cam section is so neat, and certainly does not look like a cheap phone.
All in all, the perfect entry-level Android phone.

Roger1

Thanks for this. It looked ideal for me. I'm looking for a cheap-ish unlocked quadband phone for when I travel, and Android is a bonus. The phone I use at the moment is just dual band.

I went to CPW for the 'upgrade' price but my Three PAYG and historic Orange OVP didn't work. For the upgrade price, I needed a PAYG SIM from the major companies excluding Three. I dug out an old Vodafone SIM and activated it, returning to CPW the next day. No go. The SIM had to be in use for 6 months before an upgrade could work.

Pity. For £20 I would have bought on the spot. For £40 (including £10 top up) it's expensive. Will I wait 6 months? I doubt it. The market will probably have changed in the meantime.

Kernel_Sanders

Roger1 wrote: »

I dug out an old Vodafone SIM and activated it, returning to CPW the next day. No go. The SIM had to be in use for 6 months before an upgrade could work.

Looks like they didn't tell you about the '3 calls or texts in last 3 months' rule. It's no secret, it's on CPW's own website!
Terms & conditions

• * Excludes the Three network
• Virgin Media
  It must be 6 months since joining Virgin Media or 6 months since last upgrade. Customer must have used number in the last 90 days to make a chargeable event.
• Vodafone
  It must be 6 months since joining Vodafone or 6 months since last upgrade. The customer must have made at least 3 out-going activities within the last 3 months.
• T-Mobile
  It must be 6 months since joining T-Mobile or 6 months since last upgrade. A chargeable event must have occurred on the number at any time.
• Orange
  It must be 6 months since joining Orange or 6 months since last upgrade. A top-up must have been applied within the last 6 months.
• O2
  It must be 6 months since joining O2 or 6 months since last upgrade. A chargeable event must have occurred on the number at any time.

Old_Gold

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Looks like they didn't tell you about the '3 calls or texts in last 3 months' rule. It's no secret, it's on CPW's own website!
Terms & conditions

• * Excludes the Three network
• Virgin Media
  It must be 6 months since joining Virgin Media or 6 months since last upgrade. Customer must have used number in the last 90 days to make a chargeable event.
• Vodafone
  It must be 6 months since joining Vodafone or 6 months since last upgrade. The customer must have made at least 3 out-going activities within the last 3 months.
• T-Mobile
  It must be 6 months since joining T-Mobile or 6 months since last upgrade. A chargeable event must have occurred on the number at any time.
• Orange
  It must be 6 months since joining Orange or 6 months since last upgrade. A top-up must have been applied within the last 6 months.
• O2
  It must be 6 months since joining O2 or 6 months since last upgrade. A chargeable event must have occurred on the number at any time.

CPW do not honour the above terms and conditions. The staff will tell you that you have to top up every month to qualify.