Cheapest/Best Value mobile phone for 3 internet tethering

LONDON_SMOGGY

Hi all,

Looking for some helpful advice as I'm such a dinosaur when it comes to technology. Anyway my situation is I have just moved into a new flat which will be temporary for 6 months and I have a three mobile one plan contract which includes tethering. I just need some basic internet surfing for this time and am reluctant to take out a broadband contract. I currently tether my internet from an old Samsung galaxy mini and sometimes this works great but other days slow. The reason why it is slow is the small internal memory of the phone I was told and was informed 4G was the way forward.

I need a new phone anyway but was wondering what would be the best phone to buy to maximise my internet tethering?

-Budget of up to £150. (but more expensive suggestions welcome if they are worth the money.)
-Must be able to tether/provide wifi hot spot to connect to
-Must have as large as possible processor/ram/internal memory to run the internet
-Possibly 4G

Basically run the internet and tether to a laptop as fast as possible, (what Ive written above may be inaccurate but is what I was told to maximise the tethering potential.) Anybody have any suggestions or experiences?

Cisco001

I don't think there is a £150 phone if you want 4G.
There are few at £200.

Do you after android or windows phone?

LONDON_SMOGGY

Don't mind really, I've been used to android, but Windows is fine if it is quicker. Yeah I know wasn't expecting 4G for too cheap but didn't know.

I've read that these are good, looks like US phone only though but seems good value. Motorola Droid Razr

grumbler

LONDON_SMOGGY wrote: »

Yeah I know wasn't expecting 4G for too cheap but didn't know.

http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sName=&idMaker=0&chkLTE1800=selected&idAvailability=0&YearAnnounced=0&nPriceLow=0&nPriceHigh=200&idCurrency=0&idFormFactor=0&idSIMType=0&idDualSIM=0&idQwerty=0&HeightMax=0&WidthMax=0&ThicknessMax=0&WeightMax=0&idOS=0&idOSVersion=0&idOSWhen=0&nminCPUMHz=0&nCPUCores=0&nminRAMMB=0&nminInternalStorageMB=0&idExpansionCard=0&idDisplay=0&nminDisplayX=0&nminDisplayY=0&nmaxDisplayX=0&nmaxDisplayY=0&fminDisplaySize=0&fmaxDisplaySize=0&nPixelDensity=0&idDisplayTech=0&idTouchscreen=0&idAccelerometer=0&idGyro=0&idCompass=0&id35mm=0&idCamera=0&idCameraFlash=0&idVideoRecorder=0&idSecondaryCamera=0&idGPS=0&idWLAN=0&idNFC=0&bEDGE=0&bGPRS=0&idBluetooth=0&bIR=0&bEmail=0&bWAP=0&bJava=0&idRadio=0&bMMS=0&idRingtones=0&sColor=&nBatteryCapacity=0&StandBy=0&TalkTime=0&sFreeText=
(4g 1800 and <€200)

LONDON_SMOGGY

Thanks, can't see the prices of those, wondering which is the best one to get, guess I go with one with biggest processor and ram

grumbler

LONDON_SMOGGY wrote: »

Thanks, can't see the prices of those,

See "To refine your search click here" at the top. That said, it's not a price comparison site and not UK, so the price ranges are very approximate. Some phones can be not available in UK.

LONDON_SMOGGY

Hmm I clicked that but the refine search link didn't work for me, appeared dead. Can you use a US phone on in the UK? Should be fine if quad band right?

grumbler

>> Phone Finder


AFAIK, '3' use 1800 frequency for their 4g.
'Price' filter is two lines below.

For other UK networks see Coverage

Frozen_up_north

Your variation in speed may have nothing to do with the phone, when tethering on 3 they can throttle the tethered connection to give others a fair share of the available bandwidth.

I find there is plenty of bandwidth around breakfast time, much less during the evenings. As an example, I downloaded the Windows 8 to 8.1 upgrade (3.6 GB) around 7.30 AM one weekday morning, it took just under an hour using tethering on an iPhone 5 (original model). The iPhone 5 can manage around 20 Mb/s during off peak times on Three's 3G service. However, as I type this (6.20 PM) the speed is down to 500 Kb/s (1/40th of the best speed)!

LONDON_SMOGGY

Thanks I appreciate that, I noticed I was able to get on with an Ipad but not on my laptop a some points which was strange. The phone is so old and has such poor memory though that I think that is it. Any recommendations on good phones for tethering on a budget?

The tesco motorola thread looks like it might be a good start

LONDON_SMOGGY

Looks like this is the best for £150, 4G aswell, what do people think, looks like either this or the Motorola Moto G

Huawei Ascend P1 LTE Smartphone:

GENERAL
2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network
WCDMA 850 / 900 / 2100
4G Network
LTE B3:1710-1785MHz (UL), 1805-1880 MHz (DL)
l LTE B7: 2500-2570MHz (UL), 2620-2690 MHz (DL)
l LTE B20: 832-862MHz (UL), 791-821 MHz (DL)
SIM
Single SIM
BODY
Dimensions
132.5 x 65.4 x 9.9 mm (5.22 x 2.57 x 0.39 in)
Weight
135 g (4.76 oz)
DISPLAY
Type
Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size
540 x 960 pixels, 4.3 inches (~256 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch
Yes
Protection
Corning Gorilla Glass
SOUND
Alert types
Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker
Yes
3.5mm jack
Yes

- Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus sound enhancement
MEMORY
Card slot
microSD, up to 32 GB
Internal
4 GB, 1 GB RAM
DATA
GPRS
Yes
EDGE
Yes
Speed
HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE
WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA
Bluetooth
Yes, v3.0 with A2DP, HS
USB
Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL)


CAMERA
Primary
8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, dual-LED flash
Features
Geo-tagging, HDR, face and smile detection
Video
Yes, 1080p@30fps
Secondary
Yes, 1.3 MP
FEATURES
OS
Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Chipset
Qualcomm MSM 8960 Snapdragon S4
CPU
Dual-core 1.5 GHz Cortext-A9
GPU
Adreno(TM)225
Sensors
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Messaging
SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser
HTML5
Radio
FM radio
GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support
Java
Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors
Metallic black

- SNS integration
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- MP4/H.263/H.264 player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Photo viewer/editor
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input
BATTERY

Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery
Package Include