Looking to get very 1st Smartphone. Low user. Don't want PAYG.

chaucer

So my wife & I have had our old PAYG mobile phones for about 8 years.
They still work, just.
But we want to update now.
Neither of us are heavy users.
Text very light.
Phone calls usually from landline.
We want something with a low cost contract, minutes / texts available, but not too much that means we pay for stuff we don't use.
We want a good, up to date, handset.
We won't need much in the way of interweb on the move either.
We'll use wi-fi for that where / when we can.

Where to look?
What to look at?

I'm new to this whole area so treat me like a noob.

augustusgloop

Tesco mobile Moto e? £7.50 and able to cap the contract. 1st gen Moto g available for 10 a month. Depends what you mean by up to date though.

chaucer

augustusgloop wrote: »

Depends what you mean by up to date though.

I think we'd like a 'smart phone'.
I'm just reading the masses of advice on the MSE site ... confusing!

19lottie82

I agree with the Moto at £7.50 a month from tesco. I got my mum one and she loves it.

bryanb

Why not PAYG? Seems that would suit your needs best.

marlot

Why not PAYG?

I'm a very light user [I also have a company phone and dongle], and find 3's 321 tariff works great for me. I probably top up with £10 every 3-4 months.

MUCH cheaper than a contract

Scrounger

There is a cheap 3G smartphone available at Argos - £19.99:





Alcatel One Touch C1 Pop - Dual Core

Cheapest Dual Core Android phone

Dual-core 1 GHz
Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean)
3.5"
4 GB, 512 MB RAM
microSD, up to 32 GB
2MP Camera
2G and 3G network capability
Micro SIM card
Wi-Fi connectivity
Bluetooth

99p unlock code available here

No need for the £10 top-up if you order by FastTrack
Ideal for using with a 3 321 SIM (or any other SIM for that matter) :beer:
Scrounger

System

I would also go with Motorola. Not just is it a very good phone but Motorola are now the leading android manufacturer for updates and support on handsets. They are providing android updates for handsets they stopped making a long time ago!

As it stands, Moto G and Moto E look like excellent long term prospects and that makes them even better value for money.

redux

I think I agree with the others that PAYG might be better for you. Bear in mind that although they like to tell you about bundles you get if you top up each month, you aren't compelled to do so.

Make sure to go through the settings so as to only look for application updates manually when on wifi.

I'd also suggest Three, or maybe a £1 bundle on Vectone, with 50 minutes or texts (aggregate between them) plus 50 MB of data.

For occasional mobile browsing, try Opera Mini, which compresses data at their server, and you can also turn off images if not needed, then some pages are only tens of kilobytes.

cookie365

Smartphones by definition like to use data, so you'll almost certainly end up using a lot more than you do at the moment.

Might be worth buying the phone outright, then getting one of the payg sims where you can buy its-not-a-contract bundles, run that for a couple of months and see how your usage has changed.

E.g. giffgaff do 200 mins, 250Mb, unlimited texts for £7.50 a month, you can leave any time.
https://giffgaff.com/goodybags

JJ_Egan

Moto G + PAYG that way you are not locked into a contract if you don't like the service .
Cannot see what extra you would get with a contract apart from paying for what you may not use .
Typically a sim from Giffgaff and ten pounds worth of credit and see how you go or likewise on any network.