Smartphone or other device (clueless!)

ripplyuk

There's no 4G, or even 3G in my area. It's very rural and still only 2G is available. Reception is a big issue too. I'm now on Talkmobile as the Vodafone network was the only one that gets a decent reception here. Should this influence what I buy? Would a smartphone still work here?

Would it be better to just get another cheap, basic phone and then look for a device that has a camera and music on it? It would need to be really easy to download songs and upload photos. I'm not sure if such a thing exists or whether it would just be more hassle than getting a smartphone.

kwikbreaks

moneyman1295 wrote: »

Nokia has good smartphone now with superb camera .

It won't be like the Nokias of old though it will be a Windows phone.

Any move from a plain old Nokia to any smartphone will involve a learning curve, probably require a different phone contact with some data, and the need to charge the thing at least daily.

It's certain that Apple will be the easiest to pick up after using an iPad compared to Andoid or Windows phones and even more certain that effect on the wallet will be the least easy to bear.

castle96

"Any move from a plain old Nokia to any smartphone will involve a learning curve, probably require a different phone contact with some data, and the need to charge the thing at least daily."

it certainly does. Like you I had an old (though adequate for me) Nokia. Send and receive calls/messages. Didn't use inadequate camera. Made the jump to a smart phone. Didn't want to spend a fortune on contracts, etc. Ended up with a Samsung J5 (£110) and £17.99 Sim p/mth. . Unlimited calls/texts and 2GB of data. Didnt really see the point in £5-600 phone, or £40-50 contracts. Now my tablet, computer/landline are almost redundant.
I just use the phone. Great. Excellant camera. Loads of pictures/apps on there. Instant access to everything. A vast leap from the Nokia. Bit of a learning curve, but hey ho. Do it.

I_have_spoken

An iPhone 4s 16Gb will be about £75 2nd hand. I'll work exactly like your ipad

All smartphones have a battery life that is < 48 hours.

I'be heard about phones costing people a fortune due to using 3G when they don't want it to

That's simple to avoid. Leave the phone set to not roam, don't watch streaming videos and have your phone company text you when you are nearing your data limit.

ripplyuk

An iPhone would definitely be easiest for me, though I'm also curious about getting to know the android system and using google play etc. I've never done that before.

I've never actually bought any music from iTunes because I've no device to play them in the car. I'm still only using cd's, because everything just seems so complicated. I haven't got a PC or anything, just the iPad.

Given that there's no 3G here, would anything work on a smartphone when I'm out and about? It would be handy to have a sat nav app, but maybe that needs Internet access?

I just don't want to spend money on a phone and then find I can't do much with it. My old Nokia was £20 and I've had it over 8 years, so I'd like something that will last for a long time.

artyclarty

Just buy any unlocked phone (sometimes referred to as a sim free phone) and take the sim card out of your old phone and pop it in your new phone. I have had a samsung galaxy s3 mini now for 2 years and have never ever had mobile data turned on and have never been charged. Just make sure you google how to turn mobile data off on the make and model of the phone you choose. I just turn the wifi on at home and if I need it when out (generally in wetherspoons or outside a mcdonalds or starbucks )

With regards to music - just plug in the 3.5mm cable (it will look like a headphone cable at both ends) into the phoneat one end and the car stereo on the other and play it. It will just act as if it is plugged into a set of headphones but instead come out of the car speakers - the setting on the stereo will generally be called "aux".

Playing music will eat into your battery, and if you have a long car journey, it will probably eat through most of it - you could always get a cigarette lighter adapter to charge your phone whilst playing music.
It also depends how much music you are thinking of putting on there - I would look for a phone that has a memory card slot (generally microSD) and you can just put the music on there and not worry about filling your phone up too much.

As battery life will be an issue for you - you could get a phone with a removable battery and purchase a spare or a higher capacity one. Just make sure to buy official as there are a lot of awful knockoffs out there! Although it is important to note, that apple products (apart from my 10 year old macbook!) do not have removable batteries; so it depends wether this is a priority for you or not.

ETA - if you don't have a PC at home, it is going to be impossible to get any of your music onto your phone from your cds as you would need to burn them onto a pc first. You can buy music from a variety of different services - although I have never come across someone without a PC ( I have three in this room as I speak!) so research would be needed by yourself as to what service would work for you. A lot of these services like spotify will will stream music to you so would need a data connection to function, so watch out for that!

I_have_spoken

The car has a round pin thing for plugging something into.

Have you tried plugging this into the earphone socket of the iPad? Or does your car have Bluetooth to connect a phone?

It would be handy to have a sat nav app, but maybe that needs Internet access?

Doesn't need it as most apps like TomTom hold the map on the phone, but without that the satnav app won't know about traffic problems as that data is received as you drive about.

ripplyuk

The car definitely doesn't have Bluetooth (despite being only a 2 yo car). I've used the round pin adapter to plug in an old MP3 player, that a friend had put music on for me, but it was lost during the house move. I've never tried it with the iPad because I don't tend to take the iPad with me when I'm going out places. It's just too big.

DCFC79

ripplyuk wrote: »

There's no 4G, or even 3G in my area. It's very rural and still only 2G is available. Reception is a big issue too. I'm now on Talkmobile as the Vodafone network was the only one that gets a decent reception here. Should this influence what I buy? Would a smartphone still work here?

Would it be better to just get another cheap, basic phone and then look for a device that has a camera and music on it? It would need to be really easy to download songs and upload photos. I'm not sure if such a thing exists or whether it would just be more hassle than getting a smartphone.

I wont go into the whole "stay away from Vodafone" as they are the only network with a decent reception.

As there is no 4G in the area then is there much point in buying a phone that's capable of being on 4G.

DCFC79

You can buy something that will allow you to play your music on the phone, I think it works over Bluetooth but can't remember what it would be called.