What phone or tablet?

Ames

Hi all, it's coming up to renewal time for my phone.

I don't actually use it as a phone often, due to anxiety I make less than half a dozen calls a year, receive regular texts but I don't think I've sent any this year. I mainly use it for browsing the internetand emails (via wifi most of the time). It's a windows phone so apps haven't really been a feature, but I'd like to use more in future. Basic things like news.

Ideally I'd like a device that I can use as above, but with a big enough screen to read ebooks, and read or edit text files.

I keep thinking a tablet would suit me better, but then I'd still need a phone for the texts I receive.

My current contract is £6 for the phone and £11 for the useage. I could increase that a bit, and perhaps pay a chunk upfront.

I don't even know where to start to compare different devices. I've tried looking in shops (the phone bit in Tesco and the Carphone Warehouse franchise in PC World), but they only seem to have a small range, limited to top end stuff. I'd love an ipad, but it's way out of my price range.

Any suggestions would be great.

J_B

Keep the phone and swap to a sim-only contract?

eDicky

Ames wrote: »

I keep thinking a tablet would suit me better, but then I'd still need a phone for the texts I receive

You can have a tablet that takes a SIM and can also be used as a phone, small ones are quite practical. For example I have a dual-SIM 7" Lenovo Tab3 7. It's low spec but perhaps something similar is all you need, try looking online.

[Deleted User]

Why not keep the phone and either just pay the £11 usage or perhaps ask for your PAC and get a sim from the like of Plusnet for £5 given how little you use it. I'd be looking at getting a separate tablet then for the rest of your needs.

If you do get a new phone keep away from Windows devices, given your tight budget look at Android (including for the tablet).

Neil49

With the kind of usage you describe you could consider keeping the phone and switching to 3 pay as you go. Just get a PAC from your existing service provider (assuming it's not 3)

3p per minute for calls (which you don't make, 2p for sending text messages (that you rarely do) and 1p per megabyte for data (which you would also tend not to use).

Typically this would cost you about £0 per month, a saving of close to £11.

Check 3 reception in your area to make sure it's ok.

A separate tablet would make a lot of sense given your requirements for reading ebooks etc which you can download from your local library for free. Android tablets are a lot cheaper than Apple and it's easy to setup library downloads on them.

Ames

Thanks everyone.

My phone screen's starting to play up a bit which is why I was thinking of getting a new phone. I agree keeping it until it dies completely is best. I didn't realise that tablets took sim cards, I googled whether or not I could get texts sent to a tablet but it seemed as though I'd need an android phone and tablet for it to work.

I'll start researching tablets.

Thanks for the tip about 3 PAYG, that does sound best for me.