new to smartphones - advice please

p00hsticks

Hi.



As the title suggests, I'm a bit of a luddite but have decided it's finally time for me to get a smartphone, and I'd appreciate any advice, comments and tips please.



I currently have a old Nokia 'cockroach' on a TESCO mobile PAYG tariff. I rarely make phone calls on it and only send the occassional text, but I'd like to retain the number as it's registered to me for quite a few utilities / companies who call/text me occasionally.



I'd now like to upgrade for a number of reasons;

• I still wouldn't need much in the way of texts / calls.
• It would be handy to have a integrated camera for taking the occasional photo as and when - I'm not interested in selfies though so just a rear facing camera would be fine
• I've recently starting geocaching and understand a phone with GPS would help with this. I'd only do this infrequently.
• I'm also interested in playing Pokemon go ('ve played the regular game for many yearson my DS)
• There seem to be more and more things requiring use of a smartphone - for example, I qualify for the meerkat meals offer but yuo need their app to use it, and our local bus comany is cheaper if you buy an e-ticket in advance rather than a physical ticket with cash.
• I'm finding I'm receiving more and more texts that assume I have internet accesss / can receive photos on my phone

My budget is a maximum of £200. I'm not a fan of Apple so my understanding is that I'm therefore looking for an Android phone.



I'm happy to stay with Tesco mobile, on their PAYG triple credit package as this seems to work well for me at present - I top up with £10 if we're going away somwhere as that gives me £20 free credit for a month, and only slowly use the rest of it.


However I've not seen any phones I like the look of on their site that they both have in stock and are comparable in proce to places like Carphone Warehouse.



So my current understanding / thinking is ...
Go to somewhere like Carphone Warehouse and buy a sim-free phone (I quite like the look of the Samsung J6 for £170)
Then go to Tesco and get then to give me a PAYG sim to go in it - will they also arrange for my existing number to be carried over, and wil lthis cost anything ? I know the SIM in my existing phone is too big to fit in the newer models...



Thought appreciated please... ?

wazza99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CG5TK7Q/ref=psdc_356496011_t1_B07G2G4G9F

Best value on market atm, fullfills all your needs

Port your number to any new sim, sorted.

[Deleted User]

p00hsticks wrote: »

Then go to Tesco and get then to give me a PAYG sim to go in it - will they also arrange for my existing number to be carried over, and wil lthis cost anything ? I know the SIM in my existing phone is too big to fit in the newer models...

Just ask Tesco for a replacement SIM of the correct size for the new phone. It will be your current number and account so no changes required.
(Most SIMs now supplied are multiple sizes in one - you just pop out the correct sized SIM bit for your phone)

Argos/John Lewis also sell unlocked (SIM free) phones if you want to pick it up personally. Personally I would avoid Carphone Warehouse/Currys (same firm) due to sales staff attitude and if things go wrong then dealing with them is a pain.

parking_question_chap

If you are considering the J6 you might also want to look at the A3 (2017) currently being sold in Argos sim free for £180.

Its not as big as the J6, if you have an old phone you might want to get a feel of how big modern smartphones are also the body is made of Gorilla 4 glass on an aluminum frame rather than plastic on the J6.

Only significant minus in my opinion is less memory as standard, but you can easily slide in an additional memory card later on if you really need.

Have a look at this website, its a must if you are looking to buy a new phone and want to compare models.

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3

knightstyle

Have a look at Giff gaff phones, they sell really good secondhand unlocked phones at reasonable prices. Get the Motorola G6 for £99.

elsien

How does the data work on your triple credit sim?

PHK

elsien wrote: »

How does the data work on your triple credit sim?

This is a very important point, you'll be using mobile data for geocaching, offers, bus tickets and Pok!mon (probably). Plus you may well wish to use a service like Google Photos/OneDrive/Samsung Cloud to sync or backup your photos.

p00hsticks

elsien wrote: »

How does the data work on your triple credit sim?

According to the website the date charge is 10p/Mb
https://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/pay-as-you-go/call-charges/call-charges-for-pay-as-you-go


There also seems to be some deal where if I top up by £15 (rather than the £10 I usually do) I can get a bundle of 500Mb data (which I imagine expires in a month like the free credit)
https://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/pay-as-you-go/tariffs/pay-as-you-go-triple-credit


Should I also be looking at different PAYG tariffs as well then ?

[Deleted User]

p00hsticks wrote: »

According to the website the date charge is 10p/Mb
https://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/pay-as-you-go/call-charges/call-charges-for-pay-as-you-go


There also seems to be some deal where if I top up by £15 (rather than the £10 I usually do) I can get a bundle of 500Mb data (which I imagine expires in a month like the free credit)
https://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/pay-as-you-go/tariffs/pay-as-you-go-triple-credit


Should I also be looking at different PAYG tariffs as well then ?

If you regularly top up by £10 then look at a monthly sim rather than PAYG. For instance I have Sky so use their mobile service (uses the O2 network) which as long as I keep Sky costs me just £6 per month for 2GB data plus unlimited calls & texts.

Have a look at the following to compare.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/best-pay-as-you-go-sim-cards/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-sim-only-contracts/

grumbler

PHK wrote: »

This is a very important point, you'll be using mobile data for geocaching

By the look of it geocaching can be done without using mobile data of with using very little.

pmduk

Mobile Data is an important issue to consider if you want to play Pokemon Go.