Choosing the next mobile

[RogerS]

My Orange contract expires soon and so my lustful eyes turned to smartphones.

I did look at the iPhone. I am amazed at the success of the Apple marketing machine because every mobile provider's site seemed to offer packages for the iPhone and the rest. The iPhone always had its own section. However, having looked at the styling compared to other phones such as the Samsung SII and SIII and the HTC One S and One X, I found the styling clunky. I don't have any issue with the functionality and Siri seems to have some potential. And as a Mac user the integration should be seamless. There are some good deals as well, for example from 3. But all a tad expensive and hard to justify.

There are two phones at the top end...the SIII and the One X but while the screens are simply stunning, they are on the large size for my taste. Plus the plans are pricey or you pay through the nose upfront.

Then there are the two in the band below. The SII and the One S. Again simply stunning displays and with a smaller form factor. But again, the plans seem a bit steep for my needs.

So another hard look. Just why do I want a smartphone? Do I really need one? That's where gurnemanz lit up my 'lightbulb' and the answer is 'only occasionally'. I use the internet way too much...I should be out in the workshop now rather than typing this up..and if I had a smartphone in the house and kept fiddling with it then LOML would get, understandably, annoyed.

So 'occasional' use means I don't need an excessive amount of data in my plan. 100Mb a month should be more than adequate. There seem plenty of phones that come with a reasonable display for occasional use and, moreover, are free. Something like an ACE II maybe. Or HTC equivalent maybe?

After an exhaustive study of plans, it is clear that I will be leaving Orange after some 20 odd years as their plans just aren't competitive. The best value for me is Talkmobile from Carphone Warehouse but I will need a PAC code from Orange before I can sign up. So I shall wait a week or so.

Any thoughts? Does it hang together?

 

[mbartlett99]

I know exactly what you mean. After being surrounded by iphones at work somehow I started to want one. I still do, but not at that price, still I did want a new toy so started looking at these smartphones. Like you say, they're nearly all massive and expensive. There was one though that seemed to balance rationality with toy-lust - Motorola did a scratchproof damp proof one, but you couldn't buy it anywhere.

Eventually I relented and bough a cheap unlocked Galaxy Y - small enough for the pocket etc. After 8 months I still hardly use it; occasion use of its inclinometer app and scientific calculator and thats it. Will revert to my old Nokia waterproof shockproof when I get home.

Bah humbug.

 

[Harbo]

I use my iPhone more than my computers.
I'm in Spain at the moment and am using it for emails, photos, videos, online banking, this Forum via Tapatalk, google searches etc etc.
No bulky machine to carry - one of the best purchases I've ever made?
At home I use the Garmin Sat Nav App which performs better than my dedicated one.

Rod

 

[RogerS]

Interesting Catch-22. Because I am out in the sticks, there is no guarantee that I will get a decent signal indoors. Those network coverage maps aren't all that accurate. Ordering online you get 14 days to return if you want to. But their small print says that if the SIM has been used then you have accepted their Terms and Conditions. But you can't check the phone works OK without using it.

 

[wobblycogs]

Oooh a chance to talk about phones

I have an S3 with the all you can eat plan on Three (unlimited data, 2000 minutes, some large quantity of texts). Prior to that I had a first generation HTC Desire on Vodafone for two years.

My advice would be to go with the S3 (or One X) and learn to live with the fact that it costs a lot. The difference between the Desire (which was a really good phone) and the S3 was huge and it was almost all down to the size of the screen. While it was certainly possible to browse the web on the Desire it was something I did out of necessity. With the S3 by contrast browsing is a pleasure, in fact I find myself reading the news on my phone rather than my computer now.

Before I got the S3 I was a little concerned it would be too big for my pocket but it's turned out to be fine. If anything they could even have gone a little larger (I think the Note would be too big though). If your concerned about the size cut out a piece of 4mm ply the size of the phone and stick it in your pocket. Don't forget to round the corners though and sand it nice and smooth.

The best aspect of the phone for me, and one that I didn't at all expect, is that the screen is large enough and clear enough to read ebooks on.

As you are already a Mac user the iPhone may be a better choice (I can't believe I just said that). In my experience the Apple stuff all works together fairly well but you can only do what Apple want you to do. I don't like Apples walled garden approach to hardware I've bought so I don't buy Apple products but YMMV.

As for Siri / SVoice, trust me, you won't use them. They might look good in the adverts but in real life they seem to always misunderstand the most important word in the sentence.

 

[RogerS]

......

As for Siri / SVoice, trust me, you won't use them. They might look good in the adverts but in real life they seem to always misunderstand the most important word in the sentence.

Me: "Where can I get a shag?"

Siri: "Worcester Butchers have some very good deals on ducks at the moment. Would you like me to call them for you?"

 

[RogerS]

Wobblycogs, I would dearly love to be able to justify any of those top end phones and the 3 plans are very good. Sadly not to be!

 

[wobblycogs]

I have to admit that I only have a top end phone because my business pays for it and it beats giving more to the tax man. If I had to buy it myself I would probably think twice and still go for it

The S2 is still a very good phone and you could probably pick up a decent one second hand. The One S (I think that's right) also has a large screen and should be quite a bit cheaper. You might be able to get a fairly cheap Galaxy Nexus now too (yep, under £300 on ebay).

 

[petermillard]

If you're already an Orange customer, have a chat with them and see what they can do for you on price - my wife's iPhone is on Orange and came out of contract last month;I spent five minutes on the phone with them and ended up getting her the same package as she was on before (100 minutes, 500Mb of data and more texts than any sane person can use) on a 30-day rolling contract for £5.40-odd a month - down from £30/month beforehand, so well worth a call!

FWIW, there's likely to be a new iPhone announced in early September, and it is widely expected to have a bigger screen. If you're a Mac user then an iPhone will integrate pretty smoothly, as you'd expect. As for Siri, in almost a year of owning a Siri-capable iPhone I think I've used it a handful of times, BUT I found using the Siri voice-recognition to dictate texts, emails and notes to be very useful.

HTH, Pete

 

[RogerS]

That's a pretty good deal, Pete, but presumably she is using the same phone? You can't get that sort of deal with a new iPhone!

I've bitten the bullet and gone for the Ace 2 for roughly the same monthly payment I currently make. It seemed to me to be about the best in that level of mobile phone.

 

[wobblycogs]

That's a nice looking phone and good value for money.

I can't believe you'd get a new phone on a £5 / month contract. I do hate the way the mobile companies will keep you on the expensive contract at the end of the lock in period unless you specifically request a cheaper deal. It seems very underhanded to me.

 

[RogerS]

Aaaargh....the contacts display details on this phone are DIRE! Looks like I'm going to have to re-enter all 250 of them to make them sensible.... maybe that iPhone was the better bet

 

[wobblycogs]

If you don't have a Google account I'd sign up for one and import you contacts into GMail. You don't have to have a Google account to with an Android phone but it makes life simpler. Your contacts and mail will be automatically kept in sync and you can use a computer rather than the phone if you need to make a lot of updates to your contact.

 

[RogerS]

It's not the syncing so much as I pruned down my contact so that they would fit on the SIM. It is the sequence of the display that I find troublesome.

For example, A G Woodcare is displayed exactly like that on my old Sony Ericcson. On the Samsung it appears as G Woodcare;A/3 No idea what the 3 means. I can't search for A G Woodcare..it comes up 'not found'. There are two options available...Sort by First or Last name and Display by First or Last name. Altering these does nothing to change the list.

 

[wobblycogs]

Sorry can't help there as I've not stored contacts on the SIM card for years. I think you'll get a better experience either storing your contacts on the phone or with a Google account though. The contact entries are richer and there's no limitations on how many you can store.

As for display sequence mine displays as First Name Last Name and I can't find an option to change it. I wonder if what you are seeing is an artefact of the contacts being on the SIM. Try creating a contact that is stored on the phone and see how that is displayed. If that displays as you expect there are several apps that you could temporarily install to import your SIM contacts.

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for that, wobblycogs.

You have to use the SIm card to get the contacts into the phone. Actually where the contact details are stored aren't the problem.

The problem is that on my old phone, there was just one name field. The Ace 2 has First and Last names and so it has decided to parse my contacts contained into a First and a Last Name. So what was a valid entry in my old phone 'Smith and Rodger' has been parsed into First Name = Smith and Last Name = And Roger which is about as much use as rounded-bevel chisel.

Thought I might be able to massage the data using excel or similar and then transfer the data over to the phone...only....only Bluetooth will pair but not connect with the Mac.

So current thoughts are that the Ace 2 is a bit of a CoS.

 

[RogerS]

It's going back.

Can't send files via bluetooth to the mac. I can receive files from the mac ok. Compatibility issue say Orange Tech Support.

 

[RogerP]

Since I retired and handed my mobile in it's been heaven! No more interruptions, no more endless SMS.

 

[RogerS]

Oh Rog...how will you know about all those PPI mis-selling rebates ? :lol:

 

[RogerP]

Oh Rog...how will you know about all those PPI mis-selling rebates ? :lol:

Well there is that and the house insulation lot - I expect to manage. :lol: