New mobile phone choice -confused !

[Benchwayze]

I find my iPhone invaluable.
I'm a parish councillor and if I'm out walking and I spot something that appears wrong I can take a photo of it and email it to the clerk there and then.

Come and walk around my area Pete. You'd wear the darn thing out. And you'd send fruitless massages to our Council.

Everything from horses fouling pavements to indecent graffiti on the Church. And where I live is supposed to be 'upmarket'.. Well according to the Council and their tax-bands it is! :twisted:

 

[JakeS]

I used to think that I'd never use such a thing and it would be a silly gimmick, and only got a phone capable of browsing the web etc. by coincidence - my girlfriend and I both got new pay-as-you-go phones with 3 since they were running a free-3-to-3-calls deal and we were living in different cities at the time... and the cheapest phone they sold came with 3G capabilities. I tried the web and getting email on my phone out just to see how it went, and before long I was saving up for a better phone with a touch-screen and better UI and all that.

My mother still thinks that using the internet on her phone is a silly idea, but she likes the idea of having a slim camera that she'll already be carrying around everywhere with her so she doesn't have to remember it in particular.

I think you really need to try one out for a day or two.

Seconded, if you can get the chance.

Also bear in mind that if you do decide you want a swanky smartphone, depending on your usage it can often be more economically sound to buy the phone outright up front and get a cheap pay-as-you-go or rolling contract than one of the "pay this much a month and get tied in for three years and we'll give you the phone for 'free'" kinds of contracts.
IIRC when I got mine a year and a half ago I could have spent something like £30 a month for three years to get the phone for no up-front cost, but I paid £380 for the phone and have a £10/m rolling contract which gives me all the minutes and internet usage I need. Over the same three-year period I spend £740 instead of £1080 (there's some sobering numbers for you!), and I don't have to remember to cancel the overpriced contract as soon as the tie-in period is up; I can stop it any time I like, move to a different provider, and so on. I had to save up a bit to afford the unit in the first place, but that just let me make sure I really really wanted it. ;-)

 

[cambournepete]

It's definitely worth working out and comparing the total costs.

FWIW I use mine for email and Internet on the go quite a lot and never get near my 500MB download limit.
Having been with O2 for 18 months on the full contract I'm now paying them £11.50/month for the same deal

(typed on my iPhone)

 

[petermillard]

Phones are tools, and like all tools, they need to earn their keep (otherwise they're just toys for hobbyists, lol!) so you're right to think carefully about the costs involved; if you don't think you'll get enough use out one for the money they cost, then don't buy, simple as that. Buuuut - I wouldn't be without mine.

Don't underestimate the usefulness of Apps; I make all my work notes on mine and they sync automatically back to my laptop. It's also my work radio (podcasts), my address book, diary, calculator, camera, my portfolio of recent work, my A-Z and my SatNav. In a pinch, it's also been my digital level, and having internet access has also got me out of the odd fix from time to time

One thing I will say for anyone fretting about a small keyboard is that the speech-to-text features (current iPhone in my case, and I'm not talking about 'Siri') has totally changed the way input text when I'm out and about - it really is that good.

Just remember though, it's still a 'phone; it's not going to replace your home computer any more than your microwave replaced your cooker...

 

[paulm]

Popped into the local Apple store this morning and got hands on with the S4, gave it a good workout with typing email, browsing the internet, maps, utube videos, telephone lists and contacts, calendar etc and gelled with it straight away

I need to have most of those things readily available for the next few months as I may be out and about a fair bit and can't afford to be out of touch or lost or late for meetings. Likewise may well need a fair bit of talk time. Will replace my ipod nano too and camera

Checked out buying the phone upfront and then getting a payg sim card but works out quite a lot more expensive than the best contract deal I found here

Don't want to worry about running out of minutes if I need to make important calls and expect to use that side quite a bit hence the unlimited package, and actually, lower minute deals don't save anything much if at all compared to that particular deal with included handset and £65 cashback !

Couldn't get the Apple store or O2 or Vodafone to price match, so will probably place the order later on this evening when I've got a bit more time. Looked and felt great, was easy and intuitive to use, looks like a great package for organising myself for the next few months when I'll be running around a lot

Thanks for everybody's input and thoughts, was a great help !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Harbo]

Good choice - I got my iphone4 nearly two years ago and never regretted it.
Being retired, the phone part gets little use but the amazing Apps do!
Email, BBC News, Met Office Weather, Garmin Sat Nav, Tapatalk, EBay, Eurosport, Tunein Radio, Catchup TV, BBC iPlayer, TV Guide, etc etc etc
Oh and numerous games that keep the Grandchildren quiet in Restaurants!

Rod

 

[petermillard]

Good choice, good deal. Enjoy!

 

[paulm]

Well, my iphone 4s arrived towards the end of last week

Have spent some time setting it all up with contacts and free apps and stuff and learning how to use it. Like the dictation feature you can use for inputting searches and data in some screens, saves a bit of typing. Not yet sure about siri, need to play with that a bit more to see if it is of any real help.

Synch'd all my music on itunes via icloud and need to think about pictures and videos next. Already sorted contacts, email, and fave forums and websites.

Really chuffed so far, think I'm converted

Cheers, Paul

 

[petermillard]

Synch'd all my music on itunes via icloud and need to think about pictures and videos next. Already sorted contacts, email, and fave forums and websites.

Good to hear you're liking it so far. I've become a big fan of PhotoStream since I enabled it a few months ago - the most-recent 1000 photos taken on your iPhone are automatically pushed to all compatible devices when in range of WiFi. You don't have to do anything, it just happens. The only slight niggle is that it's for photos only, not video - they can still be synched by WiFi, but a cable's faster Backing up to iCloud is pretty neat as well - and equally painless.

Don't know if you use Google Calendars, but if so, then the Week Cal iPhone app works very nicely. I use SimpleNote for text notes, and Downcast for podcasts. Clinometer as an occasional digital level, CoPilot Live for SatNav.

Cheers, Pete

 

[Woodchips2]

Interesting article about choosing a mobile phone at http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mobile ... hants.html.

I bought a new basic Samsung PAYG from Carphone Warehouse recently for £4.95. It will only send and receive calls and texts which is all I need but how on earth can they sell a phone for just £4.95?

Regards Keith

 

[James C]

Be prepared to go through all of this again guys, my contract is due up in November and I've already started researching new phones. #-o

 

[andycktm]

easy they buy the phone from china for 50p,and sell it for £4-95 :lol: :lol: