Can someone tell me whether this is a good Phone deal please?

[carbalanche]

My Nokia has had its chips and I'm starting to feel embarrassed taking it out in public

I like Mac stuff (have a MacBook, I-Pad and I-Pod in the family) so am thinking for compatibility's sake I should go for an I-Phone.

Love the idea of taking lots of photos and doing all the Instagram stuff so the I-Phone 5 appeals as the camera seems to be good and I should be able to upload stuff easily to my laptop.

I don't make many phone calls AT ALL - and usually communicate via text I'm currently on an Orange/Virgin EQ contract where I just pay the bill by DD every month and have no contract/monthly costs on top of this.

SO the deal I'm looking at is with T-Mobile via Carphone Warehouse. I pay £99 upfront for the phone (I-PHone 5 16gb) and then for £26 a month I get 500 mins of calls, Unlimited Text and Unlimited data.

The Unlimited Data really appeals but am not sure if I need that much?

What do people think of this deal? Carphone Warehouse were also trying to sell me insurance at £14.99 a month but I don't think I'll be going for that!

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[carbalanche]

bump

[niceguy2]

If you already have the ipad & ipod in the family then it does make sense to go with the iphone 5. It's not a bad phone, just not as leading edge as Samsung Galaxy S3/S4 anymore. And I say that as an ex-Apple fanboy typing away on my imac.

Unless you are downloading a lot of music and streaming videos over 3G then I doubt you need unlimited. I'm quite a heavy user and I've yet to go anywhere near my 1GB limit. DD is also a prolific user and has only touched 800MB once. That said for peace of mind it could be worth it. Up to you.

The insurance sounds v. pricey to me. I've got ours covered by on our bank account for £7.50 for two phones on a joint account. I'd definitely shop around. The only thing to be aware of is that some companies will have a higher premium or excess for covering iPhones. This is not because the phone is more expensive but because they have a rather nasty habit of breaking or getting stolen around the time Apple introduce the next phone.

[EatenByZombies]

You're probably better off finding an iPhone 4 (or 5 if really needed) that's unlocked (and paid off immediately) and then finding a better price-plan to fit your needs, seeing as you don't call on it. You want one with an offer on texts - I think O2 have some price-plan now that's got free/v.cheap texts.

If you're interested in Instagram, whether you get an iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 doesn't make a huge difference to picture quality. If you're not planning on shooting photos to then enlarge, you probably don't need a phone with a high mb count as it makes no difference after a while.
In terms of iPhone 5 camera, it has pretty much the same rear camera as the iPhone 4/4s but the front camera is better quality. So it depends, also, what you plan to do with it.

To be honest, for what you've said you want it for, you'd probably get just as much joy but save much more money buying an unlocked iPhone 4/4s (which are now alright prices due to the release of the iPhone 5) and then finding a priceplan that has around 1GB data/month, possibly 2 if you listen to music/watch videos lots on it, and loads of cheap/free texts each month.

[EatenByZombies]

Also, places like Carphone Warehouse/PC World make the majority of their money on selling unneccessary insurance at high prices, so deff. shop around on that one, too!

[carbalanche]

Thanks all. Point taken on insurance EatenbyZombies will shop around.

Unlocked - what does that mean exactly? Is it buying a pre-owned phone and then you can just shop for a contract? Are there risks involved with this (dodgy phones?) The problem I have is that I don't have a lot of upfront cash to buy a phone so £99 is pushing it for me already. I'm not likely to get an unlocked I-phone 4/5 for that am I?

I've heard the arguments for there not being much difference between the camera quality of the 4S and the 5 - I do like the fact that you can record video and take still photgraphs at the same time with the 5. But I'll have a look for some 4S deals.

I know that I am being seduced by the words "unlimited" with regard to data but interesting to hear about your usage NiceGuy2. I kind of want to stick my fingers in my ears when people say the Samsungs are more Leading edge - am tempted but just don't want to make life more complicated by trying to interface with all my Apple stuff.

Going away to have a think!

[EatenByZombies]

Unlocked means you can use any sim card in it. If you buy one from O2, for exampe, with a priceplan, the phone will most likely not take any other company's sim card. Basically buy it from Carphone Warehouse/Amazon etc without an attached priceplan. If it IS locked, it's usually only a tenner to get it unlocked :) It's not dodgy, it's the state they are shipped in, the phone companies lock them so that you can't buy a certain contract with them cheap then switch to another company for your calls and stuff once you have the phone.

If you don't want to buy a phone all in one go (iPhone 4 is around £200-£300 now I think) then just look at other priceplans, then go into the shop for the priceplan you like and see if it's available on contract with a phone included :) They'll be able to help you once you know roughly which one you'd like.

Samsung Galaxy S3/S4 are the best phones on the market, but if you have Mac stuff you're probably better off with an iPhone IMO (as an avid Samsung fangirl!)

[Grammaticus]

Some phones come unlocked even if you get them on contract. I think all carphone warehouse phones are unlocked and i was surprised to find DH's iPhone 4 which I now have was unlocked on an O2 (business) contract. I must say the iPhone 4 is perfectly fine, no way would I pay for an iPhone 5, there really isn't much difference to ordinary users.

[carbalanche]

Still deliberating. Am now put off the T-mobile contract because it doesn't allow you to tether (I only learned what this meant yesterday!) Not sure if in practice I would ever need/want to tether but I don't like the fact that the option isn't available especially as I am buying the Iphone because it will interface with all my other Apple stuff...

[NetworkGuy]

If you are considering tethering, then the Three 'One Plan' is worth a look.

Also check www.three-clearance.co.uk as they may have some iPhone 4 models at lower prices. However, do you really need tethering it's for when you are nowhere near wi-fi and you would be paying a minimum of 25 quid for the One Plan (though it would give unlimited data). Three also has an option of paying a fiver for 1 GB of data and tethering is allowed (so perhaps worth talking in a 3Store but then buying online if there's something on their Clearance site which is affordable).

You would need to check signal coverage of course. Few networks allow tethering, by the way. GiffGaff does, but not on iPhones!

[carbalanche]

Thanks NetworkGuy. Was in another carphone warehouse today and the 3 One Plan was a suggested option with an I phone 4S. They do a similar unlimited data package for a £49 upfront cost and then £34 a month contract. Have been trying to work out what networks are best - went on one site who said 3's customer services are appalling and the signal not too hot but there were similar complaints about most other networks too! I don't know many people on 3 to be honest but that doesn't mean much. Decision time is looming though...

[Grammaticus]

Do you really need unlimited data? I never get anywhere near my allowance. Call your existing network and ask them how much you use.

[HazeltheMcWitch]

Other thing to add to the above musings, is look at (the app) WhatsApp - or similar. Allows you to 'text' other smartphones via your data allowance rather than using SMS. Whatsapp is free for 1st year, then 99p, IIRC, and is great if you text a lot, text abroad, etc etc, as there is no charge per text, you can send pics, and not much data is actually used.

I'l also second the point as to - do you really need unlimited data? If you're not streaming videos, or gaming, you very likely don't.

[carbalanche]

Right, am still looking into this. Saw my mate's Galaxy S3 at the weekend and the images that she'd taken with the camera on her phone looked stunning. She couldn't load them up to my mate's MacPro so I didn't get a proper look at how good they were once uploaded. I guess she needed to upload some software to enable that to happen. My other friend had her I-Phone and was doing the hardsell on me and proceeded to show how easily she got her photos onto her computer.

So if anyone is still there - how easy is it to upload photos from your Galaxy S3/S4 to a MacBook? Is it simply a case of downloading an app from somewhere or do Apple make it difficult/overly complicated?!

[HazeltheMcWitch]

It's easy!

I'm not the techiest of people, and I've had no troble finding a coulpe of ways, without actualy looking... The caveat is that I don;t take 100's of pics at once that I need to upload when I am out of the house - I only have a few, and can upload them when at home.

I either:

• Bluetooth them across
  
• Use a piece of software called Samsung Kies, which I think is a kind of 'content management' software
  
• Use picasa or flickr, if I want to share them with others/upload when I am away from home for a few days - or just use Dropbox if i don;t plan on sharing.
  

There's probably a way that I am missing, that someone will point out to me now...!

[HazeltheMcWitch]

Oops, apols for bad typing/spelling there. I can't blame phone, as am on the Mac!

[carbalanche]

HazeltheMcWitch - thanks for the upload tips

[NetworkGuy]

I've certainly copied photos using Bluetooth from Android phones to iMac.

However, also have lots of other ways such as file transfer to website storage (which means I have another copy away from the home).