Please help me work out what kind of phone I need to buy? I have absolutely no idea.

[bluetrampolines]

So I can finally afford a new phone. I currently have a samsung galaxy donated to me by my brother. The phone is now old, slow and the screen is cracked.

I want to replace it with something really decent. I want to pay for it outrigh and keep my vodaphone phone number.

I am a single mum about to return to full time work. I want it for all the admin aspects of my life. For Netflix, podcasts, photo storage, audio books etc and id like it to be fast with massive storage that I never ever have to worry about using up. I would also like it to one day hook up with something like Alexa and speakers in the house but don't expect I can afford that at the moment.

My brother was going to take me phone shopping. He seems to think i need to spend £1000!!!! Wtf!!!!

I was thinking about £150. Or a bit more.

I haven't had any money for a long time and buying a new anything is a big deal. I dont particularly enjoy gadgets but do enjoying pottering about on a phone.

Please can you help me before I get either a crap phone or end up with a ridiculously expensive one I cant really afford.

Rich as in seriously rich or by comparison? I’d ask my sibling to buy one for me if the former. But of course don’t know your situation/relationship.

I’d get an iPhone SE from John Lewis. £249, really decent little phone, 2 years warranty.

Then get a sim only deal, monthly rolling contract - if you don’t need loads of data they’re really cheap.

If you need loads of storage, sign up to Apple Cloud, they’ll let you know if you’re getting close to the free amount then you can pay 79p for loads and loads of storage. Remember to back your phone up to the Cloud regularly though.

Would very highly recommend a Motorola G5 Plus, they're about £150, then get yourself a microSD card - needs to be a fast one though, not cheap and cheerful, a Sandisk Ultra 128gb would be perfect, it's another £30ish on your budget but you can use it in future phones too.

Monthly rolling contract means you’re not tied in and can switch to a better deal whenever.

Have a look at the Huawei phones in Argos. My BIL, who is quite tech savvy thinks very highly of them. My friend has just bought the P20 lite for about £260. and loves it. This has 64gb of storage, but there is a P20 with 32gb of storage which is £100 less.
With the money you have available, I don't think you'd go far wrong with either of these. They are bought SIM free so will be suitable for use with any network.

Guardian newspaper just did an article praising the Huawei phones. Worth googling for it.

Get an iphone six plus with 128 storage will cost about £700 but definitely worth it.

And giff gaff sim

www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jul/28/why-spend-1000-on-a-smartphone-when-you-could-get-one-for-less-than-150?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

But personally, I’d still go for the iPhone SE.

Which is now £239 in JL. Even better.

Just replaced ds old phone with a huawei p8 lite, £80 from eBay brand new sealed box and just put his sim and sd card (64gb) in it, he’s happy with it and it does everything he wants it to. I’m an Apple devotee so I’m taking his word on it as I don’t do androids lol

So do you really want to buy a phone and not just get a whole package?

My DD has got passed the stage of needing a top fashion phone and has gone for the Samsung A5. It has expandable memory.

She went into the shop and stated that she wanted storage and internet, she got a good deal for £40 a month. She has always had the top spec new Samsung, but that is no longer a priority.

You can buy them for £230.

I have a Wileyfox Swift 2 which has been fantastic. I bought an SD card to increase storage in it. It has a fingerprint reader and also supports Android Pay. The Truecaller function is great as it tells you who's calling (even if not in your contacts list).

CEX gives 2 years warranty on all electricals

I have the honor 7, I tried about 10 phones before getting this and I wish I'd got this in the first place. Its very fast, lovely display, good camera no issues with any aspect of it at all to be honest - I had tried the Samsung S7, iPhone 6s and a variety of phones in between and this is genuinely much better.
It has 64gb storage, and I have a 120gb sd card in it, which isn't even close to being used up, it runs Netflix etc fine, I'd recommend it to anyone in real life.
ao.com/product/51092adp-honor-mobile-phone-blue-55740-305.aspx?&WT.z_PT=Phones&WT.z_AT=Mobile%20Phone&WT.z_MT=Search&WT.z_MAT=Honor&WT.z_FT=Free%20Standing&WT.z_PC=51092ADP&WT.srch=1&WT.z_KW=51092ADP&WT.z_DT=m&WT.z_RTM=PLA&WT.z_CN=Honor%20-%2051092ADP&WT.z_AG=Item%20ID%20Brand&WT.z_KW=51092ADP&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnZXbBRC8ARIsABEYg6DyZ2Pl95PeD3htJWHycfuXrxn8Ot__sKFsbyVNlWy77tvrVSdm-kMaAsrdEALw_wcB

Any chance your DB can give you an old phone when he upgrades if he is a rich bachelor? DH and I have passed a succession of iPhones down to our three DC and in one case my dad so DD is now circling for my iPhone X which is coming up to a year old. This is the only phone I know of costing £1K. Would be a bonus if he had one to pass on and no avaricious teenage children with first dibs.

150 is pushing it, but for between 175 and 250 quid, plus the cost of an SD memory card, you could get something new and perfectly acceptable: Moto, Honor/Huawei or even a low end Samsung will do you a perfectly good job. I think if you go for the bottom of the range iPhone SE you’ll be frustrated by the battery and memory issues, and you’ll also lose all the stuff you’ve got on your existing phone.

I don’t think it’s even physically possible to spend a grand on an android phone is it?

I'd really recommend one of the Moto Gs. We've had several in our house as they are consistently rated one of the best 'budget' smartphones and ours have all performed really well. My teens watch videos and play games on theirs. My eldest had his moto G3 for 3 years before replacing it recently with the latest moto G6. Between us we also have a G4, G4+ and G5 in the house.

The budget version of the latest Moto G6 is called the Moto G6 Play, which is £150 from amazon and has 32gb storage but you can add an SD card. It has had loads of good reviews, but I can't vouch for it myself as I've only seen my son's G6 (which is £200 on amazon, or £240 if you go for the 64gb storage version). We have stuck to the brand because they are good, and we are happy with an approximate 3 year life.

This has been amazingly helpful. Thank you. I already have my brothers old phone!

Have a look at iD mobile. You can just buy a sim only with various packaged or contract/handset.

Sim only is a 30 day contact so can be stopped quickly if need be and you can switch the package up or down whenever.

Both my kids (teen/preteen) have bought handsets and simo deals with iD. Tenner a month gets 5gb data which rolls over and more than enough mins/txt for an adult to need (they rarely touch mins/texts)

I was Samsung for years and when looking the Samsung's were just too expensive so I went for Huawei P10 and I love it. Co tract was a bit cheaper and it does so much more. I store pictures and videos on Google pictures, have lots of apps and music and nowhere near using the storage. I struggled for storage with my Samsung. I'd go for another Huawei in the future.

Get yourself to eBay, or CEX, or something. New phones don't add nearly enough over the previous generation to be worth the price premium. Second hand phones are WAY better value for really very little sacrifice indeed.