Tell me about your mobiles

[BrigitBigKnickers]

I am due an upgrade.

Tell me about your phones- what do you recommend and what should I avoid.

TIA

I have one of the new samsung galaxy II smartphones. I've never had a smartphone before, and it's awesome.

I could go on all day about how amazing it is, but it really has changed the way I do loads of things.

The only downside is that my old phone fit easily in my pocket, while this one is a little too big to fit, but it's a downside I'm happy to put up with.

Well Smartphones are the newest thing at the moment. So if you want a phone which does more than just call people and one you can surf the web on and do stuff with then now is a good time.

There are three main camps at the moment:

1. Iphone, the current king of all smartphones
2. Android, the one to watch and I'd say almost surpassing Apple.
3. Blackberry....on the wane in my opinion.

The iphone is good if you don't mind paying the price. Now Android fans will be saying "Ah yes but what about...." but in my opinion, nothing beats the ease of use, stability and all round package of the iphone.

If money is an issue or you want bleeding edge tech. then Android is the one to go for. You can get a phone to fit any budget. On the low end, I'd recommend the Orange San Fransisco. At the other end, the Samsung Galaxy S II is winning loads of reviews. Personally I prefer the HTC Sensation but thats exclusive to Vodafone at the moment. A middle of the road phone would be the HTC Desire S.

Blackberries....well good if you either want to pick up email, have long fingernails so can't type on a touch screen or have loads of friends using BBM. Usually teenagers! Otherwise, they are definitely on the decline.

Hope that helps

Nokia C7. I love it: the design, the build quality, the cheapness of getting accessories, etc. The fact it does everything an iPhone does (some things better) at about half the cost.

I would recommend it but Nokia are moving away from their Symbian software and going to Windows Phone 7. It'll be supported for a couple of years (there's an aupdate - Symbian Anna - due any week now) but you'd need to be aware of this before buying.

As I absolutely loathe touchtone phones, I have a Blackberry which I love! Great for collecting my emails.

amothers makes a good point. Touch screens are not for everyone. If you don't like them, avoid Apple.

There are a few Androids and Nokias with qwerty keyboards, but Blackberry has this market sewn-up.

As phones are very personal, go into a shop and play with a few. Better yet, see if you can persuade a number of friends to let you have a go with theirs.

DW is currently looking to upgrade but she is wary of touchscreens - she had a Samsung toucher (not Android) a couple of years ago and hated it with a passion.

Galaxy S - Luuuuurve it!! I've only had it a few weeks and played around with an iphone and many other options before I decided that this was the one for me.

Thanks all.

Bumping for more opinions!

Personally, would avoid the iPhone but would consider several other smartphones which have things I want, namely QWERTY keyboard, FM radio, and use microSD memory card. For a 5 MP camera there are over a dozen possible phones, while if I dropped the camera to '3 MP or more' there would be over 2 dozen to choose from, in either case, about half run Android.

I would certainly consider non-Android as mine would be bought outright without tying into a long contract.

NetworkGuy is right. Decide what you want from a phone.

• Form: do you want touch-screen or buttons or both?
• Will you need access to 1,000s of latest apps, of will you just need a few basic ones?
• Battery life. All smartphones have poor battery life compared to the dumbphone you had a few years ago, but some are particularly bad. Can you swap out the battery easily for a spare on long trips?
• Will you use it for games or playing back video?
• Is camera quality important (some expensive smartphones have poor quality cameras)
• Memory: will you need to expand it (e.g. to include a big MP3 library) and can you do this via SD card?

Answer these, then you can make an informed choice.

I've just signed up for my first android phone here:
www.talkmobile.co.uk/paymonthlydeal1.aspx?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=home-rotate1&utm_campaign=inq-cloud
had a play with a real one in Carphone Warehouse today, but signed up via the link using TopCashBack for £45 back.

It's not a full size smartphone, but think it should be a good one for me, at a great price. Fingers crossed.