seduced by a smartphone.... which one do I want???

[honoraglossop]

Right. I currently have an aged tesco payg phone. I use it for work when out of office for making and receiving calls and that is all! I currently spend about £30 a yr on top ups :)

However I have been seduced today by a friends iphone. plus I am getting fed up with having to prise the laptop away from children when I want to check my emails.

Do I want an iphone??? or are there phones cheaper that do the same thing?? I want something which will let me store music and check facebook and make (very) occasional calls and thats about it.

DH iis on 02 so if on a contract I guess that would be best. WE live in a house with no 3 coverage so thats out. I dont mind a contract phone but having a look on the internet I have no idea which one. no budget as such....as have no idea what it would cost! I tried a mobile shop but felt old and confused.

any ideas?

I know it'll have been superseded about 97 times since I got it, but I've been massively impressed with my HTC desire. I'm due a replacement soon, and have to admit that since I got mt iPad, am being very much seduced by an iPhone...

I love my iPhone very simple to use

Hang on another five weeks or so and see what deals come up for the new iPhone or if you are not that bothered you should be able to get a really good deal on the old one!

Is it best to go to an actual i phone/apple shop??? or can you get better deals on the internet?

thanks for the tip cornish :)

Any Android phone will do music, facebook and phonecalls. You can pick up a cheap network locked Android phone for as little as £50 or spend several hundred pounds on the top of the Samsung Galaxy or HTC Desire Ranges.

Here are some budget Android phone suggestions for you to look into.

Wait and get an excellent deal on an iPhone. I do think they're the best !

I had an HTC desire previously and loved it. I now have the HTC One S. It's great too :)

I prefer android to iPhone because:
I don't listen to music except on the radio
I don't have anything else Apple
I know how to work it
The apps are nearly as comprehensive
It runs very smoothly

Samsung Galaxy Note.

It has a pen! And does loads of other cool stuff too, but it has a pen! Really good battery life too. And did I mention it has a pen?

I never use the pen, but I still love that it has one.

There is a new one coming out soon I think. I need that one too. I don't know what it does, but I need it.

Oh and Note has as much internal memory as the iphone and also the option to add a micro sd card, so you can actually fit more music onto it than the iphone. I have several kids movies and at least four of my music albums and many, many ebooks, on there and I haven't even filled half of the memory.

It's screen is a good size for kindle app and online content and the kid's films uploaded onto it play in great quality.

I cannot fault it at all.

I'm a bit of a phone geek

I have had a couple of iphones, but in may defected to samsung to get a galaxy note. I'm mostly loving it. For the odd thing its not as great as the iphone (daft things like I haven't got a good time sheet app yet that I like) but mostly it's streets ahead.

The new iphone will have to be really impressive to get me back. I have gradually got more and more footstampingly irritated with apple. Itunes is crappy (at least on my pc) and I just never link the phone and pc up with the samsung- it backs up to the cloud (on google) and I have an appt access/move files if I want or I just email or move them to my google drive etc .

I don't have lots of music on the phone , mainly podcasts and audio books. Both of which it does fantastically. Ripping and transferring CDS is a pain on apple and a bit less of a pain on samsung as the kies air is better than itunes.

Hate apples way of " crippling phones" so they only have limited usefulness. Poor blue tooth for instance and the lack of tethering unless you pay lots more (current phone will tether the ipad if needed in an emergency).

Best of all I have a 32GB storage card and removable batteries! so I'm never begging to charge if I have a meeting to take notes at etc

The note is great. The size suits me. If you want a more " normal" size get an S2, which is very similar and cheap for what you get. S3 hasn't wowed me really, though it's pretty.

Or..... DS and DH have a samsung galaxy Y. A "pared down smartphone" which is a huge bargain (£89 when they got it) . Poor screen and camera, which may be deal breakers for you, and wont handle iplayer etc but apart from that do most things fairly well.

I'm with you Doinmecleaning !

The note is bril! YUp it jas a pen and coool stuff. But actually it's not a bad phone either- you don't feel a charlie talking to it, and the speaker phone is bril

Also (sorry!)

Look at your budget and think about buying the phone and getting a SIM only deal (I'm on giffgaff £10/month for unltd internet and txt and 250 mins).

Be very wary of data caps.I'd say you'll need 750mb- 1gb minimum if you are using on 3g a lot. O2 caps can be a measley 500mb - which you'd have to watch carefully. Certainly I predict 500mb wont be enough in 12 months or so when the phone is being used more and you've got really happy with it!

thank you for your advice.....
Ive bitten the bullet and decided to go for a samsung s2 rather than an i phone!!
It seems good value. was tempted by the note as Im more into paper and pen than typing iyswim.

will let you know how i get on.... many thanks again

I find 500GB plenty, because I use my WiFi at home. If you use WiFi you don't need loads of data.

I just upgraded to an s2 yesterday and I bloody love it :) I had an iphone 3gs before and its no where near as good. The only bummer is no mn app.

I've just bought a Galaxy Note after having the iphone4 for nearly a few years, I can't wait for the phone to arrive. I bought unlocked and ordered a giffgaff sim. I hope the Note lives up to my expectations, im an Apple freak and its taken me about a month to decide to move away from the iPhone.

I love my galaxy note.