Phone fans over here please - sell me your phone!

[Themumsnot]

DH and I got HTC Desires two years ago and still love them BUT the nice people at Carphone Warehouse have let us know it is upgrade time. I use mine very little for phone, some for text, mostly for email, news, Kindle App, Facebook etc. And the camera.
DH uses his for work-related phone and email mostly (and playing an exceptionally dull cricket game). He says he would like a tablet as well as a phone, though since his recreational use of the internet is currently zero I'm not sure why. Anyhow....
should we choose to upgrade is there anything out there that would be better than our HTC Desires? Which phones are best for internetting on? What do you love about your phone? And what do you hate?

Bump. Any thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy Ace or Sony Experia?

iphone. Even the earlier models. I had a Desire and the iphone is a thousand times more useful

Which Xperia? The Galaxy Ace is okay, better than some of the xperias, but doesn't come close to the newer/top end models.

Samsung galaxy s3. A million times better than an iPhone...

I think if the OP is deliberating about the Galaxy Ace, iphones and S3s might be slightly out of budget...

Not necessarily Bertie. I've been with my network for years and years and when I upgraded after 2 years with the HTC I got them to give me a very very good deal on the iphone. I only pay £15 a month which is half what I paid for the HTC Most networks will offer you a good deal if you say you're thinking of leaving...

We pay £28 a month each at the moment - and tbh hardly ever use more than a small fraction of our phone minutes - I do use the internet allowance though. I thought of going PAYG but last time I looked data was really expensive that way.
Looking to pay under £30 a month again so Iphones are a bit out of budget.

You should be able to get an s3 for under £30.

Much better than an Iphone.

Xperia Tipo has more memory than the Galaxy Ace, without us getting into any "iPhone vs Galaxy S III" mine's better than yours argument :)

On another recent thread, 1sassylassy used a comparison site... I just ran a comparison between the Desire S (don't know what model you have) and the Xperia Tipo:

click link - *>Xperia Tips vs Desire S

Dh has a Sony experia and likes it a lot.

The new one looks very nice indeed, shoukd be free and only 26 a month from carphone warehouse.

Gosh - when I saw thread there was no info about spending... what internet usage are you getting ?

Is the 30 quid total, or each ?

I'm using hundreds of MB a day on Three and paying 15.90/month (a SIM Only deal, 600 minutes/month, 3000 texts and all you can eat internet). They are offering the Galaxy Ace on Three for costs from 13/month (depending on how many minutes you want as to how costly it gets), but I'd be looking at something running Android v4 if I was not half way through my SIM only contract.

Carphone is offering the Xperia Tipo at 7.50/month so a lot lower than 28 quid, but you could probably go for a phone with more storage for Apps etc, for 10-20 quid/month, depending on whether you have a preference for particular network or if some give poor coverage where you are.

what model Xperia, Tickle - there are around 2 dozen 'Xperia' phones

I think it was the one from the new James bond film!

I've had a Samsung Galaxy for nearly 18 months and am due an upgrade in March. I have absolutely loved it and had no problems with it. Will probably upgrade to the latest version.

Network Guy that comparison site is great. What I want is a phone that runs Android v4 with a good amount of memory, decent battery life (worst point of the Desire imo) and the best camera I can find. I shall run some comparisons. It looks like from what some of you are saying here that we are paying way too much for our contracts but those were the best deals we could find two years ago when we signed up. Will threaten to leave and see if that does the trick.

Certainly seems costly when the Galaxy Ace is now on a 13 quid/month contract (5 Mp camera but lacking storage, and superceded by Galaxy Ace 2)

Yes, that comparison thing is pretty good, but if you want some details you might also want to use www.GSMarena.com (for example, if you compared two phones and they both had 5 Mp camera, you would not be told about the camera specifications [as it only does comparison of features] while GSMarena will show everything side by side).

My neighbour's daughter has the Galaxy Ace and I seriously wouldn't recommend it. Too slow and too limited in storage.

If you go along to Dialaphone's website now you can get the Galaxy S3 on a 2 year contract with Orange for £26 per month. Free phone. 200 mins, unlimited texts & 750MB Internet. That's not even counting the 4 months of cashback you can get by redemption. Oh and if you don't mind doing it all over the web, you can get another £50 back (eventually) if you shop via Quidco. Dialaphone

With that sort of price it's hard to really recommend any other phone at the moment. It simply is a legendary phone.

The xperia tipo is lovely. I tested one at work the other day. Not keen at all on the Xperia U, though.

Memory is definitely an issue. I have a Galaxy Apollo (pretty outdated now) and the lack of memory has been the most annoying thing for me.

Most android phones have shite battery life though TBH.

Anyone got the HTC One? I think shortlist is now coming down to this versus Galaxy S3 and Xperia Tipo - thanks Bertie I just looked and Carphone Warehouse have a few deals on that with free Kindles or tablets thrown in.

"with free Kindles or tablets thrown in"...

I wouldn't class anything as free when it is part of a bundle that will probably cost 500 quid over the course of 2 years. Just spotted that Kogan (an Australian firm, but with a UK website for sales, in parallel with selling products on Ebay and Amazon for a while) has a couple of tablets just a little over the 115 pound mark.

As someone else had pointed out, not all tablets (esp the Chinese 'knock off' copies) won't work with the Google 'play store' (site for downloading Apps), so it seemed worth asking them, and getting them to confirm - as the pages I saw from my mobile didn't mention Google Play Store.

Have just checked and yes, their 10" Android v4 16 GB tablet (at 114 quid inc delivery) does use the play store (and has HDMI output, 3.5mm audio socket, 2 cameras, etc etc).

While the idea of a 'free' tablet in a phone deal is quite nice, I think the Xperia Tipo can be had for 7.50 a month from CPW and while spending 120 quid as a lump sum on a tablet may not seem ideal, it may mean you'd get a similar or better tablet and save 50 to 100 quid while doing so, just by keeping them separate, and it's not tied in with the mobile, so if there was some problem and you wanted to return the mobile within 7 days, you'd still have a tablet anyway, with an independent warranty.

Obviously it depends what the mobile contract throws in (minutes, texts, etc) but I'm still wary of ever thinking you're getting something for nothing, and invariably, the price they are paying is up to 30% less than the item retails at (though margin may be lower on tablets) so you are getting it on the 'never never' and perhaps paying 2 or 3 times what the 'free' tablet is really worth for the privilege of not laying out a lump sum.

Sorry to seem overly negative, but a simpler cashback deal seems a lot clearer in terms of the overall spend and what one gets for the money.

Xperia Tipo is a budget android phone, and S3 is a high end model, so you will see very big differences in price/deals, they're very different spec phones. It depends what you use your phone for as to which one you'll want to go for.

The One X is also a high end phone but if you want a high end HTC then the Desire X is a better bet, the One X flopped badly.

I have an old fashioned HTC Desire HD and it feels so solid and well built in comparisons to the Samsung Galaxys. DH has a galaxy but I would never trade my Desire for that. In my own opinion the Galaxy looks plastickish and too gloss I have to say he is very fond of his Samsung Galaxy though.

We also recently bought an IPAD and have had if for a month but I am still using my HTC Desire to read books on Kindle instead of the IPAD. It s only now that we have bought the IPAD that I realise how great my HTC Desire is- it does exactly the same sort of things as the ipad just on a small screen. Quitely Brilliant

However if I were to buy a phone today I would possibly go for the Google Nexus 4 or HTC One X.

Anyone got the HTC One

Which one? (No pun). The One X is HTC's competitor to the S3 and overall is a great phone....BUT

It is seriously let down by the battery and does not last anywhere near as long as the Samsung's. It's made worse by the fact they've done an Apple and sealed the battery into the phone so you can't just buy a new one.

My OH's HTC Sensation had really crappy battery life but otherwise it is a great phone. So £10 on eBay and we had a better battery and she loves it now. You don't have that choice with the One X.

Oh and they're bringing out a One X+ which has a bigger battery so to me that's an admission that the original couldn't quite cut it.

But otherwise I love the HTC Sense overlay/widgets and the phone itself other than battery life is amazing too.

OK thanks for that folks you've clarified a few things and confused a few more . The battery thing now puts me off the One completely. I have a spare battery for my Desire and often need to swap over by the end of the day it eats charge so fast. I actually like the Desire a lot, but I think the internet experience will probably be better on a phone running Android v4.

Has anyone got the Sony Xperia S? I'm due an upgrade soon, have had the Samsung Galaxy S but don't fancy the Galaxy S3 because it's so big. I have had the Xperia Ray and had a few problems with the wifi connection but otherwise loved the phone.