What are chances of replacing my purple phone, with another purple phone?

[Katymac]

I'm on Tesco pay&go and I don't want to spend a lot of money

Thanks

hey hun, I've got the Sony Ericsson W350 in all purple, its a brilliant phone, can't seem to find it on any online shops though, maybe if you have a look in your local phone stores?
HTH x

Depending on the phone, you can often get replacement covers cheaply on Ebay (have one purple Nokia 8310 among my several 8310s - OK, it's an old model, and not all new ones are as flexible because they have new gizmos in them).

Any idea what network is used for Tesco service? Only ask because there was a purple phone in Asda George (model Motorola U9) (will check on price and network - you could probably get it unlocked for a tenner at a small mobile shop or market stall or find an unlock code on the net).

I'm considering a contract after talking to a friend.....but I'm a bit unsure

Well, depends what the contract deal is, and for how long... 10 years ago I remember getting a one2one (now T-Mobile) on an all-in-one deal, where the phone was supplied in the 99.00 price and I had 30 minutes of calls to landlines each month for either a year or 18 months. Nowadays, the lowest contracts start at about a fiver a month (effectively, when one has included redemption offers) but at just under a tenner a month you can get 900 minutes (from Orange) plus text (see Carphone Warehouse or their online-only site www.e2save.com )

However have not seen m(any) purple phones among the ones they do show - almost every colour and then anything from just radio + flashlight to having MP3 (with 4GB SD capacity) to 5 Mpixel cameras at various prices up to about 20 quid a month, so you could get much more than you might find on a cheapish PAYG.

Incidentally, I went into Asda just to check and they do have the "Motorola Jewel U9" in purple at 65 quid (sorry - I knew I was interested [a] because of its colour and [b] because of its shape, protecting it from accidental calls, but I was also looking at other models with bluetooth, wi-fi, etc, built-in and some of those go up to about 130 quid, so it wasn't staggeringly costly in the greater scheme of things, just perhaps a bit more than you wanted to spend).

It's a clam-shell shape (flip-open) and is under the Asda branding, so it is unlocked and will work on any network as a result (pushes the price up a bit, but means no dodgy market trader being paid to unlock it, and no hassle with it being branded for Orange / T-Mobile / Virgin etc, or them wanting some fee to unlock it).

I think you have persuaded me

I was looking at a blackberry (£25 for 48 months) but I probably wouldn't understand how to use it.....

Or maybe something all singing all dancing that I could MN & check emails on (for work of course )

I had meant to add (though it could have repeated info from earlier) about checking for purple fascias on Ebay and then looking for good deals on suitable phones.

I know think it would be lovely to have an iPhone with live TV, have Napster or Spotify playing music all day and so on, but cannot yet justify it for 35 quid a month!

SO £25 a month is still quite expensive

What can you do on a fairly basic phone.....apart from make calls

I spend between £10 & £15 a month mainly calls with a few texts but I would love to get my emails tbh

Do you have some idea of what you're paying per minute to mobiles and landlines ?

I know I might sound like I work for them but if you're mostly making voice calls, then 8p/min is lower than on some of the older contracts (and definitely cheaper than most other PAYG deals I've seen, esp if you don't need 200+ 'free' texts - Asda charges 4p/text, Orange 12p (!))

Have not really investigated using data from the Asda service - for a while I did use WAP access on a Siemens (using Virgin Mobile network) to check for mail - small amounts of data and most 'calls' cost from 2p to 5p.

I think you should spend a half hour in carphone warehouse (and perhaps for a 'balanced' view, go also to phones4u too!) and see what they suggest for getting your mail.

Do you access it via web browser, or do you want to have POP or IMAP access (options one would have using MS Outlook Express) - have such info to hand, perhaps set a temporary password and ask for a demonstration. If they are 'too busy' and let's face it, December is perhaps not the best month, visit each of the individual network shops and see if they are clued up and willing to demonstrate, and ensure you can find a phone at a moderate price that allows you to do what you need.

It may be the case that something on a contract at a tenner a month will allow you e-mail quite OK, but it won't be 'all singing, all dancing' - so won't have wi-fi access (so at home, if you have a wireless router, you would get fast access via that and not be using up 'mobile' access quota).