Mobile Phone Thread

[Bellend Sebastian]

Has anybody got an Orange San Francisco? If so, do they like it?

I've hankered after an HTC Desire but that will probably cost me £100, and I think that Orange will more than likely give me the above for nothing and although the spec isn't anywhere near as good (the SF has a particularly shite camera, by all accounts) I'm not convinced that the Desire will do anything more that I will actually need

[WardyisPukka]

anyone got htc hero, my shitty little sony ericsson has died, seen a htc hero on ebayfor 160 is it worth it? cant be bothered with buyin a shitty sony ericsson as my upgrade isnt due till august , been longing for htc so when im due for an upgrade might trade the hero in if i get it but is it worth 160?

[Bellend Sebastian]

Not actually seen one up close but from the EXHAUSTIVE research I'm doing at the moment I know that the Hero was a brilliant phone when it came out, but that was getting on for 18 months ago and technology moves quickly so whether £160 is good value now it's hard to say (although it always amazes me how phones hold their value - my crappy Nokia 6700 classic can command up to £100 secondhand on ebay, it's bonkers). The specs of the Hero aren't radically different to the Orange San Francisco (although Hero's camera is much better) and you can buy that brand new off the shelf for £100.

You can get the HTC Wildfire brand new for £140 and I have had a go on that and it's very nice

[Bellend Sebastian]

I've just ordered a Desire.

I feel dirty, I always do when I spend money on luxuries

[Bellend Sebastian]

Anybody got experience of leaving Orange recently? I've been with them TEN YEARS and they're not exactly bending over backwards to keep me. As they've charged me £50 for my new phone, and then cheerily let the bloke that sits next to me at work have the same phone on the same deal for nothing, as a new customer, I'm not amused.

Part of me says to let it go, but fifty quid's fifty quid, innit?

[Mee]

I've just ordered a Desire.

I feel dirty, I always do when I spend money on luxuries

When you have it, could you post your first impressions please? I have a iPhone 3GS at the moment, 7 months left on contract, not sure whether to upgrade to iPhone 4 or just go for a different phone.

[stez]

just got me'sel' on this contract, less than half the cost of my orange contract but with more stuff! lovely.

helps if you put the link in

Edited 10 November 2010 by stez

[grth2004]

anyone got htc hero, my shitty little sony ericsson has died, seen a htc hero on ebayfor 160 is it worth it? cant be bothered with buyin a shitty sony ericsson as my upgrade isnt due till august , been longing for htc so when im due for an upgrade might trade the hero in if i get it but is it worth 160?

Had a hero for 8 months now , my deal from orange was £22 per month and free phone , theres some even cheaper deals than that on the net now. I love my hero it does everything any smart phones out there do but obviously there are newer spangly versions out there ,

GOOD POINTS

android apps

cheaper than iphone

5 mega pixel camers

good touch screen

BAD POINTS

no flash on camera

battery life only lasts a day but so do most smart phones

have to reboot it every few days as it gets a bit confused

[Bellend Sebastian]

When you have it, could you post your first impressions please? I have a iPhone 3GS at the moment, 7 months left on contract, not sure whether to upgrade to iPhone 4 or just go for a different phone.

First smart phone I've had, so getting used to having to charge it every bloody night. Feels nice in the hand, screen is fantastic, OS fairly intuitive but clearly have only so far scratched the surface of what it can do. Iphone users seem impressed, and most importantly, it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

The only thing I don't like about it is if you power it down completely the alarm doesn't work

[James.]

Everyone should own at least one old school Nokia (i.e. minimum functions, green screen, Snake)

My girlfriend dropped hers from a rooftop restaurant - it fell about 5 storeys, down a hole and shattered into 4 pieces. After putting it back together it worked first time. Amazing feat of engineering. All the Indian locals around her at the time shouted things like "the power of Nokia" and "Nokia is king". Wise words.

[Rocket-Ron]

First smart phone I've had, so getting used to having to charge it every bloody night. Feels nice in the hand, screen is fantastic, OS fairly intuitive but clearly have only so far scratched the surface of what it can do. Iphone users seem impressed, and most importantly, it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

The only thing I don't like about it is if you power it down completely the alarm doesn't work

Battery life gets better eventually

[Samilktray]

O2 have sent me a text today saying in January the VAT on my phone bill will be going up by 20%. Is this a change in the contract terms or not?

[Hitesh]

Anybody got experience of leaving Orange recently? I've been with them TEN YEARS and they're not exactly bending over backwards to keep me. As they've charged me £50 for my new phone, and then cheerily let the bloke that sits next to me at work have the same phone on the same deal for nothing, as a new customer, I'm not amused.

Part of me says to let it go, but fifty quid's fifty quid, innit?

Bit of a late reply but Orange have been pretty good to me but then again I have spent a bit of money with them in the 6 years I've been with them. You've always got to leave them till the last minute on some occasions and speak to two or different people. Also ringing the retentions department at the right time is always a good thing. Late in the evenings/or end of the week always helps as they look to meet their targets! Last time my contract was up I rang them and they offered a rubbish deal but then I rang again a few days later and they offered me a deal I couldn;t refuse.

And then this time round, they rang me first! My contract was up in Jan and they rang me y saying they wanted to reward my loyalty etc so offered me a deal I couldn't really say no to. 800 mins, Unlimited texts and Internet for £20 which is £5 cheaper than what I was paying. And to top it off and was pretty much the deal clincher, they offered me any phone. I wanted to the HTC Desire HD but they said they didn't have any in stock so got the Galaxy S instead! Can't complain. It now also means I've had 3 of the big smartphones in the past month - I had the N8 for free from Nokia which will now be palmed of to a family member well known on these forums, an IPhone with work and now the Galaxy S!!

[Bellend Sebastian]

Bit of a late reply but Orange have been pretty good to me but then again I have spent a bit of money with them in the 6 years I've been with them. You've always got to leave them till the last minute on some occasions and speak to two or different people. Also ringing the retentions department at the right time is always a good thing. Late in the evenings/or end of the week always helps as they look to meet their targets! Last time my contract was up I rang them and they offered a rubbish deal but then I rang again a few days later and they offered me a deal I couldn;t refuse.

And then this time round, they rang me first! My contract was up in Jan and they rang me y saying they wanted to reward my loyalty etc so offered me a deal I couldn't really say no to. 800 mins, Unlimited texts and Internet for £20 which is £5 cheaper than what I was paying. And to top it off and was pretty much the deal clincher, they offered me any phone. I wanted to the HTC Desire HD but they said they didn't have any in stock so got the Galaxy S instead! Can't complain. It now also means I've had 3 of the big smartphones in the past month - I had the N8 for free from Nokia which will now be palmed of to a family member well known on these forums, an IPhone with work and now the Galaxy S!!

That was kind of what I was hoping for but I realise now that I messed up by accepting an upgrade before I got to within 30 days of the end of my contract. You've done very well there for sure.

I'm less cross with Orange now because I realise the situation was my own fault really, the £50 is a distant memory already, the phone is marvellous, and although the first one had an inconsequential fault they swapped it for a brand new one without any aggro. I'm happy with the deal and paying less for the insurance than I would be with a new provider, so overall I'm a happy Bellend.

Do you like your Galaxy S? I thought they looked pretty good

[AoWW]

Hmm, ok, so here's the situ... my current mobile, bog-standard Samsung, which has served me very well, is looking more than a bit battered so I'm thinking I might have to upgrade it before too long. Being a bit of a closet gadget-fiend I'm thinking I really ought to get my head around some sort of android/smartphone, but I'm clueless. Won't have an i-phone on principle (have slagged off apple so much in the past my life wouldn't be worth living) but what other options are there? Don't want to spend a fortune (only really use my mobile for calls / texts at the moment, but I'm sure I'd get into more apps if I had a phone with such niceties) but am happy to go back to a contract of up to £30 a month or so if needs be. At the moment, I'm on a Sim-only deal with Vodafone (used to have a contract with them) but I'm assuming I'd be best to go back onto a contract. Vodafone are my only option... only provider I can get a reception at home with. If not, I guess I carry on with the sim-only deal, and just buy a new handset?

Also, and I realise this is probably a daft question, but I assume if I get that type of phone I'd need a contract/deal that includes free internet usage too (cos that's the whole point of those-types of phones, right?)

Suggestions most welcome...

Edited 26 December 2010 by anotherofwalshieswomen

[grth2004]

Hmm, ok, so here's the situ... my current mobile, bog-standard Samsung, which has served me very well, is looking more than a bit battered so I'm thinking I might have to upgrade it before too long. Being a bit of a closet gadget-fiend I'm thinking I really ought to get my head around some sort of android/smartphone, but I'm clueless. Won't have an i-phone on principle (have slagged off apple so much in the past my life wouldn't be worth living) but what other options are there? Don't want to spend a fortune (only really use my mobile for calls / texts at the moment, but I'm sure I'd get into more apps if I had a phone with such niceties) but am happy to go back to a contract of up to £30 a month or so if needs be. At the moment, I'm on a Sim-only deal with Vodafone (used to have a contract with them) but I'm assuming I'd be best to go back onto a contract. Vodafone are my only option... only provider I can get a reception at home with. If not, I guess I carry on with the sim-only deal, and just buy a new handset?

Also, and I realise this is probably a daft question, but I assume if I get that type of phone I'd need a contract/deal that includes free internet usage too (cos that's the whole point of those-types of phones, right?)

Suggestions most welcome...

i wont buy apple either so i ended up with a HTC hero about a year ago , love the phone to bits and my contract is only £22 a month and the phone was free on orange , id recommend HTC phones. Ithink the latest htc is a desire.

[Narborough_fox]

Anyone got a samsung Chat? If so do you like it, if you do why and if you don't whats do you dislike about it.

[Ozwin]

Anyone know of any decent price comparison apps? I've got RedLaser and it's good at what it does but it doesn't really tell you what the prices are in the shops, I'm heading into town tommorow and it'd be cool to put it to use and see if I can get what I want cheaper in other places.

Edited 27 December 2010 by Ozwin

[Joe.]

Question:

I want an iPhone basically. I've got about three or four months left to run until I can upgrade on my Orange contract, but surely if I stayed with them for a 24-month iPhone contract they'd let me upgrade now?

[City fan @ Aston Uni]

Has anyone been with the 3 network? What have your experiences been like with them? My current contract with Orange runs out in April and I am able to upgrade my contract/pay to get out of it on January 10th and 3 seem to have some good deals on the go!

[AoWW]

Thinking of getting a smartphone on a new contract with Vodafone - do people generally find that 500mb of data is enough? I'm not planning on using it that much, tbh.

[coale39]

Thinking of getting a smartphone on a new contract with Vodafone - do people generally find that 500mb of data is enough? I'm not planning on using it that much, tbh.

Yeah ive recently done that, got the Desire (best smartphone ive used) on vodaphone 18mths, 30 quid with 3months free with 500mb which is fine.

[Daggers]

Has anyone been with the 3 network? What have your experiences been like with them? My current contract with Orange runs out in April and I am able to upgrade my contract/pay to get out of it on January 10th and 3 seem to have some good deals on the go!

3astards & ωankers

Hopeless company, hopeless phone support - go with them and have no one to blame, you've been warned.

[Daggers]

...and εunts.

[City fan @ Aston Uni]

Nice summary, I think I'll be staying well clear then!! The main thing I am after is a reasonable deal on either a HTC Desire, Wildfire or an Orange San Francisco. At the minute I only pay £15 p/month which gets me 100 mins, unltd texts and no internet. The main thing that i'll be needing with one of the phones above would be the internet.

If anyone has used these phones before then any comments would be greatly appreciated!