Mobile Phone Thread

[koop.]

Just ordered the Samsung S20 Ultra 

Looks immense 

[ozleicester]

Daughter has Apple SE which recently took a swim, so looking to replace.

the MOST important feature is a good camera... but, it also has to be cheap

 

Im thinking of saying just get another SE as they are cheap and have a good camera... does anyone have a better option for a good camera phone with low price?

Thanks

Edited 16 March 2020 by ozleicester

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, ozleicester said:

Daughter has Apple SE which recently took a swim, so looking to replace.

the MOST important feature is a good camera... but, it also has to be cheap

 

Im thinking of saying just get another SE as they are cheap and have a good camera... does anyone have a better option for a good camera phone with low price?

Thanks

The Motorola Moto G range have good cameras for the price although the standard G and G plus I believe are better than the Play and Power variants although how different they actually are in practice is unclear.

 

They're not going to be as good as your £1000 flagship devices for sure, but I think it's one of those things where the difference between the very best and the half decent isn't that great in reality

[BirminghamFox]

I’m going to order the Apple AirPods Pro and they do free engraving on the case....

 

what suggestions do you have?

I’m thinking...

 

’When You’re Smiling’

 

HAVIN A PARTY #LCFC

 

what else??

 

 

Edited 31 May 2020 by BirminghamFox

[Jattdogg]

3 hours ago, BirminghamFox said:

I’m going to order the Apple AirPods Pro and they do free engraving on the case....

 

what suggestions do you have?

I’m thinking...

 

’When You’re Smiling’

 

HAVIN A PARTY #LCFC

 

what else??

 

 

Not many replies so lets go with..

 

'Arm and a leg'

 

[Spudulike]

On 16/03/2020 at 13:27, ozleicester said:

Daughter has Apple SE which recently took a swim, so looking to replace.

the MOST important feature is a good camera... but, it also has to be cheap

 

Im thinking of saying just get another SE as they are cheap and have a good camera... does anyone have a better option for a good camera phone with low price?

Thanks

I bought a Huawei Y6. Cheap as chips (£100) and the camera is spot on. Does everything that I need. What do the expensive phones do that mine doesn't? 

[Wymsey]

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone, which works and meets my needs well.

Some family have recommended me to buy a newer version, but told them I'm happy with this one still.

 

Can this version still be supported like it has before in the foreseeable future, or will it stop at some point?

[Innovindil]

16 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S6 phone, which works and meets my needs well.

Some family have recommended me to buy a newer version, but told them I'm happy with this one still.

 

Can this version still be supported like it has before in the foreseeable future, or will it stop at some point?

Will stop at some point. Sometimes samsung stops providing updates, but more likely some popular apps will stop working because they drop support for them.

 

No reason to stop using it until that happens though. 

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Got a Xiaomi Mi A2 which has been brilliant for a couple of years but recent Android updates have slowed it down so looking to upgrade

 

Need decent Android recommendations, ~6 inch screen, stock (or close to stock) Android, upto about £250?

 

The Mi A2 was replaced by the Mi A3, with barely upgraded specs, higher price and a crappy 720p screen (it used to be 1080p, ridiculous that they'd drop it)

[nnfox]

On 03/06/2020 at 08:44, Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo said:

Got a Xiaomi Mi A2 which has been brilliant for a couple of years but recent Android updates have slowed it down so looking to upgrade

 

Need decent Android recommendations, ~6 inch screen, stock (or close to stock) Android, upto about £250?

 

The Mi A2 was replaced by the Mi A3, with barely upgraded specs, higher price and a crappy 720p screen (it used to be 1080p, ridiculous that they'd drop it)

There are some really good phones out there around that price point.  My lad has a Moto G8 Power which seems to work well.

 

If I was in the market for a phone around the £250 mark, I'd be taking a long hard look at the Oppo Reno (with its weird flip up shark fin camera thing) currently showing on Amazon as reduced from £450 to £229, or if you wanted to stick with Xaomi, then the Redmi Note 9 Pro looks like a solid offering.

 

Compare them and others on gsmarena.com

 

Good luck.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

4 hours ago, nnfox said:

There are some really good phones out there around that price point.  My lad has a Moto G8 Power which seems to work well.

 

If I was in the market for a phone around the £250 mark, I'd be taking a long hard look at the Oppo Reno (with its weird flip up shark fin camera thing) currently showing on Amazon as reduced from £450 to £229, or if you wanted to stick with Xaomi, then the Redmi Note 9 Pro looks like a solid offering.

 

Compare them and others on gsmarena.com

 

Good luck.

That Oppo Reno looks great for the money, cheers for the tip!

[Nalis]

My S9 contract has ended but happy enough not to upgrade the phone itself. As a result O2 have put me on a slightly reduced contract per month as I'm no longer paying for the phone. 

 

Whats the best thing to do deal wise in this scenario?

[The Blur]

14 minutes ago, Nalis said:

My S9 contract has ended but happy enough not to upgrade the phone itself. As a result O2 have put me on a slightly reduced contract per month as I'm no longer paying for the phone. 

 

Whats the best thing to do deal wise in this scenario?

 

I would shop elsewhere- you can go for SIM deals.   It is also easy to switch networks these days as well.   However it also would depend on how confident you are about getting the sim out in order to get the new sim in.   I do not know whether if S9 has an accessible sim slot or if the phone is one of these ridiculous types where the sim is hidden behind the battery and so on.  

Edited 5 June 2020 by The Blur

[Jon the Hat]

1 minute ago, The Blur said:

 

I would shop elsewhere- you can go for SIM deals.   It is also easy to switch networks these days as well.   

For a start ring them and ask for their best offer or you are leaving.

[Countryfox]

On 31/05/2020 at 10:53, BirminghamFox said:

I’m going to order the Apple AirPods Pro and they do free engraving on the case....

 

what suggestions do you have?

I’m thinking...

 

’When You’re Smiling’

 

HAVIN A PARTY #LCFC

 

what else??

 

 

How about ...      BIRMINGHAM FOX ....   

[Countryfox]

Just now, Countryfox said:

How about ...      BIRMINGHAM FOX ....   

Or if that’s a bit long ..  B’HAM FOX ...  

 

[Countryfox]

21 minutes ago, Nalis said:

My S9 contract has ended but happy enough not to upgrade the phone itself. As a result O2 have put me on a slightly reduced contract per month as I'm no longer paying for the phone. 

 

Whats the best thing to do deal wise in this scenario?

Giff Gaff are Good ...  very straightforward , cheap and use O2 coverage ...

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

10 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

Giff Gaff are Good ...  very straightforward , cheap and use O2 coverage ...

Had no problems when I used them for a few years, good choice if you don't want to be locked into a contract

 

Later switched to Three as they offered a lot more data for the money, again can't complain about their service - although they once double charged me for a data bolt-on. After I complained a couple of times they eventually refunded and offered me a better tariff for the same price moving forward

[nnfox]

23 minutes ago, Nalis said:

My S9 contract has ended but happy enough not to upgrade the phone itself. As a result O2 have put me on a slightly reduced contract per month as I'm no longer paying for the phone. 

 

Whats the best thing to do deal wise in this scenario?

O2 will effectively switch you to a sim only deal keeping the same data allowances and so on as before.  Essentially, their pricing is split between the sim only plan and then they add a payment plan to pay for the phone.  Once the phone is paid for then they remove that part from the contract and you are left with the  sim only part.  

 

Before you commit, now is a good time to review how much data you chew through each month and make sure that you have a suitable plan i.e. there is no point in paying top dollar for a 100GB plan when you only use 4GB per month.  Look carefully at the contract length as well.  Sim only deals tend to come with 12 month contracts, although 1 month rolling contracts are available too.  It's easy to upgrade whilst you are within your contract, not so easy to downgrade. 

 

It's also worth bearing in mind that O2 are a MNO (Mobile Network Operator), as are Vodafone, EE and Three.  Those providers will tend to charge a slightly higher premium than MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) such as Tesco, Sky, Lyca and all the others, so it might be worth shopping around.  Essentially, the MVNOs will have a contract with an MNO and piggy back onto that network.  If you want to stick with O2 signal coverage, then Sky, Lyca or Tesco would likely be your best bet if you wanted a cheaper deal.  The drawback is that if the network becomes extremely busy, O2 will give preference to their own contract customers at the expense of the MVNOs, but generally this will only happen in exceptional circumstances.

[The Bear]

BT Mobile always have some good SIM only deals. And they use EE's network. Plus you get discounted BT Sport or even free on mobile. You also get £5 off their monthly prices if you already have BT Broadband. 

[BirminghamFox]

2 hours ago, Countryfox said:

How about ...      BIRMINGHAM FOX ....   

[The Bear]

A quick shout out for Uswitch too. 

 

They have a comparison page for SIM only deals where you can filter by price/data/network/etc, which is very useful. 

 

https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/compare/sim_only_deals/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_ez2BRCyARIsAJfg-kuR6pPh-Facp18Xf1Fy7SEcQtnwLBano9BopnaImuGETosXzqr_YVIaAv22EALw_wcB

[Legend_in_blue]

On ‎05‎/‎06‎/‎2020 at 09:34, Nalis said:

My S9 contract has ended but happy enough not to upgrade the phone itself. As a result O2 have put me on a slightly reduced contract per month as I'm no longer paying for the phone. 

 

Whats the best thing to do deal wise in this scenario?

 

I'm in the same boat coming off the S8.

 

I'm happy with the phone with the battery life the only sticking point for me.

 

Still, I went out and searched for deals.  Being with O2, like you, I started with them but quickly realised that their deals are crazy expensive direct with them and default to a 36 month deal.  I went to them initially as I normally go to Carphone Warehouse but they have terminated their ties with them.  So, anyway, searched for an S10 deal and it gives me roughly £46/mth over 36 months through O2.  A non-starter since I only pay £24 for the S8.

 

Did some further research online and came across phonesltd.co.uk which does better comparisons than USwitch since they include upgrades to compare as well.

 

So ultimately managed to get the S10 for £26/mth with 30gb data which, incidentally, is only around 70p/mth more on average than going 10gb.  Worth the extra over 24 mths, so went with that, although paid a little up front.

 

Timing is crucial.  Check it every day.  I saved a further 40 quid based on prices around a week ago.  I wouldn't shut off mobile deals completely.

[Suzie the Fox]

On 05/06/2020 at 09:50, Jon the Hat said:

For a start ring them and ask for their best offer or you are leaving.

Funny enough my Iphone SE which i absolutely loved (due to it being small) started playing up last week, so i decided to bite the bullet and upgrade. Checked online and liked the look of the Iphone XR but it worked out £10 more per month. Decided to give them a call and mention about looking around at better prices etc even though i had been with them for 10+ years. They put me on hold while the girl went off to speak with her supervisor on what the best deal i could get. She came back offering an Iphone 11 on a new 2 year contract and the cost was £1 cheaper per month than what i was paying for the Iphone SE. 

 

Phone arrived yesterday and i'm well chuffed. Wish it was smaller though - little hands and all that  But defo worth giving them a ring for a better deal. 

 

[Raj]

I've got a crappy Moto c which freezes up for no reason and I have to take the battery out or power off to get it to work. It's not doing my tits in.

I don't play games on it or anything sophisticated so can people recommend a half decent replacement which won't break the bank please.( I don't buy apple/ I phones etc...I'm a tight Asian!!!!)