i don't understand about technology

[usuallyhats]

Internets! I am thinking about buying myself a smartphone, since my current phone is getting somewhat elderly. Do any of you have any advice for me at this momentous time in my life? I am having some difficulties as I have never actually chosen myself a phone before in my life: my parents got me my first one, lo these many years ago, and the two I've had since have been my sister's cast offs. I am v. torn between going for something super-basic or just biting the bullet and getting an iphone - on the one hand, iphone = extra monies, but on the other, the airtime cost seems to be the same... Thoughts?

The major hurdle is the cost - I currently have a pay-as-you-go phone which I put money on every couple of years at most, so whatever I pick is obv going to be a major jump price wise, thus any advice on minimising this v. gratefully received! Specifically if anyone knows a way that I can get a plan that brings the cost down by giving me hardly any minutes, and not THAT many texts*, but still gives me a reasonable amount of data (...what even is a reasonable amount of data?), that would be awesome.

*I remember the days when you just bought a bolt on that gave you a maximum of five hundred free texts a year, limited to five per day, and this seemed like joyous bounty except on days when you were trying to organise group events and had to find other people to split the texting with. *nostalgic sigh*

Comments

[netgirl_y2k]

Tip from the school of "I did this stupid thing so now you don't have to": don't get a smart phone on pay as you go. I've had mine for a year and its spent 99% of its time in flight mode to stop it just eating credit.

A straw poll of my friends and family seemed to come out for getting as close to an unlimited data package as you can swing, because data seems to be the biggest unexpected expense.

Note: take my opinions with several pinches of salt; I would still have one of those old brick like Nokias if I could.

[paranoidangel]

I am curious about this, as I have a brick like Nokia, and have occasionally considered a smart phone, and if so would want it on pay as you go. If you don't use 3G then shouldn't it not use any of the internet and therefore not spend any of the money you've put on it?

(Sorry shinyjenni, for hijacking your post)

[usuallyhats]

(no worries, I am interested in this question too! :))

[netgirl_y2k]

Basically, it was my own fault for not researching it better. With the 3G on it was prohibitively expensive (at least on the EE network, I've heard better things about GiffGaff) and with the 3G off it was essentially useless as a smartphone.

Bah. Humbug. Etcetera.

[paranoidangel]

Ah, so what does the 3G do? I thought it just allowed you to access the internet if you didn't have wifi where you were (and there weren't hundreds of other people also trying to use it).

[netgirl_y2k]

Well, this might have just been the model I had (samsung galaxy y) or my network (EE) but mine would connect to 3G intermittently even if I wasn't using the phone, and if I'd tried to connect using a wifi network it would switch to 3G without asking; ultimately costing a fortune. With the 3G turned off using the internet, the app store, the sat-nav, or really any of those things you might want a smart phone for became so slow and cumbersome as to be ultimately useless.

I suspect it was my own fault - research is key, etc. - but now I have a very flash looking phone that I don't/can't use for anything apart from phone calls and text messages.

[paranoidangel]

That is useless. I just assumed they use the wireless the same way a computer does - although since a computer doesn't have 3G I suppose it's different by default.

[usuallyhats]

That's v. helpful, thank you! I loved my old Nokia so much, I would still be using it now if the battery hadn't died...

[frayadjacent]

FWIW, I love my HTC one, which is an android smartphone. The phone itself is cheaper than an iphone, in Australia anyway, and it seems to be just as good. Though there are sometimes apps that are iphone only.

I don't know how UK plans work, but my data limit is 1 gb per month and I don't have a problem staying under, as long as I only use tumblr when I have a wifi connection.

[usuallyhats]

Thank you! They seem to be fairly similar over here, I think. :)

[walkthegale]

iPhoneeeee..... For Scrabble purposes. Yes.

(Er, I am aware that they are Quite Expensive. I've not owned any other smartphones, so I'm afraid I'm not much use here, but I do genuinely really like my iPhone!)

[usuallyhats]

Hee! I could play scrabble on an Android too, I think...

(They do seem pretty great! :))

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy with my Samsung Galaxy SIII phone - I've had it for just over a year. You can get smartphones on Pay-As-You-Go... I am with EE (Orange of old) and they offer good plans.

[usuallyhats]

Ooh, thank you! That's one of the ones I was contemplating, actually, so that's good to know. :D I will investigate PAYG options too, thank you!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

You''re welcome

[ravenskyewalker.livejournal.com]

I don't know its availability in your locale, but check out the Nokia Lumia if you can. I avoided getting a cell phone until a few months ago, so this is my first one, and I really like it.

[usuallyhats]

Thank you! Ooh, that one's really pretty...

[ghostpaw.livejournal.com]

The Motorola Moto G is pretty much an iPhone 4 that runs on Android and only costs ~£150 SIM free. There was an issue that it didn't have a removable SD or battery, but in the most recent version that's been fixed. It's what I'm getting next, anyway.

For PAYG that gets you lots of data for not much money, GiffGaff seems to be popular, although they only use the O2 network, so if it's sketchy in Bristol maybe not a good bet.

[usuallyhats]

That one sounds great, thank you! GiffGaff looks good too - I'm on Tesco Mobile at the moment, which is also on the O2 network, and haven't had any problems, so I expect it would be fine here.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_catharine_/]

I got a smartphone 2 years ago (htc explorer, because Martin validated it's chip, but that's probably not relevant as there will be newer better ones now) for £120 on payg, but then unlocked it and got a payg sim from giffgaff, which I would recommend for very low usage.

I don't actually use my phone for internet and things very much, but I do use my iPad a lot, so for my next phone I would consider getting one with a large screen for internetting. Martin has an htc one which works well for this purpose, or would recommend an iPhone as a good introduction to the world of smartphones, but such things are expensive so it might be worth trying to borrow one from someone to see if you would make use of it?

[usuallyhats]

That's a good point about the screen size, thank you! I have an iPod touch so I'm used to that size screen, I'll use that as a point of comparison...

[cedara]

I rarely use a mobile, if I do, I use a samsung.

You could write different providers, tell them what you're looking for in terms of what you wanna do with the mobile and see what they offer - then compare the results.

[usuallyhats]

My current phone's a Samsung too, and it's about ten years old and still going, which makes me think they're pretty good...

That's a good idea, thanks!