View Full Version : New mobile time - but which network?
Littlepeahead
15-04-14, 12:33 PM
So here's the deal, I've been with Orange for 8 years, and up til recently always been pretty happy with their service, but the signal just recently in my office has become really poor and that's where I make most of my calls - weirdly if I go and stand about 20 foot down the corridor it is fine!
Now I'm out of contract the last 4 months, have an 2 1/2 year old Galaxy S2 so due an upgrade but no ties to any one network. Work will pay me £30 a month towards my bill.
I currently have 600 minutes a month which I never go over, unlimited texts and 1.25GB of data which I don't use up even though it's on all the time.
Is any network that much btter than Orange? I know they are basically switching everyone to EE as they upgrade.
So OMO should I go for an S5? Or an S4 if the S5 really isn't that much of an improvement? (And don't suggest an iphone as they are utter rubbish)
If your S2 still good why not just get a one month rolling contract.
I got my S2 wet (cos motorcycle clothing don't have water proof pockets.) So now I have a Z1 (EE).
It's quite good
Three do some good SIM only deals with unlimited internet. £15.90 with 600 mins + 5000 sms. 12 month contract tho.
I fell out with Orange/EE a couple of years ago and have nothing good to say about any experiences with them since. Prior to that I'd been a loyal customer for 15 years.
Is your phone locked to Orange?
Un locking a Samsung is nice and easy.
3 has a pants coverage in Essex. And LPH does a few out in the sticks tours all over the UK
Un locking a Samsung is nice and easy.
3 has a pants coverage in Essex. And LPH does a few out in the sticks tours all over the UK
Fair point regarding coverage.
When I still had my Orange phone, I had a Three USB internet dongle, and I used to use it on the coach twice a weekend from London to Manchester and back. Turned out that the dongle had fewer dead spots than the phone on this particular route.
Not saying that's always the case though, just that Orange is also a bit patchy in places.
Orange going signal light since its amalgamation into EE...well i never.
The S2 is a good handset but will stop having its firmware updated soon as the processor wont take the next levels of Android. So maybe go up to a Galaxy S4 Mini or a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. Not one of the mega screen devices but both are powerful (Sony being latest technical stuff and waterproof) and both are available on cheapish contracts. Worth a look.
As for EE...useless bunch of muppets. You cant get EE signal in the EE store in Streatham, yet they wont admit there is an issue in Streatham (Where Mrs Viney lives and cant get signal)
daveyrach
15-04-14, 02:58 PM
Vodafone, been with them for years and never really been out of coverage except one random spot when I was on holiday near Exmoor, I had to sit on the hotel window sill to use the phone.
They have some good deals too especially with their RED tarriffs but like you I get a 20% discount through work.
I currently have a Galaxy Note 3 which is an incredible piece of kit with Unlimited minutes and texts and 500gb of data for £31 a month.
Coverage is such a subjective thing.
David's on orange and not had issues round our local area.
Mrs n tec is now on Tesco (O2).
This drops out in the house.
She was on Vodafone. That had lots of issues at home and in colchester. So we bought a cheap PAYG so she could keep in touch
It is a post code lottery.
The only real way to check coverage is to get a SIM from each company and give it a try. Most are free
Littlepeahead
15-04-14, 04:48 PM
It is so stupid that the signal is only in my office, if I stand up and walk 15 paces it works!
I am going to give my S2 to my sister as her Blackberry has died so was thinking the S5 would be quite good as it is apparently toilet proof, and I'm not saying I'm clumsy but I have killed 2 S2s by treating them to a swim in my loo.
But the S4 and Note are getting better offers as I'm guessing everyone is now after the S5. I don't really want a mini anything, I use the phone for lots of emailing so a large screen is a definite advantage as I don't really want to get a tablet. A decent camera is also useful as although I do tend to walk around with several grand's worth of kit about my person it's always good to have a phone that can take reference shots of things.
Has anyone got an S5 yet?
Can't think your go wrong with the S5.
The S4 is popular at work 3 people got them.
My nice has one as well. I prefer the feel of my Z1, but that's also subjective too.
Go to a shop and have a try of them all.
The shop assistants fall over themselves to get a sale
Look into tesco. Excellent customer service and some good sim only packages.
Un locking a Samsung is nice and easy.
3 has a pants coverage in Essex. And LPH does a few out in the sticks tours all over the UK
I live in Essex and my Three coverage is fine - I'd recommend them to anyone. Their customer service is miles better than wretched O2.
The S5 is a decent phone but my Samsung-savvy mate just went from an S2 to a HTC One M8. I've not seen it in person yet but it sounds at least equal to an S5.
Shel's HTC One has a disappointing camera.
Great quality feel & sound, yes.
Ninthbike
15-04-14, 08:05 PM
I have mine with Talk Mobile. It is actually Vodafone but Carphone Warehouse use their network and are very substantially cheaper. I have just signed my son up for a 2 year contract, Nokia Lumia 520 (as windows phones will take over soon), 100 minutes (as he never calls anyone), 5000 texts and 500Mb data, all for £8.50 per month including the phone free. If you look on the Talk Mobile website they have more expensive contracts with better phones but are usually much cheaper than everywhere else.
I would recommend 3 but only for the fact you don't pay extra for 4g and can get unlimited data.
Other than that, you may have to just go for whatever gets the best signal.
If they are contributing im guessing you don't have a separate work phone, if that's the case have you considered getting a second phone for work? Find a half decent phone that has signal where you need it for work and get it paid for by them.
Get a second phone that you want and has signal everywhere else you need it.
Just a thought
thefallenangel
15-04-14, 08:18 PM
I am looking into replacing my S3 when my contract is up at 750mb of data from orange is poor. I am looking at getting 200 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data from 3 at £13 a month on the basis the extra money I save (30 day contract so 2nd month i'm onto a winner) and hopefully S5 comes down to a reasonable price then I will enjoy it. My days of spending £35+ a month on a mobile are over with rolling contracts like that around
Anyone know what the going rate for a galaxy 4 or 5 is sim free?
I am iPhone guy through and through so buying outright isn't an option for me so I do go with the hefty monthly plans.
But I would imagine that the galaxy's aren't nearly as pricey?
If so dirt cheap sim only deals can be pretty good as fallen says. If you can front the cost of the phone then you are prob much better off in the long run
Littlepeahead
15-04-14, 08:34 PM
Work would give me a phone but every media guide, cricketer and journo already has my personal number so I really don't want 2 phones knowing they'd all just call me in the personal one, instead work give me roughly what everyone else's phone costs a month. So £30, I pay anything over that. It came about also because when we first got work phones on Vodafone it wouldn't work.
Orange weren't prepared to offer anything great the other day, but I didn't speak to the retention department. Maybe I need to get my Egyptian market mode on and get haggling first.
Swap the personal to a work phone perhaps? Unless you just don't want 2 phones which is fair enough.
thefallenangel
15-04-14, 08:54 PM
An S5 is £570 so with unlimited virgin sim @£15 a month, you are looking at £910 which is cheaper than £40 a month on any other network over two years plus unlimited everything.
If I were you go for a good 30 day sim deal until the S2 goes as my dad has done the same thing and I will be shortly.
The Basket
15-04-14, 08:54 PM
Samsung S5 is going to be very pricey.
Samsung S3 is now cheap and if you dont mind 'obsolete' technology a real must.
Some deals on Motorola Moto G are very cheap for a good phone.
O2 Best for signal and since Tesco mobile is O2 then there you go.
O2 direct is pricey but Tesco is reasonable.
DAMN!! Did not think they were that much!
Littlepeahead
15-04-14, 09:09 PM
Work offer staff an S3 mini I think as the handset option which its pretty rubbish!
I have the HTC m8 on o2. 33pm ultd mind and texts 5gb of data. Originally got one on Vodafone but couldn't get signal in my garden or at work so took it back and switched to o2. M8 is an awesome phone. So much faster than my iPhone and just as easy to use. Doubt I will go back to an iPhone. Looked at the s5 on Sunday and glad I didn't wait. Feels very tacky and I reckon I could break it easily. Metal and glass are the way forward.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
The Basket
15-04-14, 09:20 PM
Samsung S3 is a great phone!
LG G2 is a thinker because it matches the S5 but as its a little older its cheaper.
HTC M8 is a lovely phone but HTC and I dont get on.
I like Motorola Moto X as its got the modern but a lot cheaper than the top phones.
I personally couldn't pay top dollar for S5 knowing it will be obsolete by Autumn and cheaper.
DJFridge
15-04-14, 09:35 PM
Just bought an S3 Mini for boss. Nice phone actually and he seems happy with it. We're on Vodafone which is rubbish in our little corner of West Sussex. O2 is a bit better and the kids, who are on Virgin which uses the 3 & TMobile networks (and presumably EEif you have 4G), get good signal almost everywhere.
yorkie_chris
15-04-14, 10:12 PM
I have mine with Talk Mobile. It is actually Vodafone but Carphone Warehouse use their network and are very substantially cheaper. I have just signed my son up for a 2 year contract, Nokia Lumia 520 (as windows phones will take over soon),
God I hope not as the windows nokia I have at work is a bag of crap compared to android.
That's from perspective of pick it up and use it, I don't fanny about installing loads of apps and playing around with operating systems and such.
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 05:32 AM
I don't really use many apps, in fact my S2 is fast running out of ram even though I have no games, few apps and anything I can move to the SD card I have. I had a Nokia Windows phone for a while and sent it back. Battery lasted 5 hours and those constantly flipping tiles drove me mental!
App to SD don't work on the newer versions of android. (unless you root the phone).
But with most of the new units have decent ram it's not an issue. (well on the Z1)
Oh a Z1 has a magnetic charge port. So you can charge it up without any water ingress hassle
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 07:03 AM
So if I've filled 2GB on the current phone is there more on new phones? I've only got about 3 apps like whatsapp, Facebook and tapatalk.
You have filled the RAM??
Not the normal memory???
The storage on the new phones(and thats what the App's eat up your phone) is often 16G.And that's enought for most things 32G is better
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 08:51 AM
I'm confused. The phone has 16gb memory and a 16gb card I've added. Of that as I don't have any music on it and move photos to an external hard drive I still have over 25gb of space. However, of the 2gb of ram the phone comes with there is zilch left even though I've switched all the apps you can move to the sd card and deleted any apps I wasn't using. This means apps won't update as there isn't enough space.
That is very odd, the phone (as a computer) should only use the RAM for running apps.
Does your device do multitasking/background running? If so try closing down the other apps.
Also check the settings for passive abilities. Things like geo fences, background app refresh, notifications, location services etc. those functions may use the ram to quickly do their thing as it's fast than accessing the ROM.
If there is anything surplus to requirements on, switch them off and see if that helps.
It might sound odd ,but you might have alot of junk on the phone,I think S2 has its own built in app if not,
Theirs lots of good cleaner apps that will do that for you.
I guess you have done the switch off remove battery and re start route when phones go odd.
thefallenangel
16-04-14, 12:12 PM
Only problem woth my s3 id it loses data signal and takes a restart to get it back but I think its the sim because it started in the last update and then fized for a fortnight after a text from orange and went funny again. That has cost them two customers. Me and her indoors will jump to three sim only and keep our s3 until they let go properly using the savings to pay for the new phone
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 03:26 PM
That is very odd, the phone (as a computer) should only use the RAM for running apps.
Does your device do multitasking/background running? If so try closing down the other apps.
Also check the settings for passive abilities. Things like geo fences, background app refresh, notifications, location services etc. those functions may use the ram to quickly do their thing as it's fast than accessing the ROM.
If there is anything surplus to requirements on, switch them off and see if that helps.
OK so to save battery I've always switched off all the background running stuff wherever possible. I don't have GPS or bluetooth on ever. I every so often do a close all and check if any apps are running and there aren't.
The phone does eat batter. I have one of the larger batteries fitted and that will normally last me from 6.30am to about 3pm without making any calls!
OK so to save battery I've always switched off all the background running stuff wherever possible. I don't have GPS or bluetooth on ever. I every so often do a close all and check if any apps are running and there aren't.
The phone does eat batter. I have one of the larger batteries fitted and that will normally last me from 6.30am to about 3pm without making any calls!
And it's def the ram causing the issues with updates?
If you don't have all those functions on the go, there isn't any real reason for the phone to be using that much ram.
Options are:
The os is using it just to function
You have one app that is open a lot and that's using it
There is a glitch in the firmware or the hardware or the software.
Is the phone very slow to respond? Or running as expected? If it's running as expected it prob the os being hungry on the ram. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Ram is there to be used!
When updating apps and getting the issues, are you doing it wireless and does it only happen with apps on the sd card?
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 03:35 PM
Erm, erm, it seems to be working OK. Apps update automatically when I turn on wifi at home and sometimes it says canot update as insufficient memory. That's the apps that can't be moved to the SD card though.
I'm just trying to get the phone to connect to Kies so I can put an album on there and that won't work at all.
That should just be actual physical memory then but if I recall you said you had a fair few gig left on the phone.
Try plugging it in to the pc to update the apps, it should solve the issue of memory. I say should.
Also adding the music should work via pc.
Have you go Kess on your Mac?
if so plug it in and see what it reports
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 03:45 PM
Don't have a Mac, have it on my PC but it doesn't seem to want to work and I've reinstalled Kies and still no joy.
I may go and put a record on and send some faxes!
Go in to the phones storage.
Have a look what system storage you have,I think S2 only has 2GB
and if its had one android update then trying to get another one on there an't gona fitAlso
if you have allot of mutimeda texts they eat up storage
and clear cache on your apps regular helps ease space
ethariel
16-04-14, 04:06 PM
Before doing anything too drrastic, just charge it up and sit with it on at work, then around 1400 hours, just go into the settings and select battery, from there it will tell you what's been chewing away at your power levels.
From what you said at the start of the thread though it sounds like Orange may have lost a tower near you and as the signal is a lot lower the phone is constantly searching for a signal and probably swapping back and forth accress 2G/3G which will indeed kill your battery fairly fast.
If you call Orange and whinge at them they may just send you a 'booster' that (if your IT are really nice) you can just plug into the network to get internet access and it will route your calls via that (and hopefully reduce the battery drain).
As for the 'Not Enough Memory' yep thats an S2 issue allright, it only has 1 Gb of RAM and all the basic carp that comes preinstalled from a carrier plus android it's self tends to take a good 60% chunk of that straight off. Apps are oftenwritten quite poorly these days as most phones have 2Gb plus of ram now so struggle to work on the limited (relativley speaking) resources of an 'older' generation phone.
Littlepeahead
16-04-14, 05:07 PM
Colin I think you may be right on both counts as having poor signal is making the phone work harder to find a signal.
Orange can offer no explanation. I think the phone just running itself is eating up the RAM.
The Basket
21-04-14, 09:20 PM
Samsung Galaxy S3 has removable battery.
so u can replace it when it bricks or remove it when phone goes crazee.
that is a deal sealer in my view.
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