Mobiles

Hi folks,

That time of year when I'm getting close to due an upgrade on my contract, but for the first time I'm having serious reservations about all of the major phones on the market:

I should start off by saying that I'm not a huge app user. I like to be able to get my news through Twitter, check my Facebook and get my emails. Obviously the usual texts/calls and that's about it. I'm not fussed about the camera or many of the other gimmicky bits. I would rather a hand-held phone. I'm currently using my Blackberry Bold 9780 and I'm very content with it except the Twitter/Facebook/Browser support is awful.

iPhone 6 - They made it bigger. Why did they make it bigger? I had an iPhone 5, it was alright but it now won't charge.

Samsung S4 - I had an S3. It was awful. After 4 months the device would drop out of apps all the time, would glitch switching screens, the call quality was useless and the battery pretty poor.

Anything else - I don't have much interest in the other phones because I've never looked and have always thought they would suffer from the same issues as the Samsung.

What I really want, is a phone that just works (for the things I need). I'm quite interested by the Blackberry Classic, but I can't help but feel whilst their hardware might be reasonable (even if a little out of date), the software will have all these glitches in.

This is one of the things that upset me about the iPhone. I've had the iPhone 3gs, 4 and 5. They were great until the latest iteration of iOS which has so many glitches. It is nothing major, but when I'm not a demanding user I do not expect apps to drop out and problems to arise. One of the big ones has been iTunes. Apple built their reputation on the iPod, and so to have the issue of iTunes crashing on the phone when editing playlists is so frustrating.

So, OMO, what are your opinions on the matter?

I wouldn't normally plug a windows phone, but that might be exactly what you need.
They're not massively expensive, you get nokia's usually incredible build quality, and i would think they have all the apps you need. Buy it outright, then you're not nobbled by being tied to a particular carrier, so you can change as you please. Might be worth a thought.

[embee]

I'm not a great phone user at all, but have been looking to get something a bit more up to date than my steam powered Nokia (it's a phone, nothing else, no camera etc). I want low cost, probably use Virgin's sim-only deal since I'm on their cable service already, £5/month will do me fine.


The Motorola MotoG seems to get great reviews, either the first gen 4G version (takes a memory card) or the 2nd gen version (bigger, 3G only but better camera, dual sim etc). Tesco look like decent prices for outright sim-free buy. Just a thought.


Anyone have first hand experience of the MotoG?

[Bluepete]

My lad has a MotoG. It seems very good, he plays loads of games on it and the battery lasts.

Pete; )

[rowdy]

I've got the moto e, seems to do the job well enough for what I want. The moto g is supposed to be a lot better though, better processor and cameras etc, but for basic phoning, text and web browsing the moto e is adequate.
As Pete says, good battery life as they are bigger than most batteries.

[NTECUK]

Sarah has a year old MotoG 16G.
Its still going! this is a first for her.
Its a cracking smartphone for the money

[ethariel]

Buy a nokia/microsoft Lumia 635 outright (100 to 140 quid depending on the telco) and go on a simm only deal, save yourself 20 or 30 quid a month on the cost of a 'Flagship phone.

12 month or monthly rolling contracts are relativley cheap and the 635 is 4G

[Ch00]

My contract is up next month I have a S4. There is nothing else out there I like and I am bored of paying £35 a month! Sim only is the way forward. £23 on a rolling 30 days with Three.

[NTECUK]

Er what do you get for your £23 pm

[Ch00]

All you can eat data 600 mins free text and free 0800 numbers.

Looking at the range I dont need all that not on a 1 month rolling !

4GB data 600 mins free text and free 0800 numbers. £18