What Mobile phone?

[Lucky]

Right, here's a new topic!

I am about to change my mobile as i am due an upgrade, and am completely staggered by the amount of choice out there.

What I do know is, its between three of the 'smartphones'

The obvious, an iphone 4. But, its the only one I would have to pay £169 to upgrade to.

Then its between the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Desire, which I can have for free.

Reading up on it all, there is very little between the three and the HTC actually seems to top the polls.

Has anyone got any of the above, particularly the samsung or HTC?

I dont want to get 'stuck' with a phone I dont like (like my current Blackberry storm - which has been nothing but problems), so any advice would be cool.

Steve

[Steve_PPP]

I'm in exactly the same boat, and looking at exactly the same phones!

I'd narrowed my choice down to the iphone4 or one of the HTC handsets. Android seems to get some good reviews generally, and you know the alarm clock will work on it

Was going to get one before christmas but decided to hold out until Jan in case some of the networks discount in the January sales. The iphone4 is a lovely handset, and i'd be chuffed to have one - but like you, i was finding it would cost a lot more up front to buy. The Desire HD also looks good, but its about a centimetre wider/taller than the iphone4 i think. Bigger screen is good for web browsing, but less pocket friendly.

Was thinking about the HTC Wildfire as its quite a bit cheaper, but having used one i've decided the screen is crap for web - far too low a resolution to be useable imo.

Ideally want to spend £20 or £25 per month tops, with no cash purchase of the handset.

The I Phone 4 is a very good phone in fairness, once you have the cover that you will have to send away for. This is the first phone that I can honestly say I have not had issues with.

But......... I Phone 5 is out this year, which will hopefully be glitch free. Is it worth waiting for that? Or is it a bargaining chip to get a cut price I Phone 4?

The choice as they say.... is yours.

[Hongkongfooi]

I have an iPhone 3GS which is brilliant, colleagues of mine have Gtc and wouldn't recommend other than price

[Lucky]

Lol, you are obviously as tight as me!, I was looking before xmas too, but hoped for a better deal in January.

It just grates me to have to pay for an iphone that you know will be free in a few months time. They say you are better going for the Desire rather than the HD as apparantly the HD eats batteries.

Thats interesting about the iphone 5, but so soon after the '4'?

I even thought of just going back to a normal phone which is small and fits in your pocket and work cant bug me with emails, but I know I will miss all the features within a few weeks.

[Red Baron]

Just gone the Desire HD route at the weekend, bit of a learning curve after 10+ years of Nokia ownership but I'm happy so far. Only concern is battery life but that might be down to constantly playing Angry Birds on it. I think whichever smart phone you go for you will have to expect to charge it every night if you're making use of all the phones features during the day.

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Shane

Just gone the Desire HD route at the weekend, bit of a learning curve after 10+ years of Nokia ownership but I'm happy so far. Only concern is battery life but that might be down to constantly playing Angry Birds on it. I think whichever smart phone you go for you will have to expect to charge it every night if you're making use of all the phones features during the day.

Thats good to know mate. And yes, you are right with battery life. I have to charge my Blackberry every night anyway.

Originally Posted by Lucky

Thats interesting about the iphone 5, but so soon after the '4'?

I think it's all down to the fact they are having to give away free, the surround / case to make the signal strength correct.

It must be costing them a fortune. It probably only needs a tweek to make it spot on, and then make them more money!

[Anger]

Ive got a Galaxy S... by far the best phone ive owned

[Red Baron]

My wife has the normal Desire and she's charging hers daily as well, doesn't seem to be much in it battery life wise.
All HTC phones have a 2 year warranty, Apple only give a year, not helpful when you're tied in to 2 year contracts now days. Another advantage of an Android handset is free satnav via Google Maps, it was already installed on mine, not sure you'll get that with an iPhone.

You do get Google maps with the I Phone 4

The battery life isn't brilliant, but it does fully charge very quickly.

[ralliart didz]

i would go for the i phone because when your skint you can all ways get £250 for it all day long even after a year old

[Steve_PPP]

cheers guys, all useful stuff this

just found Phone4u are doing the Desire HD on T-Mobile for £25/month. 600 mins, 500 txts, 1GB data, free handset, 24 month.

Want to move away from O2, found their coverage ****e lately. T-Mobile seems to have excellent 3G around here and they let you use the Orange network too as they've merged.

edit/ Carphone Warehouse doing the same price on the Desire HD....

[Anger]

Steve i dont lose signal at all anymore now they have merged, unless im working underground

[ralliart didz]

steve if you get the iphone for 24 months,then at the end flog the phone £250 and then the money u pay out each wont seem much.how much will the desire hd be worth ? not much i bet

[Anger]

i'd rather a good faultless phone more than getting money back at the end... saying that i dont pay for my phones anyway

[Justin]

I've got a HTC desire and its taken me a bit of time to get used to it coming over from nokia, but its a brilliant bit of kit, it was a choice between that and the Galaxy and there's nothing in it. I couldn't see any value in paying £150 extra for an Iphone when these are free

[Lucky]

mmm.. this is what I am thinking. Gotta say I am leaning towards the HTC Desire at the moment. If the iphone was free then I think I would go for it, but the HTC seems to tick all the boxes.

On a side note, this is why I love this site. Not even 2 hours ago I posted this up and already had loads of useful response. Cheers guys

[Mortster]

I went for the Windows 7 based Samsung. Awesome phone, and very good interface. Got rid of my BB, now work have given me one!

With the iphone 5, I hear its comming out because 4g is on its way from over the pond.

[Bearo]

Ive got a desire, battery lasts me at least 2 days. There are some tricks to keep battery going. You can add a widget to your home screen that toggles 3g, WiFi, GPS, Screen brightness, etc. Turning them off when your not using them helps with battery a lot.

I had an iphone but hated the way everything is locked down and dont get me started with itunes. I do recommend it for people who who aint that fused and want a simple smartphone.

Another reason i went with desire is that t-mobile have a 3Gb fair usage policy which is very good and i can now use my phone as a router which has been so handy when out and about with the laptop.

Originally Posted by Lucky

Thats good to know mate. And yes, you are right with battery life. I have to charge my Blackberry every night anyway.

Thats odd i charge mine aprox every 4 days. Im now on my 2nd Blackberry with no issues. The i phone i had was really bad for batterylife but this phone is fantastic. Have you got the old storm Lucky?

[Kei Man]

Android and because I wanted a proper keypad as well as the touch screen,have Sony Experia X10 Mini Pro, just had the latest android update and now have access to more apps. USB micro charge socket,and it fits in my shirt pocket at work.5Meg camera is a bonus.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corp...eriax10minipro

I've had it for a couple of months now and am very happy with it on T mobile

[DukeBoy]

iPhone 4

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by Bearo

Another reason i went with desire is that t-mobile have a 3Gb fair usage policy which is very good and i can now use my phone as a router which has been so handy when out and about with the laptop.

Oooh, this sounds useful.

Having used an iPhone 4 a few times, i do think they are an absolute quality product. The 4 feels a much nicer phone than the 3GS imo.

But the Apple badge on it just means its more expensive than everything else on the market. As an IT bod, i think the Android phone is going to be more flexible and allow me to do more?

Hi Guys
I have an iphone 3 GS and a blackberry curve as one personal and one work.

I have also had an HTC in last job for a little while, great screen res and bussiness features.

Hands down the iphone is leagues ahead of both , again IMHO
Its so much more like a mini lap top than a phone.

Oh and guys, if you take out a new contrcat with O2 call me 1st as i can get you £75 credit through work. Before Christmas it was £125.

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by Crowman

Hi Guys
I have an iphone 3 GS and a blackberry curve as one personal and one work.

I have also had an HTC in last job for a little while, great screen res and bussiness features.

Hands down the iphone is leagues ahead of both , again IMHO
Its so much more like a mini lap top than a phone.

Know what you mean about Blackberry - they've gone a different way and haven't really kept up. They're living on the fact that companies everywhere have invested in BES and hence find it easy to just keep using them. Over the last few years i've had 8700, 8800, couple of Pearls, Curve 8300 and now on a Curve 8900. All of them worked all the time, and had great battery life. For business email, qwerty keyboard is excellent.

But they're just not very personable, and i've never buy one myself with my own cash

[Bearo]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

But the Apple badge on it just means its more expensive than everything else on the market. As an IT bod, i think the Android phone is going to be more flexible and allow me to do more?

Without doubt. One you root you can customize everything you see. Also enables you to install more apps such as an overclocking app which can run different speed profiles. For example, it will underclock the processor to 600mhz when in standby and then boost it up to 1.2Ghz when using it.

Theres tons of custom roms which you can install which remove all the standard carrier apps for a clean quick phone (think up to 10x quicker than an iphone 4 with some roms). You can turn it into a hard drive, router n' free sat nav. Theres an update coming out which caches your journey so it doesn't use data while on the move.

Not sure you can do it on an iphone but theres an app that lets you control your pc from your android phone. I do have an app that lets me keep an eye on my torrents.

[Scott.T]

Bashing this reply in on me HTC good phone for the money I.e free. Got Google nav, rac traffic, angry bird and a 0-60 speed app..use it more then my lappy when on wifi, like now in my hotel room..........

[mowglimarks]

I ve had a HTC desire for abt six months now . Love it all my web browsing is done on it the sat. nav is unreal . No need for a case for reception.Video streaming is good .good mp3 player it .lots of free apps u ll never need to buy an app . Best phone I ve ever had... phones for you £30 a month 900 mins 3000 texts unlimited internet usage (fair use) HTC IS THE FUTURE..

[Chunk]

Iphone every time

I have the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, only because i couldn't afford the Iphone

But if you get an Iphone, you will become addicted to it and ignore all your friends

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Nige

Thats odd i charge mine aprox every 4 days. Im now on my 2nd Blackberry with no issues. The i phone i had was really bad for batterylife but this phone is fantastic. Have you got the old storm Lucky?

Yes mate, its one of the first storm 9500's.

[Steve_PPP]

oh dear, just when i was thinking a Desire HD and T-Mobile would be the best way forward....

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-w...tack-40091392/

[Bearo]

WTF from 3Gb to 500mb, w**kers!! Oh well the most i ever used in 1 month was 350mb but still it was nice to know i had 3gb!

[XRS]

My son has the iPhone 4 and he loves it. Uses it all the time instead of his laptop.

[belliott]

I work at a phone shop now and I plumped for the desire hd, not much between that and.the normal desire though other than the screen resolution a better camera and the phones processor is about 10% faster. Didn't bother with the iPhone as the 3gs is just as good as the 4 and i'd already had one and didn't want another, fed up of apple not letting you choose what to do and use on your phone.

[scoobieschmuck]

HTC DESIRE Buddy

Originally Posted by Lucky

Yes mate, its one of the first storm 9500's.

Thats why mate. Try the new Bold its fantastic.

[lady-turbo-wrx]

My son has the HTC phone,and its by far the best phone he's had and Believe me he has had mostly every phone out,the HTC is a bit on the big side,but its a great phone

Not had any of the other phones mentioned so can't comment on how they perform. After loads of problems with my Blackberry Storm (probably early model Nige mentions) I went for Iphone 3G , then 3Gs and now Iphone4.

Very good all round phone, ease of use and functions etc etc. OK, theres a few things that other phones do that the Iphone's have never done but even so, never been a problem.

I got the free bumper cover for mine, because it was free but even without it my phones not had the signal issue so many people complain about.

So my vote goes with Iphone

[Lucky]

Cheers guys. Went for the HTC Desire in the end and after a couple of days use all I can say is its awesome. Really easy to use and enough features to keep me happy. Bonus was i got it from Vodafone, paid £5 for the phone and signed a new contract for £20 per month, which is £15 less than I was paying for the Blackberry

Steve

[Steve_PPP]

That sounds pretty good, i've got to do the same now mate.

Desire HD i assume?

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

That sounds pretty good, i've got to do the same now mate.

Desire HD i assume?

No Steve, just the desire. I had the option of both looked at then side by side in the shop. The HD as I understand it has a better camera (8mp) and a larger screen, but I just prefered the size ( smaller)and feel of the desire. The screen is amazing, as are the amount of free apps. Really easy to use too.

[felen]

Iphones are great, you can do loads with them, Jailbreaking them makes you able to adjust things you wouldnt normaly be able to on standard iphone settings, also if your so inclined and dont care about legality you can get sources on iphone to download apps for free. Ofc this aint legal but down to yourself at the end of the day.
You can also buy TomTom app turning your phone into a SatNav also, possiblities are endless.