Tell me about good mobile phones (UK)

Okay, so in the morning I think I might go to town and tread myself to a nice shiny new mobile phone. My old one is for all intents and purposes dead and has been for a year, but O2 refused to do anything about it and still made me pay £30 a month for the 12 months it was out of action. The contract is over now, so I am free and down £360.

Now, two questions -

What's a good network to go with for a contract?

What's a good phone on the market at the moment? (Preferably recent on the shops and not from SonyEricson, never using them again either)

This is mainly open to UK people because we're quite ahead of the US in mobile phone technology for some reason or another, apart from the iPhone, we don't have that yet.

Well, I'm on O2 and I get rubbish tariff rates. I'm talking about 8p to connect a call even if it's just an answer machine. This phone appears to be quite good, and from such an unbiased writer you know it has to be true.

T-mobile's pretty good

it's a pity you're no longer under a contract
it puts you in a strong position to negotiate.
Try to negotiate anyway, though

now, I've never done this without being in a contract, it may work, it may not
(I'm sure the providers talk to each other on some level, if only to allow transferring of numbers and fraud detection, so they may catch you out)

Phone up a provider (say, orange) and say your contract with 02 is up soon, you're paying £30 / month, can they beat it?

Sales are usually allowed to knock 10% off, instantly, no quibbles.
don't push too far, just try to get it down to around £25 / month, and agree.

They'll send you through the contract to sign.
Don't sign it.

Walk into a high street store for another provider (say, T-mobile) with the Orange contract, and ask if they can beat it.
They will probably say yes (they know you're not lying)

You can probably get them down to £20 / month, if you do this.

The problem you've got, is not actually having the leverage of an existing contract, but give it a go.

Alex, take my advice, do NOT get tesco mobile, it is the worst network ever, i sometimes wish i could throw my phone out my window, it can't even make calls outside the country, not for me anyways, don't bother with Tesco mobile, thats a definate!

Well, to be fair, O2 does have very good signal. I can get a signal near anywhere I go. In fact I can count the number of times I've been without signal on one hand.

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Originally Posted by goldney

Well, to be fair, O2 does have very good signal. I can get a signal near anywhere I go. In fact I can count the number of times I've been without signal on one hand.

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On O2 I didn't have any signal when in my own house.

Well then. I stand corrected.

I am with Vodafone and have been for about 8 years now because the service and network coverage is amazing. I get the following for about £35 a month.

750 minutes
1000 text messages
Vodafone passport (can call from outside the UK for same price as in, comes out free minutes with 75p connection charge, text messages 35p)
Vodaphone international - Call from the UK to outside for cheaper, example calling the states £1.25 a minute or 25p a minute with international)
Free internet usage - well up to 250mb but thats hard to use up on mobile browsing.

Not sure what else I got on mine, but they are really good, would recommend to anyone :)

I'm not joking, just get yourself a plain old-fashioned five/six year old nokia.

They do phone stuff so well, hardly break, never crash and are so cheap to replace.

If you want a digital camera etc. on your phone, get a proper digital camera. The same goes for having an mp3 on your phone (iPod), or games (DS or PSP).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wannywan

I'm not joking, just get yourself a plain old-fashioned five/six year old nokia.

They do phone stuff so well, hardly break, never crash and are so cheap to replace.

If you want a digital camera etc. on your phone, get a proper digital camera. The same goes for having an mp3 on your phone (iPod), or games (DS or PSP).

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And how can you text photos your mates using you digital camera.....?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wannywan

I'm not joking, just get yourself a plain old-fashioned five/six year old nokia.

They do phone stuff so well, hardly break, never crash and are so cheap to replace.

If you want a digital camera etc. on your phone, get a proper digital camera. The same goes for having an mp3 on your phone (iPod), or games (DS or PSP).

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You may enjoy hauling that shit around, but I sure don't.

Oh yeah good point, forgot to mention the actual SIZE of 6 year old Nokias :lol:

http://www.dotmobile.co.uk/shop/phon...php?product=Z8 (horrible, unflattering picture there, the real thing looks qutie nice)

I'm pretty much settled on this one now, I just need to decided if I should go with an 18 month or 12 month contract. 12 month is more expensive in the long run, but it means I'll get an upgrade sooner. Hmm.

12 month all the way :D

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Originally Posted by Adam

And how can you text photos your mates using you digital camera.....?

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You obviously don't. Though you do end up with vastly superior photos you can post online (and seeing as we're on a forum, I guess you have internet connectivity) to share with other people without it costing a fortune.

5/6 year old nokias aren't that big actually either.

Well I for one like taking picutres with my phone, and sending them to mates instantly! Thats why I have a new camera phone. If I want decent pictures I will use my Canon.

Fair enough.

After five miutes of use, the phone is broken. I am not happy.

Ah thats rubbish!! What went wrong?

I think it was a refurb.

The inbox, which I stupidly cleared, was full of 'text xxx dating' messages. My guess is someone had it, broke it, took it abck and it ended up back on the shelves.

thats shit, I would take it back and kick some ass :D