New phone - What to get

[lord-of-creation]

Basically, I'm long overdue purchasing a new phone. I've had my current one for about 4 years, has a crack running down the screen and freezes up on me on a daily basis. This is it

It is on one of those 02 genie sim cards so i'm obviously not tied in to any contracts and can therefore go for whichever phone I like. The only problem is that I have basically not paid any attention over the last few years as to what phones are now classed as good and which are not. Obviously I'm looking for a smart phone and the iphone is the first one that pops in to my head but I don't want an iphone to be honest, everyone I know has one and i'd like something a bit different.

Don't want to be paying more than £35-40/month and would hope to get the phone for free or quite cheap for that monthly outlay. Would be good to have something that can sync with outlook, good for internet/wifi/3g, an amazing quality camera would be nice and one that can also capture videos in high quality, decent battery life (not hugely important) etc

As for contracts, i'm not sure which companies are considered the best to go with. Unlimited texts would be good and probably wouldn't need more than 500 minutes. Does wifi contribute to your data usage limit as 750mb doesn't sound like much if it does?

Any help would be appreciated

[Conor D]

lord-of-creation said:

As for contracts, i'm not sure which companies are considered the best to go with. Unlimited texts would be good and probably wouldn't need more than 500 minutes. Does wifi contribute to your data usage limit as 750mb doesn't sound like much if it does?

I used to work for o2, but the tariffs have changed alot since then. Wifi does not use up any of that data allowance; Generally it'll be 500MB (For example - this will be data you use when on the GPRS/Edge/3G mobile network) and Unlimited Wifi (This is using one of the networks own wireless hotspots which are scattered around the country). Your own home (or office) wifi is different altogether.

Edited by Conor D on Sunday 22 May 02:01

[pmanson]

I've got a Desire HD on T-Mob for which I may £20 a month for the privilige (50% friends & family discount).

Fantastic phone which is slightly bigger than the iPhone which makes it great for reading PH, emails etc. The camera/video are also very good.

[lord-of-creation]

pmanson said:

I've got a Desire HD on T-Mob for which I may £20 a month for the privilige (50% friends & family discount).

Fantastic phone which is slightly bigger than the iPhone which makes it great for reading PH, emails etc. The camera/video are also very good.

Well after a few hours reading reviews etc i've taken the plunge on the Samsung Galaxy S II. Was a toss up between that and the Sony Ericsson Arc but the bigger internal memory of the Samsung swayed me in that direction. Was tempted to hang about and see what the new HTC Sensation is going to be like but no doubt it'll be littered with problems like most sound to be on release and it's just easier to go for the Samsung will updates already available for most known issues