New Contract and Phone

[Gortex]

In May this year my current contract with O2 finished and rather than going out to get a new phone straight away and start a new one I thought I would wait for the Iphone 5 to be released and then make a decision. I am currently using the old Iphone 3 and to be honest it has done everything I have wanted from a phone to do and have loved some of the games on it which has been a major sticking point for me over the last 24 months.

There are some things I hate about it like the camera is rubbish, the disk space can hold very few films or parts in a series for when away from home and the battery life is a joke.

I will be honest and say I know very little about mobile phones and it is an area of technology that really does not make me excited about it which is probably why I have enjoyed the phone I currently have. This having been said I am also open to change and am aware of how greedy money loving Apple is but then this could be said for all tech companies.

I wold like some advice on what I should look into as a replacement and if the new Iphone is worth getting or switching to a new brand.

Constructive advice rather than just saying Apple is evil would be helpful plus any useful links to see a review or vid etc...


Cheers all and thanks in advance.

[DarkAngel]

I have recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy 3. I thought long and hard before purchasing it as i could just have easily waited for a iPhone 5 or gone for a iPhone 4s.

I am glad i went for the Samsung due to the fact it has expandable data storage, its standard built in memory stores 16gb and can take a additional 64gb micro sd giving 80gb in total (which i think is insane for a phone). I have 4 full HD box-set's & 20+ HD films currently on there with loads of space remaining. And you can easily remove the back and replace the battery!!

The market place for Android devices are expanding greatly and has a huge selection of games & applications. The only draw back i have had with the phone is connecting it to my mac it isn't as easy as connecting it to a pc. And the battery gets drained, but you can turn on its power saving mode which helps a lot, but get ready to charge it every night or get a spare battery (which i have).

But if you already have everything on iTunes and don't want to work on having to start again this may not be a logical decision.

[DarkAngel]

Remember to go through topcashback.com as you can usually get £100+ back on specific contacts, i got £130!

[Tutonic]

I'd consider a move to Android if I were you.

1. Android contracts are generally much cheaper, especially if you haggle with your provider ("I'm going to leave" etc etc).
2. The scope for customisation is almost limitless on Android - you can get more out of your phone.
3. You get to escape from iTunes. No more 'syncing'.
4. Upgradeable storage via memory card.

There are plenty of other reasons, but they're the main ones in my head.

[Tanales]

Not all android phones got expandable storage or removable batteries tho, but thats the only thing that bugs me about my HTC One X, and its not even that big of a problem to me atleast.

But if you want a new phone with all that and willing to wait the Samsung Galaxy S4 is coming out early 2013.

[BrotherTobious]

S3 for the win mate I have told you this a million times:)

[T-Bag]

Not all android phones got expandable storage or removable batteries tho, but thats the only thing that bugs me about my HTC One X, and its not even that big of a problem to me atleast.

But if you want a new phone with all that and willing to wait the Samsung Galaxy S4 is coming out early 2013.

The reason I went with the S3 was the removable battery and expandable memory. Neither of which are available on the One X. My past 3 phones were HTC so I was sad to part ways, but I'm not so loyal I'd put up with a fixed battery.

If I go away on a train etc there aren't always places for me to charge the phone, and with my old phone if I played games or watched videos solidly (on a train there's little else to do) I could be running out of battery by the end of the day. I have to say I only changed out the battery about 4 times in the 18 months I owned my old phone, but when I did it was a lifesaver, I tried portable chargers etc and having something plugged in for a couple of hours made the phone awkward so that is a big plus for me (although I can see why it wouldn't be for others).

Having made the switch from HTC to Samsung I have to say I've both impressed and disappointed. Going backwards in a number of ways such as having a hardware home button and going from Sense UI (which was excellent) to Touchwiz (which is shocking) have been the biggest disappointments. Countering those are the screen, having extra screen real estate is fantastic, I use my phone far more than before, even watching videos is worthwhile, and as with my jump from 3.6->4" I can't see myself having a screen much smaller. As well as that the performance is great, everything is smooth and fast, something that was not always the case with my old phone, and jelly bean is due next month promising to bring more performance gains and retake the top spot in benchmarks (which appears to have been taken by the iPhone 5 if leaked benchmarks are to be believed in both cases).

The volume of sound when playing music is great (though I rarely play music without headphones it's nice to know I can). The camera quality is great and with built in features like panorama it beats the current iPhone (though apparently the new one will have something similar). Other important things, it easily fits in my pocket, it could be about 20% bigger before it got hard to handle. It's futureproof with features like wireless charging (official versions coming next month) and NFC for sharing with friends or changing setting (I think the ultimate aim is to put your phone on your wireless charging pad and having it know by NFC what mode to switch to, but it's not mainstream yet).

I'd recommend the phone over anything that's out currently, but if you can hold off I'd check out the new range of Windows 8 phones on the horizon as I think they'll be a game changer, killer touchscreen on the Lumia 920 paired with a game changing camera and wireless charger it could be the most revolutionary phone since the iPhone 3G (I don't count the original iPhone since it lacked so many essential features).

As for the iPhone 5, I'd steer clear of that for a few reasons. Firstly the price, it's £100-200 more expensive on contract than the S3 from an overview on contracts I saw. Hardware wise it's reminiscent of the original iPhone missing a lot of features competing phones already have that will obviously turn up in 12 months time, that would annoy me if I'm locked into a 2 year contract.

TL:DR Version: Galaxy S3 is the best android phone, Lumia 920 looks to be the best phone on the horizon (despite not having removable battery) and now would be a good time to get a iPhone 4S second hand if you want a "cheap" alternative to the above.

[T-Bag]

Sorry for the double post. But I just found this:

http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/20/benchmarking-mobile-maps/

Obviously it's stacked in favour of Nokia because they made it, and having SatNav for a country can be very different to having GOOD SatNav for a country. But the thing that caught my eye is offline SatNav (implied by the text at the end although never explicitly stated). It's a feature that is lacking from other phones which annoyed me when I was driving in Paris, going back to having someone read a map (albeit pre-cached on my phone) is very different to turn by turn navigation.

I hope this feature comes to Android soon.

[sulky_uk]

i have also just updated, i had a desire and i thought id get the HTC one x...big mistake, luckily skodafone do a 7 day no quibble return cause the screen has a white smudge in the middle on black pics and was easy to distort by holding the phone, so i got a 32gig s3.... 2 words just awesome

things i like

1 the screen is so much better than the one x and the iphone 4s that a friend has.
2. upgradeable to 96 gig total with micro sd
3. battery in power save mode has lasted 3 days with regular usage and with only using mobile internet when i wanted.
4. the flip case i bought is awesome, offical samsung part from ebay for £8 http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_en-GBGB437GB437&q=samsung+flip+case+blue&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1680&bih=959&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1712375569418680183&sa=X&ei=WURbUKWoKMTI0QWF8oCABg&ved=0CEYQ8wIwAg
5. so quick

ill post more after tea ;-)

[Gone_Away]

S3 for the win mate I have told you this a million times:)

I've looked at the S3 and it's as big as a brick.

[sulky_uk]

apples ios6 bugs already... looked at my itouch and the town is a green smudge..looks good on my s3 though

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19659736

[BrotherTobious]

I've looked at the S3 and it's as big as a brick.

God your house is built on very thin bricks.  And let's face it if it is built by apple it the same level a duplo

[Gone_Away]

God your house is built on very thin bricks.  And let's face it if it is built by apple it the same level a duplo

Your momma.

[BrotherTobious]

why you bringing her in to this she doesn't have a iPhone

[TeaLeaf]

She has duplo? :blink: