I would like a new phone with 3g & gps capabilities. Im not bothered about it being an all singing, all dancing, touch screen smart phone, I just want something reliable with a decent sized screen and a good battery life and cheapish. Any recommendations for a phone of this spec on say a £15 a month contract?

Ok, no responses to my original question (not suprising)

But,

Does anyone have any views on the HTC Phones? Which ones good? The Desire is expensive, but Ive been looking at the Wildfire, any good?

Patience sweetheart. 🙄
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I’m interested too as I’ll be needing a UK contract in the next week or so.
I’ll be looking for deals on the Samsung Galaxy S2.

I have the Wildfire S on a Virgin £18 contract. 200 mins, unlimited text and unlimited web.
Superb phone, great Apps, decent camera and camcorder functions, but if its long battery life your after then I’d suggest something else. The apps seem to drain the battery muchly.

I use the Endomondo GPS App for tracking my running and cycling and its pretty good.

My motorola defy is good. Sim free around £230 from a few retailers, tesco mobile sim card £10mth for plenty of texts 500mb net and either 250/500min talk depending on length of contract.
No i don’t work for motorola or tesco but both are pretty good.

Rick.

if its long battery life your after then I’d suggest something else. The apps seem to drain the battery muchly.

I think I read somewhere that the battery lasts longer on the standard Wildfire which is what Im looking at.

tesco mobile sim card £10mth for plenty of texts 500mb net and either 250/500min talk depending on length of contract.

Tesco Mobile anygood? I think they just use the o2 network dont they?

I’ve recently moved from O2 to Tesco sim only. 500mins, 5000 text and 500mb data… £10.00/month 12 month contract. Can’t tell any difference between being on O2 or Tesco.

Just got a HTC Desire S on Talkmobile, 300 mins, 1000 texts and unlimited internet for £18/mth, Tlkmobile is run by carphonewarehouse and uses vodafone infrastructure. 24 month contract

Just got a HTC Desire S on Talkmobile, 300 mins, 1000 texts and unlimited internet for £18/mth, Tlkmobile is run by carphonewarehouse and uses vodafone infrastructure. 24 month contract

Just had a look at them adn they look very cheap. If I used a Sim only contract and bought a phone from another shop, would the phone have to be unlocked to work with Talkmobile? Or would it be ok if it was locked to the Vodafone network?

Okay I haven’t thread the posts above as I’m too lazy!

Mr MC hasn’t had his own phone in 9 years so has an old brick. Suddenly decided he wanted a smart phone and has a HTC Desire S, he looked at the Wildfire but the reviews on it aren’t very good versus the Desire S.

He got a Desire S with Talk mobile (carphone warehouse on line) for £18, 300 mins, 5000 texts and 1GB of data, cracking deal and cracking phone so far. He is loving it and never talks to me anymore 😉

EDIT: Buying a decent phone CAN be quite expensive these days. Oh and unlimited data nowadays refers to 1GB not “unlimited” as unlimited was a few years back.

I got a sensation on Vodafone for 25 a month 500mins unlimited text and 500mb well pleased

Ok, I want a SIM only deal I think. I looked at that Desire and its about £100 more than th Wildfire and for what I’ll use it for it wont be worth it.

Talk mobile SIM only looks about the best, £8 or £12 per month on a 1 month contract.

i think I can get the phone for about £140.

Do I need an unlocked phone, or at least one locked to the Vodafone network for it to work?

You need it unlocked or locked to the network that you are going to use. What do you want to use the phone for? I would google the Wildfire as it had some bad reviews by the pros’.

Tesco Mobile anygood? I think they just use the o2 network dont they?

Yes, it’s the same network as O2 so coverage etc is exactly the same.

You need it unlocked or locked to the network that you are going to use. What do you want to use the phone for? I would google the Wildfire as it had some bad reviews by the pros’.

It will be used Talkmobile, which use the Vodafone network I believe.

I have looked at reviews of the Wildfire and they all seem good. The pros may give bad reviews, but Im not a professional phone user, I only use them at a “sunday league” level!

If you have £140 to spend on a phone then that sort of money will get you a used Motorola Defy. It’s a great handset, loads of features, very robust and gorilla glass screen means you don’t have to worry that much about scratches. It gets good reviews and I had mine for couple of months now. Android 2.1 works quick on it, 2.2 should work even quicker, good camera, gps locks on pretty quick. Very good 3.7″ display (same as on a Milestone) but the overall phone size is smaller than a Milestone so it is not a brick. Battery wise, if I have sync on then it will last about a day to day and a half with playing games plus some internet browsing. I switched the synchronisation off and when using wifi + some gps the phone lasts almost 3 days. It might not be great for someone who has a normal mobile but with current smartphones it is a very good result. Also a recently I had GPS on for about 3 hours and the battery went down by only 10-15% so not too bad.

I had a look at a Wildfire but Defy is a much better phone for the money.

The motorola looks about £100 more than the HTC and I want a brand new one, just in case.

I couldnt care less about the features really, the Wildfire has some sort of camera, some sort of 3g connection, some sort of GPS, some sort of wifi, and a screen thats bigger than my current phone. I cant think of anything else it needs to do.

(Mr MC posting)

Just done a bit of research and got myself a phone for first time in years (I have a second line on a job phone). talkmobile have £12 and £18 a month packages, vodaphone is the actual carrier, and a choice of handsets. I went for a Desire S on the £18 tariff (300mins calls, 1000 SMS, 1Gb data) as I am not a prolific caller. Tesco mobile have some similar £15 deals, but when I looked they were on inferior handsets (like the HTC Wildfire which is a step down from the Desire). Very happy with the Desire S, I liked MC’s Desire and it is (predictably) similar but better. The Samsung Galaxy is also supposed to be a good handset, but I assume the “S” is better than the “mini” which is being offered by Three.

Wildfire has a worse screen, less memory and less powerful/slower processor (i believe) than the Desire/Desire S so it seemed pointless to not get the desire S for the sake of a couple of quid a month, but if you want a basic 3G phone the talkmobile £12 offer is cheap as chips. Will you be happy with just “some sort” in 6 months time?

Review of handsets and contraversial grading (they had the Desire higher than the Iphone which no doubt caused riots)

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/20-best-mobile-phones-in-the-world-today-645440?artc_pg=19

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/pay-monthly/handsets/tmsmartplan24m181gb.html?pcp=1

Thanks MC & Mr MC, good info. I’ll probably order something tonight, not quite sure what but I’m sure it’ll do the job.

Also forgot to mention, check the Orange San Francisco phone, very popular as it offers a lot value for money, very good screen and works very good on Android 2.1, can be had brand new for under £100. IMHO better then the Wildfire for similar money. It will be on Orange but you can unlock it for free with a program.

Mieszko, I heard about that somewhere but had forgotten to search it. Thanks for the heads up.

I got a HTC Wildfire because it was free on a £10.21 contract which gives me more bytes and minutes than I’m ever likely to use. Of course there are better phones that do more things, and quicker too, but as a basic smartphone this seems to do the job perfectly, and it’s not too big. I can get three days use without loads of stuff running before charging it.

I’ve got an HTC wildfire as my new work phone. Seems fine, I’m barely going to scratch the surface of what it can do cause I can’t be bothered to work it all out to be honest…. 😉 good to know that I’ll be able to replace it reasonably cheap too when work goes tits up and I have to give it back …. 😐

[edit] who is your contract with hs125?

after much googling and procrastinating i decided against getting a bling phone and spending loads on monthly contract and opted for a wildfire at £13 per month, i actually found the size and value of the newer phones a bit off puting. i dont mind being a year or so behind the leading tech to save some cash and spend it on more important stuff.

Mine’s with Virgin. I got a slightly better rate for having cable telly and broadband with them too. It’s only 50 mins, but I don’t use that much, and Virgin-Virgin calls are unlimited (ie. counts down from 3000).

@don simon – best deal I could get was £25/month on a 24 month contract, from mobile phones direct, with no up front payment for the phone.

I got the Wildfire, I got the Talkmobile contract.

The phone seems like a bit of a nightmare to use after years on old Nokia mobiles.

Anyone got any useful hints or tips on the operation of this thing?

1. Take sim car out
2. put new phone back in box
3. take box back to shop
4. when they ask why you have brought it back tell them your to stupid to own it 😆

Seriously though, all smart phones are a bit of a mare to work the first time when you come from what was an actual phone, the new ones seem to do everything, the phone part of them is now the minor bit.

Quality! brought a smile to my face after a frustrating morning trying to figure out why the keypad on my phone keeps twisting itself at an opposing angle to my fingers.

Nokia 6300, when a phone was just a phone, good times