[Archived] Which Mobile

[Al]

I want a new mobile that does a bit more than just phone calls. It must have a qwerty keyboard for texts, have a good speaker, be touch screen, have internet access and be pay as you go. I'm not a teenager and don't use the phone a lot so I don't want to spend more that £100 but I must retain my current number.

Anybody know what to buy and where to buy it?

[Stuart]

Couple of options for you here, bud.

Not used either brand but they are both reputable. Not sure if you use Amazon. It's a very good site, I use it a lot.

Samsung Galaxy

Sony Xperia X8

[Biddy]

Needing a full qwerty keyboard fairly restricts you. Quite a few bkackberrys on cheap payg deals from the likes of mobiles.co.uk and carphone warehouse.

If you could spend a little more you could get the android HTC chacha from amazon for 120. That is sim free so just swap it from your old phone job done.

[Stuart]

He wanted touch screen so I assumed an on-screen QWERTY would be acceptable.

He's not getting a PAYG Blackberry for under £100...

[Sparky Marky]

I have Samsung Galaxy and they are great....not dissimilar to an iphone.

[PAFELL]

Couple of options for you here, bud.

Not used either brand but they are both reputable. Not sure if you use Amazon. It's a very good site, I use it a lot.

Samsung Galaxy

Sony Xperia X8

Sony Xperia ok. Got one myself. Had one last contract. Got another this contract.

[Al]

Needing a full qwerty keyboard fairly restricts you. Quite a few bkackberrys on cheap payg deals from the likes of mobiles.co.uk and carphone warehouse.

If you could spend a little more you could get the android HTC chacha from amazon for 120. That is sim free so just swap it from your old phone job done.

Yep. On screen Qwerty is actually preferable. Takes up less space. I've actually been recommended HTC by someone else and £120 is not too frightening. I'll look into that and thanks everybody for your help.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I've got an HTC phone, I won't be getting another one !

[Stuart]

The wife has one and after 12 months the screen keeps freezing.

Do a bit of research first, Al!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The wife has one and after 12 months the screen keeps freezing.

Do a bit of research first, Al!

Mine kept freezing from the off. It's behaving at the moment but it seems to have a mind of it's own at times. There's nothing I like about it apart from the camera. Maybe I should have just bought a new camera ! Battery life is very poor also.

[Al]

Mine kept freezing from the off. It's behaving at the moment but it seems to have a mind of it's own at times. There's nothing I like about it apart from the camera. Maybe I should have just bought a new camera ! Battery life is very poor also.

Thanks I'll Get some more advice. That's not the first comment I've heard about battery life.

[Biddy]

I've got an HTC phone, I won't be getting another one !

However you don't say which one. I have an old WIndows 6.1 phone (HTC Touch) which is 4 years old and going strong. I currently have HTC Desire which is 2 years old and going strong.

I know someone with a Samsung Galaxy phone that wouldn't charge properly and wouldn let you reboot so that had to get swapped and I know people whoc have iphone 4's which crash all the time.

Thems the breaks with technology (and cheap parts), can work flawlessly for one person and not work at all for another.

Oh and battery life is pretty much the same all round with new phones. We're not in the days of nokia phone and text only 1 charge lasts 5 days. You get 24 hours at best out of most modern phones.

Yep. On screen Qwerty is actually preferable. Takes up less space. I've actually been recommended HTC by someone else and £120 is not too frightening. I'll look into that and thanks everybody for your help.

Ah if you want on screen keyboard then there are LOADS of options. Pretty much every Android phone out there (and iphone but probably too expensive)

[MarkBRFC71]

Just got the HTC One X, pretty impressed. Have had various iPhones for the last 4 years (loved them all), but thought I'd try the best Android has to offer at the moment purely for a change.

Pro's: camera, quad-core speed, screen, weight (or lack of), good build quality (not iPhone standards but very good nonetheless)

Cons: even thought it's running ICS, Android is nothing like as good a user experience as IOS, battery life (struggle to get a full day even with moderate use), app store is poor

I guess the ideal would be the One X running IOS as the hardware is great but ICS could be less clunky.

[Biddy]

Just got the HTC One X, pretty impressed. Have had various iPhones for the last 4 years (loved them all), but thought I'd try the best Android has to offer at the moment purely for a change.

Pro's: camera, quad-core speed, screen, weight (or lack of), good build quality (not iPhone standards but very good nonetheless)

Cons: even thought it's running ICS, Android is nothing like as good a user experience as IOS, battery life (struggle to get a full day even with moderate use), app store is poor

I guess the ideal would be the One X running IOS as the hardware is great but ICS could be less clunky.

Why is the app store poor? What are you looking for that you can't find?

As with all things, user experience is down to personal preference and I personally don't like the IOS experience. Then again I hated Android when coming from Windows Mobile!

The one thing that has pee'd me off about the One X is that the 26GB usuable space is formatted to FAT32. So all well and good having a HD screen that can play any mkv file you throw at it (with the right app) but you can't get a standard 720p MKV film on there as FAT32 only allows files of 2gb and films are at least 4GB. GRRRRRR.

Oh, ok, 2 things that annoy me (and this one is actually in Sky's court), I've come from HTC Desire which Sky Go works on to the One X but Sky don't support ICS! Damn you Sky.

[CapeTownRover]

in all honesty, the Android UI is sooooo much better than iOS. iOS is still looking the same boring way, that it was when it 1st came along.

I still have my HTC Desire HD for about 3 years now, and its also going strong, and ive not had any freeze ups from it.

[Hughesy]

S4 expected in February so hold off on any upgrades if you want the latest, probably the best phone on the market.... lots of rumours to expect big things from the next model.

[LeChuck]

S4 expected in February so hold off on any upgrades if you want the latest, probably the best phone on the market.... lots of rumours to expect big things from the next model.

Getting a bit ridiculous now with all the releases. Given that most companies are selling them on 2 year contracts, there should be a limit to how many new phones a company can release in a certain period of time.

Any more info on the "big things"? Mobile phone technology has progressed rapidly but only because the technology existed elsewhere (perhaps with the exception of touch screens) - but things like quid-core mobile processors and powerful GPUs were out there already.

I can't see what else could be added to the latest generation of phones to make them significantly better, unless the "bendy" phone technology is nearer to release than we think. I think the iPhone 5 showed us that ideas are running dry even at the most innovative of companies.

[Paul]

One improvement they could all make easily I'm sure is improved battery life. Garmin make a full GPS unit for cyclists, mapping, data recording, power out put, wattage, elevation, speed etc. etc. etc which will go for 14-16 hours withoput a charge. Phones with GPS tend to collapse after 3 hours - Why?

[J*B]

In the past 36 months I've had:

iPhone 4

Blackberry Torch

Samsung Galaxy S2

iPhone 5

Galaxy S2 was home and away the worst phone (for me), battery life got absolutely brutalised, often didn't last till dinner time and the recharge took ages. However, if you don't use your phone a lot, it was quite good.

Blackberry was the best work phone, email system was ridiculously good. Really liked it, but unfortunately it kept crashing, and the restart (when the blackberry symbol came up) really got to me. App Store was really poor, the basic apps where either not there, or seem to cost a fortune in the App Store. Things like satnav where also poor.

iPhone 4 was good. iPhone 5 is even better.

[CapeTownRover]

using GPS outside of a car Paul? Im assuming you are, because you would be able to charge the phone in the car while using GPS.

You must remember, that Garmins are just meant for GPS, and a few other things. Mobile phones are used for alot more things, and with quad core cpus, and with more and more apps coming out, the phone will take a massive hit. Unless the phone is really huge, its difficult adding a larger capacity battery to it.

[LeChuck]

Batteries are going to be a limiting factor until there is new technology, there isn't really anywhere to go with current Lithium technology.

An article on the subject here: http://www.bbc.com/f...ows-smartphones

Edit: Might not be the right link, accessing through my work seems to route via Europe.

[CapeTownRover]

like i said LeC, the inside of the devices today, are far to much for batteries to handle. Unless they add larger capacity battery, which means that the phone will be bigger.

[JAL]

In the past 36 months I've had:

iPhone 4

Blackberry Torch

Samsung Galaxy S2

iPhone 5

Galaxy S2 was home and away the worst phone (for me), battery life got absolutely brutalised, often didn't last till dinner time and the recharge took ages. However, if you don't use your phone a lot, it was quite good.

Sounds like you had everything running, wi-fi, GPS, bluetooth etc.all the time, Did you have the active applications (widget) if thats the right terminology on your S2 that allows you to save your battery life.

[J*B]

Sounds like you had everything running, wi-fi, GPS, bluetooth etc.all the time, Did you have the active applications (widget) if thats the right terminology on your S2 that allows you to save your battery life.

I had wifi running when wifi was an option. GPS only when necessary and I never use Bluetooth. Kamy had the same problem with the S3.

Quite honestly I don't see why I should have to turn things off, battery life should at least last a working day. Unfortunately it didn't, which is why I'll never leave apple again until Samsung make some serious improvements in that department.

I liked the android technology, the google store and the way the phone worked. But the battery life was a real real problem. I've just had music playing through spotify, and sat nav running on my iPhone for a 3 hour car journey. The android would have collapsed half way through.

[Paul]

In the past 36 months I've had:

iPhone 4

Blackberry Torch

Samsung Galaxy S2

iPhone 5

Galaxy S2 was home and away the worst phone (for me), battery life got absolutely brutalised, often didn't last till dinner time and the recharge took ages. However, if you don't use your phone a lot, it was quite good.

Blackberry was the best work phone, email system was ridiculously good. Really liked it, but unfortunately it kept crashing, and the restart (when the blackberry symbol came up) really got to me. App Store was really poor, the basic apps where either not there, or seem to cost a fortune in the App Store. Things like satnav where also poor.

iPhone 4 was good. iPhone 5 is even better.

One of my lads got a Galaxy S2 last Christmas, being 20 he's a heavy user and the battery is shot to pieces already. Getting him an iPhone next week. Battery life on my iPhone for work and social is still excellent after 15 months of all sorts of different use. it's just rubbish for out of car GPS.

using GPS outside of a car Paul? Im assuming you are, because you would be able to charge the phone in the car while using GPS.

You must remember, that Garmins are just meant for GPS, and a few other things. Mobile phones are used for alot more things, and with quad core cpus, and with more and more apps coming out, the phone will take a massive hit. Unless the phone is really huge, its difficult adding a larger capacity battery to it.

Yes on a bike. You may well be correct but with everything shut down except a single GPS app most smart phones, certainly iPhone, will only run for 3 hours or so. Yet I can buy a Garmin 800 GPS which is cycling specific, carries all the maps, data etc and runs the same cycling software as the iPhone but has a battery life of 15 hours!!! I just don't get it.