timbo343 Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 My contract with my S4 on Orange is about to expire in about 2 weeks and im due for an upgrade. Ive been happy with the S4 but the only problem is since upgrading to Lollipop the phone sometimes doesnt connect the call. It will show its dialing but i fail to hear the ringing tone. My options are: Samsung S6, Sony Z3, HTC M9, LG G4 or ive just seen the OnePlus Two - but dont know when this will be out. I do like the Samsung S6 but the only thing putting me off it is the fact its not got a removable battery or a MicroSD card slot, is 32Gb actually big enough. I would consider the Song Z3 (brother has one) but there is something bugging me about it. Ive seen the HTC M9. I used to have the HTC sensation and was a great little phone but again something is bugging me about it. I understand the LG G4 is underrated as ive looked into it's specs and seen thats it on par with the other 3 phones ive mentioned however after hearing a review about it, i hear its build quality isnt that great. and then ive also just seen the OnePlus Two but im not sure when this will be out in the UK, however this looks like it might be the next generation of phones as ive read it might have the USB-C connector on it. I can't believe how much contracts are now, im struggling to get anything below £30 per month - sorry, ive seen O2 do the samsung and Z3 for 27.50 per month but offer Unlimited Text and mins with 1Gb 4G data with an upfront cost of £100 - Samsung S6 and £80 - Z3. I hardly use any data. Last month i used 270Mb of data, month before i used 384mb. Thanks I was wondering what people's opinions are on these phones and do you own any of them?
flyinghaggis Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Yeah, mobile contract prices these days with bundled handsets are ridiculous. A few years back they used to actually subsidise the handset when you took out a contract tied to a mobile provider. Now the mobile companies just use it as another way of gouging you for cash! Really, if you can just buy the phone outright and go for a £10-15 pcm SIM only contract depending on what you need data/minute-wise. Buying a contract with a phone just puts you in the into having to accept £30-40 pcm for the next 2 years. Unfortunately I'm still of the opinion that the iPhone 6 is the best mobile out there at the moment and IOS the best mobile platform Personally I'm on a iPhone 4S and also looking to upgrade soon but I'm holding off until the 6S is out in September/October before I change my phone to see how that looks. If you're after an android handset I'm sure someone else on here will be able to offer some suggestions though! Edited July 18, 2015 by flyinghaggis
pooley Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 Just got an LG G4 in place of my old Nexus 4. Screen and camera are great. Battery life seems good. It is plastic but I've bought a nice case for it so you can't tell. Has a micro sd slot (up to 2tb - not available yet) so fairly future proof.
Arthur Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) My options are: Samsung S6, Sony Z3, HTC M9, LG G4 or I've just seen the OnePlus Two - but don't know when this will be out. The OnePlus Two will be available to buy in ten days time (27 July 2015) although you will need an invite. The specs look really good so far though and it should be quite cheap too: $449.99 (~£346 inc. VAT). If you need an Android smartphone with tons of storage (both internal and external) you could get a 128GB Asus Zenfone 2 for £309. Add a 128GB microSD card for an extra £59 and you'll have a 256GB of storage. Edited July 18, 2015 by Arthur
Marshall_IT Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 Have you seen honor 6 plus? http://image.slidesharecdn.com/bettinspectinge-safetyinschoolsjan2214-140129054940-phpapp01/95/ofsted-inspecting-esafety-in-schools-17-638.jpg?cb=1414126704 You can buy it outright or get it on three..
Arthur Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Have you seen honor 6 plus? I think you posted the wrong link (unless Ofsted now sell phones)? Amazon sell the Honor 6 Plus for £296: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VHZV8OY The GPU in that phone (a Mali-T628MP4) is quite slow though. Edited July 18, 2015 by Arthur
Marshall_IT Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 Oh lol... Didn't copy the link then haha http://www.hihonor.com/en/pages/products/honor6plus
fiendishlyclever Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 I bought a Nexus 6 last week, £300 from Google play (flash deal ). I always buy my contact and phone separately, it's nearly always cheaper over time.
rich_tech Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 I wouldn't buy a phone on a contract again tbh, It works out cheaper by far to drop to a sim only deal and just buy a handset sim free on a credit card every couple of years, as said already the gouging on price is horrible with the networks. I am iPhone6+ at the moment and I wouldn't change off it now tbh, having owned android phones in the past.
elsiegee40 Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 I wouldn't buy a phone on a contract again tbh, It works out cheaper by far to drop to a sim only deal and just buy a handset sim free on a credit card every couple of years, as said already the gouging on price is horrible with the networks. I am iPhone6+ at the moment and I wouldn't change off it now tbh, having owned android phones in the past. I agree with not buying the phone on contract. I just did the sums for my son. We are saving £130 over 2 years by buying the phone outright and getting the sim separately.
kearton Posted July 18, 2015 Posted July 18, 2015 I bought a Nexus 6 last week, £300 from Google play (flash deal ). I always buy my contact and phone separately, it's nearly always cheaper over time. Nexus 6 here too. Bought outright. SIM only contract for a massive £6.90 a month...
Cache Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 (edited) Curious how people find the Nexus 6 - I like my Nexus 4 at the moment although it is continuing to have various problems (people not at the other end of the phone, random reboots/shutdowns) and not got to the problem of it. I like the Nexus range, but the Nexus 6 gives me the impression that it is too big - am I wrong? Hvaing got an Samsung S4 for work recently, I'm pretty impressed with it so if it was me I'd probably look at the S6, but then again I've never bought a phone with a contract, like others I've always kept them seperate so I can get the phone I want and a cheap contract at the same time. Part of that comes from I was on PAYG for a long time and it wasn't until Orange called up and offered me a £5 a month which gave me enough data that I switched over to contract as that was what was using all my PAYG credit up. Edited July 19, 2015 by Cache
Marshall_IT Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 Curious how people find the Nexus 6 - I like my Nexus 4 at the moment although it is continuing to have various problems (people not at the other end of the phone, random reboots/shutdowns) and not got to the problem of it. I like the Nexus range, but the Nexus 6 gives me the impression that it is too big - am I wrong? The size really is the only reason I'm not really considering it for my next phone. I love my Nexus 4.
Cache Posted July 19, 2015 Posted July 19, 2015 The size really is the only reason I'm not really considering it for my next phone. I love my Nexus 4. Yeah that's the same with me otherwise I would have probably got one a while back. You can tell it's Sunday reading through what I typed above, so many many errors...
crc-ict Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 (edited) I'd be wary of a phone with a non-removable battery and no upgradable storage. I've had an LG G2 since Feb 14. Great phone, lovely screen, decent camera. However, by now, I've run out of storage space and would have to remove things that I actually want to have on the phone to free up any more. Admittedly it's only 16GB, but it's certainly not enough. What's the point of a phone with an HD video camera function and video editor if there isn't enough space to use it! Also, the battery is well and truly knackered now - I'm lucky to make it to dinner time before the 'low battery' warnings start at 20%, and I don't use it heavily. I'm not sure I can make it through to next upgrade in Feb 16 without chucking the thing out of the window. It would be a very different story if I could plug in a 32GB MicroSD and change out to a fresh battery. I'm also getting a bit tired of android and it's flakeyness - things like starting app updates when I'm actively using the phone and making it slow to a crawl, home screen icons disappearing when an app is updated and when something randomly decides to hammer the processor in the background and your phone gets red hot and you lose about 20% of battery in 5 minutes. I'd put that down to dodgy manufacturer customisation, but both my wife (with a stock Nexus 4) and my Dad (with a pretty vanilla Moto G) have the same experiences. Maybe worth a look at alternatives? Edited July 20, 2015 by crc-ict
Guest Guest Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 mobiles.co.uk I'm paying £19pm for an Xperia Z3 Compact when it had just come out. iirc it was £20-30 upfront. Speaking of the Xperia Z3 series. Great phone which stood up to quite major drops. Had it in tightish jeans while working and now I've got a cracked digitizer rendering half the screen unresponsive. Since the digitizer and LCD are one component that's a £80 bill just for the part, if you can find anywhere which repairs Sony.
john Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Would agree with what others have said buying the handset outright is a good way of doing it now when you do the maths on most contracts its cheaper to get the phone separately.
dry Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Not on contract, bought current phone (Nokia Lumia 735) outright for ~£130 a few months ago and couple it with 500min/unlimited texts/3GB 4G data for £15/month from giffgaff. I used to run Android on my HTC HD2 and have owned a couple of native-Android handsets but abandoned Android when my phone would repeatedly crash overnight and the alarm wouldn't wake me up the next day in time for work. Windows Phone has been a good experience- lacking in some of the major apps such as Snapchat but it doesn't overly bother me- I've got an Android emulator on my PC at home for when I've got time to kill and want to keep up to date with how far down motorway x my friend is, or what their dinner looks like (which I'm pretty sure is the only use for Snapchat?). Windows Phone 10 is going to be exciting, especially as it'll be easier for devs to port from Android/iOS to Windows Phone. The 735 is just starting to show it's age with some of the recent WP updates- transitions between apps taking a while etc. Looks like there are some new Lumia flagships in the works. I'm looking at getting a cheap Android handset to use for work- running network diagnostics etc from a phone would be useful, and is something not really possible with WP at the moment. I'm considering the Elephone P8000 (£110 after discount codes) (Buy Affordable p8000/ at Lowest Price – Pre-sale Elephone P8000 4G LTE Fingerprint Touch ID Smartphone 5.5" FHD Touch Screen 1920x1080 Android 5.1 MTK6753 Octa-core 1.3GHz 3GB RAM & 16GB ROM 13MP (White) - FocalPrice.com) but still umming and ahhing.
john Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 Windows Phone has been a good experience- lacking in some of the major apps such as Snapchat but it doesn't overly bother me- I've got an Android emulator on my PC at home for when I've got time to kill and want to keep up to date with how far down motorway x my friend is, or what their dinner looks like (which I'm pretty sure is the only use for Snapchat?). Windows Phone 10 is going to be exciting, especially as it'll be easier for devs to port from Android/iOS to Windows Phone. We did have Snapchat albeit a 3rd party until the other week when they blocked all of them working with it Stupid people behind Snapchat how else am I supposed to enjoy seeing bad videos from nights out, my friend racing down the motorway and other pointless rubbish! 1
Joanne Posted July 20, 2015 Posted July 20, 2015 My contract is up for renewal tomorrow (currently SIM only) I'm looking at the HTC One M9 upgrading from the M8. It's £630 to buy the M9 still and with contracts at around £36 pm it doesn't work out any cheaper for me to buy the phone outright. I'm data hungry!! Need to print off a few deals to take to PC World with me tomorrow. If I upgrade in their instore carphone warehouse, I get a £50 voucher. Winning.
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