aerospacemango Posted August 19, 2010 Posted August 19, 2010 Morning all.... So, here goes.... I wanna spend up to £150 on a new phone. I'm not looking at spending more than that, cos, to be honest, I don't anticipate using it for much other than texts, calls and a spot of browsing, every now and again! Therefore.....What is, in your opinion, the best phone to go for? All thoughts are welcome!
aerospacemango Posted August 24, 2010 Author Posted August 24, 2010 Oh...Kay! So, that preceded a rush of replies!! Well, I am going for an LG Optimus. Android 1.6, but strong rumours of upgrade to 2.2 in the next month or so. £100 from Carphone Warehouse....so well within budget too!
aerospacemango Posted August 24, 2010 Author Posted August 24, 2010 TBH, Jinn, I was looking at a different phone altogether....LG 510 POP, cos it was in blue! But, this one caught my eye, and seems to have the potential to do what I want.....which isn't that much to be truthful! 41 year old men should not get toooo excited about phones, I feel!!! Gonna get it at the end of the month, so keep your eyes peeled for a review
aerospacemango Posted August 24, 2010 Author Posted August 24, 2010 And, I also went through as many reviews as I could find! Ideally, I would plump for an HTC Wildfire, or Desire, but as I'm not really interested in spending soo much on a phone, I decided to budget myself. Glad I did too!
aerospacemango Posted August 25, 2010 Author Posted August 25, 2010 Yeah, but I don't wanna go through the changing phone numbers over stuff! Plus, I have a text and web deal with O2, which means I have unlimited web browsing....It was given to me to stop me leaving O2! I'd been with them for 14 years, and they were messing me about, so I threatened that I was off to Orange, Voda or T, and they instantly gave me unlimited!!!
LeMarchand Posted August 25, 2010 Posted August 25, 2010 (edited) Yeah, but I don't wanna go through the changing phone numbers over stuff! Plus, I have a text and web deal with O2, which means I have unlimited web browsing....It was given to me to stop me leaving O2! I'd been with them for 14 years, and they were messing me about, so I threatened that I was off to Orange, Voda or T, and they instantly gave me unlimited!!! Phone number's not a problem - just get a PAC code. Deal may be, though. I was with T-Mobile for that length of time but they weren't prepared to give me the phone I was after on a suitable tariff. They didn't try to entice me back BEFORE I had got a better deal elsewhere. (Bizarrely, the deal was with Virgin who - AFAIK - lease their coverage from T-Mobile!) Edited August 25, 2010 by LeMarchand Grammar pedantry
aerospacemango Posted August 25, 2010 Author Posted August 25, 2010 Deal may be, though. I was with T-Mobile for that length of time but they weren't prepared to give me the phone I was after on a suitable tariff. That'll be why I stick with my first choice of phone......It may not have Android 2.2 (yet), but it's a good entry level smartphone. (At least that's what the reviews say!!!) I think that a visit to the shop and a play with them all will make my mind up for sure!
aerospacemango Posted September 1, 2010 Author Posted September 1, 2010 Well, here we go then! The new phone, an LG Optimus GT540, is in my hand, bought last night at CPWH, for £109.95. So, first impressions............ Easy to use.....straight out of the box, and charged in a couple of hours. I left it on charge overnight, as I was advised, but that didn't seem to make any difference. Got everything set up in a matter of minutes. Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter were all sorted with the minimum of fuss. App Market needs a gmail account, but that was straightforward to set up. WiFi and bluetooth were seemless, and it was hardly anytime at all before I was surfing. As this is my first smartphone, and I have only had limited access to touchscreen phones, in the past, I was interested to see how I got on with this screen. Well, I am happy to report that I find it to be very responsive, although the occasional heavy touch can open an App or screen that you didn't mean to. But that is no real biggy, in my book! It just means that you are a bit more careful with how hard you press. App Market is decent enough, with lots of apps.....However, I just popped into a thread on apps, on this very site, and downloaded the recommended ones from there (Thanks to all who put their favs up!!!). The phone is light and bright and does exactly what I want it to. I have to say that I think as an entry-level smartphone, I couldn't have got a better phone....unless someone else knows different! Hope that this info may help someone else to make a good choice!
aerospacemango Posted September 1, 2010 Author Posted September 1, 2010 Hmm. Sounds good so far. How's the accuracy of the on-screen qwerty for typing? Probably too early to tell yet, but the perennial question of battery life? Ta. The accuracy is pretty good.... I think that though I set the touch calibration straight away, it is slightly out. I seem to have responded to this very quickly, and am touch the letters slightly above where they are......This is something that I will have to look into further....but thatnks for flagging that up! I really hadn't thought too deeply about that until I read the question! Battery life............... As I said, charged overnight, and took off at around 7.30 this morning. Spent quite a lot of time, during the day, playing with App Market, settings and suchlike. It is now down to 50%. I'm not convinced that the battery that I got was fully discharged, otherwise why would it have charged completely after just 2 hours, last night? Therefore, I will monitor the life over the next week or so, and report back! I'm still more than happy with my phone though! And it wouldn't worry me if I was charging it every day, as I don't see that putting it on charge before I go to bed is that difficult!!!
aerospacemango Posted September 9, 2010 Author Posted September 9, 2010 Right then......... 8 days in, and am I still happy? That would be a resounding YES! I have re-calibrated the touch screen, so that I am no longer touching just above the letter and have found that the accuracy has improved immeasurably! Texting, emailing and updating to Facebook are now a breeze! The phone takes so little time to get used to, and it does exactly what I wanted....and more! The app markets are....umm....interesting! There's bags of stuff, and loads of things to download and waste your time on! My favourites, at the moment, are Air Control, Daily Dilbert, Trap and Coloroid. Laputa is another great app for reading books....I've just started War of the Worlds, and plan to go on to Honer's Iliad and Odyssey as well as Don Quixote. This is especially handy for reading in bed, when my other half is trying to get to sleep! Now....we come to battery life! During quiet moments, at work, I can have a bit of a play, or mess around with it. Go home, and if the missus is watching some rubbish on TV, then I can play some more. I haven't needed to charge it during the day, but always charge it overnight. I reckon I'll have to let it run down in the next few days, just to keep the battery life at max!!! At no point, in the last week, have I thought to myself "Better hurry up and get it on charge". This hasn't been an issue, at all, and therefore, I can only say good things about it. All in all, I still think that if you are looking for a relatively cheap PAYG smartphone, you could do a lot worse than pick one of these up. Rumours persist that LG are about to release 2.1 for it, but I'll wait and see whether that comes true! Love the phone, love what it does, and very happy with it! Go on....buy one! You won't regret it!!! (Or at least if you do....Don't come looking for me!!! This is ONLY my opinion, after all!!!)
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