Recommend a phone

[Alex Practice]

I've got an Incognito but it's kind of glitchy and the keys stick so I want something cooler. I've got the 50 bucks a month plan with boost mobile but there's no contract so I wouldn't mind switching.

I just don't want to pay $199 for a phone and $70 a month for 1200 minutes. I haven't had to keep track of minutes since I was like, 14, unlimited is just too good not to use.

So what phone do you have, what's your plan, how much do you pay per month and how much was the phone? + What do you like about it

[Arctic Eclipse]

I have a crappy Samsung Intensity from Verizon and have a family plan along with my parents (3 phones). Our plan includes of iirc 100 picture messages each, unlimited text messages, and 1,400 minutes in between us three. We pay about $150~ per month and our phones were free :). My uncle is by himself in his plan with Verizon and has a Droid HTC and pays $150 by himself.

[cantab]

I'm on PAYG. Have had the same phone for a good few years now. Nokia something, bog-standard. It does calls and texts, and the battery lasts days between charges. I top up I reckon about £15-20 a month.

Friend of mine has a Samsung Galaxy on contract. The battery life was dire, wouldn't even last a day (OK so he was on the internet a lot, but still). Now he's gone and racked up a huge bill somehow - talking hundreds of pounds - which he can't pay, so his phone's been cut off. So now he's got a basic PAYG phone as well.

These are still uncertain times economically. I for one wouldn't want to be locking myself in to a two year contract.

[cim]

Originally Posted by Fat Alex Practice

I just don't want to pay $199 for a phone and $70 a month for 1200 minutes. I haven't had to keep track of minutes since I was like, 14, unlimited is just too good not to use.

I thought so too.. then I checked my minutes with my phone and found out i used under 200 a month.

Seriously, 1200 minutes a month is a LOT of minutes. That's 20 hours of talk time every 30 days, not counting nights, weekends, or carrier-to-carrier calls. Assuming nights are 6 PM - 6 AM, that means in the average week you have 6.67 hours to talk during the day. Have you talked on your phone for more than an hour before 6 PM every day? If yes, unlimited. If not, save yourself some money.

Originally Posted by Fat cantab

These are still uncertain times economically. I for one wouldn't want to be locking myself in to a two year contract.

modern cell phones and no contract phones are mutually exclusive

[McGrrr]

I literally just bought a new phone and it will be delivered on 4th January so I am super excited.

After a ton of research, I found that the Nokia E72 is widely considered to be the best value for money smart phone.

Then it was a case of hunting down the ideal contract for my needs. I used www.omio.com (UK providers only), but there must be similar sites in the US.

Anyway, my contract is:
* T-Mobile
* Free handset
* 24 months @ £15/month (~$23.50)
* 300 mins/month
* 300 texts/month
* Unlimited internet
* 3 months free insurance
* 3 months free line rental

The entire package works out at £315 (~$493.50) for 24 months.

You people seem to be paying over the odds... shop around and find yourself a bargain.

[killazys]

Wait, what exactly are you looking for? Texting? Data? And how many minutes do you actually use per month?

[Eraddd]

Originally Posted by Fat McGrrr

I literally just bought a new phone and it will be delivered on 4th January so I am super excited.

After a ton of research, I found that the Nokia E72 is widely considered to be the best value for money smart phone.

Then it was a case of hunting down the ideal contract for my needs. I used www.omio.com (UK providers only), but there must be similar sites in the US.

Anyway, my contract is:
* T-Mobile
* Free handset
* 24 months @ £15/month (~$23.50)
* 300 mins/month
* 300 texts/month
* Unlimited internet
* 3 months free insurance
* 3 months free line rental

The entire package works out at £315 (~$493.50) for 24 months.

You people seem to be paying over the odds... shop around and find yourself a bargain.

Honestly, I dislike the Symbian Os. It's inefficient, laggy, and has a myriad of problems associated with it (reviews of it are poor, and in real life, friends who own Nokia smartphones tell me their stories of skipping music when playing, laggy internet and others). The phone design itself is not that bad at all however.

I got the iPhone 4 (because it was either that phone or the Acer smartphone which I disliked), on a great plan that Firestorm recommended to me.

I pay 37.50 a month + Taxes

-250 minutes
-2500 texts outgoing, incoming unlimited.
-100 Mb of Data
- Evenings after 5pm
- Voicemail, Call waiting, Caller ID

I don't talk much, except usually in the evenings, and I text quite a bit but not up to 2500 texts a month (usually hit around 1500). And I don't use data most of the time, except on the bus when I surf the internet a bit, and use Facebook.

The iPhone 4 itself is a good phone. It has a fast CPU, great number of applications, a great screen (the resolution is amazing), and it has a bunch of other options you can explore on it by jailbreaking it. The battery is mediocre; I usually get down to around 60% per day with only listening to music, having wifi on, and using 3G and calling sometimes in the day. Other phones have better batteries and if you're reliant on 3G/4G networks for data all the time, the iPhone battery definitely would be strained. For casual users like me, it's good enough.

[FlareBlitz]

The HTC Evo, from Sprint. Also known as "that thing that's like the iPhone except much better"

[jwoozie]

I have a Samsung phone, not sure of the exact title. But it's basically a blackberry ripoff. Same basic shape, although not a smartphone. The provider is Metro so it's $44 a month and that comes with unlimited minutes, text, and web. It's not the greatest service in the world, as it sometimes (not very often) drops calls, fails to recieve calls, fails to send/ recieve messages, and cuts off extended messages. But it's also not horrible.

[Lance Burrito]

It's hard to give suggestions when you really are not explaining what you're looking for in a phone.

[cookie]

I've had the same D750i for four years now, which is impressive even not considering it was a hand-me-down from my uncle who used it for a year beforehand. I'm only looking to get a new one because it's now randomly shutting off and coming back on, and sometimes refusing to play sound until I restart it. It's such a sturdy phone that I'm thinking of buying the same one again second-hand, but otherwise I'm leaning towards a Sony Ericsson Elm - £90 on PAYG with Wi-Fi and a 5 MP camera. I'm on pay as you go because I spend like £50 a year on credit.

[sbc]

Originally Posted by Fat cantab

I'm on PAYG. Have had the same phone for a good few years now. Nokia something, bog-standard. It does calls and texts, and the battery lasts days between charges. I top up I reckon about £15-20 a month.

Friend of mine has a Samsung Galaxy on contract. The battery life was dire, wouldn't even last a day (OK so he was on the internet a lot, but still). Now he's gone and racked up a huge bill somehow - talking hundreds of pounds - which he can't pay, so his phone's been cut off. So now he's got a basic PAYG phone as well.

These are still uncertain times economically. I for one wouldn't want to be locking myself in to a two year contract.

Get a SIM only deal if you top up that much. For £15 on T-mobile you get 600 minutes, 500 texts which is a lot better. And you're only locked in for 30 days or something before you cancel.

EDIT: Actually it's 350 minutes and 300 texts if you don't want to be locked in. It's as above for a two year lock-in. But you do get flexible boosters on top, from international minutes to free internet.

I have a Nokia X6. 16GB internal memory, 5mp camera with flash etc, touchscreen. Basically an iPhone without apps or fancy bits. However, for £20 a month I get 600 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited internet whereas iPhones owners are paying almost double that to get something similar and may even have to have put a deposit down for the phone.

I wonder if the VAT rise will affect my bill. I got it before the rise but on my electronic bill it always says ~£17 plus VAT rather than £20. Wonder if I'll end up paying £20.43 rather than the normal £20. It was advertised at £20 though...

[Zystral]

I received an iPhone 4 some time during September, £30 a month (like $40-50), Unlimited texts, 300 minutes and 1GB of Internet.

My use of my phone is pretty easy to confirm: 20% making calls/texts, 80% playing games.
Without my phone I'd've gone crazy by now. And in a place liek boarding school, having unlimited texts and easy access to facebook is just great.

If you're looking to upgrade your phone, the biggest question to ask yourself is - do I really want to pay more to get more? If the answer is no, then you're really okay to just shop around and get a phone from like a year or two ago (such as 1st gen iPhone or the Samsung Tocco Ultra) on a cheap contract. Those are easy to find.
If money isn't much of an issue, then either a HTC Mozart, a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone is your best choice, since they're some of the best phones on the market today, and you can get a contract with them with just about what you want. Most of the time you can get these guys for free on a contract that's like £40 a month ($60ish?) but gives you only like 100 minutes and 100 texts.
The only advice I can give you is think about what you really want. I mean, I could've gone for a different one that was £25 a month and had 1200 texts and 100 minutes, and I regret not choosing that one now, tbh.

[vashta]

Originally Posted by Fat Zystral

I received an iPhone 4 some time during September, £30 a month (like $40-50), Unlimited texts, 300 minutes and 1GB of Internet.

My use of my phone is pretty easy to confirm: 20% making calls/texts, 80% playing games.
Without my phone I'd've gone crazy by now. And in a place liek boarding school, having unlimited texts and easy access to facebook is just great.

Couldn't agree more. I have the iPhone 4 on the 3 network: I get 2000 minutes, 3000 texts, unlimited internet, free voicemail and 5000 minutes to another phone on 3. I got a great offer on it for £35 per month.

Obviously when picking a phone it's down to what you actually need it for besides "looking good" first and foremost, especially if you have certain financial constraints. First pin-point what you want according to your typical phone usage (i.e. unlimited texts if you are an avid texter), find anything that fits your needs and then start hunting for deals on individual phones that satisfy your wants. For example, you may choose the iPhone because you prefer its internet capabilities, or you may choose a Blackberry Curve because you like texting and/or sending e-mails on the go. It shouldn't be a matter of "I should probably get on the Blackberry hype, 'cause everyone else is".