OK, I never thought I'd start one of these OT threads...

I-phones.

I-know sod-all about smartphones. I once had a company Blackberry for
a fortnight.

'Er Ladyship has decided that she wants one for her birthday. I nearly
fainted when I saw the prices, however, as far as I can see, some sort
of Orange contract is the way to go: O2 coverage round here is a bit
patchy, apparently.

The monthly running costs of around 30 quid for the cheaper tariffs
from Orange seem not to bother her, despite her always whinging about
how little money she has[1].

Any I-horror stories? Models to avoid?

Are I-phones likely to be locked to one provider like ordinary
mobiles?

I'd rather not get her anything remotely technical that might end up
with me providing technical support, so suggestions of other kinds of
smartphone that "just needs an OS upgrade to Robot IVXXII to be way
better than an I-phone" will get, at most, a contemptuous snort from
me.


[1] This typically happens after I buy myself a new toy.

 

I have an iPhone 4 on Orange.

Getting a new one, yes? They're all the same, only variance is in the
amount of storage they have on board.

With an iPhone, you can just send her down to the local Apple store
and they'll sort it.

 

I made a big spreadsheet doing TCO for many options, and in the end
bought the stupid thing outright with applecare and got a tmobile
sim-only deal with built in internets which costs something like £10pm
when it's all done and dusted. That got me an unlocked phone so I can
get a new service deal whenever I see fit with whoever I want and it was
the cheapest end to end way of getting the thing.

I have to say the iphone4 is bloody great, it never gets in my way and
has stopped me getting lost and let me do so many real world things I'd
never have thought of before that I know I'd be lost without it now.

 

They are great. New model coming out in a couple of months if you can
hold off.*

Fraser

*They will probably have a new model out every few months until the
universe dies of heat death.

 

I have to say, I did the same when the 4 was being released. Buying a
16Gb one and an O2 Simplicity Sim worked out the cheapest way of doing
it. But at the point I want to buy it, I didn't have enough cash for
the handset and the next best deal was the Orange contract. Only
works out about 50 quid more expensive over two years, iirc.

 

On 19/05/2011 07:21, Ben wrote:
I didn't have enough cash for

Fair point if you MUST have the clitphone of the moment. I did similar
to get an N95 when I was desperate for a satnav and too cheap to pay for
anything. However, over the 18 month contract, watching other people's
monthly fee fall and their phone's get better started getting
increasingly frustrating. Paying that last £15 to get the brick detached
from the network was the icing.

I use it as an alarm clock now.

 

Carphone Whorehouse
iPhone 3GS
On O2
£21.50/month
No money up front for phone
2 yr contract

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/buy/APPLE-IPHONE3G-S-8GB-O2-15A24-FCONO

 

Did anyone see Alex Riley's "Secrets of the Superbrands" a couple of
days ago on BBC3? Amongst other things it looked at the opening of a
new Apple store in London. The evangelical behaviour of staff and
customers alike was really quite disturbing.

 

Three and Vodafone also do the iPhone, with Three being the cheapest

At the moment you can buy a 3GS or a 4. It's well worth paying the extra for
the newer handset both in terms of performance and reliability. The 4S or 5
(depending on what the call it) is expected to be out in September at which
time that will take over the same price point as the 4 and the 4 will
replace the 3GS as the basic model.

Yes

 

3GS is a bit crap reception wise. The 4 is way better.

Fraser

 

I was agog. Honestly, it's was part smack selling and part revivalist
meeting.

 

Didn't see it, but I can believe it. The whole design/Jobs worship thing
puts me right off, to the extent that I have no interest in any of
their 'phones, computers, or fine hair care products.

 

That's pretty good.

I went for a preloved 3GS from a chap from work (£240) when he upgraded
to a 4, and have it on a 900/unlimited/500Mb Voda SIM-only at a tenner a
month, so 2 year costs are £480.

So, only a few quid cheaper than this deal (though I've not investigated
the minutes etc of the O2 deal)

I'd be surprised if you felt a desperate need to upgrade from a 3GS in
the next couple of years; IMHO the 3GS is a significant improvement over
the 3G which is in turn a huge improvement over the original, but the 4
only seems to add higher res graphics and the ability to track it from
your Mac if you have one.

I've dabbled with a cheap Android (with the OSF/Blade with some fannying
about to get it to 2.2 - £58 all in) but I reckon that to go that route
you need to get a decent one which bring the price up to something
similar to (if not more than) an iPhone 4

 

Getting tied to a 2 year contract for a handset model that's already 2
years old is a little silly.

 

Not necessarily. Pat's just gone for the second deal here -
http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pay_monthly/init/Samsung/Galaxy_S_II
£105 up front and £21.50 p.m.. And it's an amazing phone.

 

Do you mean iPhones?

If she specifically wants an iPhone, then get her an iPhone. If she
just wants a touchscreen smartphone, 3 of the top 4 best sellers are
now Android (the other being Blackberry), which implies you can get
better deals on Android.

 

Yeah, saw that one, but it's O2. Here in Suffolk/East Cambs O2's
supposed to be patchy. Certainly the coverage maps I saw on some
website made Suffolk look like a bad place to use O2.

 

NODS. Pretty much my take on it, I'd buy anything before Apple and
hearing of the poor quality the GF's sprog is experiencing with an
iMac doesn't help change my aversion.

 

The one that got me was Sony, and the amount of money they are losing
in putting a BluRay player into the PSP in order to ensure it doesn't
go all Betamax on them, with respect to HD-DVD.

 

My HTC Wildfire is fine for me (PAYG). £150 from Tesco (locked)
although I only went for a new phone as I had a £50 off voucher, plus
some Clubcard vouchers that meant I got it for <£80.