Mobile Phone thread - please include links to good deals

[Brad]

^^^^^ This.

Three currently seem to be exhibiting very poor connection around here. What can I do about that? Well, I can complain to them and have them send me round the houses trying various things that I know won't work (like they did last time) but other than that, nothing. Now, if I'd bought the phone outright and wasn't on a contract I'd just move to someone else. That's what I'll be doing next time. I'll also switch back to iPhone; accepting an OS update on Android (that happens when A) the handset manufacturer and B) the carrier decides) is such a massive gamble as to whether or not the phone will behave correctly afterwards. Don't shout Nexus either. Those phones always have terrible battery life. Come back Apple all is forgiven.

[wakka]

NEXUS

Dunno what you're on about mate. My battery lasts all lunchtime.

[charlesr]

Well. OMG. I've installed a fan version of Cyanogenmod (it doesn't officially support my galaxy Ace 2) along with Gapps. And now it's like a million times faster. Whatever Samsung and vodafone do to the phone must really mess it up. It's like having a new phone.

[VR46]

Yep its just like a PC, remove all the bloatware and crap and it will instantly run better.

[BaronSqwelch]

Out of interest, why didn't you just stick with your old iPhone Boris?

I've had my Nexus 5 for 6 months now, I'm still really liking it. The 'OK Google' voice search works kinda well too, it recognises an awful lot of Pok?mon names so big up to Google for that.

My nexus has only really done a search for "OH FOR ****S SAKE"

My sausage fingers tend to hit the mic button instead of space when I type!

[charlesr]

Yep its just like a PC, remove all the bloatware and crap and it will instantly run better.

I got the Humble Bundle with R-Type, but could only play it on the tablet because it was jerky on the phone. Thought I'd try it again - smooth as warm butter now Wish I'd done all this stuff ages ago.

Can I unroot the phone though now it's all set up? The barclays app won't work with rooted and it's a great app - use it a lot. Off to google I guess.

[charlesr]

http://www.wikihow.com/Unroot-Android

Wow. Temporary unroot. Almost too easy!

[ETC]

I can understand why people buy hardware outright. I believe the time for buying phones on a contract basis ended a couple of years ago. I replaced a 2 year old iPhone 4S 32GB with the exact same phone Boris has bought when they came out. Envirophone gave me ?140 back for the old phone which did lessen the cost a bit.

Even so I'm on a ?12 a month contract with VF (can bring this down further if needed) and can sell and upgrade any time I choose rather than wait out the length of a contract. Also avoid having to play silly games with the network each time by threatening to leave just to get a price that resembles what they offer new customers. Given that networks don't tend to subsidise recent Apple phones the cost of ownership over the 2 years generally works out but to be the same just you are having to spend the money upfront.

Although buying this second iPhone was less exciting than buying my first one, imo it's still the best phone out there - even if you can get cheaper phones that can do the same thing.

Or you could just go on O2 refresh? Same thing really except the rolling 2 year airtime catch when you "refresh"

[charlesr]

Battery life on Cyanogen seems improved too. I left wifi on over night and it went down 8% in 9 hours.

[charlesr]

Battery life now down to 78 after a day's light use.... (a few calls, some facebook, some browsing). Seems to be doing better than normal.

[Digfox]

Or you could just go on O2 refresh? Same thing really except the rolling 2 year airtime catch when you "refresh"

Unless my maths if off the costs over the lifetime of the 2-years are still more that buying the hardware outright, and therefore not really the same thing.

For example the cheapest deal on my handset (iPhone 5S 64GB) is ?43 per month plus ?179.99 upfront for the iPhone which before we even look at changing hardware is an increase of ?215 over the length of the contract (709+288 vs 179.99+1032).

Nothing beats the freedom and other benefits of buying hardware outright particularly when it's cheaper to do so. What this does is make it 'easier' to upgrade regularly by waiving airtime but you're still paying a premium for it. I get it's a good deal but it doesn't beat buying the hardware first.

Although I suspect some of the Android handset have some form of subsidy built in that might reduce the premium a bit over the contract. But if I was looking to get back on Android I would still likely go Nexus hardware to avoid the ludicrous network/handset maker upgrading of the OS I experienced on the HTC desire a few years ago. *

* I owned an HTC Desire from 2010 until iPhone 4S release. The 1 official upgrade to Froyo (2.2) was a disaster at first becuase VF decided to install a load of their cak on the OS first (including a new splash screen, music apps that couldn't be removed) which broke so much it was untrue. They did rollback the upgrade and let Froyo + HTC overlay out but it delayed the official upgrade path for weeks if not months. I understood that at the time if your Android hardware was locked (i.e. a contract phone) it was pointing to VF rather than HTC servers. I'm not sure if this is still the same but the whole experience put me off Android on a contract. My iPhone has regular updates coming down the pipe every few weeks and I love the fact I can install directly from Apple.

[ETC]

Unless my maths if off the costs over the lifetime of the 2-years are still more that buying the hardware outright, and therefore not really the same thing.

For example the cheapest deal on my handset (iPhone 5S 64GB) is ?43 per month plus ?179.99 upfront for the iPhone which before we even look at changing hardware is an increase of ?215 over the length of the contract (709+288 vs 179.99+1032).

Nothing beats the freedom and other benefits of buying hardware outright particularly when it's cheaper to do so. What this does is make it 'easier' to upgrade regularly by waiving airtime but you're still paying a premium for it. I get it's a good deal but it doesn't beat buying the hardware first.

Although I suspect some of the Android handset have some form of subsidy built in that might reduce the premium a bit over the contract. But if I was looking to get back on Android I would still likely go Nexus hardware to avoid the ludicrous network/handset maker upgrading of the OS I experienced on the HTC desire a few years ago. *

* I owned an HTC Desire from 2010 until iPhone 4S release. The 1 official upgrade to Froyo (2.2) was a disaster at first becuase VF decided to install a load of their cak on the OS first (including a new splash screen, music apps that couldn't be removed) which broke so much it was untrue. They did rollback the upgrade and let Froyo + HTC overlay out but it delayed the official upgrade path for weeks if not months. I understood that at the time if your Android hardware was locked (i.e. a contract phone) it was pointing to VF rather than HTC servers. I'm not sure if this is still the same but the whole experience put me off Android on a contract. My iPhone has regular updates coming down the pipe every few weeks and I love the fact I can install directly from Apple.

Im im guessing they changed it. When I bought my 5c it was ?480 or ?20 month over 24 (so ?10 more) and ?12 airtime so a tiny amount more than the apple shop (like a tenner)

[Digfox]

Yes, although it still looks to be very similar; ?33 per month plus zero upfront costs for the iPhone 4c 16GB so only a discount of ?35 over the 2-year contract buying the phone outright. But if you've bagged that for ?32 a months then as you say the costs are even closer.

So the choice of handset can effect the saving although in both scenarios the cost of buying the hardware upfront is cheaper.

I've owned my mobile number for a long time so can remember 12-month contracts being the norm, tariffs not effecting upgrade costs and subsidized costs on handsets being very generous. All of that's changed now and one of the reasons I don't consider contracts at the moment.

[Yakumo]

Does anyone here own the Xperia Z1? I'm going go upgrade my 2 year old Android in July and was looking at what to get. At first J was for that LG with the curved screen but after playing with one in the store I wasn't that impressed. The Samsung phones feels so cheap to hold but the Xperia Z1 checked all the right boxes plus its waterproof like my current phone which is a great feature for me as I use my phone a lot in waterfalls and pools. I'd just like to know how is the phone to live with ?

[QualityChimp]

similar request to Yakumo. I love my Xperia Play, but the earpiece is intermittent and I'm thinking of retiring it for something newer. My options are:

Xperia Z (not Z1 or Z2, just Z)
Virgin
Unlimited minutes , Unlimited texts, 2GB data
24 month contract, ?27 a month, No upfront cost.

Xperia Z1 compact
O2 (via Carphone Warehouse)
Unlimited minutes (any network), unlimited texts, 1 GB data (Was 500MB)
24 month contract, ?28 a month, no upfront cost.

Can anybody give me some steerage? Anybody had both these phones?

I prefer smaller phones - I carry a work phone during the day too so don't want bulging pockets, I like to be able to sit down without taking the phone out and massive phones look a bit daft to me (in the same way we laugh at 80s phones!).

If I'm investing in the bigger screen of the Z for 2 years, will it feel a bit ancient by the end of that period, seeing as Sony have churned out another 3 phones since its release?

Thanks in advance, gang!