Help me choose a new mobile phone..

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 10:37:58

Anyone got some good phone knowledge?

I have had the same phone (Orange Rio) for just under two years and it now keeps switching itself off when I try and access the internet.

Having sold some old stuff on Ebay, I'll have a few quid to buy a new phone next week.

I am considering a Samsung Tocco Lite http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-S5230-T … _dp_p_t_1, they also have a Tocco Lite 2.

The phone I buy must be pay as you go and either sim-free or on the o2 network, I don't do contracts these days.

My requirements are thus:

Qwerty keypad, touchscreen, internet, camera. Obviously I have to make and receive calls and texts too!

My budget is a mere £80, which for me is a lot of cash currently.

Thanks for any help!

Marianne

Last edited by mariannemarlow (2012-08-22 10:40:47)

GamBit · 2012-08-22 10:49:47

mariannemarlow wrote:

My requirements are thus:
Qwerty keypad...

Keypad makes your choice very small.

Look at this: http://www.phonegg.com/List/QWERTY-Cell-Phone.html

I have tried many Phones and OS'es.
Now i stuck on IPhone because it fits best my iMac.

I was very unhappy with every Samsung-Phone.

But that is a matter of taste.

Keep in mind, that a Smartphone is made for Internet and not to Phone.
Therefore the battery must often be loaded.
Ḿy Samsung Galaxy S2 must be charged twice a day.

TitanMech · 2012-08-22 10:54:08

HI Marianne

I have an android phone called the HTC Wildfire S, its pretty great and on pay as you go costs about 120 pounds.
The phone in this link is the older model and is in your budget:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HTC-Wildfire-Fr … 602&sr=1-1

The reason why im suggesting the older model is because you can install a custom rom on the phone to make it much faster than the normal android system, the Wildfire S which i have does not currently work with any custom roms so its considered one of the slowest of the budget android phones. But by installing something like cyanogen mod on the older model you get a much faster device.

Last edited by TitanMech (2012-08-22 10:56:15)

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 10:55:01

@GamBit

I mostly just use my phone for checking forums (this and others), email and facebook. I rarely call anyone despite a 250 min a month allowance. Also get 300 texts and use about 50 of those.

So I need the qwerty. Takes less time for me to type out messages and emails.

What has been your problem with Samsung phones?

Last edited by mariannemarlow (2012-08-22 10:55:25)

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 11:02:34

@TitanMech

Wow the HTC has 384 MB RAM.

[joke]Can I put #! on it [ /joke]

This phone does look like just what I am looking for actually. Bit concerned at buying it used with no warranty though

Last edited by mariannemarlow (2012-08-22 11:16:01)

Awebb · 2012-08-22 11:31:48

See this: http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices
And this: http://get.cm/

Those are the phones, that are officially supported by the cyanogenmod team. The moment you want to get rid of all that branding is the moment you want such a firmware.

gutterslob · 2012-08-22 12:15:43

What has been your problem with Samsung phones?

Don't know what problems GamBit faced, but Samsung electronic/computing products have had the worst reliability record out of all brands in my household. They have this tendency to die just a couple of weeks after their warranty expires. Samsung are also (in my experience) the worst ever company to deal with when it comes to warranty claims. I actually changed the back cover of my Galaxy Nexus because I didn't want to admit I was using a Samsung product (denial, I know). There's also the ethical issue for me; for all the bad rep companies like Apple and Sony get, they're nowhere near the corrupting criminal force Samsung is in the Korean corporate and political scene. I swear, if the next Nexus model is Samsung made as well, I'm moving back to the iPhone.

Problem is;
Samsung seem to be one of the few that make a lot of Android phones in your price range. HTC might be another one. Problem with that segment is that many of the models (especially Samsung) have rather "quirky" components, not always supported by AOSP (Android Open Source Project) or CyanogenMod. Aside from Samsung, try checking HTC. See what's available sim-free at Amazon (or whatever site you go to) and check against that list in the link Awebb posted.

Last edited by gutterslob (2012-08-22 12:45:45)

Unia · 2012-08-22 12:38:45

gutterslob wrote:

I swear, if the next Nexus model is Samsung made as well, I'm moving back to the iPhone.

Better start saving up then: http://www.sammobile.com/2012/08/21/are … -gt-i9260/

Morley · 2012-08-22 13:45:11

I'm not quite sure how things work when it comes to mobile phones in the UK, but here in the US the Motorola Photon Q just came out (on the Sprint network), and it is basically the nicest QWERTY slider / Android phone around. I would highly recommend Android since you are already a Linux user ... you can even run a terminal in Android

pvsage · 2012-08-22 13:54:58

GamBit wrote:

mariannemarlow wrote:
My requirements are thus:
Qwerty keypad...
Keypad makes your choice very small.
Look at this: http://www.phonegg.com/List/QWERTY-Cell-Phone.html

Wonder why they have so many Blackberry-like phones. The little square one that looks like a makeup compact looks cute, if you're into that kind of thing.

If I were to buy a smartphone with a keypad, I'd go for the kind with a wider slide- or flip-out keyboard:
y1pCsmS8ryK_ynwGpB_FPAdEjYVLnQDRAfqRY2gaA7zlY0VixD0t8uEsGhhAy_VLdlRw2ogfJxIDwkTar2om_5ztA
EDIT: Yes, it's Celty again. What can I say - I like to pimp my favorite hos! (I also prefer to use the verb "to pimp" in the traditional sense.)

Last edited by pvsage (2012-08-22 14:16:35)

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 14:01:08

A make up compact!
Definitely not. I have a macho self image to protect!

apm · 2012-08-22 14:12:03

+1 for htc wildfire
or if you could spare a little more then the htc wildfireS is great , just don't root them yourself as i seriously doubt you have the kind of patience - panic balance to get through the process , hell i even lack the "guts" to take a risk as big as to root my phone REMEMBER ROOTING CAN "BRICK" THE PHONE(make it unusable).

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 14:20:51

I have patience for anything if I want it enough. I am also familiar with the concept of a bricked phone.

apm · 2012-08-22 14:25:47

mariannemarlow wrote:

I have patience for anything if I want it enough. I am also familiar with the concept of a bricked phone.

your choice , but consider creating backups of the phones OS-rom image before you proceed
i warn you again ( no disrespect intended) this is a dangerous thing to do , if it goes wrong , then there are times when nothing can help the phone anymore and it is just DOOMED

apm · 2012-08-22 14:34:05

well i have never rooted a phone ever "."
but when i installed fedora on my mac and setup an EFI password using fedora and i am not afraid to say i did it like a jackass .
when it dawned on me that i can't put another os on my mac ever again because the password that fedora sets and the EFI interface interprets from that input are completely different strings and there is no way in hell you can break into the EFI stuff via software , but fortunately i learned about a hardware hack which was as simple as to remove one of the memory sticks and boot with only one stick pressing cmd+opt+P+R to reset the P-rom , i can't tell you how i almost mourned 15 days the temprory death of my beloved machine

Last edited by apm (2012-08-24 09:10:30)

pvsage · 2012-08-22 14:35:37

Sorry, I guess "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 14:40:57

@apm when did I say I was going to do it. You are making a lot of assumptions about me.

@pvsage They are the droids I was looking for. But I wouldnt "root" either of them

Unia · 2012-08-22 14:45:07

mariannemarlow wrote:

@apm when did I say I was going to do it. You are making a lot of assumptions about me.

Plus rooting isn't as dangerous as you say it is and the chance of bricking is small if you follow a good guide.

p120d16y · 2012-08-22 14:58:13

Rooting an Android phone is not hard at all to do anymore.
I miss the first iPhone 2G..
When it very first became possible to root the iPhone or "jailbreak," I was the only person in the city with a pimped out iPhone. It was such a pain to do right after Geohotz figured it out. Ahh, the days.
I want an Android now, but I'm not going to get one for quite a while. I like that new Galaxy S2. It's so snazzy.

machinebacon · 2012-08-22 16:50:03

Just don't get a Nokia C-something. What a crap.

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 16:51:17

What a crap what? - I feel that sentence ended prematurely..

briangutan · 2012-08-22 17:11:16

If you are looking for an Android QWERTY, my advice would be to look at HTC or Samsung models. They have nicer keyboards compared to Motorola and LG, the two other large companies that make modern QWERTY phones.
Then consider what you want in terms of camera quality and battery life. After those two considerations, pretty much all phones are the same.

Cyanogenmod gets a big plus from me.

I have an HTC Vision (also called a T-Mobile G2 in the US). It's a couple of years old and still runs everything perfectly except for high-end video streaming and gaming apps. And since I don't use my phone for video or games, it is on par with any state-of-the-art devices regarding performance.

mariannemarlow · 2012-08-22 17:14:46

I am seriously leaning toward the HTC Wildfire, only thing that puts me off is I cannot afford a new one.

A used one with no warranty is not an attractive prospect because if it breaks after a month I'll either have to go back to my Orange Rio or even worse my tiny clamshell Alcatel phone that I got as a stand in when my last one got nicked.

machinebacon · 2012-08-22 17:35:54

mariannemarlow wrote:

What a crap what? - I feel that sentence ended prematurely..

No

The keypad can not be operated with one hand, you break your thumbs, only get a handful of applications that run on their Java, etc.

Premature crap

pvsage · 2012-08-22 17:39:53

mariannemarlow wrote:

@pvsage They are the droids I was looking for. But I wouldnt "root" either of them

Well, according to fandumb, they root each other.

About "bricking"...I once nearly bricked a RockBox'd iPod by trying to charge it in a clock radio dock that tries to hot-mount the iPod when you place it in the cradle; I was able to un-brick it using the same technique that allows you to install the alternate firmware. When you talk about bricking a cellphone, I assume this is something that can't be fixed by wiping it clean, even with a paper clip?

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2012-08-22 10:37:58

Help me choose a new mobile phone..

#2 2012-08-22 10:49:47

Re: Help me choose a new mobile phone..

#3 2012-08-22 10:54:08

Re: Help me choose a new mobile phone..

#4 2012-08-22 10:55:01

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#5 2012-08-22 11:02:34

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#6 2012-08-22 11:31:48

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#7 2012-08-22 12:15:43

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#8 2012-08-22 12:38:45

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