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April 2024

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[Millicent Bystander]

My wife and I desperately need new phones and for once we have some spare cash lying around courtesy of the taxman.

Can we get a half decent smartphone for around £100 each?  As I haven't bought a new phone since before the original iphone came out I have very little clue of what to go for.

We are both on Orange PAYG and probably won't be changing networks.

[Captain Valentine]

There's very little on the market for £100 that's actually any good. I personally would think you'd need to spend closer to £200 to not be disappointed.

[DeadlyAvenger]

Orange San Francisco (or it's equivalent):
http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/17454614/Orange-San-Francisco-Android-Pre-Pay-Pay-As-You-Go-Mobile-Phone-Inc-Free-10-Airtime-Grey/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=orange+san+francisco&urlrefer=search
http://www.prepaymania.co.uk/mobilephone/san-francisco-android-mobile-phone-orange-pay-as-you-go.html
can also try this to get it a bit cheaper:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/orange-san-francisco-74-99-including-10-top-up-orange/924331

It's a fully featured Android Smartphone with gps, wifi etc. I was having a look around after I broke my mum's phone and it was the best thing I could find for her and she's really pleased with it. It's not as powerful as, for example, the HTC smartphones - but it still does everything they do.

I would be inclined to agree with CV that really you ought to be spending a bit more to get a nice smartphone - but the orange san francisco is *really* good value for money.

[discordance]

I'm pretty sure brahms has a san franscisco. But no it won't do EVERYTHING a decent HTC will do, the only major things you'll miss out on though is it probably won't be able to run videos or games at all. But if you don't use your phone for that then good news the san fran is probably what you are after.

[Hzza]

I was looking at getting the HTC Wildfire as an upgrade in a couple of months, seems to be alright and pretty cheap I think (I'm looking at contracts and its the entry level smart phone for the cheapest 12 month contract).

[DeadlyAvenger]

Yeah - the wildfire was the next choice up when I was looking.

And I'm sure it will run games - just probably not the more graphically intensive ones etc. (i.e. angry birds would be fine, I'd imagine)

[Zarf]

ZTE Blade/Orange San Fran is great specs for the price, but its successor is imminent - the ZTE Skate / Orange Monte Carlo. That's got a faster cpu and a big 4.3" screen (big screens are a must on smartphones imo). Probably be around £140 at launch. There's a great modding community and they can be unlocked for use on other networks for free.

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3391&idPhone2=3784

You really need to evaluate what you want to do with the phones though, if you don't think you'll actually use the extra capabilities a smartphone brings to the table much you may well be better off just getting a nice feature-phone with a physical keypad/board - it'll be far better for texts, have a decent camera and battery life you don't need to worry about.

I love my Dell Streak, but I use the features all the time on it - GPS and streaming Spotify in the car, net access in coffee shops, Emails, RSS, Skype, Torrenting and Playing back TV and movies when i'm away from home, random apps as tools and references etc etc.
My mum however has an android phone and doesn't do anything on it apart from voice calls. The only thing it brings to the table is being synced with her android contact info.

[discordance]

ZTE Blade/Orange San Fran is great specs for the price, but its successor is imminent - the ZTE Skate / Orange Monte Carlo. That's got a faster cpu and a big 4.3" screen (big screens are a must on smartphones imo). Probably be around £140 at launch. There's a great modding community and they can be unlocked for use on other networks for free.

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3391&idPhone2=3784

You really need to evaluate what you want to do with the phones though, if you don't think you'll actually use the extra capabilities a smartphone brings to the table much you may well be better off just getting a nice feature-phone with a physical keypad/board - it'll be far better for texts, have a decent camera and battery life you don't need to worry about.

I love my Dell Streak, but I use the features all the time on it - GPS and streaming Spotify in the car, net access in coffee shops, Emails, RSS, Skype, Torrenting and Playing back TV and movies when i'm away from home, random apps as tools and references etc etc.
My mum however has an android phone and doesn't do anything on it apart from voice calls. The only thing it brings to the table is being synced with her android contact info.

The contacts sync is a pretty damn nice feature though (something iwhores have to pay for). And while its difficult for some to get to grips with all the features its worth learning. I have trouble keeping track of everything my phone can do (still need to set up this app that syncs chrome bookmarks to my phone as well), so you have to keep on top of it anyway. Having calendar sync with google as well as contacts is also a powerful feature for the average user, along with setting it up with all your email accounts.

[Brahms]

I've got a San Fran. It's OK. Needed to switch out the default Orange flavoured OS but that wasn't overly painful. Does crash sometimes and yeah, won't do everything a more hardcore device will. But  still can do the stuff that is actually useful on a smartphone: Navigation and mobile internet.

[Millicent Bystander]

The San Francisco sounds good for me but Mrs Bystander is insisting on a physical keyboard for hers.  She actually has about £20 in her Orange phone fund too.

[Berath]

I've got a Palm  Pre which I love.

WebOs is the best Operating system of any phone and can rival the boring iphone. Unfortunately it doesn't get the support from the networks.
It has a physical keyboard and feels like a smooth rounded pebble in your hsnd.

[Zarf]

I've got a Palm  Pre which I love.

WebOs is the best Operating system of any phone and can rival the boring iphone. Unfortunately it doesn't get the support from the networks.
It has a physical keyboard and feels like a smooth rounded pebble in your hsnd.

Good shout, you can get the Pre2 for £150 delivered from Play.com atm. Doesn't do quite as much as the Android phones, but what it does do happens with quite a lot of polish. http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/17623474/HP-Palm-Pre-2-Sim-Free-Unlocked-Web-OS-2-0-Touch-Screen-Mobile-Phone/Product.html?&P36=V34K2Z&affid=hotukdeals&awc=buyat&_$ja=tsid:11516|prd:hotukdeals

The Pre3 should be out soon, but that'll be out of your price range.

[discordance]

The San Francisco sounds good for me but Mrs Bystander is insisting on a physical keyboard for hers.  She actually has about £20 in her Orange phone fund too.

The latest android keyboard is better than a physical one. The keys are a lot bigger and its actually quite hard to hit the wrong letter.

[r007]

I hear good things about the Palm Pre, too.

Still I'm staying with my iPhone because CalDav (esp. OTA, background sync) is pretty essential for me and I'm not convinced Android's 3rd party stuff would do it for me.

[Brahms]

I've got the Swype keyboard on my sanfran which is very awesome.

Palm Pre seems good but the 3rd party support seems very weak, which, IMO is the primary reason for getting a smart phone over a feature phone.