Cheapish PAYG mobile recommendations?

[BeezerDiesel]

Been half heartedly scanning the net for a few months for a decent-ish cheap-ish mobile phone to replace my ageing (second hand) N73 which my youngest son seems to have claimed as his!

The problem for me is that there is a bewildering amount of phones on the market and they go out of date in about five minutes and there don't seem to be that many deals on mid range phones around.

You can get super-basic ones for next to nothing and you can get deals on high end stuff which is still out of my price range but I haven't seen anything tempting recently.

I don't want/need blackberry, full qwerty keyboards or fancy features, just tri-band for hols and a half decent camera would be handy. Could also do with being bluetooth so my kids can mess about with it and it also needs to be fairly sturdy as my kids will borrow it (on that note it also needs to look half fashionable too or they will disown me!!!).

Also needs be available on Orange too as I find the free texts and cinema tickets useful!!!

Has anyone seen any decent deals or can just recommned a reliable type of phone? Did briefly have a dabble with an LG Chocolate from Orange cut and shut when they did a January sale, but the buttons were constantly playing up and it went back to the scrapyard it came from. :(

[gadgetman]

What's your budget?

Someone was selling an N95 8gb here recently for £100. I myself have a v1 N95 locked tgo orange I keep meaning to send off to a recycle place.

[BeezerDiesel]

Sorry forgot to mention the price range, don't want a cheapo basic £8 jobbie but nothing the wrong side of £80 either really as I don't need loads of gadgets.

[gadgetman]

You can bag some nice samsungs cheap too.

[BeezerDiesel]

Thanks, looking for recommendations on specific phones as there are just soooo many about these days and I'm not up to the minute on what is the latest greatest model etc.

PS. would prefer to buy a new phone with warranty but what would you be looking for with the Nokia? In the meantime I've got to go to work now so will check this again later.

[jaymd]

Nokia 6300

[gadgetman]

SWMBO had a Samsung Z400 that was a pretty good phone with an impresive camera.

[Aspman]

My Nokia 3110 has proven pretty tough over the last year. Battery life is good but might be too basic for you.

[BeezerDiesel]

Thanks for the replies.

Nokia 6300 seems a well rated phone, seen a few deals on these recently will keep my eyes open for another.

Can't find much info on the Z400 and the 3110 is quite basic but that's what I want so again will keep my eyes open for a deal on one of those.

[Jim H]

I am in the same position as you, I require a new one as my old Nokia 3510i is wearing out. I am tempted with the Nokia 6300, but have read reviews saying the battery life is very poor, my current one lasts about 7 days between charging. I fancy the new version (6300i) but can't seem to find it.

Is there any point of buying a Sim free phone they advertise? I want to keep my mobile no on O2 P.A.Y.G. My Sim card is 4 years old (Sept 2005, phone is older) will this affect the new phones performance if I swop?

[BeezerDiesel]

I've shoved my Orange PAYG SIM in a few phones and it works okay. My Nokia N73 (which has today decided it won't charge anymore) was bought off a workmate who upgraded for £40 and was supposedly locked to O2 yet my Orange SIM sent straight in and worked from the offset. The only minor issue is that I get an O2 logo come up on the skin or whatever it's called, plus there are a few O2 settings still on the phone that don't bother me or affect anything so I've never done owt about it.

I think the 6300i may be on general release soon as a month or so ago there were a load of deals on 6300s around which usually means they're clearing the decks of old stock.