Thinking about replacing my 9 year old Siemens PAYG mobile and have been looking at these budget smartphones:-

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/ALCATEL-OT-980/PPAY

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/LG-OPTIMUS-GT540/PPAY

Anybody had any experience of these two yet ?

Nick

Both dont get great reviews.

What else is in your price range? Any Samsung's or Nokia's?

Samsung with PAYG and same features is too pricey. £350+ Looking for something in the £ 85-120 bracket for occasional personal use - don't use my phone for work.

Nearest PAYG Nokia @£129 hasn't got 3G or GPS - the Alcatel has. Alcatel had some problems with touch screens in the past but I think they are a couple of model iterations past that now.

Blackberry again, too pricey and really a business device.

Basically, at the price I'm looking at, its the kids phone market, but with added functionality. I'm prepared to accept a little lack of robustness or even a funny coloured case given relatively low use.

Nick

Edited 26 September, 201015 yr by Clunkclick

Any chance of the HTC wildfire?! (or even the HTC tatoo)

2nd hand?

You can get a lot for your budget 2nd hand on ebay.

Nokia E5?

They seem to think it's a good phone here:

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/09/24/review_smartphone_nokia_e5/

It is free on contract of £200 sim free when released:

http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=198803

You can probably find it cheaper if you look around.

Edited 28 September, 201015 yr by cheezemonkhai

A bit above your preferred price bracket, but http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/SONY-ERIC-X10-MINI/PPAY

Personally I like the compact size. Trouble with smartphones is that if you really want to make use of the capabilities you find yourself walking around with a rather big lump in your pocket. I have a htc tattoo with 2.8" screen (about the same as the above) and for me it's OK - I don't expect the phone to replace my netbook anyway.

Shame expansys's stocks of i-mate Ultimates have gone - they were only 100 quid a pop. Look a bit dated now, but I love mine! If you can get one with a blank screen (spares/repair), it's a common fault that I may be able to tell you how to fix - just DAMHIKT!

Thanks for all your suggestions chaps. I 'll start to work through 'em today.

There certainly isn't a shortage of kit.

Nick

Go for the wildfire if you can:

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/htc-wildfire-payg?dfacid=1&cid=aff-aw-default-47868

£126 here if you use the code 'nation10' at checkout

Edited 2 October, 201015 yr by jrw

If you are going smartphone, check your PAYG tariff includes data and 3G otherwise its going to be expensive to run. For example Orange charge £5 per MB of data, and others are simillar. Smartphones by design use lots of data and 1MB is nothing these days, for example Google Maps, Nokia OVI Maps, and more require a data connection to work. Smartphones make more sense on contract where data is always included with the smartphone.

This one is supposed to be excellent for the money.

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/San-Francisco-from-Orange-in-grey

There's a discussion here.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/orange-san-francisco-android-2-1-wv/763425

gadget show's doing a payg smartphone segment on tomorows show in your budget

gadget show's doing a payg smartphone segment on tomorows show in your budget

But that would mean listening to Jon "total ****" Bentley.....