I have been thinking about upgrading my ageing (3 1/2 years old) Sony Ericsson P990i for sometime now, however nothing grabs my attention. It is sad - Im quite techy etc but I dont use the phone that often. Odd texts, calls etc, tbh the camera (very good 2MP) gets the most use for pictures of the car etc!

My current contract is a rolling month with Orange at around £15 p/m. 100 texts, 225 minutes, no net use, which I rarely exceed either. I used to be pay as you go, though found I was topping up often a few years back so went to this. I have thought about other contacts but I don't want to be locked in for 24 months and be paying more for something I don't use that often, hence thinking about just buying a new handset as I have done in the past with PAYG.

I was thinking of leaning towards a Sony Ericsson again as the past two have been fantastic (I had P800 previously). I had a Nokia 3210 and Motorola (Brick) before these. I had been weighing up a Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro - basically for the keyboard and its neatness as well as the price. I looked at the HTC Wildfire although it has mixed reviews! I just wondered what other people thought as well? Im trying to keep sub £200 and looking to upgrade in the next few months. Any thoughts appreciated.

If you are going down the HTC route - I'd avoid the Wildfire - it's very underspecced for a a smartphone. The older HTC Desire's should have come down in price now, since they released the HTC Desire S.

I'd avoid any Sony android phone - SWMBO had one (can't recall the model right now) but it went back for repair more times than a 12 year old Ford (No offence to any Ford owners).

Seriously - they flashed and reflashed and updated the ROM at least on 4 occasions and it still wouldn't work properly.. Either kept crashing or locking up - and this was using built in apps (e.g. camera, SMS Messaging, etc).

Another vote for avoiding the Sony Android phones. The build quality is shoddy compared to others like HTC.

The Wildfire is a good phone but if you intend to use it intensively as a smart phone then it is pretty under powered. But looking at your use I reckon it would be fine. Decent camera too

Phil

Samsung Galaxy S - There are plenty of offers popping up at the moment for this phone. My mate just got one on O2 for £10 a month! 500 texts, 100mins and a £3.50 bolt on for 100MB of Internet.

If you can afford it, you might want to go for one of the newest..

Samsung Galaxy S II. Some Super AMOLED Dual Core lovliness..

The HTC Desire has been a really good phone for me but it's getting a bit old now (13 months!!), and thankfully it's getting Gingerbread sometime soon..

You should be able to pick up one of those, or the bigger Desire HD reasonably cheaply now.

The HTC Desire has been a really good phone for me but it's getting a bit old now (13 months!!), and thankfully it's getting Gingerbread sometime soon..

Yeh still love my desire and had mine exactly 13 months now too!

Yours will be an Amoled too then... non of that Super LCD rubbish! lol

Fingers crossed for Gingerbread soon! Is yours a branded one btw?

Phil

Yep, branded with all the usual Orange bloatware crap and 'as yet' unrooted but have used the Apps to SD hack to make the most of the memory limitations.

Gingerbread was all set to be introduced to the Desire platform until HTC announced earlier in the week that it was being pulled as there wasn't enough room in the internal memory to combine that with the Sense interface.

2 days later HTC relented and now it's coming back out albeit with a cut down HTC frontend. That was down to pure customer power! Read some of the forums out there - people were going ballistic over it!

I'll have to wait and see what what it looks like before I go down the path of rooting then modding, having said that I have Unrevoked and Cryanogen standing by in the wings should things not turn out nicely!

Edited 16 June, 201115 yr by Trilogy2k

Hehe. Yeh some unhappy people when they announced that!

I was lucky enough to get mine when Three had run out of their branded handsets and were giving customers unbranded/unlocked handsets. Makes it a lot easier to root etc.

If yours is a branded one then there will be a bit of delay for you to get the official update as it will have to through Orange first so they can but all of their bloat into it before letting the customers have it!

Phil

I've got the Samsung Galaxy S, and absolutely love it.

Another vote for avoiding the Sony Android phones. The build quality is shoddy compared to others like HTC.

The Wildfire is a good phone but if you intend to use it intensively as a smart phone then it is pretty under powered. But looking at your use I reckon it would be fine. Decent camera too

Phil

+1

SWMBO gets on with her Wildfire doing a few apps and net browsing, but for me it's too slow to use intensively compared with my Desire (original version) as I'm always using apps, net, videos and flash stuff. Have seen new Wildfire's for £120 PAYG. If you want a contract then £15 might get you a good price for a Desire S.

HTC really have got android licked. Samsung Galaxy S is fine, but Samsung have history of releasing then giving no real support or software fixes. Sure I read the last update for the original S is to be the last given v2 is here. That's pretty shocking in my book.

HTC is a good phone but Galaxy S II is the top dog then the LG 2X (which I have) or the soon to be released Motorola Atrix.

Galaxy S is good phone which you'll get for £10-15 a month or cheaper on pay as you go. Solid option

+1

SWMBO gets on with her Wildfire doing a few apps and net browsing, but for me it's too slow to use intensively compared with my Desire (original version) as I'm always using apps, net, videos and flash stuff. Have seen new Wildfire's for £120 PAYG. If you want a contract then £15 might get you a good price for a Desire S.

HTC really have got android licked. Samsung Galaxy S is fine, but Samsung have history of releasing then giving no real support or software fixes. Sure I read the last update for the original S is to be the last given v2 is here. That's pretty shocking in my book.

Galaxy S is on 2.3 now.

winners of the Mobile Industry Awards 2011

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/awards/30/List/Winners

Thanks for the replies Im not sure what I can do at the mo as a lot of the suggested ones are over my £200 budget! I think I will stay away from the Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro as mentioned, this was about the best of a bad bunch by the sounds of it!

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace. It's a bit smaller and cheaper than the S and probably doesn't have all of the features, but it does everything that I need and a lot more, so I'm very happy with it.

I've got an unlocked Motorola Atrix that's just about to go up for sale Nice Dual core phone ..... just what the Doctor ordered

I did a bit of research recently and whilst some of the reviews were good the owner comments gave them a real pasting, with nearly all of them suffering from hangs/crashes an drop outs etc.

I then rapidly came to the conclusion that I don't really need a smartphone for what I use a phone for (similar to you - calls and texts with little or so internet) so didn't want to shell out hundreds. I therefore opted for the smallest reliable phone I could find, on the basis that if it was small I'd carry it and it would work when I needed it. I finished up with a little Samsung GT-C3300K - does what I need fine and only cost £30.

Having said that most of the guys at work who want, and use, smartphones either have an iphone or a HTC Desire (the newer ones having the Desire S).

I then rapidly came to the conclusion that I don't really need a smartphone for what I use a phone for (similar to you - calls and texts with little or so internet) so didn't want to shell out hundreds.

I was very similar before getting an iphone years ago. Didn't really understand the need for a smartphone, and didn't see the value.

Im soo glad i found a great deal and ended up with an iphone. You really don't understand how essential to your life they become almost instantly.

I absolutely hate being out of the UK now, as i have to turn the smart side of the phone off (due to the ridiculous roaming charges for data), and it feels like someone has chopped off my arm!

I have been thinking about upgrading my ageing (3 1/2 years old) Sony Ericsson P990i for sometime now, however nothing grabs my attention. It is sad - Im quite techy etc but I dont use the phone that often. Odd texts, calls etc, tbh the camera (very good 2MP) gets the most use for pictures of the car etc!

I have thought about other contacts but I don't want to be locked in for 24 months.

This is my issue, Dont fancy a long 24 month contract but I have heard that something is coming in soon to make companies offer 12 month contracts but then you will always have the higher monthly charge to subsidise the handset.

I have had a wildfire but like yourself do texts and take pictures and the camera on the wildfire is so slow (3 seconds) from pressing the button to it actually capturing the shot.

The samsung galaxy ace is now £199 from carphone warehouse seems a nice looking handset.

It all comes down to what you do with your phone (10 years ago) if someone asked this the answer would be simply to make a phone call but now phones are like computers with so much crammed into them.

My dad has a touch screen phone and at 67 years of age its not a brillient combination more so when he starts asking me what apps and widgets are.

Also no matter what phone you buy it will certainly lose value in 6 months time, more so with the new Iphone 5 coming out soon along with Iphone new NANO handset which is rumoured to cost £125 and is apples attempt to tap into the mid range android market.

Like me hope you get sorted soon - Its a nightmare trying to get the right phone.

Edited 21 June, 201115 yr by justinbarrow

All networks still offer 12 & 18 month contracts, they just don't openly promote them. You can also get some better deals in network branded stores that can't be had anywhere else.

This is my issue, Dont fancy a long 24 month contract but I have heard that something is coming in soon to make companies offer 12 month contracts but then you will always have the higher monthly charge to subsidise the handset.

I have had a wildfire but like yourself do texts and take pictures and the camera on the wildfire is so slow (3 seconds) from pressing the button to it actually capturing the shot.

The samsung galaxy ace is now £199 from carphone warehouse seems a nice looking handset.

It all comes down to what you do with your phone (10 years ago) if someone asked this the answer would be simply to make a phone call but now phones are like computers with so much crammed into them.

My dad has a touch screen phone and at 67 years of age its not a brillient combination more so when he starts asking me what apps and widgets are.

Also no matter what phone you buy it will certainly lose value in 6 months time, more so with the new Iphone 5 coming out soon along with Iphone new NANO handset which is rumoured to cost £125 and is apples attempt to tap into the mid range android market.

Like me hope you get sorted soon - Its a nightmare trying to get the right phone.

When the changes come they will just load the price of the handset - so instead of getting the handset for free like you would now on a 24 month contract, they will charge you for it.

The Galaxy S was on offer the other week for £220 so keep an eye out for more offers as this is more powerful than the Ace.

If you can buy an unlocked smart phone

Have a look at Giffgaff runs on o2 network

Payg at decent rates