New mobile phone suggestions

[2SkodaFamily]

Nokia used to be the gold standard for mobiles. These days they make tat. Our work phones are Lumia. When I get it call from one of the Lumias, it sounds like the caller is on a WW2 Lancaster radio.

 

My work phone is a Nokia E5, which was 5 years out of date when it was new.

[vrsRob]

Nokia used to be the gold standard for mobiles. These days they make tat. Our work phones are Lumia. When I get it call from one of the Lumias, it sounds like the caller is on a WW2 Lancaster radio.

 

My work phone is a Nokia E5, which was 5 years out of date when it was new.

 

Interesting, my mrs changed from a Galaxy S2 to a Lumia 520 and I instantly noticed a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) improvement in call quality!! 

[Aspman]

Call it prejudice, but I am struck dumb with terror at the words "Windows" and "Phone" in the same sentence..... especially as Windows 8 is such a load of carp.

 

You've got to give it a bit of time to adjust to the change but winpho 8 is a very good OS it works much better on the phone than on a desktop. Win8 is actually very good under the hood, it's just got a crap interface on top.

 

I have a friend who works securing government networks and we had a conversation recently where were realised we'd come to point where we now trusted Microsoft with our data more than any other tech company. It was a strange feeling to realise the old blame hound is now better than the Apples and Googles that have risen up. MS has actually got the privacy thing. Not 100% but much more than the others.

 

I find the phone quality on my Lumia to be the best since, well my last Nokia. I think the 920 has some background noise cancelling tech in it.

Edited 16 June, 2014 by Aspman

[Coops]

Nokia used to be the gold standard for mobiles. These days they make tat. Our work phones are Lumia. When I get it call from one of the Lumias, it sounds like the caller is on a WW2 Lancaster radio.

 

My work phone is a Nokia E5, which was 5 years out of date when it was new.

 

Hmm. I used to get a terrible echo on BB to BB calls and even BB to other makes too. Needless to say, there is no echo on the Lumia and in fact I think the call quality is improved over the BB.

 

Still getting used to the keyboard on the touch screen, after the physical keyboard on the BB.

[john999boy]

Also worth remembering that if you upgrade online/over the phone, you have 7 days to change your mind due to distance selling regulations, you could choose a phone, try it for a week then keep it or swap it for something else!! 

 

The law has recently changed and IIRC you should now get 14 days.

[2SkodaFamily]

I've had a look at the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8. Both are too big.

[gadgetman]

The nexus 5 is the same screen size but smaller overall.

Otherwise you'll be looking for a 4.5" handset

[Aspman]

What do you need it to do beyond calls and texts? - Camera, mapping, social networking, games

 

What apps do you want to use?

 

A bit like computers any mid-level phone is hugely powerful now. the top end stuff is for vanity. So you really need to pay out £45 a month  for an uber phone or would you be better with a more modest phone and a better contract?

 

In all honesty you might be best off with a Moto G and a good data contract.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2351804/moto-g-with-4g-and-microsd-card-slot-now-available-in-the-uk

 

^ £150 sim free and get yourself a good sim only contract.

Edited 25 June, 2014 by Aspman

[2SkodaFamily]

I know it sounds daft coming from someone who drives a Skoda but there are some brands I can't stand. Motorola is one of them. I just can't get their tacky rubbish from the 90s out of my head.

 

I do a lot of social media, email, internet and (less often) games on my phone. However my paranoia about slow phones comes from the ones my kids have (Galaxy Ace and a HTC Desire One I think) which are so SLOW as to get me doing . I think I'd end up chucking it through a window. However, my daughter in particular never deletes anything from her phone and complains to me that it is slow when there are 6000 text messages on it!

 

If a Galaxy S4 mini is reasonable then I'd be happy with that. My S3 seems slow now after two years, even though I did a full reset on it a month or so ago.

[Aspman]

Might be worth getting over that old impression the Moto G is cracking value. I'm not keen on Samsung personally because I think they come loaded with a  lot of rubbish you can't remove.

If I hadn't gone the Lumia route I'd probably have got a Nexus 5.

 

But I think anything that comes in around £150 sim free will probably hit the mark for you. Should be a world away from the Galaxy Ace budget phones.

[2SkodaFamily]

You're right about the carp that comes with Samsung. Is that not the same with all of the manufacturers though? HTC loaded a lot of guff on my old Desire I couldn't get rid of.

[@Lee]

had my Xperia M2 for a week now; not too shabby, FB is smooth, browsing is smooth, camera 8MP and full HD video recording, 4G so mobile browsing is pretty quick.

Useless pre-installed apps from Amazon which I can't remove, (I only ever used Amazon once in my life), can seem a bit too big in the hand and seems to be quite slow charging.

Free phone on £22.99/month with 2Gb data (plenty for me), unlimited calls and texts on EE.

 

http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/phones/xperia-m2/?utm_source=marketing-url&utm_medium=/gb/products/phones/xperia-m2/&utm_campaign=www.sonymobile.com/xperia-m2

[2SkodaFamily]

had my Xperia M2 for a week now; not too shabby, FB is smooth, browsing is smooth, camera 8MP and full HD video recording, 4G so mobile browsing is pretty quick.

Useless pre-installed apps from Amazon which I can't remove, (I only ever used Amazon once in my life), can seem a bit too big in the hand and seems to be quite slow charging.

Free phone on £22.99/month with 2Gb data (plenty for me), unlimited calls and texts on EE.

thanks, will bear it in mind.

[Aspman]

You're right about the carp that comes with Samsung. Is that not the same with all of the manufacturers though? HTC loaded a lot of guff on my old Desire I couldn't get rid of.

 

I'm sounding like a Winph8 evangelist now but my Lumia came with nothing I couldn't remove.

[sigarland1987]

Just to join on, had the Iphone 5 for a while but swapped to the nokia 1020 wouldn't go back, am even looking at a Windows Tablet now

[Guest BigJase88]

Iphone 6 when it comes out

[Aspman]

Just to join on, had the Iphone 5 for a while but swapped to the nokia 1020 wouldn't go back, am even looking at a Windows Tablet now

 

[hijack] Got a Dell 11" tab in font of me now. Better value than the Surface stuff but quite heavy and expensive compared to an android tab. More of a work tablet / super-netbook when you add the keyboard with the big battery. I wouldn't want to work on it all the time but I hate chiclet keyboards anyway.

Edited 25 June, 2014 by Aspman

[sigarland1987]

Trying to stay on topic, went and had a look at the surface, I have a Nexus 7 at the moment I just want something with a bigger screen, I quite like the new Sony Android Tab as well,

[2SkodaFamily]

I've requested an upgrade of my work E5 to a Lumia 630. That should at least give me a decent opportunity to try out Windows.

[gadgetman]

Trying to stay on topic, went and had a look at the surface, I have a Nexus 7 at the moment I just want something with a bigger screen, I quite like the new Sony Android Tab as well,

Galaxy S tab is due soon, Nexus 9 later this year, or there's the Asus memo pad in various sizes (nexus 7/8"/10" with sd slot) if you wanted to stay android

[sigarland1987]

quite liking the surface tablet, and only 259 in currys at the moment,

[Aspman]

quite liking the surface tablet, and only 259 in currys at the moment,

 

That's an RT which I wouldn't recommend. RT is a cut down version of Win8 and only runs software from their app store. You can't install anything you've already got. More of a big phone that doesn't phone. If you like the surface better to spend another £100 and get the full fat version.

 

IMHO the MS hardware is overpriced.

[Woo7dy]

Martin, take a look here:

http://www.s21.com/mobile-phones.htm

IMO one of the best phones out now is this:

http://www.s21.com/motorola-moto-g.htm

And they've just released the Moto 4g a few days ago, unbeatable for the price...

http://www.trustedreviews.com/motorola-moto-g_Mobile-Phone_review

[sigarland1987]

Ahh I see, I will hold fire then, am going to wait I think, am in the US next month anyway see if I can pick up something cheaper there anyway,

 

 

That's an RT which I wouldn't recommend. RT is a cut down version of Win8 and only runs software from their app store. You can't install anything you've already got. More of a big phone that doesn't phone. If you like the surface better to spend another £100 and get the full fat version.

 

IMHO the MS hardware is overpriced.

 

[bubba]

I went from a Samsung S3 to a Nexus 5 and couldn't be happier. The S3 was getting slow as you also noticed, but the Nexus flies along and isn't much bigger in size.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk