Dont avoid Samsung, go straight to them, the Galaxy S3 is the phone that all others are trying to be. They are outselling the iphones by 7 to 1 for good reason. If you want a smaller, poorer screen, no expandable memory, and only being able to put on apps, that apple say you can then go for the iphone, and say hello to the 1990's from me.

1990s



If you want an iPhone knock off then head over to the copycats at Samsung

They not only copied it, but they made it bigger, better, smarter, faster, and more user friendly.

They made it bigger alright! The thing is bloody huge!

From that, an Iphone would seem exactly right for a technophobe who likes: [illistening to music, sending the occasional text now and then and the odd phone call. I like the idea of being able to check the weather, bit of facebook, sports results...you know the sort of thing.[/i

I'm techy, but much prefer the ease of use and integration an Iphone gives.

Nail
Head
Hit

Any recent Android or iphone would do what you want. HTC, Samsung etc. make handsets that are at least as good as the iphone, and may well be cheaper for something comparable. This always comes down to a religious debate with the apple zealots versus the rest! Look at the features available on the phones in your price range, and choose one that matches your budget that appeals to you in its looks, weight, size etc. There are plenty of reviews online (look at amazon for example, even if you don't buy from them). As for price, look at www.moneysavingexpert.com for their tool for finding a good deal - you could well save a few quid on the tariff by finding one that matches your needs well at a low price, don't pay for stuff you don't need.

Any recent Android or iphone would do what you want. HTC, Samsung etc. make handsets that are at least as good as the iphone, and may well be cheaper for something comparable. This always comes down to a religious debate with the apple zealots versus the rest! Look at the features available on the phones in your price range, and choose one that matches your budget that appeals to you in its looks, weight, size etc. There are plenty of reviews online (look at amazon for example, even if you don't buy from them). As for price, look at www.moneysavingexpert.com for their tool for finding a good deal - you could well save a few quid on the tariff by finding one that matches your needs well at a low price, don't pay for stuff you don't need.

A not overly bright mate of mine, a Samsung owner, was wound up a bit by another mate of mine who told him that, as Apple had won the court case, all Samsungs are now legally considered to be 'fake iPhones' and that he would need to send his phone back to avoid being prosecuted for having illegal goods.

He believed him, too, until he rang O2 to ask!

Samsung Galaxy's are to fake iphones what Dysons are to fake Hoovers.

I work in a Three store and the best phone on the market is what's called the Samsung Galaxy S3. It's the most sophisticated phone to date and is the best selling phone to date. It will with ease allow you to do all the things you've mentioned. It has 16GB worth of internal memory so it can hold around 4 to 5000 songs and has an expandable memory of up to 64GB. It has many different playback features in the built in mp3 player with something called 'SoundAlive'. This allows you to experience songs to its custom genres such as dance, rock, jazz, pop, classic etc it has bass/treble boost etc as just an example of some of the features.

It has facebook pre-loaded with the phone (as most phones do now) and has a built in weather app on the homescreen which tells you the weather for your current location. With sports results you'll be able to download literally thousands of apps from what's called play store (preloaded with the phone) and you'd literally search 'football' or 'rugby league' or 'sky sports' and it will come up with all the many apps you can download.

In terms of texts, at Three all contract phones come with 5000 texts. We're the only company to offer what's called 'all you can eat data' as part of your tariff. These smartphones were built for the internet. And our networks 'niche' is being able to offer absolutely unlimited internet (no fair usage policy, no caps, literally as much data as you want). Your plan would be tailored therefore in terms of your minutes usage.

Three currently have an offer on at the moment for the Samsung Galaxy S3. It was £33 p/m with £29 paid for the handset but it has now come down to £31 p/m with £29 paid for the handset on what's called 'The One Plan' and with that you get:

AYCE data (unlimited internet)
2000 any network minutes
5000 Three to Three minutes
5000 Texts
And it can be used for Tethering.

This is the best deal on the market and I am not just saying that - feel free to shop around but you'd be wasting your time. I currently have the Samsung Galaxy S3 and I shopped around for it, I get no staff discounts whatsoever and Three offer the best deal. FWIW I got it at £33 p/m - gutted when it dropped to £31! For the best phone on the market that's worth £500 new it's a shrewd investment. Tip - um and ar a bit in the Store and they'll chuck in a free case!

Ask a different person and you'll get a different answer with that one. The Iphone 4S is a brilliant phone - the Samsung Galaxy S3 is the only credible alternative IMO and is currently the best phone on the market in terms of its capabilities and it is currently the best selling phone on the market.

The iphone 4S is the latest model out at the moment, but that literally is just for the moment. If you're thinking of an iPhone then wait!!The new iphone 5 is being launched this September (22nd... didn't hear that from me...

) and it MUST rise and surpass the Samsung Galaxy S3 because that is the pace setter at the moment.

How good will it be?
How much will it cost?
Will it be better than the Samsung S3?
What will it do?

No-one knows - for the technogeeks it's exciting times because we're expecting something big and Apple have to deliver!

Hence why I said that he wasn't overly bright

Samsung Galaxy Ace - is what its name says, Ace, yes its an iPhone 3 clone, I stood it next to my mates IP3 and we couldn't tell the difference at all, until I told him I was only paying £10 a month, he got a bit annoyed at that point

Who with? My contract with 3 has just expired and I could do with cutting the monthly cost and a new phone would not go amiss so I can donate my HTC Wildfire to the wife (which might stop her wingeing about the phone I did get for her last birthday!).

Not interested in paying £31 a month for an S3 - I want my costs to go down not up!

Seen as this looks like the new phone thread

Looking for decent deals on PAYG sims or non contract ones(ie O2 simplicity), mainly for texting , dont want to pay more than £10 a month

Just for the kids, got one an 02 at the mo, got 300 free texts when topping up a tenner but need one for the other one

dont need any data allowance, theyre not getting let loose on the net yet

any recommendations??

Virgin.

Might be a special offer because I'm a Virginmedia customer but its the Galaxy Ace handset, 500mb of data (haven't exceeded it yet) and enough texts and call minutes for me never to reach them, for £9.99 a month.

I've seen £12 deals on Galaxy Ace's on general offer from other providers too, one of my daughters has the Samsung Galaxy S2 and as far as I can see its the same phone but smaller - maybe a geek will point out that the screen on the S2 is a better quality (it is) but its not worth the extra cost unless you're the geek.

Quote ="Hutchie"Seen as this looks like the new phone thread Looking for decent deals on PAYG sims or non contract ones(ie O2 simplicity), mainly for texting , dont want to pay more than £10 a month Just for the kids, got one an 02 at the mo, got 300 free texts when topping up a tenner but need one for the other one dont need any data allowance, theyre not getting let loose on the net yet any recommendations??'" My two are on the Dolphin PAYG plan with Orange - 400 free texts with a £10 top up and 100mb free internet. As they mainly use texts and messaging we don't spend much on top ups. shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/ ... anList.jsp

Quote ="Hutchie"Seen as this looks like the new phone thread Looking for decent deals on PAYG sims or non contract ones(ie O2 simplicity), mainly for texting , dont want to pay more than £10 a month Just for the kids, got one an 02 at the mo, got 300 free texts when topping up a tenner but need one for the other one dont need any data allowance, theyre not getting let loose on the net yet any recommendations??'" My two are on the Dolphin PAYG plan with Orange - 400 free texts with a £10 top up and 100mb free internet. As they mainly use texts and messaging we don't spend much on top ups. shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/ ... anList.jsp

Did you get the Spotify with that? The Ace etc. will be pretty cheap as they will be classed as 'entry level' phones, although still amazing technology themselves

Yes but just a three month trial, after that you have to subscribe to the £10 Spotify deal to continue with the phone service, I didn't bother because I hardly used it on the phone and so went back to free Spotify

if I still travelled a lot with my job I'd take it though.

Three's best deal IMO on the Samsung Galaxy Ace is for £13 per month and with that you get:

100 minutes
5000 texts
All You can Eat Data (Unlimited Internet).

And because you're upgrading you'll get 2000 Three to Three minutes added on.

You [ican[/i get it at £10 per month, same deal, if you were to take out a second handset on contract. So you could get your wife on a HTC Wildfire at either:

£10 per month
100 minutes
5000 texts
250 MB Internet

or

£13 per month
100 minutes
5000 texts
All you can eat data (unlimited internet)

And that would get your Samsung Galaxy Ace at £10 (you get a £3 monthly discount on either line). Three would add 2000 Three to Three minutes to both handsets too.

I'd recommend you put them on a SIM only deal.

At Three they can do 200 minutes, 5000 texts, 500 MB of data a month at £6.90 on a SIM only deal. And the big, big, big thing they can do is cap it! No other network can offer that and what it means is peace of mind for you. It's a zero credit allowance meaning your kids can't accidentally wrack up any surprise bills!

Now there are PAYG options - £10 top up would get you 100 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB of data but you can't cap it, you have to constantly top up and it's poor value for money when a SIM only deal you get more for your money, it's cheaper, you don't need to bother going into stores/online/ATM's etc to top up it comes out as a direct debit and the huge peace of mind for you is the fact it can be capped - you know only £6.90 will come out of your bank account - the equivalent of around £1.70 a week?

It is a 12 month contract on that SIM only but consider it. It's only for a year and like I said it's better value for money (more minutes etc), cheaper (£1.70 a week compared to a £10 a month) and you can cap it so no surprise bills (which you can't get on PAYG).

Hope that didn't sound too saleslike

I do work at Three but that's the advice I genuinely give customers who are in your situation. Hope that helps.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is a belting little phone in the mid-range Android market. I just recently put my younger brother on the £13 a month deal with Three that I mentioned to DaveO.

HOWEVER the Samsung Galaxy SII is in the top end range of Android phones and is far better than the Samsung Galaxy Ace! The Samsung Galaxy Ace is worth £130 whereas the SII is worth £420 new.

I'll run through some quick specs with you.

[uSamsung Galaxy Ace[/u
5 MP camera with LED flash, auto focus, face and smile detection.
800Mhz processor.
2GB micro SD card included


[uSamsung SII[/u
8MP camera with LED flash, auto focus, face and smile detection and image stabilisation with a 2MP front facing camera.
A dual core processor.
16 GB internet memory with up to 32 GB expandable memory.
4.3" super AMOLED display screen.


The SII is a very good phone! It's the predecessor to the Samsung SIII and is still barely a year old. The S3 is the S2 but with a quadcore processor and a lot of flashy features!

We are both with 3 already. If I stayed with 3 my idea was to get a new phone and swap the sim form my wifes sony (which she hates with a passion) into my wildfire, or even the new phone. If I get a new phone as opposed to just going for a cheaper contract the bluetooth has to work. It stopped working when my wildfire was updated from Android 2.2 to 2.3 which was very annoying!

I'd recommend GiffGaff. It's a bit different in that there's no call centre's as such so topping up is done mostly online, or you can do it using 02 vouchers. but If you don't mind having no call centre support its a great cheap alternative. you can get goodybags with your credit, for a fiver you get 60 mins and unlimited texts, for £10 you get 250 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile data.

I've saved a fortune since I moved across from 02. they use 02's network and because they give you payback if you refer people or if you post on the forums I'm now about £30 in credit with them. so it's effectively working out as free.

I wouldn't have a personal mobile on O2's network if they paid be £30 a month.