[Jim]

And that's the perfect time for me to jump in.

Want to get my Mrs a new (smart) phone. She's never had one before and mainly uses her phone for calls (a lot) and texts. She wants to be able to get email / Twitter etc but doesn't use the internet loads so I'm thinking a Blackberry is probably the way to go as otherwise the wank battery life of most smartphones is going to piss her off, plus it's going to do a load of stuff that she doesn't need etc.

Dobbin and Stubbs have already confirmed what I was thinking on Twitter and the Bold 9780 is looking like the best option but I just wondered if anyone had experience of that Blackberry or any of the other models (Torch, Storm etc)?

Sorry, I've no experience of using a blackberry but it sounds like the right sort of phone

[Jaspersharpe]

Cheers Jim. Had seen your post re battery life on the HD2 but I know that'd be too big / complicated for purpose in this case.

[Paul B]

Cheers Jim. Had seen your post re battery life on the HD2 but I know that'd be too big / complicated for purpose in this case.

Check whether the priceplan you're considering involves 'Blackberry' services or whether they tag that on as we thought the same for Nat but they turned out to be ~20% more per month.

[Jaspersharpe]

Yeah seen that ta. On O2 it seems to be the same as the normal data allowance thing.

[Iesu]

thought i'd lob a phone grenade into the thread:

http://releasecandidateone.com/241:my_month_with_the_nexus_s

 

disclaimer: this bloke appears to be an iOS dev, so is biased and says so. interesting all the same.

disclaimer#2: I can't afford either android or iOS hardware - i get a dumb-phone from work and have never paid a mobile bill in my life (and don't intend to start anytime soon)

[Jaspersharpe]

He shoulda got an HTC innit. 

Forgot to say, I got the Mrs a Blackberry (Bold 9780) and it does what it was supposed to do so that's all good.

Cos I get a three month early upgrade I'm only about 4 months off being able get a new phone myself and am already struggling to decide what to go for. It seems that in order to get something better than what I already have I'm going to have to get something much bigger as that's the way they're all going. The spec of the HTC Sensation looks amazing.......but it's big.

[Iesu]

i don't think i could handle even carrying an iphone in my extremely well filled jean pockets...

whatever happened to the modern miracle of miniaturisation?

I'm still waiting for motion interactive pico projection....

[Jaspersharpe]

I agree. The iphone is too big and clunky looking too and there doesn't seem to be anything on the market comparable to what I already have. I was hoping there would be a slightly quicker, slightly better version which was a similar size and looked as good but the trend just seems to be bigger and uglier.

[SA Chris]

the trend just seems to be bigger and uglier.

I seem to be becoming fashionable then.

[slackline]

Top end Androind phones compared

[tomtom]

Top end Androind phones compared

They're all £450-500..... sans contract...

[slackline]

And....? 

No doubt get one on a 2 year contract with a decent package of calls/texts/data if bothered about that.

Could always got for a sub-top end for less.

[tomtom]

Well folk often seem to complain at how expensive the ifern is....

[slackline]

You can shop around and get them for less than the RRP, as I'm sure you can with ifern's. 

Just thought it was a vaguely useful comparison for those who might be in the market.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Could always got for a sub-top end for less.

If anyone needs a sub-top end 2.3 Android phone that does all the basics well this Tesco deal seems pretty amazing, free phone, £10 a month for load of calls and texts +500mb of data. Out of stock at the mo but the big stores seem to get stock pretty regularly.

[Jaspersharpe]

Well folk often seem to complain at how expensive the ifern is....

I did a comparison and to get the new HTC Sensation on my current 18 month (15 in reality as I get a 3 month early upgrade) contract, O2/ third party distributor would currently want £80 off me up front. To get the iphone 4 (older phone, inferior processor, camera etc etc) on the same contract they would want £305.

It's not the "sim free" price that's relevant but what you will actually pay up front & over the life of the contract. Simple maths innit. 

[butters]

Going to the phone shop in question usually gets a fair bit whacked off the price as well. When I finally dragged myself into the 21st Century by getting an HTC Desire I managed to get the required asking price from quite a few fuck alls down to no fuck alls at all and I am really rubbish at haggling for anything. TBH they almost seemed to want me to not pay for it and if I had been any good at haggling then they would probably have paid me to take the thing away....

[Jaspersharpe]

True although I have never found a phone shop that can compete with the best deals online.

[slackline]

plus half the time staff don't actually seem to know much about what they're selling.

[yorkshireman]

i bough a samsung galaxy s2 2 weeks ago and can say that its easily better than the iphone i had before it and is pretty much faster than any other phone currently out there if you can live with the piss poor battery life and the keyboard not being as intuitive as a n iphone.other than that,cant say anything bad about it,good camera,good screen,plenty of apps(better app store than the iphone one imho),far better as a phone than an iphone,very well specd and free on £32 contract and upwards with o2,£35 with some others

[Jaspersharpe]

if you can live with .... the keyboard not being as intuitive as a n iphone.

Easily rectified. 

[yorkshireman]

Yeah ive heard you can download better ones but not got round to messing yet or rooting the phone yet