[dave]

I'm with you on the non-contract scene. But isn't Three shite? Sure jiggaman was on Three and sacked it off.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

I'm with you on the non-contract scene. But isn't Three shite? Sure jiggaman was on Three and sacked it off.

Best network there is. Cheap, great in N Wales and lakes where others suck. No rip off prices for super3G or 4G.

[slackline]

No gripes with Three, been with them for a good few years. £10/month for 300mins/3000texts/2000mins 3to3/1Gb data per month.  I don't think this is available any more though, but you can try asking in store for the extra 3to3 minutes, my wife & bro got theme on the back of saying I had them when they signed up.

Got 3G reception on the top of Ben Eighe a few years back, fine in Sheffield and most cities and no real signal problems when being driven around the country.

[Jaspersharpe]

For once something called a "game changer" that actually looks like it might be. Sounds excellent.

[Bubba]

I've just moved to Three from Orange/EE and I haven't noticed any real difference in service and I tend to get about the country a lot with work.  The only place I've noticed a drop is a small area around Worksop where Orange used to drop as well.

Their "All you can Eat" data plans are fantastic value - I can now use streaming/web radio all day. Also, they are the only network that is going to offer unlimited 4G/LTE data at no extra cost.  Their 4G services are being rolled out a bit slower than other networks but I can live with that:

We're working hard behind the scenes on our 4G roll-out, we'll start in December in London, Birmingham and Manchester, reaching 50 more cities by the end of 2014. By the end of 2015 we will cover 98% of the population.

[chris j]

Coming soon..

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/14/motorola-moto-g-review-best-budget-smartphone-135

Awesome, you've just found me a replacement for my old Motorola Defy. Cheers!

[SA Chris]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DOELYHC/ref=gb1h_img_c-1_8827_89eaa4ba?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0JR83Q1SWBTV15YJVHGB&pf_rd_i=161428031&pf_rd_p=449478827

might be worth a look at midday if you are after one.

[lagerstarfish]

I wonder whether this will end up being successful?

http://www.quechuaphone.com/en/home

Decathlon's own brand smart phone

"mountain proof"

[TobyD]

anyone used the new google nexus?

[Muenchener]

I wonder whether this will end up being successful?

http://www.quechuaphone.com/en/home

Decathlon's own brand smart phone

"mountain proof"

The concept certainly has something going for it. I have an older phone of a similar ilk (Motorola Defy+) that I bought because it was advertised as waterproof, shockproof etc. and it does indeed seem to be. It has been completely soaked for days in my jacket pocket on alpine hillwalks in atrocious weather, had me fall heavily on it whilst snowboarding, fallen out of my son's pocket from the top of a climbing wall ... all without missing a beat.

Otoh it runs an ancient version of android and is dog slow. The review I saw of the Decathlon phone suggested getting a more capable but less robust cheap phone - Moto G seems to be flavour of the month - and putting it in a robust case. Which would be much bulkier and less usable on the hill though.

(I am generally pro-Decathlon today, having been out & about on my bike this evening in heavy sleet, perfectly dry and cosy in my new sixty euro belay orange jacket)

[Gallant]

I picked up a Nexus 5 on release day, trying to keep up with the Jones' and the like.

It's my first actual smart phone, my previous rule of thumb being if it's more than £60 it's a waste of money. Thus far I've just been appreciating the fact I can read chemistry papers online if I'm working away from a computer, but I guess most other phones can do that these days?
I've not noticed any slowing down, any updates the phone has had haven't taken any great deal of time to either download or install. I am however, on PAYG still, so I try not to use too much data, and I'm most certainly not in the 4g crowd as I think my data useage would be spent on the first day I got it every month otherwise.

[slackline]

You should get yourself on one of Threes monthly rolling contracts for around £10 with 1Gb/month of data or a little more for all you can eat data.

[slackline]

Cyanogenmod phone announced

[fatneck]

I'm due for an upgrade shortly and having had no end of hassle with my iphone4 (rip off, piss taking apple bastards...) and being unwilling to fork out a load of fuck alls up front for a 5s have been doing quite a bit of research. I had narrowed it down to as choice between the HTC One, Sony Experia Z1 and the Nexus 5 - all do what I would expect and want from a new smart phone and for much less than the iphone...

Then I saw this...



Now assuming Tech Radar aren't sponsored by HTC, I reckon I'll be getting the HTC One then..

[slackline]

Oppo N1 running CyanogenMod

[Jaspersharpe]

Now assuming Tech Radar aren't sponsored by HTC, I reckon I'll be getting the HTC One then..

A mate of mine has an HTC One and he loves it. It's a lovely looking thing too. My only concern is that HTC looked to be going bust recently, has anything changed in that respect?

[Paul B]

GiffGaff fully failed Nat and I once again this Friday and I'm fairly unimpressed with their CEOs response, playing off a technical f*ck-up as some sort of unforeseeable event, so we're once again looking at replacing both phones.

Having spent far too much time now in tedious phone shops (Is phoneshop on E4 actually based on phones4u?) I think the best options are:

Buying a Moto G 8gb sim free and sticking a Three 12-month sim (only) in it.

or

Moto G 16Gb with Tesco Mobile, fairly much matching the above but with less upfront costs (clubcard points and family extras make them farily much comparable.

Both options work out at ~12/month and neither are particularly generous on data (I find I'm near Wifi the majority of the time currently anyway).

As far as I can see the former is a bigger upfront cost and allows us to ditch sooner if there are other better (cheaper) deals out there and they'll also bump customers onto 4G at no added cost whereas the latter (Tesco) is effectively just a way of spreading out the cost.

The local mast here for O2 which I believe Tesco piggyback is the same as GiffGaff and is always overloaded. Thoughts (no matter how boring the above may be)?

On an aside, the Moto G seems priced at a ridiculous (unsustainable?) level when compared with much lesser bits of tech made by Samsung et al. sold for much much more.

[tomtom]

Tesco mobile piggy back O2 just like giffgaff non?

[Paul B]

The local mast here for O2 which I believe Tesco piggyback is the same as GiffGaff and is always overloaded.

Yes? (I think).

[lagerstarfish]

Tesco mobile piggy back O2 just like giffgaff non?

yeah, but with Tesco you can be confident that the original supplier is being properly fucked over

[chris j]

Buying a Moto G 8gb sim free and sticking a Three 12-month sim (only) in it.

...and they'll also bump customers onto 4G at no added cost

Moto g doesn't support 4g, afaik?

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Buying a Moto G 8gb sim free and sticking a Three 12-month sim (only) in it.

...and they'll also bump customers onto 4G at no added cost

Moto g doesn't support 4g, afaik?

Networks 4
HSPA+ DL 21.1Mbps / UL 5.76Mbps- EV-DO Rev.A DL 3.1Mbps / UL 1.8Mbps
PROCESSOR
Qualcomm MSM8x26 quad-core A7 1.2GHz (Adreno 305 450MHz GPU)
Bands/Modes
CDMA: 850/1900 UMTS: 850/900/1700/1900/2100 GSM: 850/900/1800/1900

Looks like HSDPA+ is it (no mention of LTE) however 21mbps isn't too shabby.

[Paul B]

Hmmm ok, that removes the 4G network upgrade as a (useful) positive. Still very unsure.

One of the main failings of my current, and somewhat ancient smartphone is the lack of expandable internal storage. Neither the 8Gb or the 16Gb option fixes this but obviously the latter would be better.

[slackline]

Another CyanogenMod phone in the offing...

http://forums.oneplus.net/threads/its-official-were-partnering-with-cyanogenmod.76

[Paul B]

I went for the 8Gb and Three in the end, which seems like a good choice (although they did cock up the PAC code / number transfer).

For any other Moto G users you can currently get 50Gb of extra space on GDrive for 2 years (until the 30/1/14). The phone seems brilliant, I can't believe I stuck with my rubbish Wildfire for so long.