Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:02 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

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.

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

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:53 pm  

Steve-O wrote:

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.

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:38 pm  

DaveO wrote:

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!

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 can 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.

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:46 pm  

Hutchie wrote:

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??

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.

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:55 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

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.

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.

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


Samsung SII
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!

[DaveO]

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:24 pm  

cadoo wrote:

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.

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!

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:32 pm  

Hutchie wrote:

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??

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.

Re: Smartphone query for a technophobe.... : Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:05 pm  

Robbo wrote:

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.