mobile phones - new products

[Centurions]

I always buy my phone outright and have cheap sim only monthly rolling contracts on them. The last two have lasted 3 years each before the battery starts to degrade which means I'm presently looking at a replacement.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is looking a likely phone and just within my budget, also can put Android Pie on it which will be the first time I've had an up to date OS on mine.

 

[Manchester1894]

I spend about £100 or thereabouts on a phone every 2-3 years. Let's say every 2 for the sake of it. I use PAYG £10 a month with o2. Which has 250 mins, 1000 texts and 2GB of data.
So £240 in monthly fee's, £100 on the phone means I commit £170 a year, for a bit of twitter use, checking emails and a few phone calls/texts. I find that's perfect but the cost is silly really.

I always look for the most capable. So this time I got a Nokia 5 for under a ton (gone up since) when it launched. Lovely fault free cheap phone. Felt better than the Moto when I used it in-store.

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

I always buy my phone outright and have cheap sim only monthly rolling contracts on them. The last two have lasted 3 years each before the battery starts to degrade which means I'm presently looking at a replacement.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is looking a likely phone and just within my budget, also can put Android Pie on it which will be the first time I've had an up to date OS on mine.

I had the previous version mate. Phone wasn't bad, great battery and spec was good. Try getting a screen reacement or it repaired though. I couldn't find a shop touched them. Al that touched them. NatWest told me I couldn't get their app for security reasons. Xiaomi and another manufacturer they mentioned I can't recall name of.

Huawei are the way to go mate. They are the world leader in Cell site hard and software, and I've installed plenty of there kit for the last 5-6 years.
Their 94kg antennas are a bastard to pull up a tower on a rope n' block, but I can square rig a 3 or 4-1 pulley ratio so they are easier to man handle.

 

[117 M34]

Just phoned up to upgrade mine and gone for a Huawei p20 pro from the advice on here.

 

[Henkeman]

Given that I run my own business and my phone is my office much of the time - especially when abroad, I've always used a BlackBerry, particularly one with a physical keyboard. It's always amused me to get stick from mates who type more slowly and less accurately...

Anyway, with the demise of BB10, I went down the BlackBerry Android route. Seemed to be the best of both worlds, and I have to say the Key One Black Edition has been outstandingly good so far. The comfortable day and half battery life, the seriously upgraded security from standard Android, and of course, that terrific keyboard.

If you spend your time watching Youtube of game playing on the phone, it's not for you (not least because the screen dimensions are designed to show as much of messages or documents as they can), but as always, as communications tools they're brilliant. Add in the usual Google Play, and I'm pretty happy.

 

[quiet_riot]

Given that I run my own business and my phone is my office much of the time - especially when abroad, I've always used a BlackBerry, particularly one with a physical keyboard. It's always amused me to get stick from mates who type more slowly and less accurately...

Anyway, with the demise of BB10, I went down the BlackBerry Android route. Seemed to be the best of both worlds, and I have to say the Key One Black Edition has been outstandingly good so far. The comfortable day and half battery life, the seriously upgraded security from standard Android, and of course, that terrific keyboard.

If you spend your time watching Youtube of game playing on the phone, it's not for you (not least because the screen dimensions are designed to show as much of messages or documents as they can), but as always, as communications tools they're brilliant. Add in the usual Google Play, and I'm pretty happy.

Was always tempted by that, because I do still like physical keys.

 

[Henkeman]

Was always tempted by that, because I do still like physical keys.

They KeyTwo is out now, but I'm not terribly interested in paying £600 for a phone - any phone. I got the Key One Black Edition for just over £300, and that has the upgraded RAM and memory, so it's rather more future proofed - I'd always suggest that over the standard silver edition unless you were going for the KeyTwo. They've brought a lot of the good stuff over from BB10, such as the Hub, which is a universal inbox for apps, emails and so on. It's not as good as the BB10 one where you could reply in line for something like Whatsapp, but it's still pretty decent.

The biggest point of difference in terms of convenience has to be the launch keys. Assign T to Twitter from the homescreen, and just hit the button to launch it, rather than scrolling through screens. It's terrific for that.

It's a mid range phone, not a flagship, but it doesn't lag or anything. Niche product, for sure. But a bloody good one.

 

[KnaresboroughBlue]

Usually keep my phone for around 4-5 years and then pass onto one of my kids and then get a new one for myself and that does me for the next few years. Last 10 years or so have used iPhones and always been happy with them, so see no real need to switch.

 

[tshirtman]

I like Honor, they are a cheaper subsidiary of Huawei, I have the Honor 8 and it's a great phone, they have the same kirin chipsets as Huawei, and you can pick the Honor 9 up for about £250.

 

[Patientman63]

I have a Galaxy Note 4 I bought as a refurb, cost £250 off eBay. Had it two years now, and never had a mither with it. I had the Note 2 previously, and must say I am a big fan of the stylus pen on the Note models.

I have a 3 SIM, 500 minutes of calls, unlimited texts and all-you-can-eat data, that's genuine uncapped data. I can sit and stream HD films all day if I wanted to, for no additional data cost. I regularly get calls off 3 to try and "upgrade" my deal to a capped data package, but oddly enough, I'm not ready for that just yet...