HTC Hero or Nokia X6?

NorthstaNder · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:30

Really not sure which one to go for out of these two phones when I upgrade in a couple of weeks. Primary use will be texts, calls, photos, t'internet in that order, although I imagine the internet use will grow.

I've never owned a smartphone before and don't think I can justify the expense of going for the Desire or SE Xperia, even though I'd love to!

Both the Hero and X6 are free on my chosen tariffs with T-Mobile (£20 or £25 a month, depending if I go for unlimited texts or not).

Have read reviews of both phones on techrader and mobile-phones-uk and both have their pros and cons (as does any phone I guess) so I thought I would see what peoples thoughts on here are.

Or maybe someone might make a different suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

PS...good sound quality during calls is important to me, as well as being nice and loud when I'm on a call outside.

[TW]Fox · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:44

Surely a Desire is an extra £5 a month tops?

admoo · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:47

NorthstaNder said:
Really not sure which one to go for out of these two phones when I upgrade in a couple of weeks. Primary use will be texts, calls, photos, t'internet in that order, although I imagine the internet use will grow.

I've never owned a smartphone before and don't think I can justify the expense of going for the Desire or SE Xperia, even though I'd love to!

Both the Hero and X6 are free on my chosen tariffs with T-Mobile (£20 or £25 a month, depending if I go for unlimited texts or not).

Have read reviews of both phones on techrader and mobile-phones-uk and both have their pros and cons (as does any phone I guess) so I thought I would see what peoples thoughts on here are.

Or maybe someone might make a different suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

The Hero is a fairly old, but really solid phone, and it would only be sluggish because it's old (if you see what I mean). I used to be a fan of Nokia until I had an N97 and their latest round of phones, in my opinion, are really rotten.

Symbian S60v5 is awful for touch devices, and it's really inconsistent. It's pretty unstable too, I found my N97 would glitch quite a lot. Also the N97 and X6 are based around the same CPU and RAM, both of which we're insufficient. The only thing the X6 offers over the N97 really is the capacitive touch screen. In general I'd recommend anyone to stay away from Nokia phones until they pick their game up.

If you text and call most, with some photos and internet, you might be better off looking at something with a hardware keyboard, like a Nokia E71/72, or a Blackberry. They're aimed at the business market so have solid messaging capabilities. The E72 has an alright camera too, although nothing breathtaking. However, I personally find web browsing a bit of a nightmare on non-touchscreen phones.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling, I hope these are a few thoughts to mull over.

Robbo · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:48

[TW]Fox;16675025 said:
Surely a Desire is an extra £5 a month tops?

This, loads of Desire deals for £25/30.

NorthstaNder · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:48

I'd have to pay £35 a month or more to get the Desire (for free anyway). But I really must cut my mobile bills down as I have a little 'un now.

£20 on T-Mobile will get me 600mins, 500 texts and unlimited internet which is ideal for me.

Robbo · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:51

Are you upgrading or opening a new contract?

Edit: Oh nevermind, well you can cancel and take out a new T-Mobile contract though, yes?

NorthstaNder · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:52

Actually just looked on T-Mobiles website and the Desire is down to £30, but still out of my price range sadly.

The HTC Touch 2 is another option I've just seen though.

NorthstaNder · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:56

Robboftw said:
Are you upgrading or opening a new contract?

Edit: Oh nevermind, well you can cancel and take out a new T-Mobile contract though, yes?

It'll be an upgrade.

Robbo · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:56

Well, you could just cancel your current contract. Then take out a new one via MPD (Mobilephonesdirect).

Which would leave you looking at something like this -

That gets you a free Desire. It's not 18 months but there are a lot of variations on the site if you go and have a look

You could try and get T-Mobile to match it, but you'll have a job I reckon.

Fallen god · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:56

Directly from t-mob the desire deals are stupid, if you look around a few sites like Mobile Phones Direct, beepy and intomobilephones, they all have decent offers for 25£, also unlimited net on t-mob is standard on t-mob when you have android phone.

Robbo · 2 Jun 2010 at 23:58

Fallen god said:
also unlimited net on t-mob is standard on t-mob when you have android phone.

It's not.

The 3GB FUP is standard for an Android phone, you still need a data package.

Fallen god · 3 Jun 2010 at 00:03

Robboftw said:
It's not.

The 3GB FUP is standard for an Android phone, you still need a data package.

Ohh so if you want unlimited you have to pay for it, but 3GB should be fine for most people i guess. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

admoo · 3 Jun 2010 at 00:10

Robboftw said:
Well, you could just cancel your current contract. Then take out a new one via MPD (Mobilephonesdirect).

Which would leave you looking at something like this -

That gets you a free Desire. It's not 18 months but there are a lot of variations on the site if you go and have a look

You could try and get T-Mobile to match it, but you'll have a job I reckon.

If you get good T-Mobile signal where you are, I'd definitely lap this offer up

Robbo · 3 Jun 2010 at 00:11

Fallen god said:
Ohh so if you want unlimited you have to pay for it, but 3GB should be fine for most people i guess. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

No, there is no such thing as Unlimited

There is a standard T-Mobile internet package, which normally has a 1GB FUP.

If you have an Android phone, you get this increased (free) to 3GB FUP.

As far as I know, that is the only deal they do.

Fallen god · 3 Jun 2010 at 03:19

Robboftw said:
No, there is no such thing as Unlimited

There is a standard T-Mobile internet package, which normally has a 1GB FUP.

If you have an Android phone, you get this increased (free) to 3GB FUP.

As far as I know, that is the only deal they do.

Wait im abit bemused. I am I correct in thinking if you get a andriod phone you dont need a data plan with the booster?

Robbo · 3 Jun 2010 at 03:29

Fallen god said:
Wait im abit bemused. I am I correct in thinking if you get a andriod phone you dont need a data plan with the booster?

No, you always need an internet "booster", but as a free added bonus you get a bigger fair usage policy allowance if you have an Android phone.

Fallen god · 3 Jun 2010 at 03:50

Robboftw said:
No, you always need an internet "booster", but as a free added bonus you get a bigger fair usage policy allowance if you have an Android phone.

OK, i thought if you hand a andriod phone you get the internet booster for free, seems to be the case with my bros as they both have net and a extra booster for no added cost.

osc89er · 3 Jun 2010 at 09:11

Fallen god said:
OK, i thought if you hand a andriod phone you get the internet booster for free, seems to be the case with my bros as they both have net and a extra booster for no added cost.

Up until last month this is exactly what it was. I haven't looked at their deals since, but unless they've changed that is what it should be.

Slinky1989 · 3 Jun 2010 at 09:30

Fallen god said:
OK, i thought if you hand a andriod phone you get the internet booster for free, seems to be the case with my bros as they both have net and a extra booster for no added cost.

This is correct, so you could have unlimited texts as well as the net. Yes the Internet does have a 3gb FUP but you'll never be charged for going over as proved by a customer who came in recently with a letter from us saying "please don't download 96gb in one month again please"

(we think he'd been tethering with his hero/G2).

The only thing that happens if you go over is speed restrictions from 4pm till midnight. That's it.

Also if you go through mobiles direct you won't get the 3gb Internet + extra booster as they can only do the standard plans so you'll ony get one booster which will HAVE to be the standard 1gb fup Internet if you want a desire.

Anyway hope this all helps! I'm bored at work atm (t-mobile bath) so do feel free to ask any other questions

osc89er · 3 Jun 2010 at 11:06

"slinky" said:
This is correct, so you could have unlimited texts as well as the net. Yes the Internet does have a 3gb FUP but you'll never be charged for going over as proved by a customer who came in recently with a letter from us saying "please don't download 96gb in one month again please" (we think he'd been tethering with his hero/G2).

The only thing that happens if you go over is speed restrictions from 4pm till midnight. That's it.

Also if you go through mobiles direct you won't get the 3gb Internet + extra booster as they can only do the standard plans so you'll ony get one booster which will HAVE to be the standard 1gb fup Internet if you want a desire.

Anyway hope this all helps! I'm bored at work atm (t-mobile bath) so do feel free to ask any other questions

Again, I was under the impression that you would have to have the one booster as internet until you phoned up t-mobile at which point they would give you the free booster for Android phones and you could switch the one you got to free texts (or whatever).