What android phone is 120 my girlfriend has been looking for one.
Are phones expensive or is it me?
- Thread starter flibbage0
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What android phone is 120 my girlfriend has been looking for one.
Soldato
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You know you can get a basic PAYG phone from carphone warehouse that will call and text like you ask for £2.99 right? Now tell me that's expensive 
If you want something for just calls and text then you don't have to pay much. Hell you can get an Android phone on pay as you go for less than £100.
Pulse Mini
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Soldato
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I cant get my head round why people pay for phones, I havent paid for a phone in my life and i've had a fair few phones
Soldato
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Also you have to remember, you're not just paying for the phone on contract. You're paying for the usage aswell.
E.g. a £10 contract gives 100 minutes, 100 texts and a booster of your choice (which can be unlimited texts/landlines or internet and some other stuff too) and even the 100 minutes and texts without the booster is the equivalent of about £45 of top up credit on PAYG. (on t-mobile anyway, not sure about other networks).
People seem to forget that the phone is just a bonus. The network provides you with a phone so that you can use the minutes and texts. People get just forget all about the minutes and texts that they get for their £20 or whatever and think of the contract as a finance agreement for the handset which is completely wrong.
A £30 for the desire that t-mobile do gives you 600 minutes, 500 texts, unlimited web and another booster of your choice, which on PAYG would cost £175 a month in top ups (if it was 20p a minute, 10p a text and £5 a month for internet). On top of that you'd then have the cost of a phone aswell which in the case of a desire is £400!
So over a 2 year contract you pay £720 instead of £4200 + £400.
So yeah, phone contracts are epically cheap in the UK.
E.g. a £10 contract gives 100 minutes, 100 texts and a booster of your choice (which can be unlimited texts/landlines or internet and some other stuff too) and even the 100 minutes and texts without the booster is the equivalent of about £45 of top up credit on PAYG. (on t-mobile anyway, not sure about other networks).
People seem to forget that the phone is just a bonus. The network provides you with a phone so that you can use the minutes and texts. People get just forget all about the minutes and texts that they get for their £20 or whatever and think of the contract as a finance agreement for the handset which is completely wrong.
A £30 for the desire that t-mobile do gives you 600 minutes, 500 texts, unlimited web and another booster of your choice, which on PAYG would cost £175 a month in top ups (if it was 20p a minute, 10p a text and £5 a month for internet). On top of that you'd then have the cost of a phone aswell which in the case of a desire is £400!
So over a 2 year contract you pay £720 instead of £4200 + £400.
So yeah, phone contracts are epically cheap in the UK.
You do understand that when you get a "free" phone with a contract you are still paying for it?
Take a new Desire for example - £35/month for 18 months.
You are paying a total of £630 over the length of the contract.
Approx. £400 of that is paying for your phone, the other £200 the network is taking for your useage.
Unless you are talking about the really low end phones you cannot get a phone for free.
Soldato
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Well yeah but I also get the use of the phone for 12 months and then I get to sell it at the end of the 12 months and get on average £80-£100 back for it.
I've never had a contract for longer than 12 months and i'm so used to paying the £35 a month for the use of a phone that its part of the cost of living
The UK is the most aggressive market for mobiles in europe by quite some margin which has driven prices down incredibly quickly. While it might not be comparable in say a £ to € way, the cost when compared to other goods is a lot better. The UK market also enjoys "race to the bottom" prices for pretty much everything. Minutes, texts, these are arn't really the issue any more (you'll frequently get more than you could ever use for example). The last remaining battleground appears to be data.
I'd say we are lucky with our costs to be honest.
I'd say we are lucky with our costs to be honest.
The original Pulse > the mini
3.5 inch screen, pretty much the same internals as the HTC Hero and you can get it for about £100 PAYG. 2.1 has also been released, in my opinion it is the best budget smartphone around. I have mine on a contract with 100mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet...
for £7.50 a month over 2 years, bargain.
But that is Apple knowing full well the Fanboys will pay WHATEVER they price it at.
The iPhone is the one phone I will agree as being over-priced.
The other's - Desire, etc are simply expensive.
Whats the price difference between those 2? I haven't really looked but have noticed the Desire for £379 and the iphone 3GS for £440
To buy sim-free, Smartphones are very overpriced, at least a 100% markup on them. There're definitely a few backhand deals going on to ensure that the only sensible way to get them is on a contract, especially since you need a decent data allowance to use them properly.
You're looking at £499 or £599 for an iPhone 4GS.
£379 for the Desire.
Is the iPhone 4 really £120 "better" than the Desire?
You can easily question if the iPhone 4 is better than the Desire at all - considering it is only now doing what Android has been doing for ages.
Can't really compare the 3GS - The Desire is a whole generation newer than that handset.
The Desire is an odd one though. Have a look at other smartphones and you realise the Desire is actually cheap. Most HTC devices come in at £450 and the X10 has a retail price of £500. Doesn't make the iPhone 4 seem as bad now does it.