New phone needed but I have restrictions (like only 1 year)

Scougar

Scougar

Scougar

Soldato
Joined
30 Jan 2007
Posts
15,507
Location
PA, USA (Orig UK)
OK.. so basically I should be emmigrating in under a year and my current contract on my TG01 is now out. My wife has already gone, so I can use her sim card in the TG01 until July. (Her contract is about £25 a month till july)

I would like a new decent shiny phone, but obviously having a UK contract will be an issue when I move. Obivously we'd all love an SGS2, or Galaxy Nexus, Note, etc... but these seem to be extremely expensive.. to the point where I may as well just buy myself a tablet instead and then have a basic phone.

So what do I do? Just sit on my hands and just be 'good' till july then get a pay as you go sim until I go, then get a new phone in the states? Or is there another option to get a shiny new phone?

I would guess the TG01 is only worth about £50 to £70 2nd hand. Still works fine and seems like Ice Cream Sandwich is possibilty on it, but development is slow at present and WP7 is coming along but once again dev is slow.

Obviously sitting on my hands is financially sound option it seems, but we all love shiny tech :-D Give me some ideas :D

Update: (I borked my Toshiba TG01 so ordered an LG Optimus 2X sim free as a replacement - hopefully can save the TG01 to sell it on though).
 
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Thanks chaps. I can already use my TG01 over in the states without issue, and my phone is also already unlocked.

I haven't looked at US prices for Cell phones to be honest.

I would buy outright a phone in the USA to use here, but buying a contract phone in USA is just as bad as getting another contract here.

Are there many places that do one year contracts for phones like the SGS2, Nexus, Note etc?
 
Seems odd that the phones are that expensive in the states? LTE is that 4G chip?

Only contract I've found so far of any worth is for the SGS2 for 12 months with vodaphone. I did somewhere see a vodaphone £36 a month for 12 months with the white sgs2 and had some cash back as well.
 
Actually looking at the older LG optimus 2X (I think it's the " P990 ").

Looks ok, and will be getting the Ice Cream Sandwich update from LG. Around £199 from an etailer.
 
All gone from stock now d'oh. Oh well. Prob I best don't buy one anyway ;-) (Trying to flash my phone to a temporary version of WP7 instead now, until I decide what to do. Hopefully that will get me to July when the 2nd contract runs out lol.)
 
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Well... I may have managed to brick my TG01 after spending about 6 hours trying to flash it to WP7... so might just 'have' to get a phone now after all, although it will now work out more expensive due to a dead phone :-(
 
Well, I have ordered two things:

  • Lithium mobile phone battery charger so I can hopefully bring my TG01 "Back from the Brick".
  • LG Optimus 2X P990 SIM Free as one came up on Amazon by itself (hopefully not a return, as it was listed as new.
  • (Update) Mesh/perforated rear cover £3.00
  • (Update) Also got a 3500mah battery and cover for £4.99 for those longer trips or heavy usage (GPS etc).
Not sure what I will do after July for a Contract, so will probably try to find a PAYG SIM that has a decent MB allowance (As to be honest, now my wife is in the states I rarely call anyone anyway - mainly texts/emails/internet(data). I realise the P990 may be a bit of a 'risk' as people seems to have issues with it rebooting etc, so that's the reason I went looking for a new one, rather than a 2nd hand unit.. to cover me in case I had issues.
Currently relying on a very old Motorola V3i that I had to charge up with a battery pack (Lost the charger).
 
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With phone companies like "Net10" in the US now, the 'local' thing might finally start to be a thing of the past. (They don't use the local area code for example, like a lot of carriers do on the mobiles.).
 
Will almost certainly be giffgaff :-) (But until July I'll be rocking Orange £25 contract SIM's (can't remember details but 500mb data).
 
Well... LG Optimus 2X has arrived :-) (I know.. it's so "last year" :-P ).

Just charging it up with it off, for a long charge (then long discharge). I do want to turn it on and play with it though. Amusing myself with trying to resurrect the TG01.
 
Well, I have to say... I really like this phone :-) I'm only using the updated (from froyo to gingerbread) stock ROM but, it's fast, barely any lag... screen is very good, responsive. No crashes so far, feels stable, sound is good, phone 'feels' solid. I don't like the rear cover design one bit. Very poor design having to pull it off rather than slide it off or something.

Charged it up last night, only lost 5% over night (about 7 hours)... which I'm sure could be improved with some tweaks. Currently on about 58 percent and have been using it to listen to music and playing with it at work.

I can barely get a signal in my office (and neither can anyone on certain sides of the building, so I may now be losing battery power with it's attempt to get a signal.)

Basically I'm very happy so far, but it's been only half a day so far.

I may flash the kernel and leave the rom as stock... although I don't want to stop myself from getting the official ICS update when it comes out.
 
Box was not shrink wrapped that I recall. It was delivered in a small grey plastic bag (I didn't personally take delivery), and I awesome it was hand delivered by courier rather than a normal carrier company (Will have to ask the folks as I had it delivered to their place). I saw that because the box was in perfect condition, no sign of bumping/throwing around.

Inside the official LG box were brand new cables, everything wrapped up, with seals to break including the battery.

Parts were: Micro HDMI to HDMI cable, USB cable for data transfer and charging, USB wall/travel charger, the phone, official battery, headset with one click button, manuals/warranty info.

challengedavid: Was your's sold my Amazon themselves, or a third party via amazon?
 
From reading other places, with carriers you are likely not to have gotten an micro HDMI to HDMI cable, so it's good one came with it :-)

I was messing around with the phone, and was trying what I thought was the a 'recovery mode' , by holding down the down volume button and the power button at the same time whilst it was off. It booted up and hard reset my phone lol. So don't do that ;-)
 
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