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

Scougar

Scougar

Scougar

Soldato
Joined
30 Jan 2007
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15,505
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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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Sit on it, or get your wife to post you one of the new LTE phones(although probably looking march time and even then probably locked only for a while). I certainly wouldn't be buying uk model now in your situation.
Other option is pick up secondhand unlocked iphone4 and sell it when you move. You shouldn't lose to much money.

Or orange sanfransico 2 and get unlocked and a new rom.£99. Or there abuots.
 
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Hope you're prepared to get it in the **** because LTE phones come with $80/month contracts and all the good ones over there are $200 dollars up front :( If you want something you can take with you, you can unlock any UK phone and use it on a PAYG/SIM-O monthly deal out there on AT&T or T-Mo USA.
 
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.
 
Find the worst value contract you possibly can which should ease the entry into the US phone market when the time comes :p
 
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 :-(
 
Ouch...!

I came in to suggest the LG Optimus 7 or the Omnia 7 sim free. Probably both around £200.
 
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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Scougar said:
Seems odd that the phones are that expensive in the states? LTE is that 4G chip?
Click to expand...

The phones aren't subsidised to the level they are in the UK and because America are basically the only market that run their network design (discounting LTE) handset manu's charge more per SKU to each of the networks. On top of that Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, AT&T & T-Mo uses GSM so even when they ship handsets over there, it's not really efficient when they can send XXXX Million to Europe and they all work out of the box with every network.

Also there is the hilarity that is local calls. Remember how dialing used to be cheaper for local calls in the UK about 10-15 years ago? That's still present over there in some form. Honestly, they make UK telcos look like saints :)
 
I remember on my first GSM phone (Ericsson GH337) on Vodafone you'd get cheaper calls in your local area, as well as the cell info it would display which landline phone prefixes were in your local area. :D
 
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.).
 
Scougar said:
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).
Click to expand...

GiffGaff?

Or talkmobile sim only (6month) works out cheap when you consider the cashback :)
 
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.
 
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