O2 sim-only to handset contract. Which phone?

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

Rainmaker

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I'm hoping you guys can help me. I've been an O2 Simplicity customer for a couple of years now, and my trusty old Samsung E720 is starting to show its age. Well actually it still suits me well enough, but it's survived multiple hard drops, falling down the stairs a lot, a dunk in water... It's time for a new one as there's pieces missing now. :D

I've been offered an upgrade to a handset contract (rather than SIM-only) with O2, which I'm wanting to accept. However, since to me a phone has always been just a gadget that makes calls and texts, I know next to nothing about the new fangled ones.

I'm quite happy with the idea of moving up to a SmartPhone (I don't want to pay extra a month for a 'brick') and would find one quite useful. The question is, which one?! :o

O2 don't have a great selection, but I do want to stay with them. My priorities are:

* Good clear audio (I'm partially deaf)
* Proper keypad or at least a decent on-screen one that isn't awkward
* Great camera and preferably HD video recording. The lack of these (and a rubbish small screen for picture viewing) bugs me on the E720
* Playback of XVID and preferably HD video a big bonus

Things like free SatNav is a boon, but not essential. I can't really think of anything else I'd need?

I have no experience of iOS, Android or Windows Mobile so I presume I could get used to any of them just as easily as the next as the learning curve will be relatively the same regardless coming from an old 'brick'.

Ideally I'm looking to pay between £30 and £35 a month all in, but could stretch a bit for a great phone. I don't mind being tied to a 24 month contract if needs be, as (1) I'm happy with O2, and (2) my last phone has 'done me' for 5 years, so... :p I only use 250 to 300 minutes a month so I never leave my free minutes aside from the odd 0870 call, so I don't need a massive package. The tariff I can sort, it's which handset to choose that's sticking me.

From what I can see, they offer a lot of Blackberries (great for phone, not so good for HD video playback and camera, I'm guessing?), also the iPhone 4 8GB seems affordable, as is the Samsung Galaxy S and Nokia N8. They also offer the HTC Desire but not the Desire HD (that I can tell).

I await your wisdom. Many thanks in advance.
 
Your options are pretty much the HTC Desire HD/Z, Samsung Galaxy S, iPhone4 and the Omnia 7.

You shouldn't have to pay more than £30 a month for any of those bar the iPhone.

You may also want to check out the Orange San Francisco (can be unlocked so you can stick with your SIM-only contract with O2) as it's got almost everything you want but will be much cheaper and not such a jump up.
 
ive just got a nokia c7 , so far im really pleased with it , takes a bit of getting used to all the settings to best have it on.

but so far its been great, cant comment on android or iphone sets as ive never had one ,and most people will say there better which they prberly are, but never actually owning one i can say i'm well chuffed with my nokia c7. but the features you require may be better on the nokia n8 as i think it has a very good camera and also a hdmi connection for hd content?

also a big factor for me when buying a phone is battery life , all the htc desire handsets seem to get the odd comment about poor battery life and having to charge every night?.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys. I'm leaning towards the HTC Desire at the moment, though it's not the HD or Z that O2 offer, just the vanilla Desire. It seems to tick most of my boxes though, and is definitely a step up from an E720. :p

The N8 sounded good, but reviews slate it for being bulky, slow-ish and a bit underwhelming compared to the Desire and iPhone 4. It does seem to have an awesome camera though (12MP) but that doesn't make up for the rest in my eyes.

I think I'll take a trip to the O2 shop and see some in the flesh now I have an idea what I'm looking for. :)
 
the n8 does look bulky which is why i went for the sexy looking c7 , the symbian 3 os is the same as on the c7 and im finding it ok but again thats beacause i have not used android os.

But i think there will be future updates to symbian 3 which will correct all minor problems hopefully
 
Hmm... Example package:

O2: HTC Desire, 300 minutes, unlimited texts, 500MB data. £30.63 pm and £162.38 upfront for the phone.

Orange: HTC Desire, 600 minutes, unlimited texts, data allowance, unlimited push email, 50 photo messages pm, free satnav. Phone is free and £33.19 pm. Down to £28pm if I take 300 mins instead.

Worth ringing O2 retentions, or just try to get accepted on Orange?
 
If you're signing up to a new contract don't forget about cashback.

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/o2/
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/orange/

You should be able to ring up O2 and tell them about the Orange deal, pretty certain that they would off you something similar or better, no harm in trying anyway.

When I was looking at phones I found it good to total up the total cost of months plus phone cost and check against the details of the contract.
In the end I just went with the O2 Simplicity and bought a Phone outright as it offered me the best deal although it is a lot to spend up front.
 
I was in exactly the same position as the OP, SIM-only customer for 3 years, on a £30 price plan, was averaging £60 bills (£76 this month!), wanting to upgrade to a contract, and the incompetent idiots at retentions wouldn't even drop £5 off their monthly tariff to keep me! All I asked them was the MATCH T-mobile's price, not even beat it, and they wouldn't even do that! :mad:

Anyway, for the OP, I'm also uncomfortable with touchscreen keyboards, and you're pretty restricted on O2. I ended up getting the Desire Z on another network, and if you went through an online reseller or carphone warehouse you could probably get them to match you up with one on an O2 contract, but if you want to deal directly with o2 your only hardware-keyboard options are the SE X-10 Mini (an Android phone, but fairly underpoewred and with a small screen - you'd still get all the customisability of Android though, and it'll play XVID videos, though how well I don't know), or one of the Blackberries (no idea how video playback is on those).

If you're happy to settle with a touchscreen though I'd personally go for the Samsung over the Desire (nicer screen, slightly better battery life, gorilla glass, but faulty GPS). Call their retentions department though, and if they're not willing to do you a retention deal you might as well go get the Desire Z with its hardware keyboard through a reseller and get the best of both worlds like I did.
 
In all honesty all the phones you labeled would be such a huge upgrade to the E720 and they pretty much all do what you require that it's probably down to price/size/UI. A lot of "usage switchers" tend to go for the iPhone due to brand and it is (imo) the simplest of the ones you picked which helps a great deal but the price for the device is pretty inflated in comparison to its rivals. The biggest shock is usually charging - expect to do it a lot more - but this is a fair trade of for most as switchers use the device more and more as time goes on usually.

Also don't get robbed, quidco/topcashback + mobiles.co.uk will probably beat any solo shop :)
 
iPhone can't play XVID videos out of the box though can it? I'm sure there are 3rd party video players the OP can download that will though (are there?), or he can transcode them to Quicktime format on his PC before transferring them over to his phone (which might be a bit of a pain).
 
manveruppd said:
iPhone can't play XVID videos out of the box though can it? I'm sure there are 3rd party video players the OP can download that will though (are there?), or he can transcode them to Quicktime format on his PC before transferring them over to his phone (which might be a bit of a pain).
Click to expand...

Correct. The VLC App should play & transfer them though.
 
Thanks for the tip about mobiles.co.uk Myshra. :) They're offering me a free HTC Desire HD (rather than a plain Desire), on T-Mobile with 900 any network any time minutes, 500 texts (more than I'll use), and unlimited internet for £15.32pm for 10 months, then £30.64pm for the remaining 14 months. Seriously tempted!
 
Id avoid mobiles.co.uk personally, tons of horror storys about the insurance/gadget support rubbish you are forced to sign up for when you take a contract.

There is Tesco mobile (O2) for 30 a month for 750mins/unlimited texts/Web (only 500mb tho). But ive heard you can reduce the minutes for more data allowance.
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
Id avoid mobiles.co.uk personally, tons of horror storys about the insurance/gadget support rubbish you are forced to sign up for when you take a contract.
Click to expand...

I had no problem at all canceling the phone insurance and gadget support. I was able to cancel one instantly, I had to wait for my first bill to come through to cancel the other, but it was free for the first month anyway.

I'm yet to send off my first bill for the redemption yet though, but I've heard it's fairly easy :)
 
Yeah, cancel the insurance/gadget support as soon as you get the phone. They only add it to catch people out, it won't effect anyone with half a brain ;)

The phone comes unlocked/unbranded/sim free too, that's huge bonus for Android handsets...
 
After reading around and taking in the reviews, I settled on the HTC Desire (non-HD). The call quality is unanimously said to be clearer and easier, which being partially deaf is important to me. The plain Desire now has the Android 2.2 update with Flash 10.1 and now records video in 720p instead of 480p, so no real biggie between the two handsets. Especially coming from an E720 lol. :)

I spoke to O2, asked them nicely how I cancel my contract because their upgrade "offer" was highway robbery compared to the deal T-Mobile offered me... A nice chat later with a girl who turned out to be local to me, and I settled on this:

24 month contract
HTC Desire (free of charge)
600 any network, any time minutes
Free O2 to O2 calls, any time
Free unlimited landline calls, any time
Unlimited texts
500MB 3G data
Unlimited wifi

Not bad for £28 a month. I'm happy anyway, and it's a huge upgrade to what I had before, and it's only costing me an extra £3 a month - now with unlimited landline calls so essentially I've made a massive net gain cost wise, AND got a free HTC Desire. Win. Thanks so much to you all for the help and advice. :)
 
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