Upgrade time: What to go for?

Delvis

Delvis

Delvis

Caporegime
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
30,197
Location
Buckinghamshire
Hi all

It's come to that time again where I'm due an upgrade. Fact of the matter is, I don't REALLY want to be forking out £30 each month...

I can currently receive an IPhone 4 / 4s for free on my Orange contract, BUT, to make it worthwhile (ie free messaging and some decent data allowance (250MB plus)) I need to do the £31 a month contract.

There are cheaper plans but they're all just naff.

Now, there are numerous other phones that I can get for 'free' on my current contract, and i'll theoretically be able to keep the contract amount to £20 ish which is what I'd prefer in all honesty.

The phone I currently have is an Orange San Francisco, and If i'm honest it's not amazing, I find it slow and it crashes every so often, and this is with an 'improved' ROM.

Other phones available are:

HTC Wildfire S
Samsung Galaxy Ace
various Blackberrys (which I'm not keen of anyway)
San Francisco 2

Apart from the above, there aren't many unless I fork out some pre-contract money

Just after some thoughts really? If I get the iPhone, it would be used for music etc in my car and among other things (route planning etc) and I have a 3GS for work so I'm familiar with how it all works.

Thanks all
 
It might be worth waiting for the Ace 2 to come out in the next few weeks, looks to be an excellent little phone.
 
Em3bbs said:
It might be worth waiting for the Ace 2 to come out in the next few weeks, looks to be an excellent little phone.
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Never heard or used the Ace phones...Presuming these are Android based?

My contract isn't up until June, but it can be upgraded before then

EDIT: Presuming you mean Galaxy Ace? :p I can get the Ace 1 for free
 
SGS2 stock is about to completely crash as all companies ditch the stock, you'll be able to pick up a deal (will almost certainly have to be a new deal with quidco+mobiles.co.uk though) for that price without issue if that's an option to you.

edit: Don't do the early upgrade thing on Orange, trust me. It's by design, preying on your need for an upgrade. Wait it out.
 
Myshra said:
SGS2 stock is about to completely crash as all companies ditch the stock, you'll be able to pick up a deal (will almost certainly have to be a new deal with quidco+mobiles.co.uk though) for that price without issue if that's an option to you.

edit: Don't do the early upgrade thing on Orange, trust me. It's by design, preying on your need for an upgrade. Wait it out.
Click to expand...

They just add the remaining time to the contract? :)
 
Big ol' disclaimer - I work for the network in question here.
Delvis said:
They just add the remaining time to the contract? :)
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Indeed but there's more to it than that, deals are a tradeoff in the networks favour - restrictions are in place regarding handset/plan choice etc... and they are pretty stilted. There is a special case for the 1% where the deal will be better but it's for class A customers who are being kept for loyalty (>£80PCM or so). Loyalty will nearly always work out less than a new deal unless you have a huge loyalty bonus or staff discount.
 
horrorwood said:
Yeh i'd wait until you can move networks, is it really worth like an extra £15 a month for oranges "loyalty" discounts?
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Well, I only get the loyalty discounts (some extra minutes and extra bandwidth) and a lower monthly charge (I can get 15% off now) so if I stick with a 'free' phone it's worth it yes.

With the iPhone plan, you have to take out a new plan, if I had the money Id just buy the phone and go on giff gaff or something, but I don't sadly :(

So yeah, I doubt I can get the SGSII for like £20 a month?
 
Myshra said:
Big ol' disclaimer - I work for the network in question here.

Indeed but there's more to it than that, deals are a tradeoff in the networks favour - restrictions are in place regarding handset/plan choice etc... and they are pretty stilted. There is a special case for the 1% where the deal will be better but it's for class A customers who are being kept for loyalty (>£80PCM or so). Loyalty will nearly always work out less than a new deal unless you have a huge loyalty bonus or staff discount.
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Hm, weird.

I've been with Orange for several years, so I get a few discounts as noted.

I'll have to wait and see I guess. I'm just terrible at getting new contracts elsewhere as I hate doing all these top cash back things
 
If you hate doing them then suck up and pay more I guess? 15% is not a lot, the deals on mobiles.co.uk are already greater than 20% typically, more if you throw in redemption/cashback. If you change to the iPhone deals I'm not 100% you will retain your discount just to pre-warn you, you'd need to check with CS.
 
Myshra said:
If you hate doing them then suck up and pay more I guess? 15% is not a lot, the deals on mobiles.co.uk are already greater than 20% typically, more if you throw in redemption/cashback. If you change to the iPhone deals I'm not 100% you will retain your discount just to pre-warn you, you'd need to check with CS.
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Indeed you don't, as you need to take out a new contract with them hence why I'm not really getting one as I don't want to be paying £30 a month :)

I just don't know how the cashback things work really. Looking at them it just says "Using the cashback option the contract works out at £15.50!!! Instead of the usual £25" for instance...Which indicates to me you either get a one off sum cashback and keep paying the 'full' amount as it where monthly, which seems daft to me? :)

Can anyone recommend the Galaxy Ace? Functionality etc and its general use out of the box at all?
 
Quidco/TopCashBack - Cashback on signup deals, by using their sites as the path to other sites they give you cash back. Some (like quidco) have a fee, some don't. EG for mobiles.co.uk http://www.quidco.com/mobiles-co-uk/ have £65 on any SGS2 currently.
Redemption deals - Through Mobiles.co.uk you pay the standard monthly price but after every X months you send them a photocopy/scan/whatever of the bill and they send you a cheque/BACS of the money. It works because you are required to instigate it and people forget etc....

Galaxy ace is firmly mid tier stuff, OK but not great.
 
Myshra said:
Quidco/TopCashBack - Cashback on signup deals, by using their sites as the path to other sites they give you cash back. Some (like quidco) have a fee, some don't. EG for mobiles.co.uk http://www.quidco.com/mobiles-co-uk/ have £65 on any SGS2 currently.
Redemption deals - Through Mobiles.co.uk you pay the standard monthly price but after every X months you send them a photocopy/scan/whatever of the bill and they send you a cheque/BACS of the money. It works because you are required to instigate it and people forget etc....

Galaxy ace is firmly mid tier stuff, OK but not great.
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Hm, exactly something I can't see myself not doing then. Far game to people who want to do that sort of thing though.

Aye figured it wouldn't be high end, but I'm coming from a SanFrancisco, so most things should be better :p
 
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Quidco takes all of 2 minutes to figure out, at least save cash doing that. Treat the other half with the money you save.
 
Myshra said:
Quidco takes all of 2 minutes to figure out, at least save cash doing that. Treat the other half with the money you save.
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As you said though, it involves a fee.

I'm poor at the moment, otherwise i'd just be doing the £30 a month deal on the iPhone4 or a SGSII
 
The fee is taken out of your "earnings" so for example if you did the £65 cashback they would give you 60 when it comes in.
 
How many minutes do you need? You can get a very good phone for ~£20/month

HTC - One S £21/month
100 mins, unlimited texts, 750mb data (or 300mins and 250mb data)
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/13307133

Samsung Galaxy S2 £21/month
Same plan as above
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/12789628

Samsung Galaxy Note £21/months
Same plan as above
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/12790775

The Note for £21/month is an ABSOLUTE bargain. If you're ok with a phone that big you're getting a hell of a deal there
 
Grrrrr said:
How many minutes do you need? You can get a very good phone for ~£20/month

HTC - One S £21/month
100 mins, unlimited texts, 750mb data (or 300mins and 250mb data)
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/13307133

Samsung Galaxy S2 £21/month
Same plan as above
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/12789628

Samsung Galaxy Note £21/months
Same plan as above
http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...T-Mobile-21-(24mths)-Medium-Internet/12790775

The Note for £21/month is an ABSOLUTE bargain. If you're ok with a phone that big you're getting a hell of a deal there
Click to expand...

Thanks for the post :)

I don't usually use a lot of call time, tend to text people. Main reason my bill goes up is due to calling non-contract numbers (so billable numbers) I will take a look at those links though so thanks mate :)
 
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