The Student Room Group

My parents won't let me get a new phone!

Okay, first off this post isn't intended to sound "spoiled" or for you to say "you're so ungrateful". Thanks.

So I have a Samsung Galaxy s5 Mini and for those of you who don't know, it's basically a tiny bit bigger than the iPhone 5s. So the size is fine, but the features are just getting buggy and apps I like to use are getting annoyingly slow. Snapchat doesn't even record video anymore ever since the update with the animated filters.

So I have a year to go of ym contract, and I start college in September and I just don't wanna go to college with this slow phone. What is your advice? I preferably would like an iPhone 6, not a 6s (price differences etc...) The issue with upgrading early is it costs like £200 odd to pay off my current contract and I don't have a job. The new phone would then cost £200 odd again plus the price of the first month. My dad is reluctant and my mum has no say really because she hates electronics haha.

Any suggestions or should I try again at Christmas when the cost will be half as much to pay off my contact?

Thanks.

EDIT BY COMMUNITY TEAM

Sell your current phone and ALWAYS shop around before buying a new one. Check:

https://www.affordablemobiles.co.uk/
https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/
https://www.mobiles.co.uk/
https://www.buymobiles.net/

You might be able to find something without the £200 upfront and your old phone might cover the payment left on your contract.
(edited 5 years ago)
I think in your case you need to wait until christmas but having the money ready to pay off the rest of the contract yourself would have been beneficial
Buy the S5?
Formulate an argument based on what they struggled with at school, .e.g making friends or getting good grades. Say that the phone will help you with what they struggled with(don't mention its connections to them directly) and then they might subconsciously sympathise with you. Or...just wait for Christmas since the iphone 7 should be out by then making the others cheaper.
"Material Boy".. "not spoiled" haha
seriously though why don't you look into getting a part-time job or something, I'd say wait as long as possible until getting a new one because it's evidently just an extra non-essential for your parents right now
Reply 5
Original post by jawsontheflooor
"Material Boy".. "not spoiled" haha
seriously though why don't you look into getting a part-time job or something, I'd say wait as long as possible until getting a new one because it's evidently just an extra non-essential for your parents right now


The name is a reference to a Madonna song lol. And I think I'm going to wait til Christmas til someone comes up with a better solution.
Reply 6
And THIS is one reason why I don't get locked into contracts...
Original post by MaterialBoy
Okay, first off this post isn't intended to sound "spoiled" or for you to say "you're so ungrateful". Thanks.

So I have a Samsung Galaxy s5 Mini and for those of you who don't know, it's basically a tiny bit bigger than the iPhone 5s. So the size is fine, but the features are just getting buggy and apps I like to use are getting annoyingly slow. Snapchat doesn't even record video anymore ever since the update with the animated filters.

So I have a year to go of ym contract, and I start college in September and I just don't wanna go to college with this slow phone. What is your advice? I preferably would like an iPhone 6, not a 6s (price differences etc...) The issue with upgrading early is it costs like £200 odd to pay off my current contract and I don't have a job. The new phone would then cost £200 odd again plus the price of the first month. My dad is reluctant and my mum has no say really because she hates electronics haha.

Any suggestions or should I try again at Christmas when the cost will be half as much to pay off my contact?

Thanks.


Try and make the phone last as long as possible. It might be no iPhone 6, but you still have a decent phone! I'm at university with a (pretty basic) Sony Xperia M which I've had for 2 and a half years, and although its memory isn't big enough and it's a little buggy and slow now and again, and my techie boyfriend is desperate for me to replace it, I'm making it last as long as possible. However I have more reason to do so because I bought the phone myself outright, and will do the same when I upgrade it. I'm also not limited by a contract. It's surprising that people around me really don't care what phone you have. Buying a new phone only makes yourself feel good, and it's really not worth it for something with the same brain and a slightly larger shell, which is effectively what any upgrade gets you.

Anyway... over the last year, I've discovered a number of little tricks to keep things ticking over. Most of it is to do with memory because the more you leave empty, the more the phone has to work with on everyday tasks.

Sort through your apps. Anything on there you haven't used for a couple of months? Delete it. However make sure you clear the cache and data attached to the app before removing the app itself to get the most memory back.

Delete the cache from all your apps. You might be able to do this for all apps at once by looking at your storage.

Close apps when you're not using your phone, or just when you've finished using them. If you leave them running in the background, they will take up CPU, basically meaning they'll slow down processes.

Restart your phone every few days. Most of us don't turn our phones off overnight any more, which means they don't get the chance to restart and reorganise themselves. Like humans going to sleep and waking up again, turning the phone off and on again will refresh it. This will also end and refresh any background tasks which you can't stop manually.

Larger apps such as Facebook, Messenger, Twitter and SoundCloud (for example) will continually collect an awful lot of data and store it on your phone. I end up periodically deleting their data and reinstalling to refresh them completely. I know this takes effort, but it's a couple of minutes of your time every few weeks as opposed to £400+ paid by your parents.
Reply 8
Original post by carrotstar
Try and make the phone last as long as possible. It might be no iPhone 6, but you still have a decent phone! I'm at university with a (pretty basic) Sony Xperia M which I've had for 2 and a half years, and although its memory isn't big enough and it's a little buggy and slow now and again, and my techie boyfriend is desperate for me to replace it, I'm making it last as long as possible. However I have more reason to do so because I bought the phone myself outright, and will do the same when I upgrade it. I'm also not limited by a contract. It's surprising that people around me really don't care what phone you have. Buying a new phone only makes yourself feel good, and it's really not worth it for something with the same brain and a slightly larger shell, which is effectively what any upgrade gets you.

Anyway... over the last year, I've discovered a number of little tricks to keep things ticking over. Most of it is to do with memory because the more you leave empty, the more the phone has to work with on everyday tasks.

Sort through your apps. Anything on there you haven't used for a couple of months? Delete it. However make sure you clear the cache and data attached to the app before removing the app itself to get the most memory back.

Delete the cache from all your apps. You might be able to do this for all apps at once by looking at your storage.

Close apps when you're not using your phone, or just when you've finished using them. If you leave them running in the background, they will take up CPU, basically meaning they'll slow down processes.

Restart your phone every few days. Most of us don't turn our phones off overnight any more, which means they don't get the chance to restart and reorganise themselves. Like humans going to sleep and waking up again, turning the phone off and on again will refresh it. This will also end and refresh any background tasks which you can't stop manually.

Larger apps such as Facebook, Messenger, Twitter and SoundCloud (for example) will continually collect an awful lot of data and store it on your phone. I end up periodically deleting their data and reinstalling to refresh them completely. I know this takes effort, but it's a couple of minutes of your time every few weeks as opposed to £400+ paid by your parents.


I really appreciate this, thank you so so much. You have excellent points and have made me realize that actually I quite like my phone and it's like a "so-called baby to me" and I've only had it a year and if I delete the junk I should be okay!
Thanks so much!
thats EXACTLY MEEEEEE :eek:
Reply 10
Original post by MaterialBoy
Okay, first off this post isn't intended to sound "spoiled" or for you to say "you're so ungrateful". Thanks.

So I have a Samsung Galaxy s5 Mini and for those of you who don't know, it's basically a tiny bit bigger than the iPhone 5s. So the size is fine, but the features are just getting buggy and apps I like to use are getting annoyingly slow. Snapchat doesn't even record video anymore ever since the update with the animated filters.

So I have a year to go of ym contract, and I start college in September and I just don't wanna go to college with this slow phone. What is your advice? I preferably would like an iPhone 6, not a 6s (price differences etc...) The issue with upgrading early is it costs like £200 odd to pay off my current contract and I don't have a job. The new phone would then cost £200 odd again plus the price of the first month. My dad is reluctant and my mum has no say really because she hates electronics haha.

Any suggestions or should I try again at Christmas when the cost will be half as much to pay off my contact?

Thanks.


Save your pocket money/allowance
I dont think you have much choice if you dont have the money you cant do it ... try asking your dad again and show him what has stoped working on your phone
Why are you paying to downgrade your phone?

Posted from TSR Mobile
This is less of "they won't let me do it" and more "they won't give me hundreds of pounds to do it", correct?

Solution: Start earning your own money.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by MaterialBoy
Okay, first off this post isn't intended to sound "spoiled" or for you to say "you're so ungrateful". Thanks.

So I have a Samsung Galaxy s5 Mini and for those of you who don't know, it's basically a tiny bit bigger than the iPhone 5s. So the size is fine, but the features are just getting buggy and apps I like to use are getting annoyingly slow. Snapchat doesn't even record video anymore ever since the update with the animated filters.

So I have a year to go of ym contract, and I start college in September and I just don't wanna go to college with this slow phone. What is your advice? I preferably would like an iPhone 6, not a 6s (price differences etc...) The issue with upgrading early is it costs like £200 odd to pay off my current contract and I don't have a job. The new phone would then cost £200 odd again plus the price of the first month. My dad is reluctant and my mum has no say really because she hates electronics haha.

Any suggestions or should I try again at Christmas when the cost will be half as much to pay off my contact?

Thanks.


My suggestion would be to do a factory reset on the phone. It will mean that you'll lose ALL the data, but once you install all the apps again and log back in it should be okay again. If you don't like the idea of that, you could just ask for a tablet instead (assuming you're wanting the phone for entertainment purposes). If you decide to go for the factory reset, which will mean that it will be like when you first got it, then just message me and i'll guide you through it all. Hope it goes well for you ^.^

Posted from TSR Mobile
I recommend a phone like google pixels or Samsung galaxy note 8! Apple slow down their phones as new ones come out so I don't recommend getting one of those. I also have the same problem. I have an iPhone 5 it's so slow but my parents say there's no point getting a new even though it gets stuck all the time and it so annoying

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