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This Christmas will mark my first foray into smartphones (after ten years of reliable old Nokia's). I've never used a touch screen phone before so I'm going for a 'budget' smartphone (also because I don't really want the biggest and best). The three I've got written down are the Nokia Lumia 625, Sony Xperia M and the HTC Desire 500. I've also only ever been on PAYG (but have been on a monthly top up).

I picked what I thought was the best tariff for each of those three to help me decide which one to go for because they're fairly similar in terms of their specs (only looking for a tariff less than £25 a month)

Nokia Lumia 625 (1000 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, EE, £18.99 per month, 4G)
Sony Xperia M (300 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, O2, £17 per month, 3G)
HTC Desire 500 (600 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, Vodafone, £21 per month, 3G)

Thoughts?

Two thoughts.

1) I have the Lumia 920 and highly recommend the lumia range, the only bad thing is the poor battery

2) You'd be better off saving a sufficient amount of cash to buy the handset and then get a stupidly cheap sim-only plan, it's cheaper over the two year contract life of a normal contract

Two thoughts.

1) I have the Lumia 920 and highly recommend the lumia range, the only bad thing is the poor battery

2) You'd be better off saving a sufficient amount of cash to buy the handset and then get a stupidly cheap sim-only plan, it's cheaper over the two year contract life of a normal contract

This Christmas will mark my first foray into smartphones (after ten years of reliable old Nokia's). I've never used a touch screen phone before so I'm going for a 'budget' smartphone (also because I don't really want the biggest and best). The three I've got written down are the Nokia Lumia 625, Sony Xperia M and the HTC Desire 500. I've also only ever been on PAYG (but have been on a monthly top up).

I picked what I thought was the best tariff for each of those three to help me decide which one to go for because they're fairly similar in terms of their specs (only looking for a tariff less than £25 a month)

Nokia Lumia 625 (1000 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, EE, £18.99 per month, 4G)
Sony Xperia M (300 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, O2, £17 per month, 3G)
HTC Desire 500 (600 mins, Unlimited texts, 500MB, Vodafone, £21 per month, 3G)

Thoughts?

I see your point. I did a calculation for the Lumia 625 which the Carephone Warehouse priced at £129 and a £10 SIM and it came to £80 cheaper but at the expense of not that much in terms of minutes, texts or data. The other two would also be more expensive on PAYG. The £18.99 PM contract was the best 4G deal of any phone.

Indeed and for that ~£80 if you shop around you can match your contract offers. A £10 sim only plan from 3 gives you 600 minutes, 5000 texts (unlimited since unlimited contracts have "fair usage" allowances) and 1GB internet.

http://store.three.co.uk/SIM_Only/Voice_Pay_Monthly?sort=priceValue-ascending&deviceType=SIM_ONLY&priceplan=PAY_MONTHLY&deviceType=SIM_ONLY&categoryType=VOICE&subCategoryType=SIM_ONLY&tariffType=PAY_MONTHLY

Hell for £15 you get 2000 minutes, 5000 texts and unlimited data which beats all other offers costs you £360 over 2 years. Compare this to say a £42 O2 plan for SGS or IP which costs £1000 over 2 years.

I would also consider the Moto G: http://www.phones4u.co.uk/shop/shop_payg_sub.asp?ManKey=2&intcid=motog_payg_landing_15-11-2013

I would probably buy this phone on PAYG, unlock it (you can do this for about £2) and then go with ovivo: http://www.ovivomobile.com/

With this you pay a one off fee of £20, but £15 of that goes onto your phone as credit. You also get 200 mins, 300 texts and 500mb of internet for free every month (so its like a contract, but you don't pay anything each month). The only problem would be if you think you would use more texts/ mins. But even then, i don't think they're too expensive.

I have a decent sim-contract on my Blackberry. I am wanting to get a new BB handset and I don't know which would be better out of the Q5 or the Z10. My budget is £200 and I don't want the Q10. Both phones seem to have the features I want but which one is better overall? Price-wise they are both similar at around £180 for the handset. At the moment I have an old curve and I do love having the actual physical keypad rather than all touch-screen but I also want fast browsing. I only really use my phone for receiving e-mails and browsing. My sim-contract is £10 which has unlimited texts, 300 minds and unlimited BB web which is why I want the BB handset.

You mentioned that you have a BB web contract suggesting that this is for blackberry Internet service (for security) which is on blackberry 7 and I'm pretty sure this is not supported on BB10 which is on the q5 and z10. I think this means you wouldn't be able to use Internet on your new blackberry with your current contract so you would have to change it to a regular one.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I just bought the phone yesterday - I believe I am still getting unlimited web but if I wanted it on 4G I would have to go on a different tariff as this is using 3G. This is still fast enough for anything that I want to use it for.

Which one did you get?

giffgaff is the best, should add that to the OP