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Budget Android phone


regular_john

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I'm looking at getting an Android phone after my 24 month contract with Tesco expired. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good, budget android phone? I'm currently paying around £15 a month and not looking to pay much more than that.

 

Current contenders:

 

- Samsung Galaxy Ace 2

- Samsung Galaxy S3 mini

- Sony Xperia T

 

Thoughts? 

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New Nexus 4's are out of stock now. You might be able to get one from eBay or somewhere though. 

 

In my experience, budget Android phones are shit. If it's something you are going to use every day for a couple of years then at least get a half decent one. Wait on the price of the Nexus 5 and if it comes in at under £300 then seriously consider it. Again, if you are keeping it for two years or more then it's less than 50p a day for something which will be top quality, plus you have the luxury of being able to shop around amongst the best SIM only contracts. 

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New Nexus 4's are out of stock now. You might be able to get one from eBay or somewhere though. 

 

In my experience, budget Android phones are shit. If it's something you are going to use every day for a couple of years then at least get a half decent one. Wait on the price of the Nexus 5 and if it comes in at under £300 then seriously consider it. Again, if you are keeping it for two years or more then it's less than 50p a day for something which will be top quality, plus you have the luxury of being able to shop around amongst the best SIM only contracts. 

 

Only problem is if it is under £300 can you really trust that you aren't going to have the same stock problems this year as last?

 

There's a few good deals going on S3s at Carphone Warehouse at the moment which might be useful. 300 mins, unlimited texts and 250mb of data for £17 or 450 mins, 5000 texts and 500mb data for £20 a month.

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New Nexus 4's are out of stock now. You might be able to get one from eBay or somewhere though. 

 

Really? Here, every web-retailer and their mother have them in stock for roughly £200. The S3 mini is £40 less and the normal s3 is £100 more. No contracts

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250mb of data?  With due respect to the Villatalk swear filter, **** that! 

 

Well yes, I know but the fact that at the moment he has a £15 a month Tesco mobile contract and wants a budget phone doesn't suggest he's the most prolific phone user. Just depends what you use your phone for.

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250mb of data?  With due respect to the Villatalk swear filter, **** that! 

 

Well yes, I know but the fact that at the moment he has a £15 a month Tesco mobile contract and wants a budget phone doesn't suggest he's the most prolific phone user. Just depends what you use your phone for.

 

 

 

Maybe, but I pay £15 a month too and get unlimited data from 3.  Just checking back through my useage history and I always use between 500-1gb of data.  I wouldn't touch any contract with less than 1gb personally. 

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http://mobile.talktalk.co.uk/handsets/sony-xperia-tipo?PHPSESSID=gbe0jj8k6ttp0r974dnjjuan06'>£2.50 a month

 

http://mobile.talktalk.co.uk/handsets/sony-xperia-tipo?PHPSESSID=gbe0jj8k6ttp0r974dnjjuan06

 

Edit: having reviewed the link, it's £2.50 a month for 6 months, and then £10 thereafter for another 18. 

 

Making it a bit meh. £310 over 2 years, isn't bad if you're a really light user, but if you data on a regular basis it won't be enough.

Edited by PompeyVillan
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Hey all,

 

Thanks for the contributions so far, just a few things to clarify:

 

I'm quite skint (student in London), so can't really afford to be paying any up-front costs for phones. I use my phone quite a bit, but not enough to justify spending much more than £15 a month on a contract. I'm also fed up of Blackberrys, and refuse to waste good money on a Windows phone.

 

All of this leads me to the (budget) Android phones.

 

As far as networks go, it would appear that the best choices are O2 and Tesco (iPhone 4 is available for around £16 a month on Vodafone...but it's Vodafone so **** that).

 

Essentially my choices are between the Samsung galaxy ace/ace 2, Sony Xperia E/T/SP, Samsung S3 mini, and a couple of others including some of the entry model LGs and HTCs. 

 

Has anyone used any of these phones, or know of any hidden gem deals?

 

edit: Just found what looks like a cracking deal on a HTC one mini - £22 a month on O2 BUT the first five months are free, so the average cost across the length of the contract is around £17 a month.

Edited by regular_john
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