SGS2 - All in or fold

Baked.noodle

Hi all. I recently purchased the Vodafone 858 and whilst great value for money, it’s wet my appetite for more. I was going to buy a second hand Desire, but it turned out to be faulty. Having considered my options I thought the Desire S might be a good choice as it’s not too big or expensive, but reviews have been so so, with not much new to offer in comparison to the original. The reported overheating issues, and the wifi issue has all but ruled out this handset for me now.



Since this disappointment, I seriously looked into dropping stupid money and buying the SGS2 on pre pay, and getting jelly legs, briefly considering the Acer stream and the LG Optimus 2x. The thing is, I’m not exactly flush at the moment so this would be a CC job, and whilst I don’t foresee problems perhaps I should save the money before I buy.



Which leads me to think, would I be better off waiting anyway? With Ice Cream Sandwich due before Christmas, should I wait and buy the best I can afford then. I’m sure you could update the SGS2, but will it be fully supported? I don’t mind waiting but sooner or later you should take a breath and dive in. What ya think?

bandit197

Id wait for the release of the iphone5, not because I would get one but it will certainly stir up the market a bit. That SGS2 you are eyeing up could be a lot cheaper. By all accounts the SGS2 is a serious bit of kit. I have the SGS and love it, at the moment the only phone I would consider for an upgrade would be the SGS2.

evolutionqy7

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Hi all. I recently purchased the Vodafone 858 and whilst great value for money, it’s wet my appetite for more. I was going to buy a second hand Desire, but it turned out to be faulty. Having considered my options I thought the Desire S might be a good choice as it’s not too big or expensive, but reviews have been so so, with not much new to offer in comparison to the original. The reported overheating issues, and the wifi issue has all but ruled out this handset for me now.



Since this disappointment, I seriously looked into dropping stupid money and buying the SGS2 on pre pay, and getting jelly legs, briefly considering the Acer stream and the LG Optimus 2x. The thing is, I’m not exactly flush at the moment so this would be a CC job, and whilst I don’t foresee problems perhaps I should save the money before I buy.



Which leads me to think, would I be better off waiting anyway? With Ice Cream Sandwich due before Christmas, should I wait and buy the best I can afford then. I’m sure you could update the SGS2, but will it be fully supported? I don’t mind waiting but sooner or later you should take a breath and dive in. What ya think?

With Android theres no real best time to upgrade. There will always be something newer and better since there is no real update schedule for phones. OEM's push them out as fast as they can to keep the momentum of new things going

Sold a good bunch of Desire S's (especially since its free on o2 if your signing up to a new contract. Did not have any of them returned.

LG Optimus 2x is a pretty decent handset.

Galaxy S2 is a great handset in terms of specs, HTC Sensation would follow. Most people would go for HTC handsets cause their nicer to use and hold in hand. As well the Desire S being a very sturdy handset.

Other to consider is the Xperia Arc. Great camera and HDMI out with cable included in the box (Optimus 2x doesnt have a mini HDMI in the box and for S2 and Sensation you need to get a special adaptor or have a DLNA enabled TV to stream through WiFi)

Either way their all good handsets. Best advice is to try to play with em. Ask a sales rep to bring one out for ya, or look for a shop with Live displays (Wireless world stores or Three Stores usually have them)

But as said they will all be "old" soon enough.

If you wont need real HD 3D gaming single core does the job grand. Dual Cores (especially S2) does a really nice job making HD games run smoothly on a phone

Baked.noodle

Good point Bandit. I can't find much about Ice Cream Sandwich on the net, so I guess it's hush hush. Am I right in thinking it will be the first version of Android to support multicore? The processor in the SGS2 seems to be unusual, with concerns over future support with app developers. Granted, this seems to concern graphics and specifically gaming, which I’m not too pushed about. I think the processor in the Optimus is developed by Nvidia, and could be more future proof. Maybe I read too much (or not enough).

Baked.noodle

Thanks evolutionqy7. You are right of course. I know if I'm standing in the shop I'll ask for a saw and cut my right arm off for one of them bad boys, but I'm hoping to get stoic objectivity here. Your recomendations will be taken seriously.

marathonic

Do you have any friends on Meteor? If so, ask them how coverage is. If not, order a FREE SIM online to test it for yourself.

A Galaxy S2 on Vodafone PAYG is €469.99.

On Meteor BillPay, you can get a Galaxy S2 for €139.99. That's on a 12 month, €30 per month plan with 200 any network minutes, 200 any network texts and 1GB data.

If you signup through FatCheese, you get a €40 rebate (PM me if you want more details).

That means, for the year, the phone will cost (€139.99 - €40) + (€30 * 12) = €459.99.

In other words, it's €10 cheaper and you get a years worth of minutes, texts and data. I signed up to this today myself. You can keep your same phone number too.

Baked.noodle

Hi marathonic. That is indeed great value for money. I had considered going with Meteor, and I didn't even know about the Fatcheese cash back. Unfortunately, I'm unemployed and living in rented accommodation so they will look for a deposit of up to 300 Euro off me. I haven't used my bank account in a while so I hoped I could set up a subscription on my Visa, but Meteor only allow you to set up direct debit's with regular accounts.

marathonic

Baked.noodle wrote: »

Hi marathonic. That is indeed great value for money. I had considered going with Meteor, and I didn't even know about the Fatcheese cash back. Unfortunately, I'm unemployed and living in rented accommodation so they will look for a deposit of up to 300 Euro off me. I haven't used my bank account in a while so I hoped I could set up a subscription on my Visa, but Meteor only allow you to set up direct debit's with regular accounts.

I've heard that the deposit thing is hit and miss. I'm just waiting to see whether I'm asked for one. Supposedly, they skew the results at the end slightly (probably so that we can't figure out the criteria they use). I've heard of unemployed students living at home getting away with no deposit so it's worth applying. The worst that can happen is that they ask for a deposit, you refuse and they refund your credit card.

However, even with the deposit, you'd still end up with a smaller initial outlay than you would if you went with Vodafone PAYG.

Baked.noodle

That is interesting. I imagine that I would get caught over the deposit though, especially considering the fact I have no money going into my current account. Would be a pain to go into the bank and deposit money every month. If I buy in the shop, can I set up a debit on my CC?

EDIT: Nevermind, they used too but now "All new Bill pay customers have to pay by Direct Debit".

marathonic

Baked.noodle wrote: »

That is interesting. I imagine that I would get caught over the deposit though, especially considering the fact I have no money going into my current account. Would be a pain to go into the bank and deposit money every month. If I buy in the shop, can I set up a debit on my CC?

I don't think so. I think they tend to stay clear of credit cards because of the charges credit cards charge them when you pay your monthly bill.

If you're in rented accomodation, do you have any utility bills in your name? If so, they don't need to see your bank statement as you can use this for identification.

Baked.noodle

marathonic wrote: »

However, even with the deposit, you'd still end up with a smaller initial outlay than you would if you went with Vodafone PAYG.

140 Euro for phone + 300 Euro deposit = 440 Euro, so it would seem to be smaller. Meteor's website says they take a month in advance so the first bill could be big.

Baked.noodle

No bills in my name, I moved in recently. I could just buy it at my folks address; my CC bill is registered at that address and would prove something or other.

marathonic

Baked.noodle wrote: »

No bills in my name, I moved in recently. I could just buy it at my folks address; my CC bill is registered at that address and would prove something or other.

If you do that, make sure to have the phone delivered to your folks as well. It may look suspicious to them otherwise.

marathonic

Baked.noodle wrote: »

140 Euro for phone + 300 Euro deposit = 440 Euro, so it would seem to be smaller. Meteor's website says they take a month in advance so the first bill could be big.

If they take a month in advance, it'll be the standard 30 euro monthly charge. Don't forget you get your 40 euro FatCheese rebate (although you'd have to wait about a month for this). Also, don't forget that you'd have to top up your vodafone PAYG phone.

Baked.noodle

Very true. Thanks for your help.

evolutionqy7

Baked.noodle wrote: »

No bills in my name, I moved in recently. I could just buy it at my folks address; my CC bill is registered at that address and would prove something or other.

You can request a bank statement to be sent out to your new address. Takes three days for it to arrive. Dont think they would mind the fact that its not used alot. As long as it is not over drawn/unpaid.

Baked.noodle

I’m not sure about Meteor. There seems to be a few people on boards that are having trouble with bills. They don’t seem to have any representation on Boards, and some people have been on the phone to them more than once about issues. There must be something seroiusly wrong if people who sign a 12 month contract are some how signed up to an 18 month contract (granted this could be CPW fault).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056337706

Then again, Boards isn't full of people complaining.

marathonic

I wouldn't let that put you off.. If you sign a 12 month contract, it's a 12 month contract. Besides, that post seems to have been an issue between CPW and Meteor. Order directly off Meteor te get it cheaper.

Also, regardless of network, you're gonna see complaints on boards all the time. Think about it - if you join Meteor and are happy, it's very unlikely you'll be on here praising but, if you're not, you'll be straight on. It's the same with everyone (almost)....

Baked.noodle

Thanks again to everybody who took the time to help me work this out. Whilst the Meteor option is fantastic value, I am reluctant to go bill pay just yet. I just can’t make that kind of commitment whilst unemployed, and I anticipate a request for a large deposit that I can’t really afford. I will own the SGS2 sooner or later, or the next best thing but I’m just going to have to sit on this one for a while. I’m sure you are right about Meteor marathonic, but I found a number of posts regarding billing problems, with one customer not receiving his deposit after the designated time. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70076215
It’s seems Three are about to launch a new pre pay plan, so I’ll wait and see what they’re offering. I’ve been pre pay for so long now, it’s silly but I would prefer to pay the premium to be free of a contract, especially at the present time.

evolutionqy7

Baked.noodle wrote: »

I’m not sure about Meteor. There seems to be a few people on boards that are having trouble with bills. They don’t seem to have any representation on Boards, and some people have been on the phone to them more than once about issues. There must be something seroiusly wrong if people who sign a 12 month contract are some how signed up to an 18 month contract (granted this could be CPW fault).

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056337706

Then again, Boards isn't full of people complaining.

CPW has nothing to do with this

CPW Reps sign up people to meteor through Meteors Dealer System. If Meteor puts it down as 12 its 12 if meteor puts it down as 18 its 18.

If i got a contract printed of saying im on 12 months paying 35pm i would be making alot of noise if i found out it was a 18 months contract.

Nibs05

I read three t&c online, went into cpw and got my galaxy s2 on the 24mth three contract, asked the guy in the shop if these are the same t&c as online and he said yes and i signed. Came home looked at the contract on the top of the page it says contract length 18 mths ?