First Smart Phone. Suggestions Please.

Havermeyer

Can anybody recommend a decent phone for around €100 - €150? My old phone is dying and I thought I may as well take advantage of the prepay offer o2 are running at the moment. I've never used one before, so any help would be appreciated.

What I'm looking for:

Good OS - I have no experience with any of them so not sure which to go for
Web browsing
Good user interface
Decent sized screen
Good battery life
Good radio

I have been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Y, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Sony Ericsson Xperia mini. Or if there are any others you would recommend within that price range?

Thanks in advance.

justsomebloke

The play each and every time and by a country mile. The mini is a woeful phone and I would stay well clear of it.

briscotti

I have the Samsung Galaxy Mini, it cost me €100 and I am really happy with it! The amount of features this phone has for that price, I find great, as my other phone was a bog standard one and it cost €50.

The battery goes quite quickly but I was expecting this as all smartphones seem to have the same issue. Other than that it's really easy to use. Minus points for not getting headphones with it though, as you can't use the radio without them.

Mycroft H

Xperia Play. Awesome Job and if you buy it from the carphone warehouse its unlocked

Occono

I have the Galaxy Mini as well, got it for 80 on Meteor (and now they're advertising it in Xtravision and offering a free DVD as well ) It's nice....camera is not very good, which annoys me as I didn't expect anything great but the fixed focus is really awkward. The screen resolution isn't as much of a problem as the reviews say, though most of my internet use has special apps and mobile sites, some sites may be hard to read...comics and books are okay, Kindle and Perfect Viewer apps are well-designed. Can run AVIs fine with QQPlayer, and ScummVM games, I bought Broken Sword 1 and 2 off GOG and they work on it. The battery is fine, but easily drained by 3G and GPS over a long time (it handles WI-Fi a lot better)

It's got GPS/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi etc. It might leave you wanting something better though, especially a camera. I just wanted it as a "emergency" camera but it might not even be up to that, even though it's 3.2MP which isn't terrible.

iwo

nummnutts wrote: »

Can anybody recommend a decent phone for around €100 - €150? My old phone is dying and I thought I may as well take advantage of the prepay offer o2 are running at the moment. I've never used one before, so any help would be appreciated.

What I'm looking for:

Good OS - I have no experience with any of them so not sure which to go for
Web browsing
Good user interface
Decent sized screen
Good battery life
Good radio

I have been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Y, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Sony Ericsson Xperia mini. Or if there are any others you would recommend within that price range?

Thanks in advance.

Try to get something on adverts: samsung ace or HTC wildfire S.

They will be around 150 but it's not worth extra money.

gufnork

I got my galaxy mini for €99 from carphone warehouse. Requested a new sim, which when I got it home had €30 on it too which I'm still not sure wasn't a mistake on the salesgirls part, I'm not complaining.
The only two issues are the battery life which you really do have to watch, and the cameras lack of autofocus which is a complete pain and really does ruin things for you.
The battery thing is manageable, but if you're going to be using the camera a lot then look elsewhere.
Other than that, this is an amazing device for the money.

hawkwind23

if your close to the border or can get someone to get it for you.
goto carphone and get the htc-wildfire-s
only 99 sterling and unlocked.
offer only till monday.
i have one and its a cracking little starter smartphone.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/htc-wildfire-s-payg-upgrade-from-99-95-phones4u-weekend-1084909