Looking for a phone, network & package recommendation

Desk Jockey

Hey,

I need some recommendations for a new phone, network & payment option, please and thanks!

What I need: affordable (mostly evening & weekend) calls to landlines & all networks, web text, good camera, skype, good coverage in rural areas, ability to record voice memos

What I don't need so much: lots of data. I have wifi at home & computer access so I can use those devices for the heavy lifting. Obviously, lovely to check my email etc. on the phone but not a v high priority.

Network: currently with Vfone – like the webtext, don’t like paying €40 per month on pay-as-I-go calls. OH is with 3, so I think I'd get free calls there if I went with them. Not sure about other family & friends tho & what networks they're with to avail of free calls

Devices: Truth told, I am biased toward iphone but the price is offputting given I really won’t use the data

Bills vs. pay as I go: I've been pay as I go for years but I don't think I'm getting value for money. I'd be open to either but it needs to be affordable

Price: I can pay up to €200 for a device right now but it would need to include credit if poss. Ideally hoping to pay in the region of €20 per month on calls, texts, etc. Not sure if this is realistic or not but that’s what I can afford

Anyone care to suggest a phone, a network & a payment option to suit?

Danger781

Best bet is probably eMobile or Three.

eMobile have unlimited landline calls. With Three, you would have free calls to your OH. Take your pick.

You said you're spending €40 a month on PAYG. At 29c/min that works out at about 130 or so minutes per month.

Personally I don't like iPhones at all. You will be paying too much for an inferior product when it comes to comparing them to equivalent priced Android devices. Even the previous generation ones. Please do yourself a favour and research some other devices, but i will continue as if you are getting an iPhone.

In terms of the phone requests, pretty much any Android phone is capable of doing what you requested. Most phones in that price range have 5MP camera. Sony ted to release higher MP cameras.

You also said Data is not important to you, so with Three, rather than put you on an unlimited Data plan I'm going to choose a capped talk and text plan. As this is a capped plan, you can still top up like PAYG if you run out of minutes on the plan, so you only spend what you want.

On 'FlexiFix 25' which would cost you €25.41/month you would get:

• Free Three to Three calls
• Unlimited texts to all networks
• 200 Flexi units - A flexi unit equates to either 1 call minute or 1MB of data, so assuming you don't use data at all would be 200 call minutes

However, an iPhone 4S 16GB on an 18 month contract would cost you roughly €390 on this package. A bit out of your price range.


But - If you were to swap to an unlimited data plan you could get it within the €200 range.


Classic Flex Max - €40.66 / month:

• Unlimited Data
• Unlimited Three to Three calls
• 350 Flexi Units (These equate to either 2 texts, or 1 minute of calls)

The iPhone cost is €199 on an 18 month contract, and €39 on a 24 month contract.

Like I said eMobile have the unlimited landline calls, however their signal is not fantastic in some more rural areas.


Also to get the iPhone in your price range you would be looking at somewhere around €50 - €60 a month on an 18 month contract. Doesn't really sound feasible.

However, you could get say for example the Sony Xperia T which has an amazing 13 MP camera for less than €200 on a 12 or 18 month contract on almost any of their plans.

Hope I've helped you somewhat.

Desk Jockey

Cheers, will take a look at that