Is this a good deal? HTC One SV on meteor?

Seaneh

Hey lads,

My phone (POS Galaxy Y) seemed to be on the way out, and I just hate it in general, too small, laggy, no memory, etc.

I can get the HTC One SV for free on an 18 month contract for €25 a month with 200 minutes, 200 texts and 1gb of data, do you guys think it's a good dea?

I use whattsapp/viber for most texting anyway and wouldn't be make a whole lot of phone calls per month so it looks a good deal to me, and seeing as the phone is about €300-350 on prepay from what I've seen online, it seems like a bit of a bargain?

Páid

It's €25 a month for the first year, then €30 a month thereafter. 1GB a month is not a lot for a smartphone.

HTC's are great, even when they break. I have a HTC Desire that broke one day. I rang HTC and they sent a courier around to collect it on a Friday. They had it back to me by the following Tuesday. That was two years ago and it's been fine since.

I find Meteor's customer service to be the worst of any phone company in Ireland. The plans are cheap, but the data is unreliable (in my experience) and customer service is awful.

Seaneh

Páid wrote: »

It's €25 a month for the first year, then €30 a month thereafter. 1GB a month is not a lot for a smartphone.

HTC's are great, even when they break. I have a HTC Desire that broke one day. I rang HTC and they sent a courier around to collect it on a Friday. They had it back to me by the following Tuesday. That was two years ago and it's been fine since.

I find Meteor's customer service to be the worst of any phone company in Ireland. The plans are cheap, but the data is unreliable (in my experience) and customer service is awful.

Well I use wifi for data most of the time and I can buy an addon if it's really an issue and it's only an 18 month contract so I'd only be paying the extra fiver for 6 months, I went ahead and ordered it, I need a new phone like yesterday and I can't afford to stump up money upfront for a decent smart phone.

Páid

You might have to pay a deposit up front.

drunkmonkey

1GB is a dangerous low internet allowance to have on a bill pay account, I wouldn't touch that "deal" better off paying a little extra for a bigger allowance.

Seaneh

Fair enough,

Does anyone know of a better deal that has a phone of similar value and isn't too pricey per month?

Raphael

I've been on that contract for 2 years or so, with a Samsung europa and then a HTC wildfire, and I've only twice exceeded the allowance, both times when I tethered my PC for a weekend. That's with daily internet usage for twitter, facebook, email and random browsing. Probably would have eaten it up if I'd streamed video over it, so I just didn't.

Dunno anything about the phone, though.

Seaneh

Páid wrote: »

You might have to pay a deposit up front.

Meteor just called me and told me that all I needed to do was sent them a copy of a proof of address and a copy of proof of ID and they would ship it today, no deposit needed so I went ahead and took it, uploaded picture of a bank statement and passport and waiting for confirmation email so hopefully I was recieve the phone tomorrow, happy days .

BionicRasher

drunkmonkey wrote: »

1GB is a dangerous low internet allowance to have on a bill pay account, I wouldn't touch that "deal" better off paying a little extra for a bigger allowance.

I have that plan and its spot on and by far the best value available IMHO.

1BG is loads if you are just doing normal browsing etc. I have never gone near that allowance in my 3 years with a smartphone and I have been using things like Youtube, Tunein, Google Music, Maps etc all the time when I am away from my home WiFi. It might be different if you are wanting to stream TV or downloading loads of stuff while out and about but Meteor offer free WiFi with Eircoms WiFi hotspots all over the place so you can connect to WiFi in a lot of places (local AIB has a hotspot in my town as does the phone box in the center of the town) and that helps with keeping your mobile data limit under the allowance.
Best idea is be smart about your Mobile data - dont download stuff like apps unless you are connected to WiFi, Dont allow Google+ to auto upload unless on WiFi, use WiFi to cache stuff for reading offline when possible etc etc.

BTW Phone looks class too!

Seaneh

Phone dispatched today at 3.15pm, should arrive tomorrow.

I plan on installing a data monitor app and use the chrome browser instead of the standard android one and I also plan on using the mobile version of facebook rather than the app so as I'm not using data every time someone farts. And if needs be, I can buy a 500mb addon for a fiver on months where it's getting close, hopefully it won't be an issue as I'm in rage of wifi most of the time anyway!

Páid

Opera Mini is the browser to use if you want to save on data - http://www.opera.com/mobile/mini

heybaby

The only benefit to going contract these days is you get a subsidized handset but because you are committing yourself to a fixed period of at least 18 months and can't amend your plan without committing further to your network, essentially the network gets its money back from you.
Tesco mobile have a terrific pay as you go option which equates to 25 euro top up per month, they give u an extra 25, 5000 free texts, free calls to Tesco numbers and 15 gig if data, which.I think.is terrific value. Last month alone I only used 8 gig data despite tethering my.phone to my laptop for several hours.daily, speed was sufficient to watch.YouTube with only the odd lagging issue.
Granted you don't get a free phone up front in pay as you go, but there ate bill options which I haven't looked into because I'm happy enough with my phone.
None of the customer care departments of the big networks, vodafone, o2, three or network have covered themselves in glory, as regards Tesco mobile's, I've been with them two years and haven't had cause to call them for anything problematic yet. Do your research is my advice.

Seaneh

Tesco is useless to me though as I needed a new phone and didn't want to pay big money upfront.

My options were to buy a cheaper phone on pay as you go (and I was looking the likes of the Vodafone smart 3, G300, Xperia J, etc) but I thought I'd be better off getting a faster, better fone on a contract that gives me pretty much what I need without having to stump up €339 (cheapest I've seen the One SV for in Ireland on PAYG) for the phone upfront.

I'm currently paying €20 a month to Three for their 3pay plan so an extra fiver a month and a free decent speced phone is good value as far as I can see. If I don't end up needing to buy add ons, the way I see it I'll end up paying €90 for a phone that's worth €339 (5 x 18 = 90) as I'd be paying the €20 a month for 3pay anyway.

Keith186

I'd say you'll get by on 1gb fine. Turn off automatic app updates in play store and do them manually on wifi and don't stream too much high quality video and you should be grand.


Android 4.0 has data usage built in now so you won't need an app if the phone has that. If you have to get an app I recommend 3G Watchdog.

Seaneh

Keith186 wrote: »

I'd say you'll get by on 1gb fine. Turn off automatic app updates in play store and do them manually on wifi and don't stream too much high quality video and you should be grand.


Android 4.0 has data usage built in now so you won't need an app if the phone has that. If you have to get an app I recommend 3G Watchdog.

Perfect, yeah the phone is 4.0, read a few things about a possible 4.1 update but sure, it's hardly the end of the world if it doesn't happen and if I'm really bothered I can always root it at some stage and flash jellybean onto it.

drumswan

Keith186 wrote: »

I'd say you'll get by on 1gb fine. Turn off automatic app updates in play store and do them manually on wifi and don't stream too much high quality video and you should be grand.

Why buy a fancy smartphone and then restrict yourself in what you can do with it? Seems silly.

Seaneh

drumswan wrote: »

Why buy a fancy smartphone and then restrict yourself in what you can do with it? Seems silly.

I'm not restricted, I have wifi access for the vast majority of my day... Just because I own a smart phone doesn't mean I want to walk around streaming 1080p youtube videos all day...

Keith186

Use your phone smartly and its grand.
Not much of a restriction by turning off auto updates etc. I do that anyway so I can update when I'm plugged in on WiFi instead if wasting battery all the time. You can still download an app if out and about just not a 1gb game.

No point in paying more for a phone bill either.

I did same as seaneh and moved from 3 to meteor and whilst I have less data its not really restricted in any sense plus I got a decent phone for 100 quid at the time instead of forking out full whack for another one

drumswan wrote: »

Why buy a fancy smartphone and then restrict yourself in what you can do with it? Seems silly.

Senna

HTC one for free and 18 month contract at €25/30, i'd be jumping at that. Its €200 for the phone on the same plan (suits me perfect) to a new customer and I'm considering it.

Seaneh

Senna wrote: »

HTC one for free and 18 month contract at €25/30, i'd be jumping at that. Its €200 for the phone on the same plan (suits me perfect) to a new customer and I'm considering it.

I'm getting the One SV for free, but yeah, the One for €229 is a good deal too.

drumswan

Seaneh wrote: »

I'm not restricted, I have wifi access for the vast majority of my day... Just because I own a smart phone doesn't mean I want to walk around streaming 1080p youtube videos all day...

Fair enough, I like to walk and drive around streaming music myself which is a fairly basic function of a smartphone these days.

BionicRasher

drumswan wrote: »

Fair enough, I like to walk and drive around streaming music myself which is a fairly basic function of a smartphone these days.

I use Tunein and Google Music when out and about and maybe I am not a heavy user but i have only once in 3 years come near my 1GB allowance
If you are smart you can easily get by on 1GB

The_B_Man

I've been on 1GB for the last 2 years and never got near the limit!
I dont stream music tho, and basically just use it as a facebook machine, with the odd YouTube video. I think 1GB is loads.