We're looking for a basic mobile phone for a stepson, with the following preferred criteria in decreasing order of importance:
- £50 or less
- at least 1.3M pixel camera
- reasonable battery life
- candy bar format
- T-mobile
I've looked at the various models on the T-mobile site and lots of others besides and read reviews, but none of them stand out - they all seem to have significant shortcomings. Perhaps that's to be expected in this price range.
Can anyone recommend any particular model? Otherwise we'll take the easy option and just give him the money so he can decide himself.
Cheers
F
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Amongst friends who want a basic phone, Nokia and Sony Ericsson seem to be consistently popular. Motorola generally not liked. Sorry not to be more specific.
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S/H only but a Sony Ericcson K800i would fit the bill.
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>> S/H only but a Sony Ericcson K800i would fit the bill.
Thanks, but it has to be new - I should have said that.
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>> Amongst friends who want a basic phone Nokia and Sony Ericsson seem to be consistently
>> popular.
They would tend to be my first choice, but looking at the reviews of the models in this price range they don't sound great. Of course that could be just because people are expecting too much - it's difficult to tell.
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For another £9.95 plus the cost of the £10 top-up, how about a Nokia 5130 XpressMusic at CarPhoneWareHouse. So that's actually £69.95 but you get £10 credit.
Or the Nokia 2730 at the same place but is £49.95 plus £10 top-up.
If you need cheap then what about the Nokia 2630 which is £29.95 (plus £10 top-up) - same place.
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And the Alcatel OT303 might do (no idea of what it is like) but it's £16.95.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 10 Mar 10 at 16:36
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Cheap and a reasonable camera don't go together.
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>> Cheap and a reasonable camera don't go together.
Well of course it depends on your definition of 'reasonable', and naturally I wasn't very specific. Mainly I meant at least 1.3M pixel resolution and pictures that look ok on a monitor.
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 10 Mar 10 at 19:56
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>> And the Alcatel OT303 might do (no idea of what it is like) but it's
>> £16.95.
Perhaps a bit too cheap - only 640x400 camera. Sorry...
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>> For another £9.95 plus the cost of the £10 top-up how about a Nokia 5130
>> XpressMusic at CarPhoneWareHouse.
I think I discounted that because it's a bit too good - he's just lost his previous phone (on tour with his metal band) and there's no guarantee he's not going to lose this one, so we don't want to go OTT. Hoiwever, it's not much over budget, so we might come back to it.
>> Or the Nokia 2730 at the same place but is £49.95 plus £10 top-up.
I was put off by the mixed reviews for this one, but as I said it's difficult to know how much attention to pay to them.
>> If you need cheap then what about the Nokia 2630 which is £29.95 (plus £10
>> top-up) - same place.
Specifically a poor review here www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/nokia-2630.htm
"However, it has a rubbish camera, a rubbish screen, nasty ringtones, limited connectivity (Bluetooth only), not much memory (enough for an MP3 ringtone and a few photos), and is only dual band."
Thanks for the suggestions; the 5130 looks the best bet.
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 10 Mar 10 at 19:51
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Take the easy option and just give him the money so he can decide himself.
I bought a thing called a T250i a while ago, it lives in the cubby hole in the car, it seems fine but you can't get 'em any more. I'd better see whether it needs charging.
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>> Take the easy option and just give him the money so he can decide himself.
Might do that - offer to pay up to (say) £40 and let him decide whether he wants to contribute the difference for a 5130.
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Then tell him to buy mobile phone insurance or learn to be a lot more careful with his phone!! Carphonewarehouse are quite good if you want cheap phones. They're usually a lot cheaper than going direct to the network.
I'd also check out play.com as I found a sturdy little nokia on orange for about £30 for my dad.
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It sounds like a lot of grief to me. He may lose this one as well or did I dream that up?
??
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I agree with MD.
Aren't you in danger of letting him think it doesn't matter what he does with his 'phone, you'll cough up for another?
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I assume you mean on PAYG?
The phone I have would meet your needs.
Sony Ericsson W395. It's a modest slide phone that's rugged with rounded edges and of neat dimensions so it happily lives in the back pocket of my Wrangler jeans all day. 2mp camera and does all the stuff I could think you'd need of a phone.
£49.99 on T-Mobile. Gets 8/10 from 174 reviews. Mind you I look at the reviews with some concern as to why many of the negatives appear.... I think in truth user reviews are often over judgemental and not always helpful. For example quite a few mention a poor battery life.... well mine is on all day from 7.30am to 11pm and it lasts almost a week (always 3 days +) with a sensible amount of calls.
www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-as-you-go/sony-ericsson/w395-special-edition/overview/
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 10 Mar 10 at 20:42
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>> The phone I have would meet your needs.
>>
>> Sony Ericsson W395.
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>> £49.99 on T-Mobile.
It does look good - not sure how I missed it, unless it's only just been reduced (from £70).
Regarding the comments about getting stepson to be more careful - I agree in principle, but actually I think he did pretty well to keep his previous one as long as he did (quite a few years). He regularly goes touring around Europe living out of hotel rooms and the band bus, perhaps in places which are more likely than average to contain people willing to relieve you of your personal possessions. And it's not like he's asked for one - to be honest it's as much for my wife (his mum) as for stepson, in the hope that he might ring home more often :)
Also, it's a birthday present, so he knows that by getting him this he's not getting something else. And I suspect whether he buys himself one or we buy it for him, it's not got to make any difference to how long he manages to keep it for.
Thanks for all the help.
Last edited by: Focus on Wed 10 Mar 10 at 21:33
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Go back in time F to when you were a teenager, what was cool for you certainly wouldn't be practical for your elders:)
Give him the money, let him choose, and do please warn Mrs F that he won't call home more often, it will just make her BP rise knowing he can, and hasn't!!
Been there...done that!
You can take a horse to water.........
But us Mothers never learn, do we?:)
Pat
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>> Go back in time F
Thanks Pat - I'm coming back to the money option again.
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In the time-honoured tradition of not answering the question...
Semi-retired pal of mine has just repalced an old Motorola with a £10 Nokia from Asda.
Good, sturdy little phone and he reckons the call charges are reasonable.
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>> In the time-honoured tradition of not answering the question...
I expect nothing less :)
>> Semi-retired pal of mine has just repalced an old Motorola with a £10 Nokia from
>> Asda.
>>
>> Good sturdy little phone and he reckons the call charges are reasonable.
A £10 phone would be ok as a an emergency replacement, but is just a bit too basic for a birthday present. I suspect it won't have a camera.
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>> Semi-retired pal of mine has just repalced an old Motorola with a £10 Nokia from
>> Asda.
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>> Good sturdy little phone and he reckons the call charges are reasonable.
>>
Yes, I use Asda PAYG in a hand me down SE K750i ( nice phone) , 8p per minute talk and 4p per text. International rates reasonable as well.
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>> Yes I use Asda PAYG in a hand me down SE K750i ( nice phone)
>> 8p per minute talk and 4p per text. International rates reasonable as well.
I've no problem with Asda, although their phone prices at least for the basic models do seem relatively high, perhaps because of the low tariff.
www.asdamobile.com/pay-as-you-go/phones.html
We've got a big Asda about a mile down the road, so stepson (who worked there for a while) can go and have a look if we just give him the money. I think he preferred staying with T-Mobile because he felt they'd given him good service.
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>> Asda PAYG phones are reportedly unlocked.
That might explain the higher prices.
>> For t-mobile try www.prepaymania.co.uk/category/T-Mobile.html
Thanks - I think I know what models are available now, and the W395 looks the best bet to me, although it's £10 cheaper direct from T-Mobile at the moment.
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T-mobile are expensive for call charges compared to Tesco and Asda. The cheapest for occasional use is Lyca.
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>> >> The phone I have would meet your needs.
>> >>
>> >> Sony Ericsson W395.
>> >>
>> >> £49.99 on T-Mobile.
>>
>> It does look good - not sure how I missed it unless it's only just
>> been reduced (from £70).
Thanks again Fenlander - bought last one in shop on Friday, presented to stepson this morning, and he's very happy with it. It's a neat little phone which despite being only £50 is quite a step up from his previous one.
Unfortunately tonight is the last night of his band's tour, as well as his birthday, and although we tried to persuade him to leave it at home ('to fully charge the battery'), he's taken it with him...
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Basic mobile phone suggestions - Statistical Outlier
