Android phones, apps and tablets

Giffgaff is cheap... but a bit shit.

It has to be good service. No GiffGaff or any other budget companies. Just wondering if there's any deals to be had or stick with O2?

is O2 coverage better than EE (orange)? as that seems to be a key requirement?

I'm paying what looks to be an average of around £18 per month for Three, and it's unlimited 4g, enough calls and text that I don't think about it, and it works in Europe and the USA without any extra cost (including the unlimited data).

I think it's a great deal even if it were UK only, but covering international use makes it a no-brainer.

It used to be called the "One Plan", and is a SIM-only month-to-month contract for £18. There was a cheaper one available for a 12+ month contractual basis, but I was uncertain when I signed up so I never took that one.

I'm on a similar 3 deal. £17 a month unlimited 4G, 200 texts & minutes. Free international use in about 20 countries.

I'm finding with Whatsapp and Skype and similar that calls and texts don't get much use nowadays.

Only issue is no tethering when you go abroad which can be annoying. Coverage is possibly not quite as good as Vodafone but that is very rarely an issue.

I'd give another plug for Three although less taken on the international roaming given coverage abroad...

Looks like O2 can do one then and Three will be for me. Cheers bossman.

Might swap the missus over first as a test :)

Gustav, the US providers have a trick that you can work around.

Basically they get paid when you use their network, and some providers like T-Mobile have strong airport coverage but weaker coverage elsewhere. But once your phone finds T-Mobile it will stick to it. So they get paid more for your entire journey by grabbing you when you land.

The way to get great signal in the USA when roaming is simply to scan for and change to another provider. I generally go for AT&T.

Three works on all providers as they have agreements in place, and your device should give you the capability to change networks.

So if you have a shite network outside of a country with a dedicated Three network... just scan and change to a different network.

I found exactly the same in New York. T-Mobile was slow, scanned again and tried AT&T and that was fast enough to happily download tv shows from newsgroups and the like.

In a country that has 3 (or more often Hutchinson Telecom) you're limited to just using that though. Found the speed was fine in Ireland, crap in Indonesia (although I have no idea how fast mobile internet would be expected to be in Indonesia so I viewed any coverage as a bonus).

Wish i'd got the nexus now. Would have had gorilla glass and not scratched. Now i've got an unsmashable screen that is deeply scratched. Joke.

I've got scratches that shouldn't be there on the screen of my Moto G, it's one of my gripes about it. The screen feels very plasticy and it seems to have picked them up from being in my pocket with my work phone (iPhone 5s). Needless to say there are no small scratches on the iPhone screen, because it is not made of cheese.

I just read this about the 5X which doesn't seem very encouraging:
http://9to5google.com/2015/11/16/nexus-5x-performance-flaw/

Everyone at Google is getting one for Christmas so maybe that means it will get sorted (sounds like a software thing to me).

Also no scratches on my 1.5 yo Motorola G 4G (version before yours I think?)
I guess they cut more corners to get the bigger screen etc and keep the price low

Bought mine in August last year, it's 4G so the same as yours I think?

Do you keep another phone in your pocket at the same time though? I always thought it was only dealers and PR people who did this.

It either took a long time for the scratches to appear or it took me a long time to notice them. The latter is a definite possibility. I've basically wanted a new phone since the summer so I'm definitely thinking cheap phones are a false economy (as I can't fit any more apps on it either due to it being 8Gb) given I paid £160 for it.

I'm going to stick with it till I've found a phone I definitely want and can commit the monies though.

http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g_4g-6355.php

Older one I think, which had Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and hence no scratches I guess.
Plenty of drops, but I do try and keep the phone on its own in one pocket, so that helps too

And yeah, in the same boat. Want a flagship phone in an ok footprint, but so far nothing has won me over. Hearing Velocio wax lyrical about the 6p it sounds great, but I just don't think I could deal with the size coming from 130x66mm

Edit edit: Oh, looks like the Moto G (3rd) which I think is the one you have also came with Gorilla Glass

Y u no tempered glass screen protector?

I won't buy another Motorola again, their screens are just too prone to smashing (mostly a design flaw, the glass edges are not protected). and if the 'unsmashable' screen just scratches, then thats useless too.

Oh crap - I thought you were talking about a moto g.
That's disappointing to hear that it scratched so easily. Isn't the screen guaranteed? Send it back maybe?

Sounds like the Omega Speedy moon watch choice - sapphire crystal vs. hesalite (plexiglass). The plastic hesalite won't shatter into pieces but isn't as hard, so scratches easier. Perhaps to stop shattering when the phone is dropped they've used something softer to allow it to bend?

Fuck me, Australia is backward when it comes to this stuff... Best data deal I could get was AU$50 per month for 8GB...

DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON ISP SHIT!!!

Yeah I need to contact them.

In honesty it doesn't say online it's scratch proof. But it does say abrasion resistant and that is hardness and hardness is resistance to indentation. So it shouldn't scratch.

Actually, Ithink it has some weird screen protector thing on it from the factor judging by this;
https://motorola-global-en-uk.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/108532
I'll lety you know.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha #toldyouso

When you have half of Australia's population in one city that's the size of inner Melbourne, it does become substantially easier to provide fast internet options..

Internet gets plumbed in on Friday, new place is practically over the road from the exchange... Fingers crossed...

Copper wire tho'... WTF?!? Fibreoptic on the way early next year... Unbelievable...

ma&pa_com live in rural Northern Ireland. It is still impossible for them to get broadband. Even when all the ISPs claim through their online check and the openreach tools I had at my last job said they could. Just too far from the exchange even though they're 20min from the capital city FFS!

But yet, a 15 year old from Bally-go-backwards down the road is still able to hack TalkTalk.

Most places here have copper to the house. It's only recently that, eg., Infinity gives people an option to have fibre to the home. My old flat in Melbourne doesn't have cable because the majority of people in the block didn't want it.

Australia pioneered large scale optic fibre roll outs between exchanges and between cities.

But then you have backward new governments reneging on their promise of the NBN...

Same shit went down here thanks to Thatcher: http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784

A friend of mine rolls his own broadband and sells to people in small-town Ireland. It is possible but the big companies don't want to know about it.