Android phones, apps and tablets

Posted on
Page
of 932
  • Yeah, I understand why people buy on contract but I wouldn't any more unless I was skint.

  • It's not the same for everyone, but I started buying phones outright because it was cheaper.

    With Three, I've just noticed it's not actually cheaper.

  • Phones never sell for what you want to get for them. Maybe iDrones but everything else depreciates hard.

  • OK, disregarding that example, £264 over 24 months versus £350 outright is still clearly cheaper.

  • Are you calculating the cost over 12 months or 24?

  • anyway fast boot 5.0 yet? mines booting right now.

  • I've got my last two phones on 18 month contracts and in both cases it was cheaper (using a £12 tariff as the base) than buying outright. I'm actually due an upgrade, but not bothered. Not sure what to do.

  • I'd crunched the numbers as got fed up of EE and ended up going for the HTC M8 on three. Unlimited data & texts with 300minutes. Cost is £42 and worked out cheaper than buying the phone outright

  • I'm using PAYG on Three but since getting a 4G phone (which I love) I'm getting through top ups more quickly than I was and would like to just not worry about data.

    The options are basically 4Gb of data/600 minutes a month or unlimited data and 200 minutes for £15 a month.

    Is there a way of getting these Three sim only deals cheaper from somewhere else? A lot of recent posts in this thread seem to imply that you can get unlimited data for less than £15 a month.

  • Three's 1 month rolling sim only contracts aren't that cheap. I've been paying £18/month for 200 minutes, unlimited texts, and "all you can eat" data. 200 minutes just isn't enough for me, to go up to 600 minutes (the next step up), it's £23/month.

    If you disregard the fact that I'd be tied down for 24 months, it's only £10-£11 more a month for most brand new Android phones on Three on the same tariff. So I'd effectively be getting a brand new phone for £240-£264 spread over 2 years. I'm now beginning to question whether buying a phone outright actually makes more sense.

    This seems to be ignoring the fact that Three's (cheaper) sim only contracts are 12 months, plus they guarantee no price rises during your contract (which is a damn good reason to stick with them for me after getting burnt by Orange TWICE in a 24 month contract).

  • Got the Moto X... it's freaking incredible, was easy to unlock. Will wait for root until after Android L arrives.

    Battery on this thing just lasts and lasts.

  • I use this: http://www.gelert.com/gelert-phone-case-784062

    you can still use it through the case in a pinch - which is good when fumbling with wet hands.

  • How do you find Three's service?

    I'm fucking sick of GiffGaff's poor service.

  • Is that the new moto x?

  • That's the one, Moto X (2014).

    Felicity's Nexus 4 has been unusable most of this year with the battery barely getting an hour out of it. I tried to get her on the lower phones but she was having none of it, especially when she saw the bamboo Moto X. So I caved in and bought one for her on credit card as the long distance relationship is tough enough without us not being able to talk on the phone.

    And then I decided to treat myself to one too as the Nexus 5 (that I have) currently has good value in it as I've taken care of it and it's still capable... so my upgrade doesn't prove too costly.

    We are now a household of Motorola's. Both very happy with them.

  • I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again (because I've just looked into it again, as I'm due an upgrade and trying to decide whether to jump ship or not): 4G is not the same from everyone. Threes 4G rolled out at speeds not a whole lot faster than previous gen. I'm not sure if it's much faster now, but I'm skeptical. EE's 4G is faster than most people's home ISP speeds. Both have advantages (one's fast, the other's cheap). But simply saying Three is 4G at a fraction of the cost isn't the whole story. (It seems O2 is by far the loser, btw - don't get O2 4G. Something about their network being unsuitable for urban areas, so it ends up being slow and costly - which means Giffgaff 4G will be equally shit).

    I'm still tempted by Three. Money is an object in my case. If it wasn't, I'd stick with EE. Having said that, I'd like to see some real data on average speeds before making the decision.

  • 4G is not the same from everyone

    Very true.

    Three is slower, I (on average, testing now and then) see 5-6 Mbps down, and 11-12 Mbps up.

    But... there's nothing I do on my phone that uses even that much speed, but the feeling of decreased latency is that everything is much snappier and responsive.

    The real benefit is in having as much speed as I can feasibly use on a phone, and for it to feel fast... whilst being dirt cheap and unmetered.

    Three doesn't begin to compete with Vodafone on edge case network performance, but then... it's edge case. I've never encountered a time when Three hasn't been adequate, and yes I tether.

    What do you need more than a few Mbps for? Even listening to Spotify whilst casting iPlayer and tethering your computer is going to fit into 5Mbps. It's only torrenting or moving enormous files that really call this speed into question, and that doesn't happen on the phone.

  • I don't need it to be warp speed, I just need it to be fast enough to make paying for music streaming services on my phone actually worthwhile. Would also be nice to be able to use my phone while everyone else smugly uses theirs on the train.. and it would be good to be able to use it as a hotspot, seeing as this is verboden on GiffGaff (something I didn't realise when I switched).

  • ^ get spotify premium and save some playlists to your phone for offline use when on the train.

  • then I decided to treat myself to one too as the Nexus 5 (that I have) ...

    how does the moto x compare to the nexus 5?

  • Good day to day - normally have a decent signal and the 4G is fast. As Velocio says it may not be massively fast in terms of megabytes per second but it feels a lot faster than when I was on 3G - better latency I guess. I've never tested their customer service but switching my phone number to them was a doddle - just filled in an online form and it moved the next day.

    My signal isn't great at work (fine for calls/texts, not so good for data) but I think that's our building and being surrounded by tall buildings in Canary Wharf: outside of a very small patch it's fine. I suspect I'd have the same problem with other networks.

    'Feel at home' is really useful if you're in France/anywhere else covered and the prices outside of that when abroad aren't unreasonable.

    Music streaming on Google Play Music worked great last time I tried it. This is one of the reasons I want unlimited data or a big data allowance.

  • how does the moto x compare to the nexus 5?

    Let's just say that if you have a Nexus 5 you're already in a good place... but, the Moto X does these things better:

    • Perception of quality.
      • It feels better in the hand.
      • The screen feels larger (it is, a little) and brighter.
      • The phone is around the same dimensions as the N5... but the metal casing make it feel more durable.
      • I chose a walnut back, it feels more tactile to hold.
    • The CPU is fractionally faster... noticeable on some small things, but the N5 was already nice.
    • The GPS seems to pinpoint me faster.
    • Front facing speakers are great for sat nav operation.
    • The multiple small sensors that detect movement and motion are great... wave your hand over it and it will show the time and whether you have new emails without you needing to turn the phone on.
    • On that last point, the screen is running some fancy new display that allows Motorola to only power a subset of the screen... so with the last mode you can really extend the battery.

    But for me, I went for it for the advertised voice benefits:

    • The Moto software wraps "OK, Google".
    • Added some commands.
    • Can choose a custom greeter to wake the voice stuff, I went for "OK, Computer" but considered something like "Good morning Jarvis" for an Iron Man vibe. I would've liked a shorter phrase, but you really need 4 syllables or more to distinguish the command.

    The camera is worse is low-light conditions, but as good (if not better) in outdoor daylight conditions.

    There are no OS changes, this is still pure Android... so the above are only hardware plus Motorola helpers.

    The big thing is the feel and perception of it being really high quality, and what feels like a big leap in the voice control stuff.

  • I hate working at Cunty Wharf anyway but the phone signal thing drives me nuts... It can take up to ten minutes for me to get a GMail verification SMS when I'm in the office... And forget about normal calls...
    #firstworldproblems

  • Vodafone I get around15Mbps up and down. As mentioned though it's rare I do something that requires that on my phone

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Android phones, apps and tablets

Posted by Avatar for GA2G @GA2G

Actions