Phone Suggestions

[Ham]

Need to find a replacement phone -  I currently have 2 reasonably recent phones:

Phone 1 - Samsung Wave II  - Given to me free, works after a fashion. Has the key features I want: WiFi tethering (acts as hotspot), can browse occasionally. On the negative side the OS is Bada (Samsung's own brew of Android) leaving me outside mainstream app market and it has some very annoying foibles, especially sending messages to the SIM and keeping quiet about notifications.

Phone 2 - Nokia 100 - a little phone that just works. Battery lasts forever, very reminiscent of my old 6310. Of course it isn't a smartphone, and you can't charge over USB.

What I'd love is something you can switch between modes, so retaining decent battery life on a smartphone, but of course that doesn't exist. So, I'm looking for a smartphone that does what I need. iPhone is out of court because you can't tether without jailbreak, which probably means Android. Nexus 4 seems useful, as do the HTC One and One Mini. being able to see the damn thing without glasses would be an advantage, but then I don't much care for huge form factors like the S4

[Dibdib]

iPhone is out of court because you can't tether without jailbreak

Depends on the network. Three allow tethering on some of their tariffs and not others - although I'm on one of the "non-tethering" plans and seem to get away with wifi-tethering it to my Nexus 7.

(eta: completely standard iPhone 5, bought directly from Three)

[TimC]

I tether my un-jailbroken iPhone regularly. It's called 'Personal Hotspot' in iOS-speak (O2 contract).

[Ham]

That's interesting, thought I might be mistaken. Quite impressed by how the iPhone just works, less impresed with the iTunes tie in.

I'd be buying network free in all instances, when I looked the only one that was beneficial was a 4G contract and that's rather spendy.

[Dibdib]

Apparently getting busted tethering on Three diverts all traffic to a "naughty naughty!" web page asking you to consider upgrading to a tethering tarriff. I don't know how they detect it but I've never had a problem using all sorts of apps on my Nexus tablet with it - it might just object to tethering it to a PC rather than another mobile device. Who knows.

I very rarely do anything in iTunes, except music etc. Nearly everything is just done from the phone.

[eeymsmo]

less impresed with the iTunes tie in.

That's also less of an issue now. I buy apps 'over the air' rather than via itunes, and media management is via MediaMonkey  which does it so much better.

[rafletcher]

less impresed with the iTunes tie in.

That's also less of an issue now. I buy apps 'over the air' rather than via itunes, and media management is via MediaMonkey  which does it so much better.

Thats what I do too - well I did until Mediamonkey stopped seeing my iPhone.    Guess I should try and sort that out!

[Kim]

Probably not quite what you're after, but I have a Nokia 300.  It's a Symbian S40 'smart' phone, which roughly translates to "it has a twitter client and you can look up train times on the nasty browser".  The email functionality is broken.  It does however have a battery that lasts forever; charges via micro-USB; fits in your pocket properly; has a real keypad with clicky buttons you can type using T9 entry at a decent speed with; can play mp3s from a microSD card, and has a mediocre camera.  And costs 50 quid, so you don't have to be too precious about it.  The resistive touchscreen feels like a retrograde step, but actually works when covered in condensation.

It's a couple of steps up from a basic dumbphone, without compromising the vital feature of actually working as a phone.  You're not going to be doing much spodding with it, and there's no wifi, but you can use it as a Bluetooth modem to provide internet access to another device.

[Jacomus]

I have an HTC One X - the predecessor of the new One.

It is a superb phone.

The OS is very easy to use.

Battery life is about 24hrs with fairly normal usage e.g. a couple of hours of calls, 30mins as a hotspot, bit of GTAIII, email, facebook, newsreading and texting.

Turning the WiFi and Data connections off makes a huge difference to battery life, pushing it into 3 days fairly comfortably.

If I could have a do-over, I'd have bought a Google Nexus 4 (since I now have a Nexus 10), but that is purely because Google's UI is more intuitive than the HTC (which is still extremely good).

People say iPhones 'just work', but I've had an iPhone and this HTC - both of them 'just work' except one of them doesn't muck about with iTunes and a bizarre file structure that makes it really hard to explore on a computer.

Using a mini-micro USB adaptor, I can also explore my camera's memory card on the phone (or tablet) and pick photos to upload there and then, or copy for uploading later, or delete some that look odd when shown on a proper screen.

The keypad is nicer than the iPhone's IMO.

[Polar Bear]

I've been running an htc Desire HD for close to three years now.   Battery life has never been great but I can make it last simply by not turning on wifi and 3g unless I really need to.

I've taken to using a 3 mifi for on the move data requirements.   It works well and I use it with my tablet and my laptop.   I'm close ot going back to a dumbfone tbh.

[contango]

If I need to get a smartphone to last longer and can do without data I just tell it to only use 2G networks.

With 3G active it's quite common for me to have to charge every day (sometimes every two days). With 3G disabled it can routinely go 4-5 days without a charge.

[Ham]

Probably not quite what you're after, but I have a Nokia 300.  It's a Symbian S40 'smart' phone, which roughly translates to "it has a twitter client and you can look up train times on the nasty browser".  The email functionality is broken.  It does however have a battery that lasts forever; charges via micro-USB; fits in your pocket properly; has a real keypad with clicky buttons you can type using T9 entry at a decent speed with; can play mp3s from a microSD card, and has a mediocre camera.  And costs 50 quid, so you don't have to be too precious about it.  The resistive touchscreen feels like a retrograde step, but actually works when covered in condensation.

It's a couple of steps up from a basic dumbphone, without compromising the vital feature of actually working as a phone.  You're not going to be doing much spodding with it, and there's no wifi, but you can use it as a Bluetooth modem to provide internet access to another device.

oooo mmmmm.... while I do have a bit of a hankering for Teh Shinys, I would'nt rule it out of court.


Can you block callers with it? does the bluetooth modem need a nokia prog /device driver to use it? how fast?

[bloomers100]

I can extend battery life considerably by turning off mobile data on iPhone 5 when on an audax for example, then just turning it on at meal times for a good dump (of data) in one go. I went away from Apple but very happy to be back, they just werk.

[tom_e]

Same for my (fairly crappy) HTC.  Turn off the smart functions and stop playing with the thing - > battery lasts four days instead of one. 

To a large degree, I think battery life depends more on usage and local signal strength than it does the capabilities of the phone.  It's just with a more capable phone you tend to waste more time on it use it more.

[Ham]

Re-sist..... I must resist.....

Pre-order the Sony Xperia™ Z1 and get FREE detachable camera lens and FREE content*

When you pre-order the Sony Xperia™ Z1 on pay monthly or upgrade you’ll get a free Cybershot QX10 detachable camera lens worth £180. With 10x optical zoom, BIONZ image sensor and Exmor R CMOS sensor, you’ll never have to carry around a separate camera.

[bloomers100]

Nooooooo. Shiny plasticcy phone. Wait for 5s to hit shops.

[Ham]

It's easier once I realised it's the QX10, not QX100, so no 1" sensor.

[uphillbothways]

Probably the best value smartphone at the moment is the Huawei Y300. It is an absolutely bog-standard Android handset in every respect, but costs just £70 on PAYG. Samsung and LG are charging twice as much for worse handsets.

If you don't mind spending a bit more, the Nexus 4 is a no-brainer. It's every bit as good as the iPhone 5 but if you're quick, you can have one for £200 from the Google Play Store - the Nexus 4 was excellent value to begin with, but it's now being stiffly discounted to make way for a new model.

If you fancy Windows Phone then the Lumia series are all good value, but the availability of apps is still fairly poor.

[Ham]

Hah! the joke is that Google Play deal doesn't show up in Google search!!

Nexus 4 is looking good, tbh. If I jump for it, I save myself ££££ and end up with a phone that does at least 95% of what I want

[devitch]

I know you said you weren't interested in a large handset but I still have to mention the Note 2.

Yes it's large but you really do get used to it very quickly, then you wonder how everyone else copes with such tiny screens. The reason I mention it despite this obvious flaw is that it meets your two criteria, the battery on it is just mammoth! With light usage I can run for 4 or 5 days without charging, and when I use it for GPS I can get a full day of cycling in and still have charge to spare. Additionally because of the large screen you can very easily "see the damn thing without glasses".

You really do get used to the size.

[Ham]

Clicked on the Nexus, has to be a good deal. I can live without the best speaker/camera/games player.

[andyoxon]

Nexus 4 doesn't have SD card AFAIA, how much of a pain would this be? (I'm looking for a PAYG phone atm.)   Interested in the Huawei Y300, as a cheap option... 

[Ham]

It won't be a problem for me, my current phone has the capability and I never use it, but hten I don't use an mp3 player much. Has 16Gb of storage, that'll do for me.

[uphillbothways]

Nexus 4 doesn't have SD card AFAIA, how much of a pain would this be? (I'm looking for a PAYG phone atm.)   Interested in the Huawei YY300, as a cheap option...

It depends on how you use your smartphone. Google designed the Nexus series with a relatively small amount of memory and no expansion options, on the expectation that users would mainly rely on streaming and cloud services. 8gb or 16gb of on-board memory is plenty for apps and photos, so it's only really an issue if you want to carry a lot of media content with you.

[Woofage]

Thanks to this thread my credit card has just taken a hit to the tune of £200