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Old 30-09-2009, 18:05
Inkblot
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... what's the best alternative?

A top-of-the-range iPod Touch costs £300, so buying that would save around £500 over having an iPhone for the term of a contract or paying upfront for the phone on PAYG and then topping up every month.

So what's the best deal to get a good phone for web and email, plus unlimited data, and just buy the Touch for music, video, games and wi-fi? I'm on Vodafone and my contract ends in November, so before the iPhones are available.
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Old 30-09-2009, 18:12
LooieENG
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The HTC Hero.

I've never seen/heard anyone who has one say they don't love it

You wouldn't even need to get an iPod Touch as well really. The music player is really good, and it supports up to 32GB (or 64 I think) microSD cards, it has apps like the iPhone/Touch, and everything else the iPhone/Touch has (and more, including Flash support for websites other than Youtube and some things like downloading files from rapidshare for example, I don't think Apple let you do that ).
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Old 30-09-2009, 18:16
Inkblot
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The HTC Hero.

I've never seen/heard anyone who has one say they don't love it

You wouldn't even need to get an iPod Touch as well really. The music player is really good, and it supports up to 32GB (or 64) microSD cards
It looks good. Is it usually supplied on a tariff that gives unlimited browsing, email etc? I don't need lots of minutes.
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Old 30-09-2009, 18:18
LooieENG
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Well, I'm on contract with Vodafone via mobiles.co.uk

It's an 18 month contract and for £30/mo (plus £90 cashback so it works out at £25 and £40 cashback from Quidco) and I get the following:

Free HTC Hero
100 Minutes - any time, any network
500 text messages - any network
Unlimited* data transfer

*It says unlimited, but there's a 500mb fair usage policy so if you use over 500mb, in theory they'd ask you to limit your usage, but unless you went over by a few GB or something, I don't think they'd mind. Not sure how much I've used so far (haven't had my first bill yet).
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Old 30-09-2009, 18:28
legends wear 7
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Vodafone will be launching a couple of handset i think you'll like over the next couple weeks.

first being the HTC tattoo

second being our first 360 device the H1, check out the links.

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatc...K-HmPg-Vdfn360

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobi...0-Crrnt360phns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIYqAduDqi4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmqit...eature=related
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Old 30-09-2009, 19:37
Lawe13
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... what's the best alternative?

A top-of-the-range iPod Touch costs £300, so buying that would save around £500 over having an iPhone for the term of a contract or paying upfront for the phone on PAYG and then topping up every month.

So what's the best deal to get a good phone for web and email, plus unlimited data, and just buy the Touch for music, video, games and wi-fi? I'm on Vodafone and my contract ends in November, so before the iPhones are available.
I never thought I'd say this about a Motorola - but the DEXT is actually a very nice piece of kit! I'd check that out.
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Old 30-09-2009, 20:56
TheBigM
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Nokia N900 will be very cool when released it's more of a computer with phone built in than a smartphone.
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Old 01-10-2009, 09:52
kevinjacobs
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... what's the best alternative?

A top-of-the-range iPod Touch costs £300, so buying that would save around £500 over having an iPhone for the term of a contract or paying upfront for the phone on PAYG and then topping up every month.

So what's the best deal to get a good phone for web and email, plus unlimited data, and just buy the Touch for music, video, games and wi-fi? I'm on Vodafone and my contract ends in November, so before the iPhones are available.
How about the Palm Pre? You'd have to be on o2. It could be interesting to see how o2 price this, it's been slow into the UK market. The Palm Pre has been available in the US for a few months now, and is what some people consider the closest rival to the iphone. It has the ability to run multiple apps at the same time. I think it was also designed by some of the original ipod folks (could be wrong) so it's made for intuiative use.

I'm pretty sure it launches in December, and o2 may have to price aggresively with the new iphone competition from orange and vodafone coming in.
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Old 01-10-2009, 10:45
Ryan F
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How about the Palm Pre? You'd have to be on o2. It could be interesting to see how o2 price this, it's been slow into the UK market. The Palm Pre has been available in the US for a few months now, and is what some people consider the closest rival to the iphone. It has the ability to run multiple apps at the same time. I think it was also designed by some of the original ipod folks (could be wrong) so it's made for intuiative use.

I'm pretty sure it launches in December, and o2 may have to price aggresively with the new iphone competition from orange and vodafone coming in.
The pre is coming out on the 16th October just over 2 weeks away! Unfortuntely its not too aggresively priced Click
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Old 01-10-2009, 11:18
kevinjacobs
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The pre is coming out on the 16th October just over 2 weeks away! Unfortuntely its not too aggresively priced Click
Ah, much sooner that I thought. If I knew that I would have held off getting my iphone from 2 weeks ago

It looks to be priced exactly the same as an iphone. Disapointing to see.
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Old 01-10-2009, 11:40
Ryan F
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Ah, much sooner that I thought. If I knew that I would have held off getting my iphone from 2 weeks ago

It looks to be priced exactly the same as an iphone. Disapointing to see.
How you getting on with your iphone? You got the 3GS? I am undecided whether to get the 3GS or Palm Pre
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Old 01-10-2009, 13:03
Lawe13
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Ah, much sooner that I thought. If I knew that I would have held off getting my iphone from 2 weeks ago

It looks to be priced exactly the same as an iphone. Disapointing to see.
I think this is O2s issue here. They seem to be expecting the demand to be as high as the iPhone and have priced it the same, when demand will be lower.
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Old 01-10-2009, 13:04
kevinjacobs
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How you getting on with your iphone? You got the 3GS? I am undecided whether to get the 3GS or Palm Pre
Yup got the 3gs. At the time it was hard to get hold of, most places would only offer me a 3g. But I wanted the 3gs, no point being stuck with old tech for 18 months!

It's very good.

My only problems are this - poor battery life (but all touch screen phones have this) I guess I could turn 3g off when I'm not using it. That would save some juice

The app store is good, i've not paid for an app yet, not until I know I need it.

I wish I had a g-mail account or similar, hotmail is not accesable though mail unless you buy an app for a few pounds. In all honesty, the problems on it I would have on other phones, and then some.

I'm a bit of a mac/apple fanboy, so I was going to like I think. I was interested in the palm pre as it has some links to apple.

I'd like to try the palm pre. I think it will fail as it's moving too slow into the uk market. The iphone sales will move up again with vodafone and orange coming in. It's shame.
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Old 01-10-2009, 13:22
krytenk
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Yup got the 3gs. At the time it was hard to get hold of, most places would only offer me a 3g. But I wanted the 3gs, no point being stuck with old tech for 18 months!

It's very good.

My only problems are this - poor battery life (but all touch screen phones have this) I guess I could turn 3g off when I'm not using it. That would save some juice

The app store is good, i've not paid for an app yet, not until I know I need it.

I wish I had a g-mail account or similar, hotmail is not accesable though mail unless you buy an app for a few pounds. In all honesty, the problems on it I would have on other phones, and then some.

I'm a bit of a mac/apple fanboy, so I was going to like I think. I was interested in the palm pre as it has some links to apple.

I'd like to try the palm pre. I think it will fail as it's moving too slow into the uk market. The iphone sales will move up again with vodafone and orange coming in. It's shame.
Yes it is - unless both my parents have been very flukey with being able to set theirs up! Neither of them have paid for an app, they just use the built in email on the iPhone. And I know it works, I set Mum's up myself!
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Old 01-10-2009, 13:23
stupidityno1
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I second the HTC Hero.

I got one yesterday on contract with Orange and so far, it's proved impossible to prize the thing out of my hands. The touchscreen is a joy to use, the interface is excellent, and there's just as much potential in the Android apps market as there is in the iPhone apps store. The virtual keyboard is, in my opinion, superior to the iPhone's in terms of ease of use and accuracy.

Get it, get it.
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Old 01-10-2009, 13:24
burtonlumley
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What's the issue with Hotmail? Mine works perfectly on the 3Gs.
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Old 01-10-2009, 14:04
kevinjacobs
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What's the issue with Hotmail? Mine works perfectly on the 3Gs.
I'm not sure, in all honesty I didn't try setting it up. I was under the impression you needed pop settings. I tried setting my hotmial up on my mac mail program and it didn't work. Can you PM me and let me know how you set yours up?
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Old 01-10-2009, 14:15
kevinjacobs
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I'm not sure, in all honesty I didn't try setting it up. I was under the impression you needed pop settings. I tried setting my hotmial up on my mac mail program and it didn't work. Can you PM me and let me know how you set yours up?
Dont worry, i've done it now..


So yeah i would recommend an iphone more now.

Thanks for the help.
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Old 01-10-2009, 15:08
legends wear 7
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I second the HTC Hero.

I got one yesterday on contract with Orange and so far, it's proved impossible to prize the thing out of my hands. The touchscreen is a joy to use, the interface is excellent, and there's just as much potential in the Android apps market as there is in the iPhone apps store. The virtual keyboard is, in my opinion, superior to the iPhone's in terms of ease of use and accuracy.

Get it, get it.
I agree with him
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Old 01-10-2009, 19:40
Steve AWOL
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The new Sony Ericsson Satio looks like it could be a decent alternative to the iPhone:

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/new...-soon/se-satio

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobi...ericsson-satio

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phon...tId=prod960022
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Old 01-10-2009, 20:08
Aye Up
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Having used the Satio I can say it is the most effective use of the Symbian OS of any mobile released so far, its gorgeous to use and very responsive. However it lacks the multitouch features I crave....If I wasn't such a blackberry whore I'd have the HTC Hero in a second!
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Old 02-10-2009, 08:02
PompeyBill
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My contract with my current phone (N95 8gb) runs out in November so, naturally, I've been looking around to see what's about. For a good while I was going to take the IPhone plunge, until I really started looking at it.

Expensive bit of kit, limited in some ways (no total Bluetooth), features not available unless you 'jailbreak' it. Hmmm, wouldn't mind those features as default actually. Plus, looking at the people I know who have one, and what they use it for, it's nothing that I couldn't do with a cheaper alternative unless I had the urge to play lightsabres or make my friends' voices sound squeaky.

So, I've been looking around at alternatives and the HTC Hero does indeed look like a real possibility, along with the Sony Ericsson which is due to come out soon. Might go PAYG until the New Year and see what deals are around but, in summary, the IPhone looks relatively expensive considering the alternatives out there.
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Old 02-10-2009, 09:57
Inkblot
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My contract with my current phone (N95 8gb) runs out in November so, naturally, I've been looking around to see what's about. For a good while I was going to take the IPhone plunge, until I really started looking at it.

Expensive bit of kit, limited in some ways (no total Bluetooth), features not available unless you 'jailbreak' it. Hmmm, wouldn't mind those features as default actually. Plus, looking at the people I know who have one, and what they use it for, it's nothing that I couldn't do with a cheaper alternative unless I had the urge to play lightsabres or make my friends' voices sound squeaky.

So, I've been looking around at alternatives and the HTC Hero does indeed look like a real possibility, along with the Sony Ericsson which is due to come out soon. Might go PAYG until the New Year and see what deals are around but, in summary, the IPhone looks relatively expensive considering the alternatives out there.
I take your point about not needing to play lightsabres but having looked at my son's iPhone I'm more interested in whether other, less expensive phones are as user-friendly. For example he uses his iPhone to navigate whilst walking around London. Are other phones as easy to use if you're trying to find the nearest tube or whatever?

Conversely, he finds using the web browser awkward at times. Are other, cheaper, phones better equipped for doing things like ordering from Amazon or checking your bank balance? And are there good value tariffs available for these phones? I still think it's worth considering a separate iPhone Touch if the total price is a lot lower than an iPhone because I need at least 32GB for my music.
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Old 02-10-2009, 10:24
goomba
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the HTC Hero does indeed look like a real possibility
The HTC Hero is a nice handset. Does all the iPhone stuff, and more. One problem though is Bluetooth support is current similar to the iPhone.
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Old 02-10-2009, 10:34
Inkblot
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Obviously I meant iPod Touch!
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