ok help me decided.

Choices

1) Iphone4 prob £35 plus £180 ish on a 24 month. they are meant to be the bees knees, all my pals have them

2) HTC desire £30 (could prob bargain down a bit) and free on an 18month contract. (i use google chrome/calendar and mail already, so would make sense)

3) HTC Legend £20 apparently decent, and what i pay a month now.

4) SE X10 mini nice and small, good camera.

i currently pay £20pcm for 150min, 500 text and unlimited internet. contract up. Hate the Nokia i have won't get another nokia. I spent ages picking/arguing for that phone last time and got it wrong. Any advice appreciated
thanks

I think your problem is that you are doing things back to front. Your first step is to work out how you use your phone (minute, texts, data, roaming etc.). Work out what you want out of a phone (eg email, camera).
Use the first one to find and compare tariffs and the second to find and compare handsets.
Once you've drawn up a shortlist you can compare things like service levels, upgrade policy, repair policy etc.

Loads and loads of deals around.
A 'free Galaxy S' 24 month £25 deal 300 mins/unlimited internet deal with 9 months half price works out at £20 per month.

No real need to pay more.
Last I knew a free Mini 10 could be had for £10 per month.

Not sure why it would 'make sense'? the iPhone certainly syncs with Google Mail and Calendar, I don't know about the SE X10 though.

You are little high there.

As an example, from O2, for a 24 month contract:

£179 + £30month
£119 + £35month

Or £179 + £35month for a 18 month contract.

If you use quidco you should get about £35 back on an O2 contract also.

I bought my desire through mobiles.co.uk got 50 quid cashback through topcashback - offer is still on.

Are you a Google Whore?

If so you really need to go down the Android platform - the synchronising "just works" - I was shocked at how quick I was getting email, contacts and the like on my new phone, but it's really handy - only needed to be connected to my PC to sync with Winamp - I also know that if my phone goes missing a quick change of my Google password (to stop the old synchronising with it!) and then putting my username and password into the new phone will have me up and running before Itunes has finished installing Bonjour, Safari, Quicktime and Mobile Me....

Google Listen allows you to subscribe to podcasts from the browser and they will be on the phone soon after release (I set mine to download only when on charge and via WiFi) - really does change the way I consume podcasts - no remembering to tether the Ipod to the computer and rely on Ziepod downloading the files, Winamp to pick them up and then transfer them to the Ipod days in arrears - and if I listen on the PC my phone knows - they are just there when I jump on my bike in the morning.

News Rob then syncs perfectly with Google Reader - stories read in one are read in the other.

Google Maps and "My Maps Editor" (both by Google) give you sat nav and streetview, and the latter allows you to load "My Maps" from Google maps - really nifty if you have plotted a route you wish to follow (by walking!).

I have the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and it's a wonderful phone - but with one huge flaw - the battery life is awful (and I mean really really really diabolically awful - and I'm someone who's used to overnight charging due to the week phone signal at home and work), expect to charge it during the day if you actually use it - I have so far only got from morning to night without it whining battery low once (Turn all the location based services off until the firmware update is released to achieve that).

Aside from this battery issue (which I admit is a huge failing) it looks like convergence is finally getting there (once colour eInk is perfected then it will be job done).

(Oh and if you go down the Android route - take a look at AppBrain.com - installing that one app will allow you to install all the apps you install on a new phone, and also install apps from the web browser - not sure how paid stuff works mind - this is one of two missing things from Google Universe (Wireless Music synch being the other))