Thinking of getting an iPhone on 3 as it's time to upgrade.

Best deal on their site I can find is the 3GS for £129 and then £25 a month with 5000 texts and 500 mins.

Anyone managed to get a better pffer at upgrade when calling them? I don't use half that amount of texts or even 100 mins.

Is it a 24 month contract? If it is, I would go for the iphone 4 instead.

25 * 24 + 129 = 729.

iPhone 4 32GB = 30 * 24 + 239 = 959.

Definitely worth the extra 200 over the 2 years. If you're a loyal customer you could try to blag a bit off or something.

The maximum I can spend per month is £25. I'm paying £30 as it is now!

Not sure about the iPhone 4 though as you need a bumper for it for signal!

I have the Iphone 4 on 3 and can't say I've suffered with loss of signal without a bumper. I think the whole thing was blown out of proportion.

Plus you can get the iphone 4 for £99 upfront and £30 a month. Not bad in comparison.

I've got an iPhone 4 from 3 and haven't noticed any signal problems with or without the bumper tbh.

Don't forget quidco though, I got £109 cashback when I signed up

I have iPhone 4 on T-Mobile(same phone though) and I haven't experienced any signal issues. Like others say... Completely blown out of proportion IMO.

Same here regarding the signal 'issues'. Never had a single problem and have never needed a bumper. I don't get what all the fuss was all about!

The iPhone 4 is a CONSIDERABLY better phone than the 3GS in just about every way. Be aware that the 3GS will not be fully supported (and possibly not at all) by the next iOS operating system and in a 3-4 months it will be 2 generations out of date.

If you really can't afford the iPhone 4 right now, you might be better saving up a little (with a £10pm sim only) and use the money you have saved to put towards the iPhone 5 when it comes out. Remember you're committing to a 2 year contract and the 3GS will be beyond ancient history before you get to the end of the 24 month term!

All phones become ancient after about 12 months!

Can anyone advise a good phone from 3 then which is cheaper?

Then imagine how ancient it will be after nearly 4 years!

Any tips of which phone to go for then?

At this stage I would seriously recommend holding out for the new iPhone when it comes out.

There's a chance 3 won't get it until late summer (but who knows really!) but if you drop to a sim only for now, you could potentially save nearly £100 to put towards it (depending on your usage needs). Or alternatively buy the iPhone 4 then when it might be a bit cheaper and it should still have another year of support from Apple.

If you can afford some cash outlay now, you can buy the iPhone 4 grade A (as new) from CEX for £460 (£435 if you can cope with grade B (some blemishes)). Over 2 years it would get the total cost down to 800 (£28 a month equiv with £10 per month sim only assuming a £130 outlay for the phone - [(((24*10)+460)-£130)))/24=£27.91], plus you could trade in some old games and such you nolonger need to reduce the cost further. Of course if you use a lot of minutes you might struggle as this would only give you 100 mins per month.

My wife took delivery of a new iPhone 4 yesterday on the Three network. Now, despite their map showing we should have excellent coverage where we live,a nd this being confirmed by a man int he shop, when the phone was activated last night the very best signal she got was 2 bars.

She bought it online so is going to wait a day and see if it improves with the bumper on and if not, it's going back.

Obviously the signal maps on Three's website is wholly inaccurate.

I wouldn't be so obessed with bars, I get one bar in my house but can still have clear conversations that don't break up or drop.

I don't think your wife's experience with the coverage checker at one address quite qualifies you to make such a sweeping statement!

She is actually getting a signal and 2 bars is reasonable, so what is the problem? Has she experienced any problems using the phone?

While they coverage checkers are not perfect by any means, you could put this down to a number of things:

- Did the coverage checker indicate indoor or just outdoor coverage?
- 3G is being used now rather than 2G which unfortunately is weaker - especially indoors.

All sorts of things can affect signal that three could never account for - such as transmitters for other things (maybe things in your home), bad (with reference to the transmitter) positioning of walls etc.

Thats a bad deal I promise you, I was walking past a 3 store in Chesterfield about 5 weeks ago and they were advertising a brand new 16gb iphone 4 with a deposit of £59.00 I get 2,500 any network any time calls, 5,000 texts, 3,000 3 to 3 calls and all the Data i can eat. I just been to 3's on line store and found a similer deal - just follow link below.

http://www.store-3.co.uk/3-three-app...=product_title

That's not bought direct through 3 though is it? I think it's a 3 reseller, so not 100% sure how trusty they are.

In any case, you're still looking at paying over £900 over the term. I suppose it depends what the OP needs more - mins and internet or low price.

The £30 per month (with a £99 outlay) might be a compromise if you need more than 100 mins per month, or if you can't afford to buy the phone outright to start with.

I was tempted by 3's iPhone 4 deal on the One Plan - 35quid a month for 24months and just pay 69quid upfront. But came to the conclusion that they do that deal because they need the custom do to their coverage issues. Also, if you get one from them, get it from the store as you will get a new one - apparently if you do it online, you could get a refurbished one. Something they don't tell you, but that's true. And when asked straight the guy instore confirmed that is possible.

But all that said - i've gone off the idea of having another iphone now. Too expensive.

Three do sell refurbished phones like O2 and other do, Three clearly state when it is a refurb, they don't provide a refurb claiming it to be new......

Pretty sure this doesn't happen as it would be illegal to sell a refurb phone as new!