I am interested in a few different mobile phones that are out or are released in a few weeks.

Samsung Galaxy s2
HTC Desire HD
HTC Incredible S
LG Optimus 2x
Blackberry Bold 9780
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

All of these phones are free on a 24 month contract. Does anyone think that a contract this long, is a good idea, just because the phone is free?

I wouldn't need a lot of minutes about 300 minutes and a few hundred texts.

Certain networks have a limited range of phones, when going directly through them for a phone contract.

So what are the Carphonewarehouse like to have a contract with? I am asking as this will be my first mobile phone contract.

I would want to pay no more than about £30 p/m. But will a smartphone need a large data amount, some tariffs don't include this.

Thanks in advance.

I am also looking at some of these phones, so I would be very interested to here about people's experiences with them.

Personally, I wouldn't sign up to an 24 month contract as it is far too long for me to keep a phone - I would find myself paying off the cost of the phone long after it had left my ownership! If you're the type of person that keeps phones for 2 years or more though it might be okay for you.

A good way to judge which deal (between 18 months and 24 months) is best is to work out the cost over 24 months in either case. With the 18 month contract, check the sim only price of your tariff over 6 months and add that on to the 18 months price. When you work it out this way, it isn't always better to go for the cheaper monthly payments on the 24 month plan. Plus you can get s new phone/jump ship to another network that bit sooner on an 18 month plan.

Where you sign up for your contract doesn't really matter, so go for the best deal. CPW don't run their own physical network, though they do have a 'network' that runs of the back of (last time I checked) o2. Personally I'd go for whichever network gives the best deal - so long as they have good coverage in your area.

If you select a tariff without data, you can expect to pay anything around £5-10(ish) per month to add it on. Also check how much data you're allowed. 500MB seems to be the favourite 'low-end' amount to offer at the moment. Heavy usage may see you exceed that, so think carefully. My experience with Android phones has been them hammering my data in the background - probably related to a rouge app or 2! So keep an eye on your data usage if you don't have an unlimited plan (rare these days) - especially to start off with.

Good post markrduk. However I just wanted to clear something up.



That's not quite true. CPW - and some internet airtime resellers - provide unbranded handsets with a contract. If you sign up directly with an operator, you'll get a branded one.

I'm not referring to the minor irritation of the operator logo on the handest, but the major one of operators installing their own firmware. If you look at a branded handset and an unbranded one, you'll see that the menu's etc are often quite different.

Many ordinary users don't seem to be aware of the consequences of this. Smartphones can be particularly affected - the firmware can affect the phone's performance significantly. I'm pretty sure there are, or have been, cases where certain aspects of the phone's functionality have even been removed by the operator. At the very least you will almost certainly have to wait longer for updates to the OS. Say for example, an Android update from Froyo to Gingerbread is released; you can't just update with the new version, you have to wait for your operator to release their version of the update.

The degree of branding varies. Orange (and presumably T-mobile now) are the worst culprits (I'll probably leave them partly because of this). o2 have a relatively light touch (and don't lock their phones either). However light the touch though, you aren't getting the phone as the manufacturer intended. Personally I find that seriously annoying.






I'm pretty sure this is a prime example of what I'm talking about. As part of the operator firmware, they include apps that connect to chargeable operator services. I hear that Orange do this and that a number of people with new smartphones, who aren't tech savvy, have been ambushed by these charges.

By the way OP. It might be worth waiting a couple of months for the new HTC dual core phone. Looks as if it might be quite exciting.

First I've heard and I've been with Orange since 2002 and had an Android phone since 2009 and WinMob phones since 2007. No operator specific data hugging apps on any of them.

I have definitely heard of this. If I think about it I'm fairly sure it was on a Money Saving Expert forum post - I think the one called "Orange Retentions", or "Orange Retention deals". Of course you never know how true a forum post is, but it doesn't hurt to be careful.