Hi, I need some advice about a new phone, my current Orange contract is up for renewal and I'm not sure what handset to go for.

At the minute I have an LG Arena on a £15pm unlimited texts contract and tbh I hate the handset.

I'm tempted to go for an iPhone, my other half has an iPhone 3GS and I do like it, but don't wanna end up with an obsolete phone in 6 months (although I realise that is a danger with whatever I settle for...) and I'm deeply opposed to paying for a handset alongside the contract price.

I've been put off Blackberry's a little because I support them at work and spend a lot of time fixing synch issues, although this is in a corporate environment with BES, so dunno if its a problem with private ones. Although I do really really miss having a phsyical keyboard.

HTC and Samsung phones I know nothing about.

In the past I've had several Sony phones, K850 and W995 and loved them and their interfaces, but not looked at their smartphones...

Any advice / opinions welcome

Hmmm tough decision!!

iPhone, while its a not bad phone a new one is about to hit in the next few weeks so i wouldn't get the iphone 4. Blackberry, well i haven't a good word to say about them so cant recommend them!!

As for HTC and Samsung, well ive owned many of their products. I had the Desire, The Desire HD and the Sensation for a few weeks. I'm now on the Samsung Galaxy S2 and can say its the best out the lot just now.

I say go and play with them all in store before making a commitment. Do not listen to the salesman as they will probs recommend the iphone as they will be trying to shift them before the new one comes out.

If you're deeply opposed to spending money on a phone as well as signing up for a contract, then unless you're willing to spend a LOT more than £15 per month, you've got no chance of getting the new iPhone for free. On the cheapest iPhone tariffs, you'd expect to spend at least £200 on the phone itself. You only start to get freebies when you sign up on contracts at £40+ per month.

If you're looking to get a smartphone, you have a much better chance of getting a free phone if you go for a phone running Android.

Which is what i don't get tbh.

I got my Galaxy S2 free on a £30 a month contract yet still have to pay x amount for the iphone. Very odd indeed.

Staff from local Vodafone shop leafletted local/neighbouring businesses and shops (including where I work) offering this deal last week:
Iphone 4 (black or white) 900 mins, unlimited txts and 750mb data for £20.50 (24 month contract).
Not sure if this was a "one off" localised promo but it's an indicator that yo CAN get latest iPhone for far cheaper thanj some of the headline ads suggest. Kep in mind Iphone5 (or wahatever it's called) is out soon so cheaper v4 units are inevitable.

It's the Apple way. They almost never do sales on their computer hardware either. Different business model. Apple are one company. All the Android phone manufacturers are competing against each other!

Yeah, I'm looking at £25-30 a month to get a decent handset, but really don't wanna go higher than that, some shops are offering the 3GS for free on a £25 contract but in a couple of months that's gonna be 2 generations out of date lol.

There are loads of high end deals around at £15 a month with a free phone as long as you settle for a single core CPU.

That includes the Optimus Black with the new Nova IPS display which is 40% brighter than their 1st generation retina display.

Moving up to any smartphone is going to feel like rocket science.

Maybe not current but unlike it's predessors, the 3GS is a good phone. For example the 2G and 3 were very slow. The phone industry has been like this for ages, not just Apple. They are always evolving their range.


PJ