My Samsung Tocco Lite is playing up, to I'm after a replacement. Samsung are my preferred brand, and I'm like an Android based smart phone. However, I don't use my phone to excess, so I'm not after an expensive one. If I were on contract, I wouldn't pay more than £10-£15 per month, as I don't pay more than that at the moment on Pay As You Go. If I were to stick with Pay As You Go, I'd be looking at £120 or less on a handset.

Has anyone got any advice based on those facts?

You sound like me as i'd like an Android phone but don't spend much most months (most people I "know" use an iphone or blackberry , I like to stand out a bit).
Do you have network preference?

This is £16.50 per month on o2 , but you'd have to agree to a 24 month contract-
http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/pa...ng/Galaxy_S_II


This is £15 per month but it's on three network-

http://www.3-mobile-store.com/phones...ng/galaxy-ace/


PAYG phone on T-mobile £109 if bought with £10 airtime

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.901-9079.aspx

This deal looks good but i've not dealt with Talkmobile. £12 per month-

http://www.talkmobile-deals.co.uk/sa...eref=GGL008721

Had a Samsung Galaxy Europa a few days now

Runs on Android 2.2, 300 mins, 5000 texts and 500 mb for £13 per month on 3

Was a little bit worried about patchy signal coverage from 3 but no problems so far

Ah, forgot to add my network, I'm currently on Orange, and would prefer to stay with them to be honest. Those choices look good, I'll look into them more later.

Cheers.

I have just got an Orange San Francisco and it is an excellent phone. I paid £100 on Pay as you Go. Much better value for money than the Galaxy Ace.

update (link): http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phon...orange-in-grey

I know I shouldn't, but I have biased against companies I don't know much about. To me, Orange in-house manufacturing doesn't hold up against the 'big boys' of the industry. I wouldn't have held HTC highly either...I hadn't even heard of them until they were producing smart phones. My opinion may change, and I may see if I can do a free in-store test on the Orange one.

Thanks.

I understand.

On the Orange the build quality is excellent. The Phones are made by ZTE (always had good phones from them).

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pho...-901915/review

Its much better value but its not as good a phone.The ZTE Blade is sluggish in use and stutters playing the likes of Angry Birds. Having had the Blade and played with my daughters Galaxy Ace i would pick the Ace, its faster and much better built, the blades main selling point, the OLED screen is long gone and they have been standard LCD for yonks.

However the Monte Carlo (still a ZTE phone) might be a better choice http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phon...ge-monte-carlo

Can you hear that? Yes that is the sound of me smashing my head against the wall. None of the network providers have an in-house manufacturing devision. Neither did Google until they bought Motorola. They use phone firms to develop them then rebadge them.

The stock OSF is slugish compared to the Ace but it can be modded to run much faster than it. And it is considerably cheaper.