600 minutes, unlimited texts & unlimited data with an iPhone 5 for £28 from 3 seemed like a bargain at the time.. But having checked my usage 22 months in.. It seems I've been throwing money away.

So before I get lured in again, I need to find a non smartphone with MP3 playing abilities. (The music I've paid for on iTunes) so it will need to have a slot for an SD card & I'm thinking the 3 2 1 tariff from 3

Don't want to pay a fortune for it in case I don't get on with it

Your help is appreciated...

Or if you can think of anything other suggestions then fire away!

The problem with a non-Smart phone for holding music is that storage capacity is always limited compared to what you are use to on an iPhone. You would actually be better off with an iPod for music and separate phone for calls and text.

I'm not only trying to rid myself of Apple & save money but being the bipolaridiot that I am, trying to minimise having to remember to pick up everything before I leave my gaff..
You can guarantee when I'm on one I will forget something.. This has been minimised with my iPhone 5 in a case with my cards..

I think I've set myself an impossible goal..

Could you just not keep the iPhone, but once your contract is finished move a sim only contract that better matches your usage (which should be cheaper than what you are paying now). Or do you specifically want something that is not an iPhone (and in which case why specifically not a smartphone??).

No smartphone no constant connection no money being sucked down the drain every month.
I've been craving an old school PAYG tariff for a while now. £10 on see how long it will last.. Was my thinking.. Hence the 321 3 tariff

I'm just gutted after checking my usage that I'm using virtually nothing.. For example..

my iPhone stats were reset on 11 Jan & since then I've used 8.5 mb cellular data...

Whenever I step out. The phone is always on, playing pre downloaded spotify playlist, I'm a bit of a loner, so very rarely make / receive calls / text. Anyone I do text is on iMessage but I don't see that as a reason to stick with an iPhone when texts are so cheap these days..

Am I barking?
Again your help / reasoning is appreciated

I've got a Nokia C2 as a work phone. Old style candy bar.

Has a microSD slot and can play MP3 or ACC files.

So sounds like that would suit your needs.

The only limitation on how much music you can carry with you would be the size of your memory card. Lasts about a week on a charge but as I don't use the music player I couldn't tell you how that would affect it.

There's nothing to stop you using a smartphone on something like 3-2-1.

If you only used 8.5MB of data it would only cost 8.5p on 3-2-1.

Having a basic non add-on style PAYG can be easily done on an iPhone. You could even turn mobile data off and use no data at all when not on wifi.

I guess my point was there is no reason why you can't do that on an iPhone. Which you already own.

Have a look for a Samsung Galaxy S - the media player not smartphone. should cost less than 60 quid.

I think you can update it to CM11 as well.

The Sony Ericsson k750i would be perfect for your needs but finding one in good condition now could be tricky.

Should be easy. Mine is mint though its the one locked to EE (t-mobile branded).
I got the firmware upgraded to the Walkman software featured W800i but an unlock was never deemed worth paying for.

Not used it in years, however I think it is only 2G and the memory card support might be limited (think I had an adapter but maybe just from Sony to Sony memory).

Personally I'd suggest getting a cheap smartphone and using that in 2G, no data.

That Sony Ericsson looks just the ticket!

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts! I'm still open to any other ideas

Any tariff ideas appreciated for keeping my smartphone or non smartphone!!

For your minimal use nothing beats 3-2-1 PAYG from Three. Calls are 3p per minute, texts are 2p per text and data is 1p per MB.

You can top up from £5 online and you get a free 150MB data allowance with every top up (which is valid for 30 days).

Credit lasts as long as it last, as long as you make at least one chargeable action every 6 months.

Dilemma though: the k750i was only 2G, while Three require you to have a 3G phone.

So the original poster could look at a slightly newer candybar phone that does 3g - I did have the k850i which accepted MicroSD and was also 3G capable. Or, sticking with a 2g phone a 2G provider will need to be chosen.

Although in any case, it strikes me that the original poster should keep their iPhone (they've paid for it after all) and put a Three 3-2-1 SIM in there. Stick with iMessage and at usage of <20MB per month in total, that's 20p per month for mobile communications. Plus a few extra pennies for any calls / SMS. Can't say fairer than that.

Sorry, I totally ignored that (stupid) idea, the k750 is ancient, only available second hand (probably with a knackered battery) and wasn't a very good phone, software or UI wise when it was new, 10 years ago.

You will also struggle to get a memory card for it, as it used the memory stick duo format, they also didn't get all that large capacity wise (8GB or 16GB IIRC), and stupidly expensive now.

Anything made in the last 5 years would probably be better.


Most definitely, I totally agree.

So these new Low end Nokia phones? They aren't 2G?

I'm thinking the 106 (no net access) just calls and texts?

Not that tricky. The K800 & K850 were similar but also had 3G.

I use a Nokia N79 as well for music.

The cheapest option is still the iphone you already have. It's a great MP3 player, although you do have a bit of fuss getting your own MP3s on to it with itunes.

A PAYG SIM would cost you next to nothing.

One more thing; get your iPhone unlocked by 3 now before you forget.

Drag and drop is a bit of a fuss? It's really pretty easy, open iTunes, drag the MP3 onto the iPhone, done.

I'm trying to look at it from the viewpoint of BipolarIdiot

If I'm sticking with my iPhone I'll just continue to use Spotify but at least I know how to stick MP3s on my phone now... I dread trying.. I find iTunes overly complicated

You're all wonderful! Thank you for the hints n tips

It's pretty simple.

Open iTunes and connect your phone to the computer, click the little icon of the iPhone near the top left to bring up the summary page for the iPhone.

Half way down on the left is a heading 'On My Device', click on 'Music' directly under that heading and the page will populate with all the music on the iPhone, if you drag an MP3 on top of the existing music it will add the song to the iPhone library directly.

The only other step *I think* you might have to do if it won't work is go to the 'Summary' page and scroll the big box (the right of the page) down and put a tick in the option 'Manually manage music and videos'. It has been so long that I can't remember if it has to be ticked to drag and drop or not.