Help choosing a smartphone

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

I have an iphone 5S. If I lost it I would buy a Samsung and have a party!

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

If anyone using the old style sim needs to change the size you can buy a sim card cutter on EBAY for £3. Or go into your local phone shop or local guy in the market place and ask them to do it for you. I bought 1 and cut down sims as phones in the family were upgraded to later models. Saves all the messing about moving contacts etc if you are not tech savvy.

regards

[egaParticipant @ega]

Otley:

Possibly too late to be of help but a point to bear in mind if you are getting an Android phone and plan to keep it for a year or so is that at some stage the manufacturer will stop providing Android updates.

Google phones are sometimes recommended for the reason that the latest Android version will be available quickly but, of course, at some stage your hardware will not support the latest version.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by ega on 27/02/2018 18:15:16:

Otley:

Possibly too late to be of help but a point to bear in mind if you are getting an Android phone and plan to keep it for a year or so is that at some stage the manufacturer will stop providing Android updates.

Google phones are sometimes recommended for the reason that the latest Android version will be available quickly but, of course, at some stage your hardware will not support the latest version.

And if you buy an iPhone bear in mind the updates will eventually end up larger than the memory in your phone… as some of my family members will tell you.

You can't win!

Neil

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

I forgot earlier to say that my Samsung phone didn't need unlocking to take the new SIM card as the card came from Gifgaff which belongs to 02 (Telefonica, Spain.) It is Gifgaff that sell "goodybags" of monthly allowances from 500mb for£5 and so on. I use the option of auto renewal by direct debit each month and works very well for me. Careful choice of Gifgaff out and about and make sure I change over to Plusnet wi fi at home, allows me to get away with only the minimum £5 /month.

John

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 27/02/2018 19:54:25:

And if you buy an iPhone bear in mind the updates will eventually end up larger than the memory in your phone… as some of my family members will tell you.

… and some updates will render more than half your installed apps unusable and many (most) of those never get updated to do so – as I can tell you.

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 27/02/2018 19:54:25:And if you buy an iPhone bear in mind the updates will eventually end up larger than the memory in your phone… as some of my family members will tell you.

You can't win!

Neil

As I pointed out in my earlier post, this doesn't just apply to iPhones. My 2014 vintage Moto G reached this stage a few months ago and I had to replace it – I chose a Moto G5 Plus, which, for £156 for a 32GB model takes a lot of beating.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Gary (and any others with the MOTO G5),

What is the battery life like? I'd read one review where they said it might need charging every day. Is that the case?

Am thinking of upgrading my old phone and was put off the G5 for this reason, so would appreciate the view of someone who actually owns one.

Regards Tom

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

If you have poor mobile connection in you area or somewhere you frequent then getting a phone and service provider that can do call over wifi can be useful

Mike

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Re: "What is the battery life like? I'd read one review where they said it might need charging every day. Is that the case? Am thinking of upgrading my old phone and was put off the G5 for this reason, so would appreciate the view of someone who actually owns one."

Obviously depends very much how it's used. If you keep 'location', Bluetooth & wifi on all the time then a day's use before recharge would be good going.
My G5 is never switched off (I stop most e-services overnight) and a daily top-up charge is often needed. However I think you'll find that most new smart phones will require a daily charge.

At least you can replace the battery in a G5 which is more than can be said for many new phones.

Get the Android app "Accubattery" it's an excellent way to monitor battery use and condition.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Fowlers,

Ok many thanks – as I thought.

Thanks for the tips re replacing battery and re Accubattery – much appreciated.

Regards Tom

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I've just seen an ad. for an app(?) that controls the car radio. This could be useful if you have short arms.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I bought a PAYG iPhone on Three and pay about £10 a year mainly for surfing the net and text messages plus the occasional call. Three are very inexpensive compared to other networks.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Got a 100 quid samsung phone for work stuff, hate them and only use it when I have to. The video it takes is absolutely amazing though, 6 hours of good HD video from a wee phone. Would get another, it is good at what it does

Use a dumb phone for calls and texts a Doro 508

PAYG, does extra big text so you can read it without goggles, I originally got it for an 80 year old pal and was so impressed I bought one for myself

Got a windows tablet for net surfing

Edited By Ady1 on 28/02/2018 16:39:35

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I Posted by Gordon W on 28/02/2018 15:20:18:

I've just seen an ad. for an app(?) that controls the car radio. This could be useful if you have short arms.

Only if you're prepared to stop the car and turn off the engine every time you want to adjust the wireless, as fiddling with your mobile whilst driving is illegal. In the event of use of such a device causing an accident could the purveyors be done for adding and abetting?

​I keep seeing adverts for new cars which go on about a touch screen in the car so you can control your phone whilst driving. If these aren't illegal they should be, anything which distracts from actually driving should be banned, 2 tons of iron at 70mph does a lot of damage if it hits you.

[Gary WoodingParticipant @garywooding25363]

Posted by Tomfilery on 28/02/2018 14:19:04:

Gary (and any others with the MOTO G5),

What is the battery life like? I'd read one review where they said it might need charging every day. Is that the case?

Am thinking of upgrading my old phone and was put off the G5 for this reason, so would appreciate the view of someone who actually owns one.

Regards Tom

I've had my G5 Plus for about 6 weeks. I charge it overnight and it usually has about 75-80% left by the next night. I use the phone quite a lot, but almost never play games, watch videos, or anything else that has the display on for long periods.The battery of the G5 Plus is not replaceable.

So far I like it a lot (much better than my old Moto G) and would happily get another if I lost it.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

When I changed my car last May I bought one with a pile of buttons on the steering wheel, I then replaced the radio for a DAB unit with Bluetooth so any radio adjusting or call receiving can be done without letting go of the steering wheel.

Martin P.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Gary,

Many thanks for that.

Regards Tom

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

My phone becomes part of the car interface but I still find it very distracting to make or receive a call although hands free is perfectly legal. The nice thing about riding a motorcycle is that distractions are minimised, nobody is talking to you, no radio or music, no phone just 100% focus on riding. The great pleasure of motorcycling is that you and the machine work as one, feedback from the road the weather the machine are much more direct than being sat in a car insulated from the outside world.

Mike

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Posted by Otley on 27/02/2018 11:51:45:

I’m looking for advice on how to proceed from anyone of a similar outlook to myself. What physical size phone have others gone with? 16Gb or 32Gb or more – or less? SIM only or pay as you go? How much to spend? Etc. Any advice welcomed!

Thank you.

Just been through this myself. I've seperated the problem into two parts – the phone and the service contract. Three are charging me £12 a month for 12GB of data + unlimited text and calls. So stopped using the house phone for outbound calls. See how much you spend on outbound calls to get the overall cost difference. I 've had the phone for a couple months or so and no matter how hard I use the phone, I haven't managed to use 5GB in a month, so 12GB is equivalent to "unlimited" in my case!

Next problem is then the phone itself. Samsung are fantastic phones, my wife has had them for along time. However, the latest Samsung is £750!!! Not happening. We now have three different Motorola phones in the family and all are good. They are built by Lenovo who have a good reputation. Two of the three were bought as special offers from Carphone Warehouse, service is great and they are easy to deal with. The third was bought from an online outfit offering the phone Moto X4 as the sharpest price, but rapidly turned into a nightmare which took weeks to sort out.

Reading your post, sounds like the X4 (with its 3 cameras and all metal case) is too big and heavy – albeit fantastic value for money. Take a look at a Motorola G5Plus, still big but lighter and it will give you a starting point. It's the right sort of processor and memory capacity to provide at least say 3 years usage before obsolence kills it.

https://www.carphonewarehouse.com/motorola/moto-g5-plus.html#!colour=grey&capacity=32GB&dealType=sf

Whatever phone you go for, do check/challenge the processor as this will determine longevity and the satisfaction you get from using it. Just like driving an underpowered car is a constant source of frustration.

Not having had my own smartphone before, I've been amazed at the huge volume of free and useful applications in the playstore.

Steve

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Mike Poole on 01/03/2018 11:00:26:

My phone becomes part of the car interface but I still find it very distracting to make or receive a call although hands free is perfectly legal.

.

I agree 100%, Mike … The legislation is nonsensical. … Driving is Driving

There's an advert on TV [ FIAT, I think ] promoting an Apple iOS interface, to allow ypu to use the car's display for any of your Apps.

The mind boggles.

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mike Poole on 01/03/2018 11:00:26:

My phone becomes part of the car interface but I still find it very distracting to make or receive a call although hands free is perfectly legal. The nice thing about riding a motorcycle is that distractions are minimised, nobody is talking to you, no radio or music, no phone just 100% focus on riding. The great pleasure of motorcycling is that you and the machine work as one, feedback from the road the weather the machine are much more direct than being sat in a car insulated from the outside world.

Mike

I felt sorry for the poor *** on a scooter doing about 15mph through a blizzard and 2" of snow last night – bet he felt in contact with the weather

Neil

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 01/03/2018 11:32:29:

Posted by Mike Poole on 01/03/2018 11:00:26:

My phone becomes part of the car interface but I still find it very distracting to make or receive a call although hands free is perfectly legal.

.

I agree 100%, Mike … The legislation is nonsensical. … Driving is Driving

There's an advert on TV [ FIAT, I think ] promoting an Apple iOS interface, to allow ypu to use the car's display for any of your Apps.

The mind boggles.

MichaelG.

I bet the FIAT manual has some serious warnings in it.

Martin P

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

The trouble starts if you need to stop for a pee, cold weather shrinkage can make life difficult

Mike

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I rode through about 40 winters and only started to take the car after a splat on black ice which hurt a bit made me think that what you shrug off in your 20s takes a bit longer in your 50s. I remember going to the 21st Dragon Rally in Snowdonia and camping in the snow, must have been mad.

Mike

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