Best time to buy Phone

[Fidge]

Dear Knowledgeable Auntie BCF, It is about time I get a smartphone after having a samsung phone I bought on ebay (£1 posted inc charger) for over 2 years, the battery still lasts over 2 weeks but Im missing out on a lot of apps and the ease of taking a photo and having it uploaded automatically.

What I want to know is whether it is best to buy a smartphone now while all the shops are competing price, or after Christmas when they want to get rid of all the shit they have left over?

[Ben90]

The ideal time to buy a smartphone would have been three days ago.

Just get one as you need one, the prices on the more basic smartphones are unlikely to change. What sort of models are you looking at? Budget? Pay monthly or buy an unlocked phone outright? Bearing in mind if you plan to keep your number you may need to get your SIM converted to a micro/nano one.

oh and kiss goodbye to two week battery life. Protip: buy many chargers and keep one everywhere you go; work, car, mistress' house, etc
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Yamaha FZ6 S2

[Fidge]

I'd get one on Pay as you go, haven't really been looking at specs, I want the best specs for the money though.

[Polarbear]

Then tell us your budget!
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[NJD]

iPhone 4S.

[hedgehugger]

https://www.expansys.com/motorola-moto-g-2nd-gen-4g-black-275412/?partner=ukemail&utm_medium=email&utm_source=uknewsletter&utm_content=2015-12-04-HEB&utm_campaign=04th%20December%20B2C%20%28Non-personalised%29

Moto G


they were selling on Amazon recently for £89 in their deals (so may do that price again!)

I've had my moto G for a couple of years now. Nothing to complain about. Sim free too.

[Robby]

Moto G or Wileyfox Swift. Similar spec, both around £100. Wileyfox has a slightly better spec, but also from a small start up and a bit more geeky. Moto G is popular and from a known manufacturer. Both offer a lot for the money.

[stevo as b4]

I'm not getting on that well with my new bought outright Sony Xperia Z3C.

It was supposed to be one of the best Android smartphones in it's price/size bracket, but it's fiddly at best and I don't get much out of Apps. It's good for taking pictures and telling the time though!

If I went out with own money again to buy a handset I would go for a Samsung, just based on how many people I know with them, and how easy people say they are to use.

[Fidge]

Before or after Christmas?

hmm, maybe I will buy 2nd hand.

[dydey90]

A used iPhone 5 can be had on eBay for around £100. It's old enough to be cheap, new enough to still run all the apps.
iPhones are easy to use if you're not a techy person and last quite a while. I know quite a few people still using the iPhone 4, which is now five years old.

I actually have a used one sat in a drawer but I don't have a spare charger to go with it.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[sensi5446]

Another vote for moto G, bought my daughter one last year and it does everything a teenager need, got it sim free so she's on giffgaff.

I'm in the same boat as you wondering when to buy before of after christmas as my HTC M8s had it after 2 years of hard labour, I want the nexus 6P next

[Lord Percy]

I got a Moto G for exactly the same reason - budget phone with smartphone ability.

Personally I wish I'd got one a tiny bit better. It's really sluggish at times now. Sometimes it pretty much grinds to a halt and I just have to stare at it while it deals with whatever basic thing I've asked it to do. I've had to download a couple of special apps for ensuring background activities are closed or kept to a minimum. I don't use any particularly heavy apps either, no games or anything like that.

And a side-rant: Considering that the apps I use now are pretty much the same as the ones I had on my iPhone 3 about 6 or 7 years ago (camera, facebook, ebay, maps, etc), I can't understand for the life of me how or why any modern device can't easily manage these things. Imagine buying a budget computer today that can't handle basic software from half a decade ago. A quick google tells me the Moto G4 has twice the processing speed and 4x the RAM of my old iphone 3S. So surely the only reason the Moto G can't handle these basic apps is that developers are designing them needlessly heavy just because they can. Or is the Android OS to blame? I don't know. But what I do know is that the apps I used 7 years ago are pretty much the same as they've always been in terms of functionality, but for some reason my newer, 'better' phone can't handle the updated versions of them..!

[Fladdem]

I've got the Sony Xperia E2, seems alright. Just no memory space, and freezes a lot when trying to do things. Battery lasts about two days, but no one ever contacts me.

I spent ages trying to find which model it was and I'm still not even sure now if it was the E2, I'm not sure how much it was, I think it was about £60, I don't really know, it's PAYG, seems pretty sturdy as well, dropped it in a puddle when green laning, hoofed it across the room when I did that daft thing you do when you fumble something, try to catch it with your foot then instead you just appear to have drop-kicked it.

To be perfectly honest, I would do just as well with a more basic phone, I did have an old orange made thing, that was alright, seemed tough, but the battery wouldn't hold a charge any more after 4 years. When I finally break this one, I'm going to probably get the same again, or similar, depending on how well this survives. Been going strong since July 2014!
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Current:1991 Honda MT50 (Soon to be a H100/MTX/MT5 hybrid), 1976 Honda Cub C70, 2005 Honda Varadero 125, 1993 Yamaha TTR250 Open Enduro , 2010 Road Legal Stomp YX140, 1994 Honda CRM 250 MK III, 1999 Cagiva Mito 125, 1992 Honda CB400 Super Four, Stomp T4 230, 1984 Honda H100s, 2009 Sym XS125K
Past:2003 Aprilia RS125, 1982 Kawasaki GPZ550(FREE BIKE!)
I'm having more fun than a well-oiled midget.

[DRZ4Hunned]

I'll be getting a second hand Galaxy s5 purely for the removable battery and decent performance.
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DRZ400-SM
FZS600

[Polarbear]

[DRZ4Hunned]

[Fidge]

[Ste]

There is no best time, miss out on one good deal and next week there'll be others. Then the week after that the prices will be reduced further cos the new model is coming to market soon.

Compare the cost of buying a handset on its own and getting a sim only contract with the cost of a contract that includes a 'free' phone.

Check out cashback offers when taking out a new contract and when buying the handset.

[Ariel Badger]

Engineers use a Win Phone, love mine.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Phoenix]

You're an engineer, you should get yourself a notepad and pencil, that's what you need.

[Rogerborg]

A retracting pencil.

Holla if you've ever used a slide rule.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Holla.

I needed a ruler and couldn't find my normal one.
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Ste]

Got a new phone, battery life on standby with the standard battery is one month.

It's got Snake as well.

[Ariel Badger]

Balls, I just brought a slide rule on Ebay.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Fidge]

I still haven't bought a phone, and feels like I haven't charged mine since I started the thread. I was thinking about getting a Chinese phone but wanted one for when I go on holiday (something to use while I'm away from the PC and to take pictures with). The only option now is to buy a decent phone second hand for ~100. Or to use my dads smartphone that he never uses.

or to wait a few more months