Summer on Radio 1

[Jono]

Any one have a contract phone? I'm considering getting one as I guess in the long run it'll save me from spending so much on a new handset... but I went through £15 texts in the last two days. So ideally I want a text package? Vodafone, Orange and O2 the biggies here. Any advice? Ideally a Sony Ericsson phone with FM Radio.

[DC]

sont ericsson are crap. they wear out after about 5 months and the connection for the headphones, the headphones or anything to do with them wears out and starts to work in one speaker and crap. so get another phone with fm on it.

[Kelly]

I have a contract phone (Daddy pays for it :oops:). I'm on o2 and I get 150 messages and 50 minutes a month. It's basic, but it's only £15.

On the subject of phones, I've got an Ericsson and DC's right. The headphones are rubbish. Not only do they wear out, but they're really bloody uncomfortable. Although the phone itself is quite good.

[Monitorabbit]

I dunno about that I have a Sony on contract from BT, because I kept it after 1 year for a further 18 months I get 200 texts and minutes included for only £12 before vat, was £30 a month when the phone was new (with discount of £15 for the first 6 months) with only 100 minutes and 50 texts - so originally the cost of the posh handset is basically included in what you pay monthly. My phone's still fine, but to be fair a lot of people with W750i say theirs aren't, I've also heard a lot moan about the Motorola Razr being unreliable and breaking easily.

[Kelly]

The Razr is rubbish. Hard to use, and both of the one's we have in this house are broken.

[Behelzebub]

I've got a contract phone and yes, my dad does pay for it... Mine's on BT Mobile and it's only about £20 a month but I only get about 50 texts. The phone itself's been pretty reliable, it's a Nokia 6230 and I've now had it for over two years without any real problems. Get a Nokia, you can't really go wrong with them, haha.

[Timsk]

I moved away from 'standard' mobiles a few years ago, to sim-enabled pocket pcs. You can pretty much do away with your ipod and laptop as well as it'll do anything - and loads of new software's always being written for them... A bit bigger than most phones, but given it cuts the number of other things I have to carry I'm ok with that.

Ooh - and wifi enabled ones can even do voice over IP with a live switchover when you walk into a hotspot. i.e. free (or cheaper) calls.

An example: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/eshop/personal/phones/phone-overview.do?mpc=300003184&allOnOnePage=false&menuId=handset.postpaid&paymentTypeId=1&bundleTypeGroup=0&sortOrderId=handsetList.sort.label.default&currentPageNumber=6

[Bexy]

If you're thinking about O2, the online deals are a lot better than the deals instore.

With my contract, I get 750 off peak cross network minutes and 750 text messages a month for £25, but it's an eighteen month contract. If you were to get the same contract for 12 months you'd only get 500 minutes and 500 texts. It is a bit annoying only having free minutes at off peak times, but if you don't really call people in the day then it's fine. I tended to only call people in the evening when I first got the contract, so it was well suited to me.

As far as I know O2 coverage is pretty good too. Ignore what people normally say about their customer service, I've been with them for about three and a half years and never had any problems!

Now I've started to call people in the day a bit more I'm thinking about changing contracts. The Flext plans from T Mobile look pretty good. I don't entirely understand how they work, but feel free to click here (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/eshop/personal/price-plans/paym-plans.do?tariffFamilyId=300&menuId=tariff.postpaid&paymentTypeId=1&bundleTypeGroup=0&navTab=3) and see if you can make more sense of it than I can!

[Geezer7348]

Lindy got a cracking deal on 3 mobile, she got a free ericsson z610 flip phone, bluetooth headset, hands free kit aswell as a case. All she had to pay for is her line rental of £15 P/M for 500 anytime anynetwork minutes. For an extra fiver you can get 75 texts. The contract is for 18 months and I think you can upgrade every 15months or so.

[Bexy]

3 = rubbish. No one listens when I tell them though!

[Geezer7348]

3 = rubbish. No one listens when I tell them though!

Cant say I've got any complaints, Lindy had a hell of a time with 02 and I am thinking about binning my 02 contract if 3's 500 mins anytime anynetwork offer is still on, I am fed up with the constant cock ups at their end and poor customer service, besides, 02 are unable to match 3's offers most of the time.

[darknessparkles]

Are you a student? If so orange do some really good student packages which are mainly text based, I get 1000 texts a month for £25. The best deals are online I think

[Bumble_85]

3 = rubbish. No one listens when I tell them though!

I've never ever heard anyone say anything good about 3. My best friend has finally swapped from them. Now we can have conversations where his phone doesn't cut out randomly in the middle. Ace.

[Mafro]

Orange are the best. I've got a student contract with them, the phone was free and you ger 1000 free texts and 200 free minutes to any network for 25 quid a month. You need either a UCAS or NUS number to sign up.

[youcantstealmyradio]

I'm on contract but whatever you do... don't go with T-Mobile. Utter crap.

I've got a Samsung d600, but I'm not sure if it has FM radio or not. The only bad thing about contract is that once everyone's got a better amazing phone with all these amazing new features, & you want it, but you're stuck with your crappy one with features that became old news, for another 9 months. Yeah, I'm pretty annoyed with mine.

[kitty]

I've got a contact phone, and my contract is crap on vodafone, so don't go with them! I

've also been stuck with my phone for 18 months, so is pretty scratched.

I have Nokia 6101, FM radio is really good and good headphones with inline control also use phone as handsfree and change presets and volume

I blinged it up yesterday with diamantes from the £1 shop, nice !

[Mafro]

The D600 doesn't have a radio. I saw an ad on the tv for this site earlier and checked the site out: http://www.envirofone.com/. They give you cash for sending in your old phones.

[Jono]

Someone talk me through the contract with Orange. How is the money taken off me? What's better twelve months or eighteen months. I'm looking at £30 tops for a month.

[Mafro]

Direct Debit and 12 months.

[Jamie]

Im on T-mobile Flext, pay £30 per month and get the eqivelant of £90 worth of credit....works for me, i would recommend it!! My girlfriend has it as well, rarely go over the £30 quid, you can check your balance so u can limit yourself etc.

Think you can get most phons free with it!!!

[Jono]

Right, final question... what phone to go for? I'm looking at the Sony Ericsson but most of them seem to be getting old now. So... I am more in it for a decent digital camera and possibly FM radio.

[Lucinda]

My Nokia phone has good radio. The reception is generally clear and the headphones are quite good, they do stereo, plus I can play it on loudspeaker, where the sound quality is alright but not great. It isn't great for the battery though, using the radio too much.

I had a bad experience with a contract phone, so I am on PAYG and I'm happy enough with O2 Bolt-Ons, where they take £9.99 a month off my credit and give me 200 texts. You can get more or less than that, I think the cheapest works out as 3p per text. I like that because I can't spend more than I am aware of, and it tells me how much credit I have after every text I send so I can't run out without knowing.

[Mafro]

Jono, the Samsung D900 is a cracking phone.