getting a new phone

anyone want to weigh in on what kind i should get?  i basically have no idea what the different models or makes are besides what people at work have told me and what i've read online

a co-worker told me he's on a 'good plan' where he only has to pay £40 a month which is way more than i'm spending on my pay-as-you-go phone at the moment so that makes me apprehensive

Comments

  • kill living beings
    do you mean the actual phone, or the plan for the phone
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    the actual phone

    but i know so little about this like how much say do you have over the plan?  to what extent do specific brands/models/vendors entail particular plans?

    basically what is a phone and how does it do what whats an app what are plans what is technology
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    also i've already started 2 mildly heated arguments by asking what's the best phone and someone goes 'android' and someone goes 'iphone'

    i almost titled this thread "Tach Starts a Flame War", with the quotes
  • Tachyon said:

    a co-worker told me he's on a 'good plan' where he only has to pay £40 a month which is way more than i'm spending on my pay-as-you-go phone at the moment so that makes me apprehensive

    Presumably that's a data plan? You should be able to continue paying what you are now, you'll just have to use wi-fi to do internet stuff on it.
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    i can't presently do internet stuff on my phone and i need to be able to for work reasons

    also i kinda wanted to change my number so i could have some reprieve from nuisance calls

    atm i have a flip-phone from 2007 which i use only for calls and texts and never set it up so that it could use the internet
  • edited 2017-08-09 14:59:26
    Tachyon said:

    also i've already started 2 mildly heated arguments by asking what's the best phone and someone goes 'android' and someone goes 'iphone'

    Honestly they're fairly identical so if you've never used a smartphone at all it's unlikely you're going to get a useful answer to the Android vs iOS argument.

    The main difference is that there are eight billion Android phones made by different companies whereas the only iPhone is the iPhone. One consequence of that is that you are on a budget, the cheapest Android phones are much cheaper than the cheapest iPhone, at least if you're buying new.

    Also iPhones can by default only run Apple-approved software, which some doofuses find very unappealing, but that's more of a philosophical thing that doesn't come up much in practice for most people.
    Tachyon said:

    i can't presently do internet stuff on my phone and i need to be able to for work reasons

    Well the question is whether you need to be able to do it in situations where you don't have access to wi-fi. You can also probably get a plan with a small amount of data for reasonable prices, but I don't really know what the options look like in the UK.
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    everyone complains that the wi-fi at work is terrible but we do have it so i guess that's not an issue

    is a data plan something i can opt into or out of at a later date, or is it set in stone the minute i sign a contract?

    the OS is something i guess i need to decide on fairly quickly, but going by what you said i'm not techy enough to notice the difference
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch
    i have enough saved at the moment that i'm entirely willing to splash out and get the best possible phone i can if it'll last me a long time

    on the other hand i don't make a lot of money so if this entails a lot of large payments over an extended period of time that's not going to be possible for me
  • Tachyon said:

    is a data plan something i can opt into or out of at a later date, or is it set in stone the minute i sign a contract?

    That probably depends on the provider but I can't imagine most companies are going to have a problem with you deciding you want to give them more money.

    You might be able to get a plan with 100 MB of data or something, and then get an "add-on" that gives more. But probably it's best to wait for one of the other British people to weigh in on anything about plans and providers and stuff.
    Tachyon said:

    i have enough saved at the moment that i'm entirely willing to splash out and get the best possible phone i can if it'll last me a long time

    Sadly I don't think it's really possible to depend on any phone lasting as long as you'd want.
  • imagei will watch the heck outta this pumpkin patch

    That probably depends on the provider but I can't imagine most companies are going to have a problem with you deciding you want to give them more money.


    that makes sense

    Sadly I don't think it's really possible to depend on any phone lasting as long as you'd want.

    ah ok, noted, i'll be careful not to spend too much then

    thanks
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