Be Excellent To Each Other

Internet acquaintances,

I am coming to the end of a two year contact on Vodafone with an iPhone 5. I am tired of their expensive tariff and rubbish reception.

I am thinking of buying an iPhone 5S and going SIM only with BT, as I am a Broadband customer and get £5 off. Also the deals there seem quote good value. Having recently becoming a father. budget is high on my list of priorities. Much as I would like a 6 Plus, I don't think it's viable.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/p ... GwodutsHwQ

Where is the best place to buy a new iPhone these days? I presume direct from the Apple store is the most expensive.

I admire the man that puts budget high on his priority list and then drops £450 on a phone

Prices are much of a muchness wherever you shop - after a quick hunt around Amazon seems to be the cheapest at £413 for a Gold 16GB 5s.

Bear in mind that you can get an unlocked iPhone 6 from eBay for around the same money, though - and for quite a bit less if you stick with an EE sim or whatever.

I can't speak to iPhone stuff but it's worth noting that even with your discount applied Three are generally cheaper than BT for SIM only contracts. Obviously it'll also depend what the coverage is in your area but it's worth investigating given that price is a big factor for you.

I would go for the 6 rather than the 5s

The 5S is seemingly more expensive than the 6 in a lot of places, presumably because they've stopped production.

If you want a great comms device and can do without the toys the Blackberry Passport is where it's at

You mean "If you just want a phone."

Passport has Amazon marketplace so it's not too bad apps and games wise

But no, I meant communications device given it has a full qwerty keyboard.

I just put a new battery in my 4S and it's given the phone a whole new lease of life. For 10 bucks and about 5 minutes work.

I am an iOS version or two behind, but all I really use are the built in apps, for basic things like messaging, internet browsing, sharing pictures, maps; it's still performing pretty well really. I was going to hold on to it until the next one (6S I would assume) is released.

Does that not involve some pretty big security issues?

Is this any use to you:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/apple-i ... 99-2249715

Possibly... Not sure on the severity though.

iOS 8 runs like a dog on Lady T's ipad 2 so I've been a little hesitant to put it on the phone.

The latest version of iOS 8 is much improved. The first release killed the performance of my iPad 3 but I was quick enough to be able to roll back to 7.

Keen readers of the Android thread will recall the exciting episode, "The One Where Findus Considers Ditching iOS for Android Cos He Needs a New Phone".

Well in the end I decided not to bother with a new phone, there wasn't anything that really excited me out there and I was perfectly happy with my iPhone 5. So I just got these guys:

iPhone Surgery

to fit a new battery for £30, and it's (almost) like having a new phone again. Just with two years of scuff marks and the odd creak loading webpages.

Now I've switched to giffgaff and get 3GB of data a month for £12 per month, and no contract. Huzzah.

I quite like the look of that OnePlus 2

that looks very nice. Any idea on how spendy it will be?

Google to the rescue, 200-odd quid.

To go back to the OP's question, it's a terrible time of year to buy iPhones. We're only six or so weeks away from a refresh which, even if you don't care about the latest and greatest, will bring down prices on the older models.

Things to be aware of: "only" a 1080p screen, no turbo charging, no USB 3, no wireless charging, no NFC. Some corners have been cut to meet the impressive price point. YMMV.

Also it'll be subject to the nonsense 'invitation' system like the last model so even if you want one it's a crapshoot whether you can get your hands on it.

Dx.com sold the previous one at a slightly higher price than the invitation price, I imagine same will happen here again.

Presumably though they'll have limited stock because of how it works.

I keep truncating the title of this thread as Newmobile!

Quick! To the Newmobile!

Anyway, carry on.

Also the 1+2 uses OxygenOS rather than Cyanogen OS - if that means anything to anyone.

The OnePlus One is already on OxygenOS anyway as I understand it. Initially it was running Cyanogen but then they switched to OxygenOS for later OS upgrades. And it's all just Android anyway so I don't think it matters much.

This is a good point, ta.

I'll update-you-do.

I got a free iPhone 5S on 4G with 1000 minutes, unlimited texts and 3gb of data for £29.25 per month, and it arrived the next day. All arranged via webchat with Vodafone. Crazy paving!

That's £200 a year saved then.

I just don't get anything past 720p on portable devices.

Why stress the system when 720p is more than enough and why not save battery instead?

On a 4.7" phone at 720p, you'll start to notice some pixelation at around 11", based on 20/20 vision. That's a fairly typical use distance for a phone and it's a small screen. Go up to larger screens, like the OnePlus 2's 5.5" screen, and you're more than capable of noticing the difference between 720p and 1080p.

I notice some pixelation but only when Japanese people are on my phone's screen. It's ever so weird.