Best bargain smart phone?

[Scott]

Good point well made..

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

One other thing though, smart phones once you get one you find you want more than pay as you go can do economically, so I'd now advise most to put it on a contract, maybe a sum only contract. Its amazing how much data you can use away from home. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Brian Gaff (Sofa) explained :

There are some really good and cheap monthly deals around. I have my Iphone set to use my home broadband, when at home.

[S Viemeister]

Yes, my Nokia 6.1 (dual SIM version) was reasonably priced, and does everything I need it to do.

[Michael Chare]

My Andoid One Xiaomi phone has had regular updates, unlike my previous Samsung phone.

[Ian Jackson]

I'll be sending you a loveletter, Jim.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

good man I will get it off to you when I get home tomorrow ....

[Chris Green]

Not for me it isn't, all I use a mobile for is making phone calls, sending texts (and receiving both of course) and as a sat nav with data turned off (Here WeGo works perfectly well without data).

[Chris Green]

Lifetime of what? It still works as a phone even when not being updated, and there is the extra plus that it doesn't run out of space all by itself because of more and more updates eating space.

As regards security I don't keep anything worth stealing on my phone! :-)

[R D S]

I've found paying outright for handsets and GiffGaff bundles have worked very well for me over the years.

You pick a monthly bundle that you think will suit and if you underestimate your needs you can buy your next bundle early or top up.

If you are careful you can get away with spending 6 quid per month (and much less even if you don't need data and your contacts are also with Giff Gaff)

[Dave Liquorice]

iPhones then become "unsupported" and likely to stop working. My eight year old Samsung SIII Mini has been pressed back into service as a webcam for Zoom etc. and has had the OS upgraded to Lineage. SWMBO uses hers as her phone, "security" for her isn't really an issue, it spends most of it's time powered off, it's only used for text, photos and very occasional voice. Pretty sure mobile data is not enabled and WiFi is only used at home (behind a firewall) to suck pictures from it.

I'd not be too concerned about using my Lineage SIII online but again nothing "important" is on it. No banking or payment apps, no passwords storeage apps, etc. The only real way you're likely to pickup something to exploit a security hole is by visiting dubious websites or being daft enough to follow a link in an unexpected/unknown source email.

If you define "lifetime" by availabilty of "security" updates. My Nokia 6.1 gets Android One updates, most of which appear to be attempts to (re)enable features I've switched off to try and stop google following my activities...

[Chris Green]

I rarely spend more than £6 per year, on 3's 3-2-1 tariff (yes, I know it's been discontinued but I'm still on it).

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Chris Green explained on 18/09/2020 :

Thanks Chris, I have avoided using my Iphone for navigation just so as to conserve data - car has a built in sat nav anyway, but that app, with maps downloaded at home, makes it perfectly viable to use it now.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

R D S laid this down on his screen :

That is what I was doing, via GG, but then Plusnet offered me unlimited, unlimited, with 4Gb included per month for £6 - so I took up the offer and cancelled my £8 per month unlimited calls on the landline. The increased the £6 soon after, to £6.09 per month.

I went from using my mobile just occaisionaly, because every call cost me, to making quite liberal use of it.

[Max Demian]

Not if you turn mobile data off and use public Wi-Fi in stores, shopping centres, libraries buses and trains.

Some news apps (like BBC and The Guardian) let you pre-load the content; I can then read the news on the bus even if it doesn't have working Wi-Fi.

That's if you're penny pinching. Otherwise buy one of these "bundles".

[Chris Green]

The quality of our landline DECT phones is so much better than a mobile I'd be quite happy to pay a bit more anyway.

[AnthonyL]

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Max Demian explained :

I notice some free wifi access is limited to the owner's website/ menu in restaurants.

[Roland Perry]

In message <rk01aq$10v0$ [e-mail]>, at 17:02:35 on Thu, 17 Sep

2020, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> remarked:

Someone in the family had a Moto G8 Power lite, which was £149 and worked fine until the inbound sound on phone calls stopped working (but speakerphone was OK). Unable to diagnose if it's a hardware [broken transducer] or software [over-active mute] problem, so it's been returned.

The Pixel 4a is £349, and I gather has a wait-list, but they are now beginning to deliver.

[Dave Liquorice]

Same here, DECT over VOIP, no annoying delay, no donald duck, no missing words. Trying to take a call on a mobile here is almost certainly going to be a sequence of sorry missed that, sorry can you repeat, hello can you hear me? sorry what did you say? hello?