NHS app and vaccination passport.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Heard on the news they're likely to use the NHS track and trace app as a vaccine passport.

My phone is a Galaxy S4. Works just fine as a phone and camera and the things I want a phone for. But too old for the NHS app - which was presumably written by a pal of BoJo, given I can't see what's so special about it that it needs the latest phones.

I use the mobile so little for outgoing calls I'm happy with PAYG. And BT hotspot Wi-Fi access round London, for my parking app, etc.

If I do have to buy a new phone, what is going to be the best value? With at least as good a camera.

[HVS]

[charles]

That's probably because some facility it uses is not on older phones. Or, the older phone doesn't run the latest software. I've got this problem on an iPhone which I've only had for a couple of years. Can't get TomTom traffic on it.

[Clive Arthur]

<snipped>

Motorola E7 plus is good value at around £120. No compass though.

[Jeff Layman]

Had my second jab at the local vaccination centre last Friday. The guy who filled out the credit-card sized record card said to take a photograph of it and keep that handy together with an "official" photo (passport page, driving licence, etc). to show it's really your vaccine record.

My mobile phone is an ancient Huawei running Android 4.1. I'll change it when the battery fails (it's around 8 years old). I dislike Android intensely and in any case never use the phone for anything financial. I think the new one will be the cheapest one I can get which can be rooted safely (and it /still/ won't be used for anything financial).

[GB]

The NHS app uses a system that was jointly developed by Google and Apple. It needs a minimum of Android 6. Which version does your phone have?

You don't *need* a new phone. Staycationing is a great idea. :)

Having said that, I'm pleased with my Motorola.

[Max Demian]

It's because the developer had the latest phone/software.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am neither pleased nor upset with my galaxy A10 It was simply the cheapest POS that would do wifi calling on PAYG.

[GB]

Google suggests that you can update Android way beyond v6, using unofficial updates. Might be worth a look.

[Bev]

Have a look at Motorola and Nokia phones. Cant speak for the cameras on them but if you look for the models running Android One they will give at least 2 years of OS upgrades and 3 years of security updates. HTH

[Theo]

The S4 goes up to Android 11:

it's one of the best supported phones.

Although I'd have a spare phone on hand in case something goes wrong so you can still make calls.

Theo

[GB]

Exactly so. But, it's worth emphasising that that is not a Samsung upgrade. I don't know what version Samsung upgrades went up to, but I suspect that it was Android 4 or 5.

Most/many people just rely on the manufacturer's upgrades.

[John Rumm]

It does not need a particularly recent phone (I think hardware wise all it needs is Bluetooth Low Energy 4 or above), but does need Android 6 or later. Most S4s were Android 5 (Lollipop)

Although Samsung don't have an update for this, there are ways of installing it yourself:

There will no doubt be manual ways to achieve the result without a smartphone, however path of least resistance and all that!

Moto does ok for me, but there are other mid range good value options out there these days. "Good camera" tends to be quite a broad definition now - some phones take the camera aspect to the extreme.

[Fredxx]

Can it not be any "smart" phone? Does the app require a working SIM card or just a Bluetooth capability so you can continue with your chosen phone?

Or buy second hand from likes of eBay. I paid £20 for a used LG phone.

[T i m]

Yes, my SGS4 is on 5.0.1

Whilst being reasonably technical and generally update the firmware / BIOS's in most things, I've always been reluctant to jailbreak any of my phones as they were generally not cheap and in often in regular use. ;-)

My SGS2 is on Android version 4.0.4 and has a giffgaff PAYG SIM in it as a backup phone.

My current phone, a SGS7 is on version 8.0.0

I wouldn't mind therefore trying to upgrade the SGS4 but looking at the steps on Johns link it looks like there are a million things that could go wrong and leave you with a brick? ;-(

I would be reassured if there were loads of people saying they had followed the walkthrough and it worked first time (but there don't seem to be). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[newshound]

Me too for Motorola. I've had several, currently a G8. Don't use the camera for anything serious though.

[Andy Burns]

4 years old model, when even the best phones only receive updates for 3 years (technically the EoL date for android 8.1 has been postponed due to covid, it was supposed to be getting the bullet in two days time).

I'd buy at least an android 10 or 11 device, or you'll be buying again in 18 months...

[Andy Burns]

The NHS covid app requires bluetooth "low energy" (BLE) capability introduced in android 6 (marshmallow) but not all phones had the hardware for it.

[Andy Burns]

Android phones that is, I'm aware iThings get longer support, that doesn't necessarily make them best ...

[David Wade]

Google added some features to the Android OS to detect proximity of other phones, so it could detect contacts. This was only added to newer versions of Android.

BoJo's original app tried to bypass this, so he could have a central NHS database, but we know what happened to that.

So Google not BoJo's fault..

Look at the Samsung A series...

Dave