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Samsung Galaxy S4

fudge. I pay $150 p/month for unlimited calls & texts and 2gb of data.

From EE (currently the only 4G network in the UK) you could get 3 GB of data a month with unlimited calls and texts for £46 a month, and pretty much any phone of your choice for free - apart from the S4 which you'd have to pay £29.99 for.
 
With the quality of modern phones, it is data that is gonna kill you.(esp with tethering or the very handy Kies Air)

Giff Gaff (O2 netw) UL data, ULtexts, 250mins - £12 a month

24 month contracts are so long. On my last upgrade on vodafone, i could upgrade 6 months early, when i added those 6 months onto the 24 month contract it felt like the next time i could upgrade we would all be living on mars.

I'm out of contract in August ....gonna do the maths (buying own phone + sims...versus) but been reading about GiffGaff and many people rate it (kinda run by the users), plus no chance of 4g (on EE) where i am yet but O2 have 3g900 on our nearest masts

(that HTC One does look nice)
 
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With the quality of modern phones, it is data that is gonna kill you.(esp with tethering or the very handy Kies Air)

Giff Gaff (O2 netw) UL data, ULtexts, 250mins - £12 a month

24 month contracts are so long. On my last upgrade on vodafone, i could upgrade 6 months early, when i added those 6 months onto the 24 month contract it felt like the next time i could upgrade we would all be living on mars.

I'm out of contract in August ....gonna do the maths (buying own phone + sims...versus) but been reading about GiffGaff and many people rate it (kinda run by the users), plus no chance of 4g (on EE) where i am yet but O2 have 3g900 on our nearest masts

(that HTC One does look nice)

When they say unlimited data do they mean with a fair usage policy? I hate when networks do that - they say you get unlimited data (but you can only use 1 GB a month before we start charging you)
 
When they say unlimited data do they mean with a fair usage policy? I hate when networks do that - they say you get unlimited data (but you can only use 1 GB a month before we start charging you)

I got my wife an iPhone on GiffGaff and she's never had a data charge against her account. They do start to ask questions about whether you're tethering once you get up to around 1GB per day.
 
From EE (currently the only 4G network in the UK) you could get 3 GB of data a month with unlimited calls and texts for £46 a month, and pretty much any phone of your choice for free - apart from the S4 which you'd have to pay £29.99 for.

That would be great if I still lived in sunny old England. ;)

That's the best deal going where I live. There are other providers who may be a bit cheaper ($50-100) but the service they provide isn't good enough when my phone is my livelihood.

Just switched from a Samsung Charge back to an iPhone (5 series). Very pleased with my choice since the iPhone just works better for what I primarily use it for (calls, texts and emails). Plus the size factor is an issue since it is in my pocket all day long. I compared it against other Droid-based phones and the size factor proved to be important for me.
 
Yep got that, nice to have but rarely used.

This is true. I get unlimited BT WiFi in coffeeshops etc. and I'm never really using my laptop outside the house anyway. Also I, as everyone else, gets free WiFi underground, but again I don't spend more than 4 minutes waiting for a train in an underground station so if there was something I wanted to do I'd just use my phone. I don't tether at all really, but if I got a tablet that might all change.

EDIT: I just looked it up and EE and O2 and they say it comes part of your data plan.
 
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HTC One does look very tempting (although still a little big to be designer pocket-friendly).

Question for all of you Android types out there:

I run XBMC on almost everything at home, and I find the Airplay feature very handy. I use it to watch football on my TVs, show pictures to the family, play music, etc. Is there anything that will stream an Android screen straight to XBMC without buying specific hardware?


There is an official beta XBMC app and stable unofficial apps that say they do exactly what you're after. The beta one looks fairly complete and while they offer some warnings, from what I've read it works brilliantly on most high end phones released over the past few years.

I use skifta to send stuff to my tv via the Xbox though (works flawlessly for what it's worth) so I've not got any experience with them.

Oh and the One is surprisingly pocket friendly. Always worth trying these things in person but it's perfectly pocketable for me (hell, after owning a tytn II I'm surprised any modern phone seems too big for you :eek: ).
 
There is an official beta XBMC app and stable unofficial apps that say they do exactly what you're after. The beta one looks fairly complete and while they offer some warnings, from what I've read it works brilliantly on most high end phones released over the past few years.

That's not quite what I'm after. EG - I watch footy from ADMC on the iPhone app, I want that on my big screen over wifi. Not sure that's been done for Android yet.

I use skifta to send stuff to my tv via the Xbox though (works flawlessly for what it's worth) so I've not got any experience with them.

Oh and the One is surprisingly pocket friendly. Always worth trying these things in person but it's perfectly pocketable for me (hell, after owning a tytn II I'm surprised any modern phone seems too big for you :eek: ).

I will try the One - that old phone was a fudging beast! Back in the day when touchscreens were brick you needed a hardware keyboard though.
 
That's not quite what I'm after. EG - I watch footy from ADMC on the iPhone app, I want that on my big screen over wifi. Not sure that's been done for Android yet.

I use skifta to send stuff to my tv via the Xbox though (works flawlessly for what it's worth) so I've not got any experience with them.


I will try the One - that old phone was a fudging beast! Back in the day when touchscreens were brick you needed a hardware keyboard though.

Yeah I've still got mine in a draw, can't believe i used to cart it around with me... Keyboard is still pretty amazing though.

With regards to streaming, lots of manufacturers have supported wireless streaming (samsung allshare etc) for a while now but as always fragmentation has been the issue until recently. Android was pushed to natively support miracast last year (4.2 onwards) which does completely mirror your screen and is great if you have devices that support it (I don't but tested it at a mates with their brand new wireless TV and it 'just worked' to steal a phrase from Apple) but it's going to be a while till it's commonplace. I don't believe XBMC supports it does it? so while it's certainly got some potential - natively supports 4K and doesn't need a network as it can use wifi-direct - it's no good to you for now as you specified no added accessories.

It's the main benefit of Apple products really, the ecosystem is so much more developed when it comes to accessories. That said, Miracast has pretty much every manufacturer behind it now aside from Apple so i can't imagine it will be long until XBMC supports it, and if it's just videos you want to stream, stuff like Twonky Beam, Skifta or VLC server lets you output pretty much any video that you're playing over DLNA by just using the share button within an app. It means an extra button tap, but it gets the job done in my experience, unless you want non video content shown of course.

There's also a few custom rom builds out there that do exactly what you want out of the tin, but i don't know if they're available for the HTC One and I'd never recommend buying a phone if you have to use a custom rom for required functionality!
 
That's not quite what I'm after. EG - I watch footy from ADMC on the iPhone app, I want that on my big screen over wifi. Not sure that's been done for Android yet.

I use skifta to send stuff to my tv via the Xbox though (works flawlessly for what it's worth) so I've not got any experience with them.



I will try the One - that old phone was a fudging beast! Back in the day when touchscreens were brick you needed a hardware keyboard though.

If you're ever in central London or the city your more than welcome to hold mine :eek:
 
Im due an upgrade in the next month or so and its a toss up between the HTC One, S4 or hopefully the Note 3 if announced soon... Im interested in changing my tariff to this new O2 refresh. Anyone know much about it? They boast you can change your phone whenever you like (at a price no doubt) which could be handy if i did go for the S4 or HTC now and the Note 3 came out in November time.

On the other hand Im getting my missus a contract for her Birthday in August and she likes the look of the S4 so could always try before I buy in that way. But I like the idea of a contract that doesnt tie you down to 1 phone for 24mnths what with most phones making a yearly upgrade now.
 
Im due an upgrade in the next month or so and its a toss up between the HTC One, S4 or hopefully the Note 3 if announced soon... Im interested in changing my tariff to this new O2 refresh. Anyone know much about it? They boast you can change your phone whenever you like (at a price no doubt) which could be handy if i did go for the S4 or HTC now and the Note 3 came out in November time.

On the other hand Im getting my missus a contract for her Birthday in August and she likes the look of the S4 so could always try before I buy in that way. But I like the idea of a contract that doesnt tie you down to 1 phone for 24mnths what with most phones making a yearly upgrade now.

You can cancel any contract early for a fee. I'm due for an upgrade in July, but my contract doesn't finish until September, but Orange said if I want to cancel my contract early they'd give me 25% off if I upgrade to Orange and 33% off if I upgrade with EE. However as part of the deal they're giving me which they need to phone me back about today, they're waiving my termination fee, meaning they're letting me upgrade a few months early for free.
 
You can cancel any contract early for a fee. I'm due for an upgrade in July, but my contract doesn't finish until September, but Orange said if I want to cancel my contract early they'd give me 25% off if I upgrade to Orange and 33% off if I upgrade with EE. However as part of the deal they're giving me which they need to phone me back about today, they're waiving my termination fee, meaning they're letting me upgrade a few months early for free.

Yeah I'm in that deal striking period now as my contracts up in August so my upgrade would be around July. But tempted to change my tarrif to this refresh one as i would prefer a yearly update. Not a fan of paying a fee to get out of a contract either, especially when its to start another contract with the same provider


EDIT: Just read this. Mostly speculation but its all pretty feesable. Makes me more inclined to just wait for the Note 3 if it is coming out in September

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/467000/20130513/galaxy-note-3-vs-s4-reasons-samsung.htm
 
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Yeah I'm in that deal striking period now as my contracts up in August so my upgrade would be around July. But tempted to change my tarrif to this refresh one as i would prefer a yearly update. Not a fan of paying a fee to get out of a contract either, especially when its to start another contract with the same provider

You still have to pay up for the phone. Doesn't look like you'd get a phone more often at a lower price from what I can see here...
 
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