Recommendation 1 – Reasonably Decent phone with a camera, lots of minutes (say around 800), 12-18 month contract, about £25 per month

Recommendation 2 – Crazy good phone (along the lines of an iphone but doesn't have to be), low number of minutes but possibly lots of internet usage (I'm not sure if the two are tied together), contract length not important, as cheap as possible.

I have done some searching but the sheer wealth of choice confuses me and I've not had a mobile phone where I have to pay the bill for about 8 years.

ta.

Look at Orange deals for the HTC Hero. Raccoon seems to be mine.

Never had a smart phone before, not keen to have an iPhone because the world and his wife have them, and I'm not a big Apple fan thanks to iTunes and its DRM silliness.

Hero is really cool in that 'look what it can do way', very customisable, loads of free apps to download.

I'd choose a provider, ring up customer service and ask them what they can do, it's surprisingly painless..

Surely it depends upon how you'll be using the phone?

I get hardly any minutes with my contract, but get unlimited internet. As I hardly ever use the phone, but use the net on it all the time, that works for me.

I'm paying £20 a month for a Nokia E71 with unlimited internet and texts, and something like 200 minutes. Phone was free.

I've a monthly contract with Vodafone using my own phone (but you can easily buy cheap new phones), for £19pm. I basically get unlimited calls/texts. I say unlimited, because I've never gone over whatever limit there is.

But if I was after something bling, probably the Nokia N71, through any of the big boys.

Look at deals on 3 for the HTC Hero. Decent amount of minutes, unlimited internet, and free Spotify Premium.

One is for me and one is for my wife Mike. I fit into the same bracket as you and will probably go for exactly the same as you, that looks like a good deal. my wife on the other hand has a pay as you go and I've just been running through the accounts and she gets between 10 and 30 quid A WEEK! topups, so I've knocked that on the head and I need a normalish phone that has a thousand minutes for not much money.

Mione's sorted I reckon, just need to do hers now.

ta.

Have a look at what deals you can get through http://www.mobiles.co.uk or http://www.expansys.co.uk – I got the same deal through them but only had to commit for 18months instead of 24 months going direct. 😉

Best thing is to look at the Sim only contract deals
You be suprised how much you could save by suppling
your own phone.
Also you can have the phone you want rather than given.
Like the guy above I rang Orange when my contract was up
They went through how much I spent then gave me the Raccoon 35
for Raccoon 25 price very happy.
But contract coming to an end this week and be rining again.

Just ordered a HTC Hero on an Orange contract, 1200mins, unlimited texts and unlimited internet (well 500mb per month fair usage).

£35 per month, first 6 months half price (by sending in receipts) and if you have Quidco, £50 cashback. 18month contract.

Dial-a-phone

Another vote for sim only deals. You're not tied into a contract and sometimes in the long run buying a handset separate might be cheaper than paying for it during the contract on top what that sim only deal would cost You.
Depending where You got Your deal from You can always ring them and ask for a good deal on a second phone. My mate got an upgrade from 3 and than also got a nicely discounted contract deal for his girlfriend. 3 can be very good with deals as my friend wanted to cancel her contract but the guy convinced her to stay with a sim only contract and she is paying £5/month for something around 200/200 min/texts.

I got with Vodaphone last week:

Blackberry Storm 2
Unlimited texts/email/internet
600 mins
Free Cinema tickets for a year
£90 cashback
Spare battery

@ £35 per month.