I need to replace my ageing blackberry as I fear its been dropped 1 too many times. As my phone generally gets used as a phone (daft as it sounds to the younger generation) with just a bit of email / web browsing, I dont want someting which is uncomfotably wide when held at my ear. All the new stuff seems massive when held in 1 hand, except for the iphone 5 thing. Whilst I dont have any major problem with buying an iphone, are thre any other alternatives I should be considering. Cheers

HTC One or HTC One mini if the one is too big.

Given your criteria, I would recommend going to a phone shop and holding against your ear all the phones in your price range. One at a time, of course.

lots of the smaller offerings from HTC/Samsung/Motorolla would probably fit your bill and be a chunk cheaper than an iphone

I have an HTC One Mini. It’s pretty good (so far) – not as big as some “phablets” like the HTC One or Galaxy S4, but bigger than an iPhone or my old Motorola Defy.

The only downside that I’ve found so far is that a) it’s “monoblock” construction – that is to say you can’t get into it, so if the battery goes down the pan or anything else of that nature, it’s fubarred; and b)it can’t be voice controlled which is a pain in the car.

Stick with the Android operating system if you can. I don’t know anybody who has anything good to say about iOS ro Windows Mobile.

3 Fish – I fear this may have to be the case. I hate ‘shopping’ so much that I even made cardboard cut-outs of the sizes last night to get an idea of size !

But the iphone is still smaller that the others. Is the iOS operating system that bad ?

I’ve just picked up an HTC One Mini too and I’d recommend it so far.

It’s a decent size (if a little slippery) and the call quality seems really good.

I can recommend the Xperia SP as a sensibly sized phone.

It’s plenty quick enough for smartphoney things and has plenty of storage space too, the camera is a bit poor though.

But the iphone is still smaller that the others. Is the iOS operating system that bad ?

I don’t have any issue with iOS (on iPhone 5); you may. Again, you’re going to have to a shop and try to navigate it yourself. There is no other way…

Sony do a fair few sensible sized offerings in the Xperia range.