Contract with a crap phone coming to an end and want to get a smartphone. Looking today, theres a few Galaxy phones that look good (S, S II, and there was another I can’t remember the name of), various HTCs, Nokia N8 etc etc.

Not wanting a mega expensive monthly tariff, £20 would be the max which seems to give me a fair bit of choice.

What do people reccommend? Anything I should really avoid?

A long-shot here, but why not try the STW forum search function?

I went to phone shops and had a play with as many phones as possible, then searched the web for reviews of the ones I liked in order to see if there were inherent problems with certain models/OSs. I doesn’t really matter much what other people like as it’s you who has to use the phone every day.

HTC desire – like everyone else now 😉

On that budget with the given criteria, I’d recommend a San Francisco from Argos and a SIM only + data deal from your provider.

HTC desire – like everyone else now

Not sure I’d buy an HTC Desire now – there seems to be some question about whether it will be getting the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update as it doesn’t have enough memory:
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/no-android-2-3-update-for-htc-desire-965805

I just got a Desire HD on Orange for £20 a month, but it is a 2yr contract. 2.3 is out for the HD already, though if you have an Orange branded one you’re stuck with 2.2 for now.

there seems to be some question about whether it will be getting the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) update as it doesn’t have enough memory:

If you follow the link on that page to their FB page, it seems they’ve retracted that statement now.

It’s irrelevant anyway; the mod community has had Gingerbread on the Desire Classic for months.

Motorola Defy – you won’t scratch it or worry about chucking it in you bag when out for a ride, and it should be within budget.

Motorola Defy. Not the latest-and-greatest spec but most people won’t know the difference, it’s smaller and lighter than many and it’ll maybe take a knock a bit better too.

Defy. MTB friendly and good all round. OS is an old version of android if you care about such things. I paid £120 up front and £10 a month on T-mobile, 2 yr contact (data-oriented contract, not a phoner or a texter) – but deals change all the time.

If you follow the link on that page to their FB page, it seems they’ve retracted that statement now.

Update: HTC are now saying they’ll have to chop some apps out to make it fit within the Desire memory.

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-will-have-to-cut-apps-for-desire-2-3-update-966876

got a sony xperia, i like it. bit annoying that orange/sony will not update it to the latest android os but its a minor gripe. poormans iphone really.

UK Defys have just been updated to 2.2.2 today :-). My defy survived a 1hr 15mile commute in pouring rain yesterday in the back pocket of my cycling top. Happy with the cost and performance, there are some ‘cheap’ dual cores out there now but would they withstand the rain?

Rick.

All that chat about Desires and Gingerbread is for the old vanilla Desire, doesn’t affect the S, etc- mine shipped with Gingerbread. And it does seem a very nice bit of kit, so far it’s done absolutely nothing weird at all, battery life is decent, peformance seems more than adequate…

ditto for my desire s. switched from an iPhone 3gs and pretty happy. It’s not quite as slick but it also has some better features – widgets being a big one for me.