I’ve been umming and ahing over what to do about our mobile phones for a few weeks now…

For a few years before last I’ve managed to get get 100% cashback deals on our mobile phones where you get a ‘free’ phone along with a bundle of minutes and texts every month, pay the line rental to the network and then claim back in several instalments the full cost of the line rental from the retail company.  This worked really well but last year these deals were no more for a number of reasons, not least people like me remembering to claim the cashback in the time given … these deals worked for retailers in two ways:
1. Mobile networks pay big bonuses to retailers based on the number of sign ups they achieve in a given period, so more customers means a bigger network bonus for the retailer
2. The conditions give you a time period in which you must claim your cash back (eg 14 days of date of your 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th bills), if you miss this deadline then all future claims are void.  So clearly the retailer works on the assumption that x% of people will forget to claim in time and they then don’t need to pay out.

So last year I managed to get a 50% cashback deal on two Nokia 5800 smart phones on 12 month contracts (something else which is pretty much unobtainable now with the fairly recent introduction of 18, 24 and even 36 month contracts).  The phones have been good, allowing us to get more into social networking using the downloadable apps and ‘unlimited*’ data part of the bundles and in truth they are still a popular and current phone since they were brand new to market 12 months ago.  However, because we both love gadgets, we are always looking for something better and cooler (and in my wife, Ailsa’s case, shinier!).
* = Subject to fair usage policy of course!! 🙂

So I was torn between:
1. Ailsa’s now started maternity leave and will be off work for the next 12 months, so lets get a PAYG SIM, we can still use WiFi for free at home on the handsets and we won’t be making that many calls anyway.

2. Get a cool new handset with unlimited data built into the package on a deal that costs the same or less as we currently pay after cashback.

Anyway, option 2 won! 🙂  We went for a network upgrade to keep our numbers and got what I think is a good deal:
£15/month per handset for: 300 mins, 300 texts, ‘unlimited’ data and a flexible booster that you can change every month if you wish … chose unlimited landline calls for me and unlimited texts for Ailsa.  This deal is also straight forward without any cashback claims which is quite cool.

We had a short list of handsets to look at as we headed off to the Trafford Centre to do our research:

Nokia X6
– I liked the capacitive screen which was really responsive but didn’t like the fact it was pretty much identical to the 5800 (current handset) in every other way, it was also quite laggy in changing between some of the menus.  Ailsa didn’t like the capacitive screen because she can’t user her nails!

Sony Erricsson Vivaz
– Ailsa really liked the shape of this phone but I really didn’t!  I also didn’t like the fact that it’s an S60 phone and the interface is again almost identical to the 5800.

Blackberry 8520
– Not a touch screen phone and would require an extra £5/month subscription for push e-mail

Nokia E72
– Not a touch screen phone and a really old looking interface

T-Mobile G2 Touch
– Like the interace of this Android based phone but the shape was just weird and the roller ball was really not nice to use

LG InTouch Max GW620
– PERFECT!  I love the Google Android OS, I LOVE the proper slide out keyboard and actually I just generally love the phone and the way it works.  The only thing that slightly annoys me are the touch sensitive buttons on the front, dead easy to catch when navigating the menus, immediately closing what you have open.  Ailsa really likes the phone too.

So after all that, here’s our shiney new smart phone: