New Mobile Phone Help Please - Anyone Got Knowledge In This Area?

Calling (not a pun) any phone gurus out there, my contract is running out at the end of the month and since almost everyone I know is on Virgin I thought I'd do the same to keep text/phone costs down for all of us.

As such the phones I have to choose from are as follows;

Nokia 5220
Nokia 6300
Nokia 6500 Classic
Samsung U600
Samsung J700
Samsung G600

Now my knowledge is limited as are my requirements (text and calls really) but I would like something that is considered good and isn't going to fall apart and/or go wrong after a week.

I've been looking at some internet reviews and the Nokia 6k series have been taking a bashing much to my dismay, with poor battery life, screens that crack for no reason, fronts falling apart and keypads that simply stop working. Samsung's seem better but I'm not sure if I like the plasticy feel of them or OS.

So if anyone reads the magazines or is in the trade some insight would be much appreciated - please note, those are the ONLY phones I can have so the best of those please

 

My old nokia 3300 did ok for about 5+ years....now the key pad doesn't always operate reliably.

I mostly use (now) a mates elderly samsung flip top thingy....cant remember what it is now. That is a few yesars old now but works pretty well. Nothing broken.

My limited experience fwiw.

 

my lady's got the samsung u600 (virgins 18 quid a month contract) and it seems fine - tho, she's only had it a month...

 

I have the Nokia 6500 slide as my business phone, my normal one is a N81 which is a high end phone. The 6500 Slide is a brilliant phone for the money, it has a lovely camera and the built quality is simply excellent. I have had many expensive phones but this one is by far the best phone I have ever owned, it is still quite pricey though at around £180 PAYAGO but on contract its dirt cheap. I am paying £15 a month for mine.

 

Thanks for the input folks, good to hear from owners. It was the 6500 Classic (I'll change it now) I was looking at, how do you find the battery on it? I've read terrible things about the battery life and the terrible speaker which you struggle to hear calls on apparently (among other things such as the screen cracking for no reason and it reaching 80oC after 3 minutes of call time)

After all that though it's still the one I'd choose every time if they were all equally good - but not if it's as bad as I've read....

 

Are you looking at contract or payg?

How much do you tend to spend a month?

Mostly calls or texts?

 

Hi Mo, I've already decided on the tariff, in this case that's already been decided for me by others who are mostly on Virgin (I’m not bothered but a few are on PAYG so it costs a lot more for them to text other networks) so I'm going for the cheapest £12 contract - I mainly use texts and have quite big thumbs which is another reason I'm not sure about the top row of keys on slide phones, I'm going to see if I can find the G600 (best of the Samsung's I think) and try it tonight....

 

fwiw I've had a Samsung G600 for a fair while and have been very happy with it. Mine seems to have good battery life.

Jeff

 

So I went to have a look at them all last night, I did like the 6500 but the cheap black plastic back and the fact the Mrs said it looked "boring" wasn't good.

The G600 was nice but it's a bit on the fat side, I'm trying to slim down having been carrying a house brick (K800i) around for the past 18 months. It actually looks like the U600 might be the best option, very slim and light, I can use the big keypad with ease and will just have to get used to the stupid "magic" touch buttons.