Upgrade from "sim only" to contract deal?

[VforV]

Hi guys,

I've had Vodafone Red Extra sim only plan for £ 21.23per month a long while.

My phone is now getting old and i find 20GB not always enough.

Priorities are really a crisp and good quality camera and resonable battery life.

As I am not a very technical person, could you please suggest medium range price/quality phone models to potentially take on a contract? Ideally I would prerfer unlimited everything and price range in between £ 25 to 30 per month.

Having researched Vodafone offeres, sim only all round and essential plans are both data unlimited and reasonably priced. But if could not afford a new phone at the moment I would like to find out if i could spread cost by finding something similar but contract based?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[hrym]

Technology has moved on and what was flagship performance 3 or 4 years ago can now be found on mid range devices in the under £200 bracket.

Things to look for are:
  32gb storage (unless you already have that and are close to filling it).   You can add an sd card for photos and music.
  3gb RAM (this seems to be a major performance factor).
  An octa-core processor, preferably with all cores running at at least 1.8ghz.

I have two HTC's.   One is an M9 (32gb, 3gb, octa-core) , which is over 4 years old, but still quite sprightly.   The other is an M8 (16gb, 2gb, quad-core), which is a year older, but slow.

I've just upgraded my wife's Sony XA (similar spec to the M8) to an L3 (similar spec to the M9) and the results are promising.  It's a pleasure to use.   I bought it SIM-free for £169.  Vodafone have it on contract, but the overall cost (factoring out the airtime cost) over 2 years is more.

I haven't tested the camera fully yet, but it looks fine for general use.  If camera quality is a major criterion, you'll probably need to pay more anyway.

[VforV]

Hi Hrym,

thank you for the details of different models, I will keep them in mind,

I am aware you can buy a decent unlocked phone for £200, as i did my previous one.

But due to circumstances can't afford even that at this moment, so wondered what is the best deal out of whats available on contacted basis, which surely will always be more expensive. As it is a kind of form of finance.

Many thanks in any case.

[hrym]

Best of luck.   I thought the L3 ought to perform as well as the M9 and I was delighted (not to say relieved) to be proved right.

Basically, if what you have is performing as you want, just go for the same spec.  A couple of years ago, 2gb of RAM was sufficient, but it no longer is.  It's entirely possible that 3gb will go the same way in another two years as apps get bigger and more resource-hungry, but we shall see.

I also have a very basic Huawei tablet with only 1gb of RAM and there are a few things that just baulks at.

I've also been looking at the Nokia range, but reviews seem less that wildly enthusiastic and someone said their batteries might be a bit suspect.   Mind you, I also read a lukewarm review of the L3, but it seems fine to me.   I suspect it depends on what your starting point is.   If you're used to current flagship models, anything mid-range is going to feel limited.  FWIW, the L3 came with Android 8 and there's no sign of an update to that yet.

[VforV]

Yeah, Nokia used to be a very reliable brand, hence I bought one just under 2 years ago.

Now it loses charge quickly even if just using whats app on "data saver" and "Battery saver" modes.

And then takes forever to charge up to mere 50%.:(