Budget touchscreen phone?

[Ulti]

Well I'm not a fan of spending £150+ on a mobile nor am I a fan of spending more than £20 on a contract so I was wondering what was the best touch screen phone that I could possibly get?

I've so far seen the Nokia 5800, 5530 and Samsung Jet that seems decent. There are also the Samsung Tocco Ultra and some other Samsung phones.

Now I've owned the 5800 before but I just couldn't get on with the looks of it, I've never liked Nokia designs. However, the 5530 does look really nice but loses out on 3G (not exactly important and probs helps to save battery too) but only sports a 2.9" screen whilst the Samsung Jet has a 3.1" screen along with 3G and I think it was something like a 2GB internal memory.

So far the Samsung Jet sounds the nicest but I'm not too fond of the interface though... Even if it's paired up with it's 800mhz processor I'm not too sure the TouchWiz interface would be that good compared to the Symbian in the 5530.

Well main points in the touchscreen I'm looking for is a 3.5mm jack, WiFi, half decent camera (well most phones do have at least a 3.2MP camera so I guess any phone can count) and of course the bigger the screen size the better.

Can anyone comment on the usability of the TouchWiz music player? Loved the music player on the 5800 so yeah. Main competitors atm are really 5530 and Samsung Jet for me. Which would you choose and why?

Also, are there any phones in this low end price range that is to be released soon that can compare with these two?

Thanks in advance once again!

[Bunjiweb]

If I had to choose between those 2 I would probably choose the Samsung Jet, but then I am not really a fan of most Nokia phones. I guess that you won't get the full awesome functionality from a touch-screen phone unless its a smartphone, but as you are not looking to spend that much I can see justification for your choice of handsets.

The Jet has some great features, a good screen and a capable enough camera. The interface is nicer to use than that of the Nokias, although apparently its very badly implemented on the original Tocco, don't know about the Ultra.

Personally for non-smartphones I always liked Sony Ericsson phones, the new Satio with 12mp camera and symbian interface looks like an absolute corker, and has just appeared on Vodafone, but at £35/mo is probably above your price range.

Have you also considered any android devices? The "Magic" is available cheap now from Vodafone, and although the camera is not the best, Android is a great OS.

Good luck....!

Ben

[Ulti]

Not too fond of the design though :/ It's still £25 pm on a 24 month contract though which works out to £500...

[Flibb]

You can get a winmo or android phone on a £20 x 18 month contract, £25 if you want a data plan. You would have to pay £35-45 as a one off.

Have a look at
http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/

I have the touch diamond 2, cracking phone on t-mob. Really needs a data plan to make the most of any smartphone.

[Ulti]

Touch Diamond 2 looks nice but I don't see it for £20 x 18 month contract :/

[Flibb]

filter to t-mobile, then show all deals rather than the top ones. should be combi 20, the web add on takes it to £25, similar deal on Android. just checked and its a higher one off payment if you don't have data included.
http://mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/Bran...47/p10957.aspx

[Ulti]

£25 * 18 + £40 is a bit too high though but I might end up going for this as the phone really does look nice. It wins in every single way apart from it's slightly out of my price range but maybe a month or two down the line I might get it.

[Flibb]

If you want to go android the hero is £25 x 18 + £31.99, both the hero and TD2 come with a windscreen mount and car charger. Delivery is £5 on top of those prices. If you do go smartphone the cameras are crap indoors (no flash), but OK outside in daylight. Newer models are getting some kind of flash, but cost more, such as the touch HD2 (would love one of these). I find the differences between android and winmo minimal, but many apps I want are only on winmo, and xdadev has plenty of apps and stuff to play with, they also port OS revisions to older phones. And as a bonus there are groups porting android to winmo devices so you get the best of both worlds.

[Ulti]

What do you think the chances are of those falling to around £20 per month with perhaps a £50 price for the phone within the next few months? Preferably before 2010.

[Flibb]

I would be very supised if they shift, but you never know. Since getting the kaiser over 2 years ago the tariffs that include data havent shifted that much, but the company I linked to above are a lot cheaper than t-mob offer direct.

[Ulti]

Well I'll keep my current phone (Viewty) for another month till mid November and see how it goes there xD Hope you'll be around to help me then xD

Thanks for the help for now!