Advice Welcomed - New Phone and Plan

[Gerrard]

Recently, I've noticed that my phone is no longer holding its battery charge very well; can't even quite make a day with no usage. Can't see anything leeching it in the background, I just think that since it's 3-4 years old, its time is due. And it's a good excuse to finally upgrade. And to stop being lazy and wasting a load of money on my current plan.

What I've got: -

HTC Desire (bought sim-free and still running Android 2.2.2 because it does what I need it to do)
T-Mobile 100 Plan (or something like that) - 100mins, 100 texts, "unlimited" Internet - £15/month (was £5/month for a couple of years)

What I use: -

Might make a call of two, never gone over my allowance - be lucky if it's 30mins
A few texts a month; again never gone over my allowance, probably not even halfway
<1Gb of data. In fact, recently I doubt I've hit 100Mb. It is situational though and would depend if I'm away. After all, if I'm at home or work, I don't need to use it
I do use the wifi hotspot and tether function
Google maps is probably my heaviest data usage I would imagine
Play music on it occasionally
Haven't played games on it since Angry Birds a year or so ago
Haven't played videos on it for a while
Occasional camera use but if I plan to take pictures, I'll bring my compact camera; it's more for when I wasn't prepared and I have my phone to hand

So, as you can see I barely use it normally but obviously there would situations where it might get a bit of use. This might be the case that if it could play the latest games, amazing screen for videos etc that I would, but it's not something I'm actively looking for.

Really lost track of phones now. I probably don't need the latest generation and more looking at the previous ones. Haven't done a lot of in depth research yet, but lets say a budget of £250 for the phone. No iPhones, not that I'm against Apple as such, but since I have nothing to do with them (no iTunes or iPod etc), don't see that point of starting. Also, would prefer a "normal" sized phone like my Desire, I have no need for a massive big screen. Finally, again haven't looked into this yet, but would definitely need a case because I will drop it at some point, and if it could be something that also increases battery life, that would be good. At the moment my first thoughts are something like: -

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini
Nexus 4
HTC One <something> - only glanced at these and haven't really read into the different versions

Lack of microSD slot isn't a major concern because I'm not hogging a load of media with me. 4G might be useful so it is quicker when I do use the Internet, but not sure if I need to pay the premium for it really.

With regards to plans, it would almost certainly be a PAYG type thing because of the major lack of usage. So, something like: -

Three 3-2-1; probably best value (I would guess £10 could go 3 months easily) but I can't tether as far as I can tell; the "tether" add-on doesn't appear to work with PAYG.
GiffGaff £10 bundle; I could at least tether, but it's still £10/month for a little bit of extra flexibility. Also heard the coverage/speed could be slightly less than Three.
Haven't got much further yet.

I do travel but might only send the random text. Certainly don't try to make any call or use the Internet. In fact, no idea if it's normal but it is handy that T-Mobile automatically locks out data when abroad.

Of course, I could just replace the battery (maybe) and carry on with a different sim, but I think I've had it long enough to treat myself!

[virtuo]

Rumours are that the Nexus 5 will be announced tomorrow and it should come inside your handset budget. It'll be big though, but might mean you can pick up a Nexus 4 pretty cheaply on eBay (which is supposedly a similar size with a larger bezel).

I never thought I'd go HTC again after my Diamond/Hero, but the latest One looks incredibly good, if you can find one cheap and don't mind the HTC Sense interface.

I don't really know much about PayG plans, but if you can get a decent PayG price with Three, I've had zero issues with them since switching in the summer.

[herulach]

Isn't nexus 5 the same size as nexus 4 because it has a slimmer bezel? Or was that the new iPhone? Xperia Z is probably worth putting on the list - good phone, water proof.

Threes one plan might be worth a look - its 30 day rolling instead of payg, but £15/month for basically everything you could ever need.

[Dooms]

I would vote for a Nexus 5 and a GiffGaff goodie bag

http://giffgaff.com/

£7.50 a month (without a contract) will get you 200 minutes, unlimited text and 250 MB internet.
£10 - 500 minutes, unlimited text, 1gb Internet
£12 - 250 minutes, unlimited text and internet.

[virtuo]

Isn't nexus 5 the same size as nexus 4 because it has a slimmer bezel?

Yeah, I don't think the way I wrote that made much sense..! The N5 is supposedly a few mm smaller than the N4, but has a much slimmer bezel around the screen to accommodate the jump in screen size.

It's still going to be quite big. Maybe look at an S3 mini or HTC one mini? Specs/performance aren't amazing (probably a bit better than a GS2), but they are more compact than their big screen brothers.

[Gerrard]

I think I'll have to go into a store at some point to physically see them to gauge how big I would be prepared to go. Likewise, I've only used my HTC and so have no idea if I would prefer the different interfaces of other manufacturers. I only mentioned the Nexus 4 as when reading a review on the S3 mini, they were raving about how much more you got for the same price with the Nexus. But the S3 mini is now around £160 vs £240 for the Nexus 4 on Amazon (again, very quick scan).

Regarding price plans, I forgot that the £7.50 GiffGaff would probably be enough for me, and the extra 2p/Mb is acceptable if I needed it.

I'm not planning on doing anything immediately; I won't be available until next weekend anyway but will continue to research a bit.

[cheesyboy]

I have a Sony Xperia U which costs me, effectively, £9.50 ish per month. Got it from Mobiles.co.uk.
Mine's running Android 2.2, but upgradeable to 4.0 apparently, and does all the basics ok (and plays some games) - it's well built too.

Current deals on the Xperia U see you getting 300mins, unlimited texts, 500mb for under £11/month with free handset (O2)

You have to make cashback claims every few months, but it's pretty easy if you're disciplined.