[Poll] Are bigger smartphones and phablets appealing to you?

[mikeo01]

Problem is, everything is trying to be like something else. A tablet and smartphone is trying to be more computer-like, whilst Google glass and Smartwatches are trying to be like phones. Besides, even more devices to bleeding beep at me!

When will it end? Useless drool that is apparently "a useful feature" in my opinion. A big screen nets you readably and usability, however, if you are using your smartphone and are noticing things are harder to read maybe you should just use a laptop or a computer?

If your tablet doesn't have clarity or isn't very fast then again, a laptop/computer?


I'd use my smartphone solely to receive SMS and calls. Why should I want a device that tries and mimics your bog standard laptop? Why would I want my device to be able to do the tasks in my working life? Heck I wouldn't want to be closer to a working life in my non-working spare time.


Besides, if I am walking around and doing activities I will be constantly worrying about my great hunk of a phone dropping and smashing, or snapping every time I sit down, getting stolen, or simply accidentally throwing it when I get it out

[adidan]

A phone, laptop and PC suit my needs.

Tablets are ok but I can't really see the point of them for me, a phone is ok for browsing or taking photos, a laptop for travel gaming and a PC for anything more involved.

Watching people take photos or film on a tablet just looks daft.

[Saracen]

A phone, laptop and PC suit my needs.

Tablets are ok but I can't really see the point of them for me, a phone is ok for browsing or taking photos, a laptop for travel gaming and a PC for anything more involved.

Watching people take photos or film on a tablet just looks daft.

It all depends what we each want a device for. Personally, I find a tablet very useful around the home, not least for instant net access, whenever and wherever I want it, be it sitting in the lounge, laying in bed, roosting on the loo or sipping a cold one in the garden. It's far more convenient for that than a laptop. For me.

A phone, on the other hand, all I really need is to make and receive calls, and have a dozen or so numbers in memory. I don't even need (or want) text capability, never mind mobile internet. That might very occasionally be useful, but not often enough that I've yet had the need for a smartphone.

Laptop and desktop(s) are, for me, essential.

Maybe I'll end up with a smartphone, if anything ever addresses some privacy concerns and critically IF I ever find a tariff that works for very light, and extremely sporadic data usage. So far, I haven't, not least because I'm not prepared to pay a monthly fee for a data allowance I likely won't use, most months.

[DanceswithUnix]

Maybe I'll end up with a smartphone, if anything ever addresses some privacy concerns and critically IF I ever find a tariff that works for very light, and extremely sporadic data usage. So far, I haven't, not least because I'm not prepared to pay a monthly fee for a data allowance I likely won't use, most months.

Do you call out a lot? Three do a pay as you go sim which is 1p per MB, I was looking to move my daughter to it.

Privacy concerns are harder, Android is spooky. Useful, but spooky.

[adidan]

IF I ever find a tariff that works for very light, and extremely sporadic data usage. So far, I haven't, not least because I'm not prepared to pay a monthly fee for a data allowance I likely won't use, most months.

I use wifi on mine most of the time, the only time I use my half a gig of data is when I'm out and about.

I have a SIM only pay monthly deal from 3 for £7 a month - 200 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb data - all of which you can use for free if you go abroad to quite a few countries now (eg, I go to Finland every year and Austria sometimes and I get to use my free allowance rather than pay for anything).

I guess it's all horses for courses at the end of the day.

I hear what you're saying about tablets, I guess as we have a pc down here too then I've not seen the need. Moving though and I won't be taking this old kit with me so I may very well change my views on a tablet although I imagine there'll be a laptop set up in the next place. Not sure on that one yet.

[Saracen]

Do you call out a lot? Three do a pay as you go sim which is 1p per MB, I was looking to move my daughter to it.

Privacy concerns are harder, Android is spooky. Useful, but spooky.

Don't use my existing (idiot) phone much at all. It's only on when I'm out, and often, not even then. And I rarely make outgoing calls.

Put it this way. When I bought it, for £5, it came with £1 of call credit. I've added a further £10. Still got some left, though not much. And it bought it in 2007.

So, cost of phone including call charges is just under £15, over some 7 years, or about £2/year.

One issue with many current SIM deals is they're effectively a rolling 30-day contract, with use-it-or-lose-allowances, especially on data, and that's no use to me. I don't mind paying for a data allowance, even at a premium rate if it's PAYG, but NOT if it expires after a brief time. If I go away for a trip, I might use it while away, but then I might not use it at all for weeks, maybe even months.

[adidan]

Put it this way. When I bought it, for £5, it came with £1 of call credit. I've added a further £10. Still got some left, though not much. And it bought it in 2007.

And I thought I was a light user

[dexofthenorth]

The 5 inch screen on my S4 seems perfect to me. Having said that, I have sausage fingers so the screens on the mini smartphones drive me mad , that and the lack of real estate when browsing.

I think a phone much bigger than the S4 would be too cumbersome to carry about all day though.

[DanceswithUnix]

If I go away for a trip, I might use it while away, but then I might not use it at all for weeks, maybe even months.

I used to be the same until I got a smartphone. I got a contract to cover the data usage, and that gives me unlimited text messages so I now use them quite a lot.

Someone I work with just got his first smartphone, cheap one from Tesco. If he hadn't lost his old Nokia he wouldn't have bothered, so sounds much like you.

I think he turns off mobile data and location services which is good enough for him on privacy and gets the running costs down to the same as his old feature phone. He has WiFi at home and work, so basic smart features still work.

Edit to add: 1p per MB seems pretty good. My contract allows 1GB and costs £11 per month. I usually get through about 300MB, so £3 worth. That includes using the phone as a satnav, browsing BBC news when waiting for take away food, checking traffic conditions when setting off somewhere so it isn't that light a use.

One issue with many current SIM deals is they're effectively a rolling 30-day contract, with use-it-or-lose-allowances, especially on data, and that's no use to me. I don't mind paying for a data allowance, even at a premium rate if it's PAYG, but NOT if it expires after a brief time.

Hmm, that had me checking the small print. My free SIM ordered off their website eventually arrived, not tried it yet though. They claim here that topups don't expire:

http://www.three.co.uk/support/top_u..._paygp_stc1635

[scaryjim]

... Three do a pay as you go sim which is 1p per MB, I was looking to move my daughter to it. ...

... One issue with many current SIM deals is they're effectively a rolling 30-day contract, with use-it-or-lose-allowances ...

I've just persuaded my stepson to move to Three's PAYG, and I'll be shifting to it very shortly indeed (once I've got round to getting my PAC off Talkmobile!). If you get it in store they'll deserately try to sell it to you as needing to buy packages to get lots of free stuff, to the extent that my stepson actually rang me from the 3 shop because he thought he was asking for the wrong thing (and apparently the staff look disgusted if you tell them you have no intention of buying the packages ever). but you certainly don't need to, and it's by far the cheapest PAYG deal available at the minute (3p/minute, 2p/text, 1p/MB).

As far as smartphones go, I'm not convinced you can do much better in terms of privacy than going with Blackberry. I can't praise the Q5 enough (but then I did get mine very cheap). Or perhaps, if any get released, a Firefox OS phone would do the job...

[Saracen]

That 3p/2p/1p PAYG deal sounds good, IF it's on a basic PAYG SIM, with me essentially putting in £x topup, and it expires when used, not when it times out.

If I get a smartphone, a large part of the 'why' would be for data usage when away from home. We regularly go away for a weekend, and it ends up longer. You might remember I recently disappeared offline for weeks. That's 'cos we went for a weekend, and stayed over a month. We've done that, though not for quite that long, three times this year.

My costs would, therefore, go up from current levels if I got one, but probably not hugely, and only for data. I neither expect, nor want mobile phone calls, to or from, to go up. I don't want to be pestered all the time, so friends and family know it's really for urgent calls only, and nobody else gets the mobile number. And I simply don't do texts. Never send them, and if ANYONE (except the mobile provider with service messages) sends me one, it won't get read.

So my usage would be, at most, light internet usage, and very light telephone usage.

Which leads to the next question .... given that light usage, is it even worth the capital cost of a decent budget phone, like MotoG? I'm not yet convinced.

[mikeo01]

And then Apple will charge £539-£789 for their new phone, [source]. That price for a phone makes me sick in the stomach.

A price of a PC/Server that'll funnily enough do more.


Devices like these are quite simply rip offs, eating at people. Easy money really if you think about it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Which leads to the next question .... given that light usage, is it even worth the capital cost of a decent budget phone, like MotoG? I'm not yet convinced.

Only you can decide on that

Personally I wouldn't want to give it up. Had a crown fall off on my recent holiday. Selecting home screen and saying "OK Google, find a local dentist" got me an easy start in what was pretty stressful situation.

My daughter wanted some medicine from the chemist, it showed us where the nearest was and how long it would take to walk there.

If I am lost, Google Maps says where I am.

My car stereo plays music from the phone over bluetooth.

So nothing that I couldn't have done 20 years ago by going and asking someone, popping into a shop and buying a map, or having a stack of CDs in the car, but overall I like it.

I would say don't sign up for Google Now though. It works for me, but I get the impression you would find the way it starts logging everything you do abhorrent! It is opt-in though.

My son has a Moto-E which is £80 on a paygo deal, I can certainly recommend that. Frankly it has most of the usability of my HTC One X that cost a fortune a couple of years ago. Some of the cheap phones are horrid, do try before you buy.

[MrRockliffe]

My Z1 broke recently, and it was starting to feel a little cumbersome. However, I've switched to an Xperia T and even though it's a smaller screen, I still have to shift it up and down my hand (what I had to do with the Z1) so basically it's not made it easier, plus it's smaller.

Media consumption is miles better on the Z1 (Even with the terrible TN panel - damn you Sony) and I miss it sosososososososososo much. Such a lovely phone now that I've gone 'back to basics', so to speak.

[directhex]

And then Apple will charge £539-£789 for their new phone, [source]. That price for a phone makes me sick in the stomach.

A price of a PC/Server that'll funnily enough do more.


Devices like these are quite simply rip offs, eating at people. Easy money really if you think about it.

It basically *is* a PC. The performance of the CPU is about in line with an i3-3217U

[Saracen]

Only you can decide on that

Personally I wouldn't want to give it up. Had a crown fall off on my recent holiday. Selecting home screen and saying "OK Google, find a local dentist" got me an easy start in what was pretty stressful situation.

My daughter wanted some medicine from the chemist, it showed us where the nearest was and how long it would take to walk there.

If I am lost, Google Maps says where I am.

My car stereo plays music from the phone over bluetooth.

So nothing that I couldn't have done 20 years ago by going and asking someone, popping into a shop and buying a map, or having a stack of CDs in the car, but overall I like it.

I would say don't sign up for Google Now though. It works for me, but I get the impression you would find the way it starts logging everything you do abhorrent! It is opt-in though.

My son has a Moto-E which is £80 on a paygo deal, I can certainly recommend that. Frankly it has most of the usability of my HTC One X that cost a fortune a couple of years ago. Some of the cheap phones are horrid, do try before you buy.

Oh, GoogleNow is an absolute non-starter for me. Few things would give me greater pleasure than the certainty that Google knows NOTHING about me, not even that I exist. As far as I'm concerned, their entire raison d'etre is serving targeted ads, and I don't want targeted ads, from anybody, about anything, ever. I don't particularly want ads at all, but being tracked, profiled and targeted offends me deeply. So there are no circumstances between now and the end of the Universe that I will knowingly and willingly give Google ANY information about myself. I hold them in utter contempt.