Account deleted by request

Sick and tired of work related people ringing me when I am off work but need loved ones to be able to contact me.

Anyone use a dual sim phone? Would like a recommendation with bluetooth (essential) and a decent camera ideally.

Before anyone asks I am no carrying two phones.

Chop

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

Have you looked on eBay to see if there is a dual sim carrier for your current phone?

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

I've had a pretty detailed look at this market myself, because I was in roughly the same situation of already having a work phone and needing my own, but not wanting to cart around 2 phones, 2 chargers and the rest of it.

At the time I was shopping for one around a year ago, the choice came down to roughly this:

- a small handful of basic to slightly more advanced 'ordinary' phones from recognizable manufacturers, eg Nokia, LG, Samsung, with offerings ranging in price from £60 to £170 ish, for a contract-free unlocked phone. I describe these as ordinary phones, because they're neither Blackberry, Android or iPhone, which means so far as apps are concerned you'll be limited to what comes pre-installed on the phones, with no option to download and install stuff from AppWorld, Market or AppStore. At best, you might have browser, email, organizer, music player, but nothing much more interesting than that, and you can more or less guarantee it'll have a relatively small and non-touch screen.

- an absolute plethora of Chinese-made no-brand non-Android phones of different stripes and hues, ranging in price from around £40 to around double that, depending on features.

- an almost equally wide selection of Chinese-made no-brand Android phones, commanding as you'd expect relatively higher prices, but for the most part still costing quite a bit less than many single-SIM mainstream counterparts, and coming with sometimes absurdly long built-in gadget lists (GPS, TV, etc). The main drawbacks with these IMO were:
- none of them did 3G, only GPRS/Edge aka 2.5G
- relatively slower processor speeds
- with a few small exceptions, very-limited to non-existent after-market availability of covers, holders, custom-fitting car docks, etc. Chargers use generic micro-B or mini-B USB connectors, so easily replaced.
- the social stigma , slightly inferior build-quality, and probably less than perfect after-market support, that all come from buying something that doesn't have the clout of a big-badge name
- inconvenience of possibly having to direct-import from the far-East, if you can't find the model you like available on Ebay or from another UK-based supplier with stock

In the last year, the market has moved on again slightly, and you can add to the above list the following:
- a couple of dual-SIM Android offerings from Motorola, retailing at £240 and £499 unlocked (model numbers xt532 and Xt882, if you want to do more research).

- the Gigabyte gSmart range. Gigabyte are better known for making top-end PC components, but the phones look pretty good value and well-made. Probably import-only, and around the £200 to £250 mark once duties etc taken into account.

- small but growing range of dual-sim Android phones from Lenovo, the most advanced being the A65, I think. Around the same price-bracket as the Gigabytes, and again for the most part import-only (off Ebay, eCrater or wherever).

- wide range of the same Chinese-made Android efforts, this time including 3G support, slightly faster processors, and a slightly better range of covers, holders etc available

I've seen announcements for a fair few other dual-sim Android phones from mainstream manufacturers (Samsung's sch-w999, Motorola XT390, Gigabyte's G1355, etc), but weeks or in some cases months later these still haven't actually hit the shops yet, so if I was shopping again for one now, I'd forget about those and look at what's available to buy immediately.

So far as features go, all of the above more recent phones will be much of a muchness, but you'd need to check through relevant specs for exact details of camera or screen resolutions and so on.

For myself, I ended up buying a Chinese dual-sim Android jobbie that cost me just over £100. I chose that specific model because it was give or take a couple of mm either way the exact shape and size of an HTC, which meant I could find a cover and a car-cradle for it without too much trouble. It doesn't do 3G, the processor's a bit slow, and the camera and audio quality are frankly far from perfect, but for a relatively light phone-user such as myself it's not a bad compromise. If I was shopping again now, I'd probably look very closely at the Lenovo offerings and compare those against the best of the no-brand Chinese ones, and see which looks the better value.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

As an alternative:


Can you arrange the business caller numbers into different caller groups, and the friends/family into another.

Then set the ring preferences to auto-reject or voicemail all the business calls (as well as unknown numbers), or even a silent ringtone (a mp3 recording of nothing ) with no vibrate. I could do it on my aincient Samsung. Not sure how you do it on newer smartphones etc, but it surely must be possible.

Just be warned if a 999 operator tries to call you back after a emergency call whilst its active, they won't get though to you (yeah it happened to me, oops ).

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

Orange used to offer a Line 2 or ALS (tech name) service. You would get a 2nd number and dependent on the phone - it'd flash 2 or something so you could differentiate.

All of the big manufacturers have released dual sim phones in other markets (typically the Indian sub-continent due to the way the market works there.

greenonedave

orange stopped the two line single phone,
I have two phones and two lines, The best answere is.
set up phone a ( i.e. personal) to divert all calls to phone b,( i.e work)
then carry phone b around, if a call signs up a being diverted then you know its a personal call and take it, or non diverted calls ignore when it suits you, the other benefit is any calls made out on phone b will be charged to the business account.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Don't you end up paying for part of the cost of that call, as though you'd picked up phone a and used it to dial phone b yourself?

Account deleted by request

Thanks for replies especially markmjd

Ended up going with this;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005G3X6V...SIN=B005G3X6VQ

Ticks all the boxes for what I need apart from the poor camera, will see if a dual sim phone works for me then maybe invest in a decent one in the future.

Cheers, Chop