I'm looking for a new smart phone for the wife, situation is she has a HTC Wildfire S and is about 9 months into a 2 yr contract, the phone is crap to be blunt. No where near enough memory and without rooting it apps can't be moved to SD to create enough space.
I've looked into rooting it and it seems this is one of the harder phones to do and as I have no experience it would prob go badly.

I'm trying to find another phone to replace hers with, it will have to be bought sim free or more likely as a PAYG handset I can stick the wife's sim into.

I don't want to spend more the £150 at the most as she doesn't really look after phones or have a huge interest, she likes to browse the Internet, use Facebook and take pics of our baby.

I've come across the Sony Experia U which can be had for around £130 as a PAYG handset and looks reasonable with 8gb memory of which 4gb is useable, which I guess means the other 4gb is used by the operating system etc?

Seems to get decent reviews too.

Any views on this or other options, no HTC handsets though, I hate them now.

Just to add she is on Vodafone.

Thanks.

 

Don't know if Voda have the same phone available, but Orange do the San Francisco II free on a £10/m contract. Me and the misuse have them and they're OK, but then I wouldn't know a 'good' smart phone from a crap one as this one is the only one I've had.

 

have you thought about a galaxy s2? i agree mate the htc wildfire is gash,i have one and i cant wait to upgrade next march time

 

Huwei Ascend G300

£100 quid from argos +£10 top up

They are only available on Vodaphone.

I was in a similar situation to your self and its the one I went for. Better spec than others available around the same price range.

It will also be able to run ICS quite easily when it is released for it.

Plenty of reviews for them on Hot UK Deal

 

That was my first thought but I can't find one for under £200 even on eBay or gumtree.

 

I'll have a look at that one, never heard of it to be honest,

 

Tescos have just been selling the G300 for £60 but seem to have sold out everywhere. That was an absolute bargain at that price. It's also £100 at Asda. There is also the Nokia 710 Windows phone for £99 at Carphone Warehouse. My Wife has one from that deal and I actually rather like it.

 

If you're in no immediate panic, watch the hotukdeals forum for deals.
In the last 2 weeks, Asda direct have had the LG Prada 3.0 and then the Nokia Lumia 800 (Windows) for £149 each -both unlocked. I bought the LG Prada for my daughter, a lot of phone for £149, performance not far short of my Galaxy S2.
Carphone Warehouse have a Nokia Lumia 710 (Windows) for £99, seems to get good reviews.

 

A chap on XDA has the same problem, here is the thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1900913.

It is the normal HTC boot-loader unlock followed by root using an utility programme

Quite easy to do, I have rooted my previous Android phones, with relative ease.

A

 

I would get the samsung galaxy s as its a great phone and can be had for about your budget new. My daughter has the Galaxy s and I offered her my S2 and she didn't want it as her phone is really good.

 

Thought about the galaxy S but its getting on a bit now. The Sony Experia U has a duel core processor which the S doesn't have.

I've thought about windows phones, may be worth having a look at a windows 8 option.

I'll keep an eye on hot uk deals for a week as I'm watching a couple on eBay too.

 

Get an older top of the range phone second hand, can get a Desire HD for £120

 

It's a possibility, I had a desire HD when they first came out and it was pretty decent really. Maybe a bit dated now though?

 

I found these on the web, they seem to only come with 2.5gb built in storage, a bit worried I would end up with the same issue as the wildfire S where the internal storage is full and apps won't move to the SD card?

 

Not sure about moving the apps to the SD card once they have been installed on the internal.

But I install all my apps on the external card and they work fine, the only ones you seem to have problems with and need to be installed on the internal are widgets.

I have a fair few apps, and they don't add upto that much, dunno where you would get 2 gigs worth from lol

 

Maybe it's just an issue with the wildfire S I'm trying to replace but most apps don't move to the SD card, my sister has the same issue with her HTC desire as well.

 

Still got my original Desire HD, never had the same phone so long. No plans to change either!