[HRH Gold Joinee Sheli]

So, my phone is up for renewal soon, and I'm not sire what I want to get. I currently have an android LG phone, which is okay... but not great. I want to get something I will but I have no idea where to start looking.

So, if you your phone, I have 3 questions for you...

1. What phone do you have?

2. What do you love about it? Sell it to me baby!

3. What do you use it for? (ie, just as a phone, for internets, photos, apps - and which ones, music etc etc)

Please don't just tell me stuff you hate about other phones, as I just want to get an idea of what phones are out there at the moment that people are enjoying, and why. Then I'll be able to get an idea of a few phones to look at and have a play with and read about before deciding

Love you all!!

[Joinee Varwell]

1. I have an iPhone 3GS.
2. I love lots about it. One aspect is the ease of use and the way it connects seamlessly with my Mac. Another is the fact that...
3. ...I use it for loads. Phone, text, email, web browsing (mainly reading the news, people's blogs and other articles I've marked to read later), calendar, music (and podcasts), Twitter, G+, Facebook, various games, checking train times, daily tasks, maps, camera, address book, and reading ebooks (on both iBooks and Kindle). And more probably that I've forgotten. It does so many things that take up so little space and minimise the need to take other things away on trips. I travel a lot for work and love the portability.

The key drawback of the iPhone is the cost, though if you hunt around for the right plan it's not so bad (I currently pay about twenty or twenty-five quid for a generous package, albeit after having to pay for the phone first). And as I justify it to myself, while it's expensive for just a phone it's great value for all of the above things that it does on top of being just a phone. Oh and another drawback is that there have been several software updates since I bought this phone and it's noticeably faster at draining the battery now. I hear the iPhone 4 and 4S are brilliant for battery life, in contrast.

[Gaz]

I have a Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7. What I love about it is that the hardware looks great and WP7 is a really elegant, easy to use OS - different to Apple's iOS but equally well designed and well thought out. Cost-wise, the 800 is at the pricey end but there are lots of other WP7 phones that are cheaper, and they all run the same software. The Nokia though does come with some splendid extras - Nokia Music, which is basically like Last FM and completely free, and Nokia Drive, which is a free global satnav.

The key thing with WP7 is the social integration - so it hooks into your facebook and twitter accounts and your "Me" tile will update whenever you get a mention/tweet/FB message.. You can also group your friends together into groups and pin those groups to the start page, then you just clock on the tile and it'll give you updates for just those people. It also has an excellent web browser, great camera, really good email client and all the usual stuff.

The WP7 app store isn't as full as the Android and iOS marketplaces, but most of the main ones are there. The only area that's still genuinely a bit weak is games, but there are quite a few (and all the big ones like Angry Birds) and the situation is always improving

If you want to know what it's like, you can actually go to a website for a demo to give you a taster:

http://m.microsoft.c...demo/index.html

[Lethal Biddle]

I use a Nokia. I don't know what kind because all other identifying markings have been rubbed off & I can't remember. It is square & has been on silent for many years now, so I'm not sure what kind of noises it makes. It can make phone calls & send texts & there is an icon on the menu that suggests it may have some kind of voicemail.
The thing I like about it is that it fulfills the social requirement that I own a mobile phone. Everything else that I imagine fancy phones can do I can do better with a PC & I'm never far away from one of those, so I feel no need to upgrade.
I am sure you will find this information useful.

[GJ Drought]

I have an iphone 2G, up until this morning it was pretty good! ok so it had never been updated...ever, and i've literally no idea what apps are about, but the note pad is, sorry "was" awsome!


Its a brick now! may give it to the guinea pigs to wee on.

Tomorrow i'll have a shiny new iphone 3gs. cant wait to fire up the note pad! i bet its awsome!

[Silver Joinee Johnd]

HTC Desire S is the super awesome. Pretty cheap plan too since I hardly ever make phone calls. I use the Evernote application on my home screen which means I now actually remember things cos it's so easy to note things down. I put off getting a decent phone for aaaages but having maps on my phone along with note taking easiness and Fxcamera for quick fun photos makes it lotsa fun to have

[Joinee Marcus]

Much like Biddle, I'm not entirely sure what my phone is anymore. I've used it so much all of the numbers have rubbed off the keypad. I think it makes noises, but I'm not sure. I know it vibrates.

But, the best thing is that it's impossible to kill. And trust me, I've tried. This thing has been out windows, in canals and under cars, through five(?) years of unrelenting mistreatment, and it's still as good as new. (Mechanically. It's got so many dents and scratches I'm not even sure what shape it used to be anymore.) I've played about a billion games of blackjack and it still isn't boring, and I've heard the alarm a million times more, and it still irritates me. As a little bit of a test, I changed the language to zulu for a month, and I could still use it fine. And even after all this time, the battery still lasts for about a week off of one charge.

So what I'm saying here is buy a brick-o-phone. I bought mine as a temporary replacement for a stolen phone - cost me a fiver, and I still own it because it's just the best thing. And because it was a fiver, I'm not too fussed if it goes missing, or falls into another canal. Long live the brick!

I'm sorry - this has sort of turned into a love poem to my phone. But buy a brick. If all else fails, you can always use it to prop up a table.