Phones Can you buy Samsung without contracts

[Moriath]

ie can you buy a nexus or galaxy s2 or 3 without being tied to a network .. and just put a sim in that you have.

I have a phone from work so dont need a contract or anything but wouldnt mind the hardware and putting a sim in the phone that i have from my work phone.,

You can buy the iphone operator free from apple can you do the same with the sammys ?

 

[Punishment]

Don't know about the UK but in Ireland the S2 is still stupidly overpriced sim free something like 459 euros which is only a little less than an iphone 4s, HTC One X is i think 549 euros, no idea on S3 yet.

 

[caLLous]

Yes, you can buy any phone sim-free afaik. The Galaxy S3 or other SIM free phones.

 

[rynnor]

ie can you buy a nexus or galaxy s2 or 3 without being tied to a network .. and just put a sim in that you have.

Yes - I bought an S2 sim free off of amazon and put my old Virgin SIM in it (until I quickly replaced it with a giffgaff one).

 

[Moriath]

next whats the difference between the nexus and an s3 ... is one better than the other ?

 

[Zenith.UK]

Galaxy Nexus was Samsung's first attempt at an Ice Cream Sandwich phone for Google.
Galaxy S3 is Samsung's own latest phone. In terms of tech, Samsung learned from making the Nexus then improved on it with the S3.

Expansys, Clove, MobileFun, CarphoneWarehouse and Phones4U all sell phones SIM-free.
You're talking serious money though because the Nexus is still a current model retailing for about £400, and the S3 is brand-new and no less than £500.

I currently have a Blackberry 8520 from work on Vodafone, and a Galaxy S3 for myself on O2. I'l be trialling a HTC One X for work for a couple of weeks from next week so I will be able to get a direct side-by-side comparison of how the latest generation of phones square up to each other.

 

[rynnor]

next whats the difference between the nexus and an s3 ... is one better than the other ?

I think technically the S2 is generally superior to the Nexus - the Nexus had the next O/S but that should be available on S2.

The S3 is too big tbh - its pushed the 'phone' too far to something that wont fit in a pocket.

 

[Lamp]

S2 on Amazon has "dropped" to £330

The OneX and S3 are probably faster (how fast do you really need a phone to be? bearing in mind you won't be playing WoW on it...), but the S2 is still a damn fine device. Won't be changing my phone for a while.

 

[Moriath]

yeah wife has an s2 on contract and its a fine phone ... and yeah the nexus is 100 quid cheaper than the s3 but is the s3 100 quid better than the nexus ... only thing i can see is touchwiz (which negates the extra processing power) and the better camera

 

[Zenith.UK]

I suppose a question should be "What do you want to do with it?"
In terms of hardware, the S3 beats the Nexus.
In terms of software, the Nexus has the edge because it gets the Android updates as soon as Google release them.

If vanilla Android is more your thing, the Nexus is the one to look at.
If you're not bothered about the OS or interface, then it's your choice based on whatever criteria you pick.