Cheap PAYG Smartphones?

[ECA]

As per topic, I know the san francisco was good last year, has anything replaced as the go to cheap smartphone?

 

[MYstIC G]

There was some other cheap ZTE rebrand that Reg Hardware were pawing over but I've not heard of anything bang for buck wise that's taken the San Frans place yet.

 

[soze]

I think the Monte Carlo is meant to be the big brother.

4.3 inch screen, 800mhz processor, 2.3 on board all for about £50 more. I have not played with one so I can't comment on if it lives up to the SF mould.

 

[Lamp]

HTC Wildfire - around £100. My Mrs has it. Does everything you want a smartphone to do - but its not that good for action games (eg angry birds lags like hell on it).

 

[Nate]

Monte Carlo looks good, think I'll get that one myself.

Review here: Orange Monte Carlo Review | Mobile Phones | CNET UK

Gaming
The Monte Carlo's massive screen is predictably brilliant at hosting Android games. The insanely popular Angry Birds looks and plays brilliantly on the phone, thanks to the vivid display and responsive capacitive touchscreen.


Complicated 3D games are something of a weakness for the Monte Carlo, but it handles Angry Birds well enough.

The device's 800MHz processor is more than capable of running graphically modest 2D titles, but it's a slightly different story as far as some of the more demanding 3D games are concerned. Fruit Ninja is playable, but there's a noticeable lag when there's plenty of fruit flying around the screen. We also tried the graphically intense robot shooter ExZeus, which ran reasonably well until the screen started to fill up with enemies.

 

[Nate]

Oh I didn't realise it's locked to Orange probably won't be buying it then. There's a couple of retailers that are selling it unlocked as ZTE Skate but it's more expensive.

Any of you guys had a go on Huawei Titan U8800, Palm Pre 2 or Motorola Defy?

 

[Ch3tan]

Not a wildfire. Seriously under-powered.

 

[soze]

Sim Free Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - £189.95 @ Mobile Fun - HotUKDeals

£190 for a Sony 2.3 Android phone even if the dpad is not your thing that's still good value.

 

[ECA]

Monte Carlo just dropped to £119 from £149.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Was looking for a relatively cheap smartphone for me dad, settled for the Acer Liquid Metal in the end. Wonder if they'll sell it at that price, heh.

 

[Nate]

Is the date on that when it's available?

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Possibly when they expect to receive a batch. There's one in stock at Amazon but it's double the price so I'm not too hopeful that this one will be honoured at the price it is on Expansys.

 

[Lamp]

Acer Liquid Metal review | from TechRadar UK's expert reviews of Mobile phones

 

[Nate]

One negative is "annoying curved backplate"...lol

 

[Nate]

Did you get this from Expansys Fuzzy?