December 30th, 2011
The Samsung Galaxy S II, is available on all of the major networks in the UK. Our price comparison tool finds the best deals.
The Samsung Galaxy S II is currently the bestselling Android handset in the UK. It’s a great alternative to the iPhone 4S and is available on all of the UK’s major mobile networks. Sporting a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core application processor and Android 2.3, it’s available on 124 different tariff combinations across the major networks. Our price comparison calculator will find the best one for you.
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December 27th, 2011
If you already have your own smartphone, you could save about £180/year by switching to a SIM-only tariff for your smartphone.
If you already own a smartphone and don’t need a new one, a SIM-only tariff offers a low-cost bundle of inclusive minutes, texts and internet access to use each month. Compared to a traditional mobile phone contract, SIM-only contracts are around £15/month cheaper – that means you should see savings of around £180 each year on a SIM-only tariff. SIM-only tariffs only include airtime and do not come with a new handset. This makes them ideal for:
- Anyone who purchases their smartphone SIM free, on a Pay As You Go tariff or second hand from eBay.
- Anyone who already has a smartphone which came from a previous mobile contract. Your initial 18 month or 24 month contract has already run out but you’re happy to keep your phone.
- Anyone who has been given a handset by a friend or family member (for example an unwanted upgrade or an old phone).
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December 24th, 2011
Ken’s Tech Tips looks back at the first half of 2011: the tariffs, the technologies and the smartphones.
Data: We can't get enough of it. Smartphone data consumption skyrocketed in 2011 and Three were well placed to take advantage of it.
January 2011
January 2011 began with the UK’s challenger network Three adding all-you-can-eat data to their One Plan tariff. Since O2 scrapped unlimited data in June 2010, Three have been the only mainstream network to be pushing a tariff offering unlimited downloads and no download limits on their primary tariff.
According to Three, ‘The One Plan’ is the most popular tariff amongst their customers. This was validated by our Ken’s Tech Tips Worm studies in July and November: both studies showed Three gaining a lot of customers from their offer of all-you-can-eat data. At the same time, Three unfortunately began to turn off Orange 2G roaming at the start of the year which lead to a deterioration of service for some Three customers.
In January 2011, we also wrote about Giffgaff’s unique “Hokey Cokey” goodybag, how to use Google Calendar for free SMS reminders, Orange’s UMA service (calling over wi-fi) and looked forward to fourth-generation LTE networks.
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December 21st, 2011
Have you received a new mobile phone from Santa this year? In this guide, we outline 21 useful things you want to know and things you might want to do with your mobile phone this Christmas.
Getting Started
Transfer your phone book and SMS messages from your old phone. You don’t need to copy your phone numbers over one-by-one and it doesn’t need to be a time-consuming job just to hold on to those precious phone numbers. Either copy contacts using your SIM card or through your computer and it can take no time at all.- Keep your mobile number even if you’re switching networks. Just because you’re switching network or upgrading to a new phone doesn’t mean you also need to change your phone number. If you’re staying on the same network, call the customer services hotline for your network and they can switch your number over. If you’re switching network, you’ll need a PAC Code. Our “PAC Code Finder” tool will walk you through the whole step-by-step process of transferring your number.
- Find out what your international number is. If you’re changing phone number this Christmas (even temporarily), make sure your friends and family who live abroad can still get in touch with you – they’ll want to share their festive greetings. To obtain your international phone number, simply replace the 0 at the start of your new phone number with +44. Oh and if you plan to call abroad from your mobile… check the price first. It often costs up to £1.50/minute and you’d be better off making the call from a BT landline, a specialist international call provider or over the internet using Skype or Google Talk.
- Getting started with a second hand or pre-owned phone. It is now commonplace for people to pass their old phones on to friends or family members when they receive an upgrade themselves. If you’ve received a pre-owned phone for Christmas, you can keep your existing SIM card providing the phone isn’t locked to a different network. Be warned though: if you’re moving up to a smartphone you’ll need to add a data plan to your tariff. See our detailed guide to getting started with a pre-owned phone and some of the pitfalls.
- Choose a good value tariff for your new phone. Chances are you’ll get a SIM card with your new mobile phone and chances are that SIM card will be Pay As You Go on one of the five main networks (Three, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone). On these networks, you’ll pay around 25p/minute for calls and 12p for every text message you send. Why not switch to a low-cost network such as giffgaff (see our giffgaff review)? Calls on giffgaff cost 10p/minute, texts cost 6p each and accessing the web costs 20p per day. Heavy users can get goodybag bundles such as 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £10/month. You can get a free SIM card from giffgaff here.
| Network |
Calls |
Texts |
Internet |
Voicemail |
| Giffgaff (uses O2 network) |
10p/min* |
6p* |
20p/day for 20MB then 20p/MB |
8p/call |
| O2 |
25p/min** |
12p |
£1/day (500MB free with £10 top-up) |
15p/call |
| Orange |
25p/min |
12p |
£2/day (100MB free with £10 top-up) |
25p/minute |
| Three |
26p/min |
11p |
11p/MB (150MB free with £10 top-up) |
16p/minute |
| T-Mobile |
20p/min |
12p |
£1/day |
12p/minute |
| Vodafone |
21p/min |
10p |
£1/day (500MB free with £10 top-up) |
21p/minute |
* On giffgaff, calls and texts to other giffgaff mobiles are free providing you’ve topped up once in the last 3 months.
** On O2 Pay As You Go, the cost of calls to landlines and other O2 mobiles drops to 5p/minute after the first 3 minutes.
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December 15th, 2011
If you’re looking to treat yourself to a new phone this Christmas, you can do worse than the Samsung Galaxy S II on Tesco Mobile. For £50 and £25/month, you’ll get a new Galaxy S II plus 750 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB internet each month.
If you’re looking for a powerful new smartphone this Christmas, Tesco Mobile currently have the Galaxy S II on special offer. With a £50 upfront payment for your handset and then £25/month afterwards, Tesco’s new deal comes with 750 minutes, 5000 texts and 500MB internet each month.
Given the amount of airtime included with this deal, we think it’s a great purchase. Even on a low-cost network such as giffgaff (see our giffgaff review) you’d be looking to pay £20/month alone for 800 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. For an extra £5/month and £50 upfront, you’ll get practically the same deal on Tesco with the bonus of a new and cutting-edge Galaxy S II.
The Galaxy S II on Tesco is offered on a 24-month contract. The total cost of ownership over 24 months is £650. A comparable iPhone 4S tariff would cost at least £939.
All of Tesco’s tariffs come with triple Clubcard points (3 Clubcard points for every £1 spend). If you combine this with Clubcard Rewards to quadruple the value of your points, you could get 12p worth of Clubcards Rewards for every £1 you spend with Tesco Mobile. This should work out as around £78 of Clubcard Rewards over the course of your contract, assuming the Rewards system doesn’t change over the next 24 months.
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December 6th, 2011
Giffgaff is an O2-owned mobile phone network. They offer low-cost calls and texts on Pay As You Go and with ‘Giffgaff Goodybag’ bundles.
Giffgaff is a low-cost mobile phone network owned by O2. Founded in November 2009, the Pay As You Go network has been running for over two years and uses the same masts & infrastructure as parent network O2.
Giffgaff have three main product offerings:
- Giffgaff Goodybags – “Goodybags” are bundles of minutes, texts and internet access which last for a month. For example, the £10/month Goodybag comes with 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. For frequent callers, Goodybags range from £15/month for 400 minutes to £25/month for 1,500 minutes. Heavy texters could opt for the £5/month “unlimited texts” goodybag but this does not come with any inclusive calls or internet access.
- Giffgaff Gigabags – “Gigabags” are data-only packages. Designed primarily for 3G tablets such as the iPad and USB mobile broadband dongles, “Gigabags” start from £5/month for 500MB of data. Heavy downloaders can opt for the 1GB package which costs £7.50/month or the 3GB package which costs £15/month. We’ve got an in-depth guide & full review of giffgaff gigabags.
- Pay As You Go – Without a goodybag, calls cost 10p/minute and texts cost 6p each on giffgaff. This compares very favourably with other mainstream Pay As You Go offerings: for example O2 charge 25p/minute for calls and 12p per text message (despite the fact you’re actually on the same network!). Smartphone owners can access the internet for 20p/day for 20MB internet if they don’t have a goodybag.
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December 2nd, 2011
We look at the top 5 bestselling Pay As You Go phones this Christmas.
Christmas is traditionally a time of giving, and what better gift is there for your loved ones but a new mobile phone? The ultimate gadget, the modern mobile phone is an all-in-one gadget which can be used to take photos, surf the internet, listen to music and play games as well as making phone calls and sending text messages. In this article, we review and compare the 5 best selling mobile phones this Christmas according to the Carphone Warehouse. There’s a large range of different designs and prices and so we hope it’ll come in handy in pointing you in the right direction.
If you’re looking for a technology gift other than a mobile phone, see our guide to the top 10 bestselling gadgets this Christmas.
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November 28th, 2011
Orange has five different ‘Pay As You Go’ animal tariffs: Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon and Camel. We review and compare the five tariffs.
Orange are one of the most popular Pay As You Go mobile networks in the UK but also one of the networks with the most complicated Pay As You Go tariffs. The Orange Pay As You Go line-up consists of five different “animal tariffs”: Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon and Camel. Each of the tariffs comes with different call charges and inclusive free allowances with every top-up.
In this article, we compare the five Orange Pay As You Go tariffs to each other and look at how they compare to other Pay As You Go tariffs which are available on the market.
What are the Orange ‘Animal’ tariffs?
Orange has five Pay As You Go ‘Animal’ tariffs:
- Monkey – Aimed at younger audiences, Monkey offers inclusive access to Orange’s “Deezer Lite” music service and free texts with a monthly top-up of £5/month or more.
- Dolphin – Designed for Facebook and Twitter fans, Dolphin offers free text messages and 100MB of internet access each month with a top-up of £10/month or more.
- Canary – Canary offers inclusive evening and weekend calls as well as a small allowance of inclusive texts with a top-up of £10/month or more.
- Racoon – Racoon is Orange’s simplest tariff with a flat rate charge of 12p/minute for calls and 12p per text message. This tariff is not suitable for smartphone owners: accessing the internet costs £4/MB.
- Camel – Designed for those who regularly call overseas, Camel offers inclusive international calls with every top-up of £10/month or more.
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November 24th, 2011
We compare free Pay As You Go SIM card offerings from 15 of the UK’s mobile operators.
Whether you’re a very occasional mobile phone user or a heavy phone user who’ll use hundreds of minutes each month, great deals can be had on Pay As You Go if you shop around. As Pay As You Go tariffs don’t lock you in for 24 months, competition is fierce in the Pay As You Go market as companies are constantly competing for customers.
Pay As You Go tariffs make it easy to control the amount you spend: once you’ve run out of credit you’ll need to top up and because they’re not a credit product no credit check is required. The downside of Pay As You Go compared to Pay Monthly is that you won’t get the “free” or subsidised phones which come with a traditional mobile phone contract.
We think Pay As You Go is great if you’ve already got your own mobile phone which you’re happy to keep. By inserting a free Pay As You Go SIM card into your phone, you can take advantage of some great deals and cheap calls and texts. In this guide, we’ve got a comprehensive list of free SIM card offers from 15 of the top mobile operators. These include the big name networks, low-cost mobile operators and specialist networks for international calling. Several of the SIM card include free credit once you’ve activated them.
The most choice amongst “Ken’s Tech Tips” readers is giffgaff. They offer 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet on a £10/month goodybag. Outside of a goodybag bundle, calls cost 10p/minute, texts cost 6p each and accessing the web costs 20p/day. Calls, texts and video calls to other giffgaff members are free. You can get a free SIM card from giffgaff here or read our in-depth giffgaff review.
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November 21st, 2011
Looking forward to 2012, what’s going to be new for the online world? How are the patterns of internet usage changing and what are the key challenges facing the internet?
The team from Plusnet: Bob Pullen, Ben Trimble and Plusnet super-user Barry Zubel.
Last week, I took part in a discussion held by Plusnet about the future of internet and the trends that we’ll see online in 2012. Our discussion covered a whole range of topics including the marketing of download speeds and download limits, traffic management and net neutrality and how new internet-enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets, televisions and games consoles will affect the way we interact with the internet.
In this article, I’d like to look back on the internet in 2011 and look forward to see how things might change in 2012. For me, 2012 will be an important year for the internet – particularly as the internet is moving beyond computers and onto a whole range of different form factors from a small-screen experience on a mobile phone to a large-screen experience on TV. Furthermore, talk of download limits and download speeds still confuses consumers. These are issues which must be tackled in 2012.
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