The UK’s best (and free) mobile phones

Thanks to the subsidies offered by the likes of Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and 3, there’s an amazing selection of mobile phones available for free. You still have to sign up for a monthly contract, but you can get hundreds of pounds-worth of mobile phone technology for absolutely zip.

Put it this way: the 8GB Nokia N95 costs over £440 without a contract on Expansys, but it’s free with a £35 contract at the Carphone Warehouse. A SIM-free Samsung Soul costs over £300, but you can get it for nothing at mobiles.co.uk.

All of which got us to thinking… What’s the best ‘free’ mobile phone you can get your hands on? What’s the best free handset if you want good music playback? What’s the best free phone for business? Or for taking photos? Here’s what we think.

The best music phone – Sony Ericsson W890i

As the successor to the W880i Walkman phone, the Sony Ericsson W890i has a lot to prove. An upgraded feature set offers enhanced 3G (HSDPA) high-speed data connectivity, a 2GB MemoryStick, FM radio and a 3.2MP camera. Crucially, the Sony Ericsson W890i has also maintained the essence of the W880i’s slim, stylish design, high quality finishing and overall desirability. (Free on: 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile)

The best camera phone – Sony Ericsson K850i

The K850i brings the best of Sony’s Cyber-shot brand to bear on a 3G (HSDPA) mobile. Like many other Sony Ericsson handsets, the K850i is a music and video player, FM radio and Internet gizmo. But its key feature is a 5MP digital camera with 16x digital zoom and a Xenon flash. 40MB of built-in memory is available for photo storage, but this can be expanded via MemoryStick or MicroSD cards. (Free on: O2, Orange, 3, T-Mobile, Vodafone).

The best touchscreen phone – LG KU990 Viewty

The LG Viewty (aka the KU990) is certainly popular – it’s consistently been the most-searched for phone on TechRadar. The star of the show is the Viewty’s iPhone-esque 3-inch touchscreen. You use it to type text and email messages, view images, browse the web, shoot video and much more. A 5MP camera, stylish design and 3G (HSDPA) connectivity all contribute to make the KU990 Viewty is one of LG’s best ever mobile phones. (Free on: O2, Orange, 3, T-Mobile)

The best business phone – Blackberry Pearl 8120

Until Apple decides to give the 2nd-gen iPhone away for free, RIM’s Blackberry phones still dominate the business market. Dubbed ‘Crackberry’ phones by email-addicted owners, the 8120 Pearlhandset is the best way to get your messages on the move – enterprise server integration and personal email accounts are both supported. Once you’ve got used to the SureType keypad (two QWERTY keys per button), the Blackberry 8210 is a cracking smartphone. (Free on: O2)

The best sat-nav phone – Nokia N95

Whether you get the original N95 model or the new N95 8GB variant, Nokia’s do-it-all smartphone pushes GPS modules as the next standard-issue phone feature. Nokia uses its own mapping technology as standard - Nokia Maps. But third-party software, such as ALK’s more advanced Co-Pilot Live 7, can be installed instead. Whatever you use, the N95 is capable of giving standalone sat-nav devices a run for their money and is ideal for last-mile pedestrian location-finding. (Free on 3, O2, Orange, Vodafone)

The best slider phone – Samsung Soul

Samsung has blazed into the mobile phone market with a series of slick slider phones. The so-called ‘Soul’ is one such handset. The build quality is excellent, while the handset boasts 3G (HSDPA) support and a 5-megapixel camera. There’s a gimmick too: the Soul boasts dual screens, with a mini touchscreen below the main LCD. The touchscreen features dynamic icons that change depending on what you’re doing. (Free on: O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile)

The best free phone – Nokia N95 8GB

Yes, the Nokia N95 is a bit of a brick, but just look at all the functionality you can get for free: 3G, built-in 802.11g, GPS (with A-GPS support), an FM radio, 5MP digital camera (with Carl Zeiss optics), music and video playback, plus 8GB of internal flash memory. OK, so all of this power can drain the battery pretty fast. But in its new 8GB guise, the N95 is one awesome all-rounder smartphone. (Free on: 3, O2, Orange, Vodafone, read our full review).

And the best free gift is…?

A trawl of the mobile phone sites and stores on a Friday reveals that sellers will significantly sweeten the deal if you’ll buy a phone from them. Mobiles.co.uk, for example, is offering a Samsung J700 and a free PlayStation 3 if you commit to a £35 per month contract. Buy an LG Viewty via the Carphone Warehouse and they’ll throw in a free Nintendo DS. It’s well worth shopping around. Offers currently range from games consoles to HD TVs, Apple iPods to camcorders. And there are always cash-back deals to be had.

source : http://www.techradar.com/

Text warning to mobile phone companies

Europe’s top telecoms official has warned mobile telephone companies she is ready to cut prices customers pay to send text messages while abroad, unless the industry lowers fees swiftly.

Viviane Reding, who last year forced operators to slash “roaming” call charges, said: “I have full confidence that the industry this time will manage to solve the problem. In the meantime, I’m preparing a regulation, so if the industry will not be ready, I will be ready ... to bring down prices.”

Her warning is the latest salvo in her battle to cut the cost of cross-border mobile phone use in the European Union.

The EU telecoms commissioner last month enraged many operators by calling for the industry to cut charges for sending text messages and accessing the internet while in another European country.

The industry claims regulation, especially of retail prices, is inappropriate for a competitive, fast-evolving market. Operators including Vodafone, Telefonica, KPN and 3, however, have cut prices.

Mrs Reding told the FT on Tuesday her deadline for industry action was July 1. “Some [operators] are moving in the right direction. Others make announcements and promises. Some have done very concrete things. I will see how the industry goes, not only in promises, but in facts.”

The pro-consumer commissioner says that the prices should not be substantially more expensive than domestic charges, arguing that “this is the logic of the borderless, single market”.

She seeks a retail limit of of €0.12 (9p, $0.18) on cross-border text messages, against an average price of €0.29 now, and wants wholesale charges for data downloading to fall to €0.35 per megabyte.

Mrs Reding, who releases an annual health report on the EU’s €300bn-a-year electronic communications market on Wednesday, is on a collision course with the industry over lucrative connection charges.

She plans legislative action to lower “mobile termination rates” – wholesale fees that companies can charge other operators for connecting calls to their networks. In the UK, the fees represent 15 per cent of mobile operators’ revenues

Wednesday’s report will show MTRs fell last year but vary widely across the EU. The lowest charge was €0.019 a minute, in Cyprus, while the highest was €0.224 a minute in Estonia. Mrs Reding argues that the charges can act as industry subsidies and wants prices to fall to between €0.01 and €0.015 a minute in the long term.

She says the true cost of the service is €0.01. “We need a level playing field. Big differences lead to market distortions.”

source : http://www.ft.com/