I am often asked at the moment about whichare the best mobile phones to buy. most importantly though, which contract to get, as I don’t know whether you have noticed you have slipped into an 18 month or even 24 month contract. The reason being is that the cost of the technology going into phones these days far exceeds that which can be subsidized on a 12 month contract. Without a doubt if you can afford to buy your phone outright you are making a saving over the contract term. This means you can reduce your initial contract and line rental. O2′s Simplicity contracts are perfect! If you do not wish to upgrade your phone they offer a roling 1 month contract as low as a tenner a month, you are still entitled to your free texts (or should I say tex’s) and free minutes but at a fraction of the price. These contracts offer the flexibility of Pay as you go and the perks of a contract without signing your money away. On top of this remember to shop around, suppliers will price match and offer more than the last for your money, whichever suits you. Also sometimes merely updating your contract online entitles you to double the amount of texts and minutes.

OK, now for phones. I have always been very brand loyal. Firstly, from 1998 I was a big fan of the panasonics and at some point had most of the GD range, then as they died out I swore by Sony Ericsson, Z600 first then most of the K range. As I needed more functionality I switched to O2 XDA II and then the O2 XDA Ignito and now I have an iPhone. I resisted the iPhone for a long time giving myself the reasoning that the camera was poor, there was no polyphonic ringtones and the hard drive was far off that of my ipods capacity. While the XDA’s served the phone, sat nav and PDA functions with the addition of expanding its capabilities by installing software. I finally gave up to the iPhone when my XDA started playing up and I got annoyed after I ebayed my ipod and had no tunes. You will probably know what I am about to say but I’ll say it anyway. From someone who keeps up to date with mobile technology, aspiring to role all my mobile devices into one and from someone who also gets to see future concept phones as part of my job. I believe the iPhone is untouchable at the moment. Thank you to the blackberry for introducing free emailing from your mobile and thank you to O2 for the introduction of free internet. For a simple device that needs no instructions (it just works how you think it should work) the internet and open sourcing of code allowing for the creation of millions of apps to expand and personalise your phone makes this phone complete. The hardware is standard, camera, gps, bluetooth, wireless etc but its how you use the hardware with the apps that is genius… to be honest! I can’t think of much hardware improvements you could want, possibly a higher pixel camera, possibly a larger hard drive but its enough! I don’t use my  phone for professional photography and I have spells of listening to certain albums so I haven’t filled the HD anyway.

Just so you are aware as my brother has just asked a few questions before changing his companies phones to iPhones, you can put your regular sim card in the iPhone, this is what I did! it just meant that the internet wasn’t free and was charged the same as any other phone. The web bolt on is reasonable though and well worth it.

Feel free to add your 2 penneth to this one in the blog comments.