Yay! Ive finally, after 8 years, managed to get round to investing in a new phone!
After some research, I opted for the LG Viewty, as it was a reasonable price (£136 with £20 ‘free’ credit from Tescos), was PAYG, and had all the features I was looking for.
Im personally not a huge user of mobile phones, thus the 8 years without upgrading, so I avoid contracts like the plague - as they are only of benefit for more intensive users.
I personally find deals like £35 a month for 18 months (a total of £630!) for a ‘free’ iPhone not that enticing. It seems a frikkin huge amount to pay out in the long term. On a PAYG Tesco tarrif when calling one of your five favourite numbers it costs 10p per minute which seems pretty reasonable to me.
So far, it seems to LG Viewty lives up to all the reviews I read… lets face it…. its basically a cheaper iPhone without the apple logo.
Its hard to know what to rave about feature wise cos im so out of touch but it has:
- Web surfing (ill probably not use it much due to cost… but… handy)
- 5MP camera (which seems ok quality so far)
- Video recording (not tried yet)
- MP3 /Radio Player
- Lots of Java apps/games available
- Connects directly to my PC via Bluetooth or USB (my old phone could only manage infrared!)
- Handwriting recognition for SMS/Email writing
- A full QWERTY keyboard mode for SMS/Email writing - GREAT!!!
I personally am loving the touch screen… its so much easier and faster to use than my old phone, and a damn site prettier too.
Now… I wonder if I can get a java ssh client on it 
My only beefs so far is scrolling is a little tricky to get used to as the scrollbars are quite small (though you can use what they call the jog wheel), and ive been unsuccessful in unlocking it so far… but I shall persivere. If all fails Tesco will apparently do an unlock for free after 90 days of using their service…. or I can pay them £25 to do it whenever.
The geek inside of me says that ill find a way to unlock it myself or chew my arm off trying.