Phone suggestion please! (UK)

[aoluffy]

Hey... I just realised a few days ago when my jeans were pakced with a phone mp3 player wires and ****... that i should buy a phone whcih has a good MP3 built in. I have a £500-600 budget. The iphone did seem the best option for me but its only avaliable on O2... same with palm pre.

Just to outline what I need:
Nice slim good looking phone
Very Good MP3 player w/very nice clean interface
If possible, good video playback of AVI/DIVX files on a nice screen

thannks for any advice guys.

 

[mintyfresh]

HTC Hero

http://gizmodo.com/5340981/software-...?autoplay=true

 

[skyman]

HTC Hero had a really good write up in stuff magazine this month, but they said for the iPhone is really your best choice for a touch screen smartphone, plus you get the iPod and the whole iTunes deal.

O2 is'nt that bad, their coverage is really good, and they have alot of good offers.

 

[emakris]

With your budget and considering you are after a good MP3 player and not necessarily with O2, I would probably go to the continent and get a SIM-free iPhone. Alternatively, the Hero looks pretty good and so do some of the other HTC offerings.

 

[NaTionS]

Nokia 5800? Or wait a month for the N900?

I personally don't like Nokia phones but have heard good things about them.

 

[aoluffy]

could you please elaborate on how i'd get a sim-free ipphone internationally? (links or something) i was under the impression that iphones would only work on O2 in the UK. also are they cheaper abroad? iphones retail here £500

. The reason I'm steering away from the iphone is because I have "free money" basically in my dad's nokia contracts which I want to use.

 

[frederik_jon]

Ebay.co.uk

or Ebay.com

 

[skyman]

Originally Posted by emakris

With your budget and considering you are after a good MP3 player and not necessarily with O2, I would probably go to the continent and get a SIM-free iPhone. Alternatively, the Hero looks pretty good and so do some of the other HTC offerings.

If you get a HTC get the hero, apparently everything else is just a step backward and down from the Hero.

 

[emakris]

Originally Posted by aoluffy

could you please elaborate on how i'd get a sim-free ipphone internationally? (links or something) i was under the impression that iphones would only work on O2 in the UK. also are they cheaper abroad? iphones retail here £500

.
Unlike the UK, in pretty much every other European country telecoms are not allowed to restrict consumers. If we take Greece as an example, Vodafone GR has the exclusive rights to iPhone contracts but Vodafone GR must also sell the phone without a contract: http://www.vodafone.gr/portal/client...uest_locale=en Because of European laws, a person can buy the SIM-free iPhone from Greece (or France or Italy or Spain, etc) and use it in the UK under any operator. And it's because of this law, companies like Expansys and Play.com are legally selling European sourced iPhones in the UK without a contract: http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=183742 These phones are unlocked from the factory. Trouble is, companies like Expansys take advantage of the situation and charge a fortune for an unlocked iPhone in the UK; it's cheaper to get the ferry to France and buy one from there. For the unlocked 32GB version, Expansys UK charges 920 quid but Vodafone in Greece charges 670 euro (~£585).