Do you remember the RAZR line of phones that first came out nearly ten years ago? Just about everyone had one of them at some stage over the last decade or so. Back then the Motorola RAZR brand was so popular with a lot of people since it was one of the thinnest phones on the market and it was built with aluminium. Believe it or not, Motorola actually sold over 50 million RAZR phones which is an amazing statistic. However, after people realised that Motorola were just trying to get as much money as possible out of the RAZR brand, things started to go downhill quickly for them. So, was it a good move for Motorola to come back with the Motorola Droid RAZR? Below we will see what this phone offers.

Compare contract deals for the Motorola Droid RAZR right here at PhoneShop.co.uk – we compare all UK networks to find you the best deal.

Motorola Droid RAZR Review

Once upon a time Motorola made one of the thinnest phones in the world, and they’ve done it again with the Motorola Droid RAZR. It’s just a bit over 7mm, which is extremely thin. Some of the phone is a lot thicker than the rest of it though, with the camera part of the phone being over 10mm thick. It’s good to see a phone that looks a little bit different since a lot of people are sick of seeing companies trying to copy the look of the iPhone. At least Motorola have opted to take a bit of a risk with this device, and in our opinion it really paid off. There’s even a HDMI port which is pretty impressive, we haven’t seen one of those in a long time on a smartphone! The phone has 8GB built in storage, but this isn’t all you’ll get with the phone. You’ll also get a memory card that’s 16GB which means that you’ve got 24GB for all of your apps and other things which should be plenty for most people.

The body of the Motorola Droid RAZR is also a little bit different compared to most smartphones. It’s made of aluminium, gorilla glass and Kevlar. The whole feel of the phone is brilliant; it just feels so much better than most other phones that feel like they’ve been made with the cheapest parts that the manufacturer could find. Just because the materials that were used to make this phone are really light doesn’t mean that they can still give the phone a lot of protection, we’re quite sure that this phone could put up with a few drops to the ground here and there without getting too badly damaged, although we don’t recommend that you test us on that one.

No review would be complete without mentioning the battery life and processor of the phone. Firstly, the Motorola Droid RAZR has a very decent processor which is a 1.2GHz dual core processor (similar to the Samsung Galaxy S2). Even if you use your smartphone to play some apps that have really good graphics the Motorola Droid RAZR should be able to handle it without any issues. The battery life of the Motorola Droid RAZR is also quite good, offering over 12 hours of talk time or over a week on standby. It’s always a good idea to remember that if you’ll be using any smartphone like this to play games, browse the web and so on you’ll more than likely have to charge it on a daily basis no matter how good the battery life seems to be.

So, is the Motorola Droid RAZR worthy of being compared to top smartphones like the Galaxy S2 and the iPhone 4S? Well, in PhoneShop.co.uk’s opinion it certainly is! It’s good to see that Motorola haven’t let their loyal customers down like they did in the past with the RAZR brand, so maybe we should give them a second chance. The bottom line is; if you want a thin phone with a big screen and the best build quality on the market, the Motorola Droid RAZR is definitely a phone that you should consider buying. Check out our deal comparison here to find yourself the best contract deal for a new RAZR today!

It’s time for another of our regular giveaways here on PhoneShop.co.uk.
This time, we’re giving away a copy of the Oscar and Bafta winning film, The Kings Speech to one one lucky winner.

Win This DVD!

The winner will have the prize sent to them by post. Entrants are restricted to UK residents only.

For this competition, it’s time to get social – you can get entries just by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
Please see below for the entry widget and to get your entries. Our standard competition terms and conditions apply, the closing date is 31st March 2012 and the winner will be contacted by PhoneShop.co.uk within 72 hours.

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Samsung Galaxy Note really is different, but not necessarily in a bad way (for some people that is!). We’ve all heard of 3.5” smartphones, but have you ever heard about a 5.3” smartphone? No, we didn’t make a typing mistake there! The Samsung Galaxy Note actually has a 5.3” screen, and not just any screen either. It has a HD Super AMOLED screen, easily one of the best screens that have ever been used for any smartphone so far. Some people would rather call it a tablet since it’s so big, but we’ll call it a smartphone for now!

Skip the review? just want the best UK deals for a Samsung Galaxy Note? Please click here for Samsung Galaxy Note Contract Comparison.

Obviously the first thing that most people will notice on this phone is that the screen is massive in comparison to all other mobile phones, but you’ll also notice that it’s very, very fast! It has a 1.4GHz dual core processor which we’ve never come across in any smartphone in a long time as well as having a huge 1GB of RAM. Some people have netbooks or even laptops that don’t have this much RAM! It really makes you realise how quickly smartphones are improving, soon it could be the norm to have a smartphone with a couple of gigabytes RAM! We think that it’d be nearly impossible to make the Samsung Galaxy Note freeze due to using too many applications and so on which is a huge bonus if you don’t want to be worrying about closing apps every so often. What’s even more impressive about the Galaxy Note is just because it’s a really big phone compared to others, has a great processor and has a huge amount of RAM it’s still one of the thinnest smartphones available. It’s not even 10mm thick, although it’s a bit on the heavy side at around 180g but what can you expect with a 5.3” screen?

The Samsung Galaxy Note comes with 16GB inbuilt storage which would be more than enough for the majority of people but if you think that 16GB wouldn’t be enough you have the choice to buy a Micro SD card which can be up to 32GB. Even though the camera is capable of taking 8MP pictures and recording HD videos at 30 frames per second you could still fit a decent amount of photos and videos on your Samsung Galaxy Note without leaving yourself with not enough space for all of your favourite songs and so on.

At the moment the Samsung Galaxy Note is running from Android’s Gingerbread operating system but this will soon be upgraded at some point in this year when Ice Cream Sandwich comes out which is expected to be available to the public within the first three months of 2012. Just like any other Android smartphone, you’ve got a huge selection of apps from the Android market as well as some apps that have never been seen before on any other Android mobile phone! The stylus (or the S pen as it’s called) might come in handy for some of the apps so make sure you’ve always got it with you, which is easy since it fits in to the phone.

Overall we think that the Samsung Galaxy Note is one of the best smartphones that is out right now but it’ll obviously not appeal to some people since the screen is bigger than most (or all) other phones. If you’ve got a tablet and a smartphone maybe you should consider getting the Galaxy note since it seems as if this is a mix between the two? Although some people think that you couldn’t use this as just a smartphone since it takes up too much room for your pocket and so on, we disagree. Some people would love the bigger touchscreen for their own reasons, whether you like playing games all the time, find other smartphones too hard to read text messages from and so on. We think that Samsung has done a great job once again on the Samsung Galaxy Note.

The BlackBerry 9790 looks very similar to a lot of other BlackBerrys. It’s more or less a cheaper model of the BlackBerry Bold 9900. With BlackBerry mobile phones you’ll either love them or hate them, probably depending on whether you prefer QWERTY keyboards over touchscreens. BlackBerry are one of the few companies that still haven’t moved on to touchscreens like other mobile phone companies which could be a dangerous move on their behalf, but what do we think of one of their latest models to come to Europe, the BlackBerry 9790.

To get an idea of monthly contract prices – please see our BlackBerry Bold 9790 deals page - some great offers available on a massive choice of tarrifs.

One noticeable difference between the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and previous BlackBerrys is that the 9790 has a smaller keyboard than usual. Some people might assume that this means that it’s much more difficult to use if you’re always texting and so on, but we actually found it easy enough to text on. It’s hard to find a phone with a QWERTY keyboard which is easy to text on without being the phone being too big to carry around with you at all times, but the BlackBerry 9790 could be the right phone if this is what you’re looking for.

The overall build quality is decent for the price tag that’s on the BlackBerry 9790, for the price that most places are charging we can’t complain too much about the materials used to build this phone. However, we just wish that BlackBerry invested a little bit more money on the screen of the 9790. It looks as if the screen can get scratched easily and if you want to keep the same phone for a year or more you’d more than likely have a screen covered in scratches if you buy the BlackBerry 9790. We think that most people would be more than happy to pay a little bit extra so that the screen of the phone wouldn’t get scratched as easily as it does at the moment, but obviously BlackBerry doesn’t agree with us! Although the BlackBerry 9790 is a cheaper version of the 9900 and therefore you’d have to assume that build quality wouldn’t be as good, we’d still like if the build quality was a bit better to be honest.

One thing that has been improved on the BlackBerry 9790 compared to the 9900 is the camera. It comes with a 5MP camera that has auto-focus. You might be thinking to yourself that this isn’t anything special for most smartphones but the BlackBerry 9900 didn’t have an auto-focus option which many people found strange. BlackBerrys excuse for not adding auto-focus to their other phones was that it forced them to make their phones thicker, which wasn’t what most people wanted. This basically meant that if you used your phone for taking pictures a lot you could forget about even considering a BlackBerry which was a real shame. However, now they’ve finally realised that simple little things like auto-focus are important features to people since BlackBerry added it to the 9790 and we’re pleased to say it takes some decent photographs.

The operating system on the BlackBerry 9790 is called OS 7 which just came out around 6 months ago. As usual, the OS is really geared towards people who mainly send text messages and emails on a regular basis. There’s a bar at the top of the screen to allow you to quickly go to an unread message and so on which is a nice touch, although it’s not unique to OS 7 since companies like Apple have started using a similar navigation bar. There are also apps that you can download but sadly since most app developers are staying where the money is (Android and iOS) there isn’t anywhere near as much choice as you’d like. There’s also something called BBM music while is a subscription service but it hasn’t been that popular with a lot of people. As you can see, if you using your phone for just text messaging and emailing then this might be the perfect phone for you, if you’re more interested in more recent mobile phone uses like applications and music we’d recommend that you wait until BlackBerry catch up with the mobile phone market before getting another BlackBerry.

We are often asked “I am under 18 can I get a contract mobile phone?”

Since more and more people under the age of 18 are using mobile phones on a regular basis you might want to find out whether it’s possible for someone that’s under 18 to get a contract mobile phone. If you’ve got a child that uses their mobile phone a lot and you think that you’d save money if they went on bill pay rather than prepay you might want to look in to whether or not you can get a contract mobile phone for them.

Answer: The short answer is that you need to be 18 or over in order to sign any type of contract and therefore mobile networks won’t allow someone under the age of 18 to sign up to a contract with them since it’s against the law. One of the reasons for this is that the majority of mobile phone networks do a credit check before allowing someone to agree to a contract with them to ensure that you’ve paid all of your bills and so on in the past. But if a person is under 18 they wouldn’t be allowed to take out a loan, credit card etc. and this is one of the reasons why they won’t allow a person under the age of 18 to get a contract mobile phone with them.

However, there is way that you can get someone that’s under 18 to go on a contract and that’s by you (or another adult) signing up to that network under your name and then giving the phone to the person that isn’t 18. This might sound like a good solution to your problem but you’ve got to remember that if they go over their monthly allowance you’ll have to pay all of the additional charges since it’s in your name. For this reason, it’s recommended that you don’t do this unless you can really trust the person who is under 18 that they won’t end up leaving you with a massive bill at the end of the month. So, while it’s not possible for someone that’s under the age of 18 to get a contract mobile phone, there are other ways around it.

At Phone Shop .co.uk, our comparison feature includes Pay as you go and SIM free handsets, as well as contract deals.

Blackberry are navigating new waters with the long-awaited Bold Touch 9900. In the past, Blackberry have been notable for their big and easy to use QWERTY keyboard with real buttons, the perfect antidote to the swish but battery draining touchscreens of other smartphones. Yet Blackberry traditionalists had better brace themselves, because after years in the production pipelines, the 9900 offers quite a departure from the 9780.

The Torch 9800/9810 are the only other handsets from BlackBerry to utilise a touch and QWERTY combo. Whilst the Torch uses a slider mechanism to maximise screen space, the Bold 9900 keeps to the form most existing customers of the brand will be used to. Blackberry have compensated for a larger fascia by making this their slimmest phone yet at just 10.5mm thick, giving it a remarkably sleek appearance for a relatively large phone.

Aside from some small tweaks, everything looks much the same. The inclusion of brushed metal in the case gives the 9900 a more professional and polished appearance than previous models, but the layout itself isn’t that different. That comfortingly large keyboard remains, and in fact, has grown even bigger. The difference isn’t huge, but an extra 6mm of width is enough to give the clumsier among us a far easier user experience.

This is all the more impressive considering the 9900’s vastly increased processing power- 1.2GHz worth, enabling you to zip around the phone’s many features and apps like roadrunner being chased by the coyote. 8GB of inbuilt memory, and the facility to add up to 32GB more, will be enough to satisfy the needs of all but the most insane media heads. There’s even HD video which records footage of a decent quality, although the rather grainy 5 megapixel camera still leaves a lot to be desired. But none of this explains what’s so very different about this phone compared with the models that have gone before it.

You’ll have to look to the screen to find it, because, in addition to its classic QWERTY, the new Bold is equipped with touchscreen technology too, making it truly the show-off in the class. Now you can fly between apps using the touchscreen and still have the luxury and speed of the physical keyboard when texting or browsing. It’s a feature which works well and will feel pleasing to use, but the screen itself is nothing to write home about in terms of sharpness and graphics. It also remains far smaller than most other comparable smartphones, so while you can control it with your fingers, in practise this might prove more difficult than just using the joystick (which is presumably why it remains included in the design). However, those who value screen size and resolution highly are unlikely to consider Blackberry in the first place, usually plumping for the iPhone or an Android. Yet for dyed in the wool Blackberry fans, this represents a substantial improvement, consolidating the best of Blackberry with swishier features from other smartphones.

The substantial trade-off is a deteriorated battery life. While in the past Blackberry owners could laugh at the fancy kids lugging their charger around with their phone, now the 9900 puts them among their ranks. Touchscreens and vast, man-eating processors all require a lot of power, so those who take the plunge on this phone will have to charge it every day. Perhaps this is a fair trade for greatly increased functionality, but one might wonder why it’s necessary, when Motorola’s new Atrix has managed to combine touchscreen technology with decent battery life. Only time will tell how well this unwanted development goes down with customers.

Blackberry have also spruced up their software offering, with their new version operating system, OS7, performing better than its predecessors. The combination of a more responsive browser and the fluidity of touchscreen will give users a better experience than ever before. Improved integration with Blackberry Maps should hopefully resolve the bugs and performance issues of previous versions. Additionally, NFC (Near Field Communications) technology will enable you to pay for travel and redeem coupons simply by swiping your phone, although outside major cities the opportunities for using this are rarer. A more useful aspect of the phone is its best ever Wi-Fi technology, enabling you to access hotspots with greater ease and speed.

Whether this phone will attract new customers to Blackberry remains to be seen. The QWERTY is a huge draw for frequent texters who are frustrated by their fiddly touchscreen, but the 9900’s screen lacks the glitziness of many other phones out there. Blackberry Bold 9900 contract deals are priced similarly to the those of the latest Android powered super-smart phones like the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and HTC Sensation XE making price an unlikely consideration in the decision making process.
How Blackberry traditionalists will feel about it is more difficult to predict. The improved keyboard quite literally plays into their hands, but the power draining new features remove one of Blackberry’s key advantages. Blackberries have created some compelling new developments, but need to be careful that in the midst of all this innovation, they aren’t alienating their core customer base. We predict most who buy or upgrade to the 9900 will be existing customers of the BB brand, not wanting to lose access to their beloved BB messenger by switching OS.

There are thousands of apps available for the iPhone and Android smartphones. From games such as Angry Birds and Cut the Rope to photo sharing apps such as Instagram, there is something for everyone. It can often be difficult to choose from. Here at PhoneShop.co.uk, the team have tried and tested thousands of apps and today we are revealing our look at the top 20 mobile apps for you to download.

1. Sprinkle

Sprinkle is a fun puzzler with the objective of putting out fires in each level. Adjust the height and angle of your water cannon to navigate traps and obstacles, and reach the fires before the clock ends. Time and water run out quicker as you progress through the game, so you have to think on your feet. We love its beautifully designed graphics and challenging puzzles and think you will too.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Mediocre AB

2. Contract Maker Pro

Contract Maker Pro is a great app for anyone who needs to make contracts from their smartphone. Available for both the iPhone and Android devices, it comes with 7 sample contracts included and lets you create customised contracts quickly and easily. Add your logo, e-mail and other contract information, synch to your contacts and go paperless. We think you will love its simplicity, which is unrivalled.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Michael Shiffler

3. Book Crawler

Book Crawler is a great app for anyone who wants to remember what books they’ve read or needs reading suggestions. You can quickly add books with the ISBN barcode scanner and get Goodreads reviews on every title (if available). We love how you can even discuss books with other Book Crawler users if they’re nearby. A must have for readers everywhere.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Chiisai App Solutions, LLC

4. Learn French – Mindsnacks

If you’ve ever wanted to learn French, but have been afraid to take classes, this is the app for you. Mindsnacks makes learning French fun by turning it into a game everyone will enjoy. Earn points by completing each mini-game and watch your knowledge grow. We love its fun games which make learning entertaining. Adults and children will love beating their score and improving their French at the same time. Why wasn’t this in school?

Download: iTunes

Developer: Mindsnacks

5. BabyBubbles

If you are a new parent, help stimulate your baby’s senses with this fun and easy to use app. Each touch creates a new bubble or firework for them to enjoy. It won’t interfere with your phone, so no worrying about calling your boss or the police. The gentle sound isn’t annoying, either. We love the simple graphics and easy to use interface, too.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Sendmetospace

6. Bill Assistant

If, like most people, you’re worried about bills, Bill Assistant can help you. It keeps track of upcoming bills, letting you budget for them. You can monitor what money goes where and help track spending. Incredibly easy to you, it can help get you out of a tight spot, one of the many things we love about this app.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Corbenic Consulting

7. FitRabbit

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and get in shape, use Fitrabbit to help achieve your goals. It turns fitness into a game by winning points every time you eat healthy or complete an exercise. We love how it turns an activity most people dread into something everyone will enjoy.

Download: iTunes

Developer: FitRabbit

8. Toptable

Toptable lets you book a restaurant table from your smartphone. You can find thousands of restaurants and get a table for lunch or dinner quickly and easily. Adding bookings to your calendar is simple and you can cancel with no-hassle. We love how you can search by postcode, letting you find the perfect restaurant on the move.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Toptable

9. Breast Cancer: Beyond the Shock

Beyond the Shock is an app every woman should download. It explains breast cancer in simple to understand terms and what possible treatments are available. We love its easy to use interface and straightforward explanations. You’ll find no jargon here.

Download: iTunes

Developer: National Breast Cancer Foundation

10. Songify

Songify is a fun app which turns your voice into music. Say anything into your iPhone or iPad and you’ll get a song. Over 6 million users have downloaded the app and it’s a great app to experiment with. We love how easy it’s to use and how it can help introduce users to creating music. What will you create today?

Download: iTunes

Developer: Khush, Inc

11. Cycle Streets

If you are a keen cyclist, Cycle Streets is a must-have app. It’s a UK journey planner for cyclists and will help you plan routes quickly and efficiently. You can easily find cycle lanes, upload photos of roadworks and other potential problems to help users, and find routes which avoid steep hills. We love the depth of features and how you can share info with other Cycle Streets users.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Cycle Streets Ltd

12. BBC News

This iPhone and Android app lets you get the latest news from the BBC on the move. You can find news according to categories such as top stories, UK news, world news, politics, business, technology and sport. It’s easy to share news on Twitter and Facebook with the app and you can customise it to suit you. We love how easy it is to find the news you’re looking for with the BBC app.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: BBC

13. FaceBooth

FaceBooth is a fun app which lets users morph two faces into one. Want to see want Einstein and Marilyn Monroe’s daughter would have looked like? What if your favourite singer and actress had a child? The possibilities are endless. You can use photos from your iPhone’s library or take a new one. There are sample photos included and you can easily share your creations on Twitter. We love how fun it’s to use and the possibilities to create wacky photos are endless.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Toccata Technologies

14. Countdown Manager

This is a useful app which lets you create a countdown for any event. With Countdown Manager, you’ll have a better idea of how much time you have left by seeing the event count down as it happens. We love how you can easily sort events by date and receive notifications.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Hawwash-Soft

15. The Night Sky

The Night Sky can make astronomy fun and interesting, even if you don’t have a telescope. Simply point your smartphone up to the sky and the app will tell you what stars, planets and constellations are out there. The app uses your phone’s GPS and compass to cross-reference its map of the sky and overlays it with stars and planets. We love how fun the app is to use; it can help demystify the night sky and make budding astronomers of us all.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: iCandi Apps

16. FlockThere App

FlockThere helps friends get together quicker by letting you find and text groups of friends, wherever they are. Going to a movie? Concert? You’ll be able to know who’s running late or who’s lost. You can invite anyone by text and start a meet-up using e-mail or texts. We love how easy it is to find friends and keep track of them quickly and easily.

Download: iTunes

Developer: FlockThere

17. Kick Football News – Transfer Rumours

This is a must for every footy fan. Get all the latest football news, transfers, results and rumours straight to your smartphone. You can customise the app so you can receive news from just your club or read everything from all the different leagues. It’s easy to choose from where you receive the news – whether you want Sky News or the BBC. We love how easy the app is to use and how much news you can get. You can even get info on foreign leagues, too.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Skweet

18. Get taxi

Get Taxi should be downloaded by anyone who needs a black cab fast. In the rain? Tube closed? Use the app to order a registered black cab and get home quickly and safely. Get Taxi works from a variety of London postcodes and you can track your taxi as it arrives. You’ll receive a picture of your driver, his license, telephone number and rating for peace of mind. We love the security measures the app uses and how quickly it is to get a cab. Two clicks and its there.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: GT Get Taxi

19. eMagnifier

eMagnifier is a cool app which turns your iPhone’s camera into a magnifying glass. Having trouble reading small text? Use this app. You can zoom up to 8x and can capture details straight to your phone. The flash can also be used for dark areas and the app is available in different languages such as French and Spanish. We love how this app will help users with poor eyesight and anyone who wants to magnify detail.

Download: iTunes

Developer: Evolutive

20. Deluxe Moon Free

If you’re interested in learning about the current moon phase, this is the app for you. Understand the difference between Tropical and Sidereal zodiac systems, see the current lunar age, what zodiac sign the moon is in and the moonrise/set times for your area. We love how easy it is to use and the depth of information available.

Download: iTunes | Android

Developer: Lifeware Solutions

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With 3 different ‘versions’ of the 4S to choose from (6 if you count the black and white colour options!), 5 networks all clambering for your custom and a whole host of pricing and tariff options available, it’s little wonder that customers are ending up on unsuitable or over-priced iPhone 4S contracts.

Before you compare iPhone 4S contracts, here’s our buyer’s guide to finding the best deals:

Which version? - There’s 6 to choose from!

Let’s start with the easy one – black or white? There’s literally no difference besides the colour. If you don’t keep your iPhone 4S in a case then the white version is more prone to fingerprints, but apart from that it’s just a case of which one you prefer. The white versions are more desirable (purely due to fashion), so you may find their second hand re-sale price is fractionally above the black.

A more difficult decision is which amount of memory is best for the iPhone 4S. You have the option of 16GB, 32GB or the gigantic 32GB. Of course which version you choose has an enormous bearing on the price you pay. The most important thing to identify is how much memory you’ll actually use. We’ve had discussions previously about whether 16GB was enough memory for the iPhone 4S or not and unless you’re an ultra light user, you’ll find that the 4S’s uprated graphics capability gives way to an new era of memory munching apps – 16GB just doesn’t cut it. We suggest that most go for the 32GB version if you can afford the additional cost. The 64GB version should be reserved for show-offs or hardcore ‘power users’.

Data -The iPhone 4S eats MB’s for breakfast!

Choosing the right amount of data has never been so important as with the 4S. If you want to take your 4S beyond being a regular phone’ you’ll need a good data plan. Most contracts come with options of 250MB, 500MB, or 1GB. 250MB is likely to bring most pretty close to the mark of over-running your allowance so we’d suggest going for at least 500MB. You can find out more information about how much data you’ll need on the iPhone 4S here.

Consider the alternatives – Save yourself a packet!

Although the iPhone 4S is arguably the best mobile phone currently on the market, there’s some much cheaper alternatives to the iPhone 4S that come pretty close to matching the performance and specifications of Apple’s latest creation. The HTC Sensation XE offers up slightly faster processing speeds and the latest incarnation of Android ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ makes this phone a great substitute for the 4S. Sensation XE contracts are around 20% cheaper than the iPhone 4S (even the 16GB model) and with those super cool Beats headphones, the XE will certainly get you noticed in a crowd of Apple fan boys.

The Samsung Galaxy S 2 and original iPhone 4 should also be considered – both great handsets and when it comes to comparing them against the 4S, everything besides the price difference is splitting hairs.

Upgrade or change networks? - Don’t expect a better deal by staying!

When people talk about ‘upgrading their phone’ what they actually mean is that their contract has come to an end and they have the option of signing up for another 12 , 18 or 24 months. For some reason, many believe that because they’ve been with their network for X amount of years, they’ll somehow be offered preferential treatment and cheaper deals.

Whilst some networks (T-Mobile in particular) have been known to offer small discount incentives to loyal customers, you won’t find any special treatment when it comes to the iPhone 4S. Unfortunately demand for the iPhone 4S currently outweighs supply. In addition to this, the networks themselves are having to re-coup the cost of one of the most expensive mobile handsets ever on sale.

Unless the signal in the areas you visit the most is confined to a particular network, you may find that other networks offer more suitable contracts, often at cheaper prices. Don’t forget you can keep your number if you change networks, just ask for your PAC code from your current network and supply it to your new one (it usually takes around 3 days or so depending on which network your porting across to).

Which iPhone 4S contract length, 12, 18 or 24 month? – Do your sums! (or just let us do it for you!)

Since 2009, networks have been forced to offer all handsets on a  12 month contract, and that includes the iPhone 4S. However, as mentioned previously the 4S is one expensive bit of kit which means networks have to recover their costs. On a 12 month contract, this means hiking up the up-front handset price, or compensating through higher monthly tariff costs.

12 month iPhone 4S contracts can cost up to 25% more on average over course of the contract term. Unless you have a particular reason for wanting a 12 month contract over a 24 month deal, go for the latter and you’ll save around £200 to £240. 18 month deals as you might expect fall in between, costing around 15% more per month on average over the contract term than 24 month tariffs.

Here’s the sum to do if you want to work out which contract length offers the best value:

(Monthly Cost X Number of Months) + Handset Costs / Number of Months = Average Monthly Cost (this is the same calculation we use in our comparison results when you order by ‘best value’).

The HTC Sensation XE is inspired by music. With the Beats by Dre emblem proudly presented on the rear cover, it’s obvious from the start that the XE is more than just another music phone. Set the XE’s music credentials to one side and you’re left with one of the most powerful mobile HTC has ever produced. A dual core 1.5GHZ chip put the XE’s power on par with the iPhone 4S and loaded with Android 2.3.4 (soon to be upgraded to version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) the XE really does punch above it’s price.

Speaking of price, Sensation XE contract deals are nearly 20% cheaper than tariffs on the 16GB iPhone 4S and other than the inflated brand appeal of Apple, we’re really struggling to figure out why. Apart from Siri (who’s only helpful around 10% of the time anyway), it’s difficult to see why you wouldn’t at least consider the Sensation XE as on of the best alternatives to the 4S. £25 per month (after automatic cashback) will give you a contract with unlimited texts and around 500 any network minutes and that’s with no upfront handset cost ether. Compare Sensation XE contracts with the iPhone 4S and you might think twice about opting for the latter.

Compare HTC Sensation XE Contracts and Deals – At PhoneShop.co.uk we search through thousands of UK mobile deals to find the deal that’s right for you.

The big brother (and we mean that literally) to the Sensation XE is the Sensation XL. What the difference between the Sensation XE and the Sensation XL? Apart from being white, the XL sports an enormous 4.7 inch screen (unlike the XE’s 4.3 inches) but like the XE comes with beats audio technology built in. The Sensation XL’s screen is of a slightly lower resolution to the XE as size takes precedent over pixels. HTC Sensation XL contract deals are priced in th same region as the XE with £25 offer unlimited texts, 600 minutes and 250MB data.

Both the XE and XL are offered on contract from any network with T-Mobile an Orange offering the best deals with data included. 12 month contracts are available on both the Sensation XE and XL with the cheapest offers on either handset around £30 per month. Our advice is to buy on a 24 month plan and reap the rewards of a cheaper monthly cost.

Contracts with unlimited data are currently only being offered by Three. The best deals with inclusive data again are from Orange and T-Mobile who provide 500MB of data on a 24 month tariff for around £30 per month. How much data is enough? It depends on usage, but we’d advise casual users to go with at least 500MB as going above your allowance can be costly.

HTC Sensation XE Review

If you’re looking into iPhone 4 contracts and you’ve already decided which version you should buy, one of the most common mistakes to make is to underestimate how much inclusive internet data you’ll use. YouTube, emails, iMessage and web browsing all use your 3G data allowance (unless connected via WiFi). So how much data do you need on the iPhone 4S?

Before you start to compare iPhone 4S contracts on offer, let’s start by taking a look at some typical every day tasks and see just how quickly our inclusive internet gets used up.

YouTube

YouTube and other mobile centric video streaming sites are notorious for eating through 3G data faster than a fat kid does cakes. A 10 minute video (depending on quality) will use between 20-40MB of your mobile allowance. On a 500MB monthly data plan, that’s over 5% of your inclusive mobile internet gone after just one video! If your an avid watcher of YouTube and want to watch it on the move via your 3G connection, be sure to opt for contracts with higher allowances of 1GB or more.

iMessage and Email

It may come as a surprise to some that sending iMessages via 3G does count towards your inclusive allowance. Regular plain text iMessages will only use KB’s of data, but start sending videos and images and you could find that one of the best ‘free’ messaging services on offer actually ends up costing more than you might think. The same is true with email. If your sent large attachments on the regular basis and need to view them form your iPhone 4S where WiFi isn’t present, it may be worth digging deeper into your pockets for a contract with 1Gb of data.

Apps and Social Media

Unless the app you’re downloading is 20MB or less, you won’t be able to download it unless you’re connected to a WiFi network, Apple simply won’t allow it (and for good reason). This is no bad thing in itself as downloading anything over 3G that’s more than 20MB in size is likely to take a lot longer than you’re willing to wait, not to mention suck the life out of your data plan. Unless you’re an App fiend and you think you’ll be downloading more than say 50 Apps per month via 3G, most should find that a few mobile visits to the App Store won’t make any considerable dents in their data tariff.

When it comes to social media, how much data you use entirely depends on how you socialise. Regular updates on your via 3G using the Facebook app won’t use more than a few KB, but start uploading videos or watching friend’s video content and you’ll find yourself using tens of MB’s which could be enough to push you over your limit.

iPhone 4S contracts – How much data is enough?

Whilst the amount of data you’ll need naturally depends on how much you’ll use, it’s fair to say that the iPhone 4S (if used to it’s full potential) will demand more MB’s than your average smartphone. Most will find that 500MB is enough – we’d urge all but the lightest of users to stay away from iPhone 4S contract deals with any less. If you don’t want to live in the fear of exceeding your mobile internet allowance, opt for contract with 1GB inclusive data. Although more expensive, if you’re unsure of how much you’ll use, it’s better safe than sorry. You can find and compare iPhone 4S black contracts & iPhone 4S white contracts with every available data plan here at PhoneShop.co.uk.