Hi,
the otherhalf has decided that she wants a smartphone as her current LG's battery is dying quickly (seems to be a common fault and new batteries go quick too). She doesn't want the very latest, but a 'capable basic' one... I have no idea what to look for or price. Can anyone here shed some light please.

We are currently on payg, but would consider contract.

many thanks

Take a look at the htc Wildfire S, it has a higher resolution display than the old one and a faster processor.

It is supposed to be a good entry into the smartphone market.

I've got an htc Mozart 7 and an iPhone. I prefer Windows Phone 7 to Android and iOS, but the interface is a personal thing.

In this year's range I'd recommend the HTC Desire S. It can be had for £250 / £25pcm. It's very much in the mid-range for smartphones these days (the top-end being filled by the HTC Sensation, Galaxy S 2 etc). It's got a 3.7" capacitive tourchscreen at 800x480, 1GHZ processor, 768MB RAM, 2GB of internal storage and it runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The only flaw with this handset is it can be difficult to see in direct sunlight, and the screen is 'only' Super LCD, not an AMOLED effort.

If you can put up with last year's model, you can't go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy S, it's still "up there" in terms of specs. and goes cheap these days (£200, give or take). I'm not sure if it's getting an update to Gingerbread, but it's got a brilliant screen and is DivX HD certified.

Otherwise take a look at the original HTC Desire, it still holds up quite well and a Gingerbread update is in the works. It typically goes for £150-£200.

I'd certainly recomend HTC as they're very good. My missus has a Wildfire which is cheap by smartphone standards. True, it's screen is a low resolution and it can be a tad slugish compared to the best, but it's very good for the price. She preferred it to all the other phones she tried.
I have a Desire and I think it's awesome. It's much cheaper now too as it's over a year old. It might just be in your price range.

thanks, from reading stuff everywhere it looks like she will be going with a htc on contract...just got to sort out which contract

how much data usage would be recommended for light/medium usage?

The only smart phone I've ever had is an HTC desire and its great.

As much as you can get, you'll be surprised at how much you'll end up using it; I'd say at least 512MB, or 1GB if they still offer that.

Well, you CAN oversubscribe and mobile data isn't cheap. I use around 250-350MB a month on average and I do the 'normal' things (i.e. I browse the web, get emails, and use social network apps). Also you should consider how much of the time you're in the footprint of wifi networks you can get a free connection to e.g. at home - at those times your phone shouldn't be using any of it's data allocation at all, regardless of what you do. I'd say a 500MB/month quota would probably be plenty for someone who wasn't a real heavy user or planning to use their mobile as a modem for a laptop or such.

Jon

thanks guys

I'd class myself as a medium user and I use about 300MB a month. So I'd guess a 500MB contract would be fine.
If you do go for less I'd strongly recommend a free app called 3G Watchdog. It lets you know how much data you've used every month. That way you can turn Data off so you don't get hit with the massive fees for going over.

I have a 500mb allowance and never got anywhere near using it up. However, I spend most of my day within range of my home or office wireless networks and have turned 3G streaming off.

My iPhone is nearly 2 years old. I have a 10€ flat rate (5GB 3G, then throttled to GPRS speed), but looking at it, I have sent 314MB and received 1.2GB...

I've sent 99mb and received 312mb since I got it eight months ago, so I'd say I'm comfortably within my limit!