Phone for Grandaughter

[Bob Williams]

Asking advice. I have narrowed down my youngest grandadughter’s Chrimbo phone to 3 choices, one of which is recommended here all the time: the Motorola G5s. I Googled-shopped this and got some agreeable prices, until I saw that they were all HKong shops and all with bad reviews. (Some lost money, others waiting weeks or months for delivery, one damaged, no refund.)

I found one on Amazon for £189, more than £20 more expensive than the HK shops but more reliable. Then I started looking at Wileyfox Swift2 and Swift2 Plus. Swift2 seems a good buy for £159:

http://tinyurl.com/ycxztqhy

Swift2 Plus looks even better at £189, 99p less than the G5S:

http://tinyurl.com/ya637rrn

What does The Team think? I am inclined to go for the Swift2 Plus, as it has Dual Sims, which her mum my lovely daughter wants that for some reason. She also wants Sim-free, so she can put our gd on her own Plan. And keep an eye on her, I suspect.

I welcome all advice guys, TY!

EDIT: she won’t be getting the Pink one! She is not a girly-girl at all, so it will be the Gold one.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

I would say the G5 here, 4 weeks lead time though.  Unlock codes are under £2 on ebay.

You might get lucky and find stock in store near you, offer ends tomorrow though.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks but not looking for a contract Nolan, just buying a phone, then daughter will buy a Sim and put her on her own PAYG plan.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

No contract Bob, PAYG.

[The Duke]

The 90£ g5 my MiL just ordered. If you want it delivered its 4weeks as pm said. But you can pick up local. Mil had to go to the next o2 shop down the coast. But it is possible to collect next day.

If it’s still £90, jump on it bob. It’s a steel.

 

Update. I just checked and not all my local o2 shops have them in stock at £90.

If your girl isn’t on o2 (or Giff Gaff) an unlock code will be sub £5, probably.

[Bob Williams]

I’m just buying the bare phone Steve, Daughter wants to do the rest, grandson will put in the Sims at work and set it up within mum’s plan.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

Bob, you’re missing the point. Unlock codes are only £2 then it’s a sim free bare phone.

[Ed P]

I used to have Chibay phones – but as you say service was a bit of a lottery and battery replacement difficult or not available. I also had one bit of malware installed on the raw phone that needed rooting to remove. I would have repeated my experience with an Elephone but they have gone very large format and 5.2 inch is now my upper limit.

I therefore went the Wileyfox Swift2X in the Black Friday sales – I am extremely pleased with the phone and their support  — two or three full Android updates in the short time since I have had it. If this continues for the life of the phone then I’ll stick with them. The only downer is the non-replaceable battery, not a good idea imo but I guess it allows a slimline phone.

[The Duke]

Ed I doubt there is a decent phone on the market now with a removal battery. Sadly it is want it is. Though I’ve not pound a phone lately that was hard to replace the battery. The wife’s Huawei  P9 I changed just last month.

WF do great phones. The one you mention for £190 will be on par with the latest moto 5g (or maybe the 4g,again great phone). But at £90 (atm) for the 5g, I couldn’t recommend anything else. If I needed a phone today, that is what I’d get. No need for the latest and greatest. I bet even the camera is above a pass grade now. That was the only draw back of the original moto g. It wasn’t as good as the note2 (nowhere near ad good), but the 5g I’d hazard a guess is better than the the note2 was. And that was a decent snapper. It was the first of the androids to surpass my old Nokia n95 form 2005/6. Christ going from that to the snapper on the original android (g1), was a big set back in picture quality.

Bob it is a clean phone. It comes with a o2 sim, but you can just bin that. The only downside is it’s locked to o2. But ad has been mentioned, the unlock code is just a couple of quid, and it takes all of 30 seconds to unlock it.

I can’t remember the actual route, but you Dail in star,  hash, something, something then enter the code in the box that pops up. Jon done. The code will come with the instructions.

If your girl is already on o2 or Giff Gaff, it won’t need unlocking, just pop in her sim and she is off.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks Dave, I am still a bit green about phones! Our problems understanding that began because we initially took our WF’s up to the Grimsby EE shop for Sims. They carried out all the setup, which probably included the Unlocking process. They also sent SWMBO’s phone TU (I still get occasional fallout from that!) and it took another visit to straighten it out. Then the CMod afair hit the buffers. My swift updated OK to stock Android and then Nougat. SWMBO’s fell over (more fallout ??) and it took the RMA to sort out, detailed in an older topic. have to say that Wfox were very good about that.

Ed that is encouraging and I am pleased that someone else here has a Wileyfox. ? Even SWMBO is mostly happy with her little Spark (the phone, not me) and I like my Swift, but will have another WF sometime.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

The WF are not locked to a carrier bob. So any card would work out of the box.

I’m glad you like it so much, I’m sure I put you on to them. We had a couple of the first ones here. They was great.

[Bob Williams]

Yes you did recommend WF Steve, thanks. And that’s good news, I should have known it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Steve Chibay phone battery replacement is not physically difficult, just near impossible to find a replacement battery for 2+ years old phones.

[PlaneMan]

Wileyfox now offering pretty big discounts for lock screen ads. It’s not an always on feature, just when you wake the phone up.

Might sway some people.

[The Duke]

Pm, I don’t mind this at all so me hate it. But the kindle reader and cheap kindle fire both do this. I not only don’t mind it, quite liked it, as you hardly seen it, and to me it was just like an ever changing lock screen background. Once unlocked, ad gone.

Id take the ad version over the non ad one. Even if there wasn’t much discounted for it.

Others are doing this also.

 

Update – £50 saving, bring on the ads.

[PlaneMan]

Totally agree, if I was after one of these it’d be a ad based one. Bargain.

[Bob Williams]

Going back to gdaughter’s phone: Ordered a Wileyfox Swift 2Plus: http://tinyurl.com/y9joe9j9

In Gold, with earbuds and cover, gson used Workplace to get the lot for £153 instead of £189 for phone, plus accessories.

I will be looking at it with envy. As I started typing this, just received a System update to my old original Swift (it’s Soooooo 2016, dontcha know! ??) Waiting for Installation….

EDIT …. and done! Latest Nougat 7.1.2.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Author]

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