No battery – typical! I’m having a nightmare day, I’m running late and now I can’t phone ahead to tell the person I’m meeting that I’ll not be there at the agreed time…
(SPOTS PHONE BOX)
Or can I?
(PRESENTER ENTERS PHONE BOX, PUTS MONEY IN AND STARTS TO DIAL)
(PRESENTER COMES OUT OF PHONE BOX – SHIRT AND TIE OPEN TO REVEAL SUPERMAN T-SHIRT UNDERNEATH)
Thank goodness for that, the calls made and she’s happy to wait…
(LOOKS DOWN AT SHIRT)
Eh?
Hi Jenni, sorry I’m so late…
No problem,
(NOTICES OUTFIT)
What happened to you?
Something that has made me realise how important my mobile phone is, I can’t have this happening to me every time I have to use a phone box!
So that’s what we’re looking at today – mobile phones! I’m Jonas Hurst and over the next few minutes, with the help of WHICH? Expert Jenni Conti, we’ll be taking a look at how to get the best mobile for you and your needs. Excuse me just a minute!
(PRESENTER RETURNS SUITED AND BOOTED AND NO LONGER LOOKING LIKE CLARKE KENT)
That’s better! So Jenni, let’s get started. These days nobody wants to be without a mobile phone, so how do we work out what’s a good one?
Well whether you’re after a pay as you go phone or a contract deal, Which? Handset tests, tariff analysis and satisfaction survey results can help you make the right choice
So what sort of things are you looking for when you do these tests?
Well you’ve just seen how annoying it is when a mobile lets you down, so we really put them through their paces. We test for durability, battery life, ease of use, sound quality, the quality of the phone’s camera. Each aspect is tested using specially built equipment, such as listening mannequins that feature special equipment to judge reception and sound quality.
Battery life can be a real bug-bear – as I know – so what have you found in your tests?
There are all sorts of differences that our tests uncover that you’d never know about by just looking at a phone. Some phones take a lot longer to charge than others. And their low-battery warnings can give too much notice or too little. Our battery life and charge rating takes account of all these aspects. Choose a Which? Best buy mobile phone and you can be confident your battery won’t let you down.
So what about ease of use – some phones can seem fiddly!
Do try phones out in the shop before you buy them, but to get the full picture Which? thoroughly tests the ease of use for each handset. We score each phone on a series of tasks such as making a call, using the music player, and handling missed calls. The ease of reading and writing SMS text messages as-well as sending and receiving MMS picture messages are also scored.
Which? also uses a five-person expert testing panel get to carry out a number of basic tasks like switching the phone on and off and storing a contact, giving us a unique insight into things such as the layout of the keypad to the size of the display.
My phone doubles up as an MP3 player – is that something that is important?
Mobile phones can make great music players – if you know what to look for. Our expert panel listens to the music tracks on each phone, and we listen to tracks including ‘By the way’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Mariengesänge’ by Handel and Pink Floyd’s ‘Another brick in the wall part II’ to check how the players cope with a wide range of music. Our experts listen both with the headphones supplied and, if they can be connected, with a second set that we supply. The panel also checks for overall sound and for flaws such as distortion.
A final piece of the puzzle is what to look for when it comes to a camera phone.
If you want a camera phone, look for ones with good lenses and sensors. Lens quality, sensor quality and sensor size play a big role in how sharp and colour-accurate the pictures from your camera mobile phone will be. We’ve found that a 3Mp camera phone with a great lens and a large sensor – such as the Apple iPhone 3GS – can provide better image quality than a 5Mp camera with a poor lens. And, our tests should give you something to smile about. We test out the cameras on the phones by taking pictures of test charts in different, simulated light conditions. The charts even include a rotating image to test how the camera copes with movement
Of course, today’s phones do more than this and can keep me connected to friends and family using email and the internet.
That’s right – 3G mobile phones do bring the internet to your pocket. If you want to browse the web at a decent speed, you should really look for a 3G mobile phone handset. These are far faster than basic GPRS models and can download a typical audio track in around 90 seconds. Another option is to connect to the internet using Wi-Fi. At the moment only a few mobile phones offer this feature but it’s worth looking out for, as it usually provides faster and cheaper internet access than standard mobile phone tariffs.
So, that’s the phone almost sorted – but to get a brilliant one, I’ve got to spend the money, right?
It’s true that basic mobile phones can offer great value for money, with some pay-as-you-go mobile phones available for less than £10 – and we’ve found Best Buy phones that cost as little as £20 on pay as you go.
And, most basic mobile phones will still have some entertainment features. These may be an FM radio rather than a multimedia player, or a VGA (0.3Mp) camera rather than a high-end 8Mp version, but if they’re just for occasional use then you may not mind the drop in quality.
And as I’m dashing about, I’ll probably need to insure it somehow.
Well, some advice here before you sign up for any mobile phone insurance.
Mobile phone insurance can be an expensive - cover usually costs around £6 a month, which may sound reasonable, but that’s £108 over an 18-month contract. As with an extended warranty, you may end up paying almost as much as the cost of the original product. There are also exclusions on many policies, which mean that there’s no guarantee they’ll pay out if anything goes wrong. Instead check if you’re covered by your household contents insurance. If not, and the worst happens, most people have spare old phones they could use or you could pick up a cheap replacement model.
Well, thanks for all your help today. Some great advice and tips to get us started.