Using my UK iphone in the Philippines

No by default (unless it has changed recently) Smart charge in 30 minute blocks, eat all you can blocks, 10 peso per 30 minute block, that is an amazing deal compared to western PAYG deals and you can turn it on an off, even better are the Peso deals for x number of days for example 499 peso for 30 days 1GB or 299 peso for 30 days 250 MB.

Those are the Smart "Always On 499" and "Always On 299" deals, I have used these and they are very good I have also used the rolling 30 minutes for 10 peso deal and that works well if you know how to turn off data on your phone.

In the UK my PAYG uses about 150 MB a month and costs me bout 400 peso in Pounds, the Phils is quite good in this respect compared to here.

Nah Dom geeks and nerds tend to go for Android as that is a Linux based FREE operating system

It's the arty farty ones that go for iPhones

I apologise in advance to everyone else but personally I had one a few years back and after many many years of owning Smartphones I cannot say I was all that impressed, yes some aspects the user interface were nice and innovative but really the iPhone is a pretty basic dumb blocky menu system, I just don't get all the adulation, very much a case of 'Emperors New Clothes' to my mind.

Me I am an educated IT nerd educated by my own personal history and for me the single most elegant Phone OS out there is Windows Phone 8, just so much of a shame that it has such a sh***y name

John, Canon v Nikon, BMW v Honda, Bang & Olufsen compared to any Brit hi-fi company, this kind of stuff is everywhere

The objectionable thing about Apple is that they are just cheap enough, it is so obvious that they are gouging you (I don't mean you personally) but it is really really obvious now that you pay an Apple tax purely for image and what's really funny is that the premium that is paid is not even to get into an exclusive club, not that I care about exclusion, my boss probably does though

That premium is now paid to join a club of close on billions of clones, hard to avoid in the modern day I guess

Ah well, never mind, I love my device even though I don't own it, I will probably buy the last gen version just because the OS is so elegant and pretty, my current one from the work is the Nokia Lumia 1020 with the ridiculous camera (it is actually awesome ) but I fancy buying myself a Lumia 920 from Tesco because they are doing them really cheap unlocked.

Lumia, eh..???

I was considering a Sony Experia Z

This looks quite interesting......

Status Symbol........................................ (say that really really slow)

I must be a god



I won't list the glass although I do have that one that is mounted on that 1D




No need for a tablet although the family have acquired two, I cannot type at super speed on a tablet, I can however do exactly that on a laptop, for me computers are tools not passive consumer advertising screens.

Read this Dom: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/sony-xperia-z-1119637/review/9

It gives a realistic view on the battery savings.

Me I get about 36 to 40 hours on a full charge while leaving WiFi on and the 4G connection on when possible, the killer is 3G and 4G, if you live in a 2G GSM area these phones would run for weeks on a single charge, I used to take my smartphone from the UK about 6 years ago (it would last 1 day here) to Manila and over there it would last 6 days, basically they had fewer 3G and Edge connections in those days so everything ran in everlasting 2G

Ach, I'm not being terribly serious John, we all like what we like, but me I have always been 'value' sensitive, the IBM PC took over the world because it did a good job cheaply, it may well be that in the future most people will run their business on a non IBM based platform, hopefully I will be retired by then

I don't think you should either.

It is always personal choice whatever we do, buy, drink, eat, use.

It is personal taste, and nobody is criticizing. Just making light banter and giving candid observations .

Yeah but I still have an old Sony that only ran in GPRS 2G mode and still to this day 8 years later lasts 6 days, it is really nice knowing that your phone does not need charged for a long time, means I can go a little way into the jungle without worrying too much (actually I would worry because lack of transmitters would drain the battery even faster as it would be continually searching for a cell )

Exactly that is why I really am a NERD