Not sure if anyone is interested here, but recently the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission) passed new rules in regards to Canadian mobile phone options. Long story short, companies here (Bell, Rogers, Telus etc) are to have maximum contracts of 24 months, previously it had been 36. This has resulted in phone prices being more expensive and same as plans

Iphone 5 is currently $249.99 on a 2 year contract where I work (Rogers) and plans start at $75 a month, which gives you Unlimited Canada Wide Calling, Unlimited Texting, Call Display, Voicemail and 250mb data.

Big shock for us canucks!

Currently looking into upgrading my ageing Iphone 3gs. I suppose it does everything I need of it but the battery life is starting to suffer and it is getting a bit slower. My sister has an s4 but I'd be worried about cracking the large screen and it also seems like it has so many features that I would never need.

02 refresh seem to have some decent deals at the moment and I'm thinking of an s3 or maybe an s3 mini which would be around the same size as the iphone but the specs are a bit lower than the full size s3. Anyone any experience with the mini and the large s3 to compare?

Google have just dropped the price of the Nexus 4. Can get a 16gb model for £199 from the google store. Has anyone got one of these? worth getting? seems a very good price.

Nexus 4 for the money is a bargain!
I have 8Gb and it's done fine. Plenty memory unless you want to load it with films and music.
Love mine. Fast, great screen, up to date OS...but battery not brilliant, but that's the same for most phones nowadays.

The battery on my 3 year old 3gs is awful, so as long as it's better than that I'm Happy.

Is it any good for GPS as a sat nav for instance? I'm looking at the 16gb version, I have a 16gb Iphone and it's filled with music so this would probably end up the same.

I was looking into getting an s3/s4 on contract but at £200 for a 16gb model it seems like a very good deal.

Sat Nav, BBC Iplayer, Games, You Tube, Facebook, Whatsapp, Ebay,....everything works fast & as it should.

It looks good too...all glass...no plastic.

Buy it

Ordered one last night

, £210 including delivery for a phone with such spec seems unbelievable. Going to have to wait atleast a week or 2 for it to arrive though but I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

8gb version sold out yesterday in the us and I don't think it's too far behind over here.

Anyone else got issues with 3 network this morning? Either normal network and/or 3/4g?

I just don't get people moaning about battery life.
Until such time as battery technology improves, the solution is simple, carry spare batteries.
I have a Samsung Galaxy and the thin plastic back, which incidentally is very resilient, can be removed in the blink of an eye and a fresh battery inserted in seconds.
I carry two spares with me, they cost peanuts on ebay.
Also, why people persist with phones that are restrictive and not user friendly baffles me.

Some phones don't allow you to swap out batteries that easily.

Of course, but that was included in my second part ...get one that does.

Could always drag your eyes away from that little screen for a while and take in the world around you. That would save battery life.

No!
Have a heart.
lol

Batteries on phones are ridiculously poor. On a top level smartphone if you stream video or multi task like playing music and browsing the internet you'll be done within a couple of hours. Carrying three or four batteries around with you for a days travel is just a daft idea.

It seems like the Moore's law for processors is ahead of the curve of batteries. Give it another couple of years and you'll have phones that last an hour and no more. The rollout wireless chargers should be pushed if they cannot do anything with battery technology. If there was a wireless charging pad on every work desk, bus, train, plane, restaurant and coffee shop it might not matter so much.

I can assure you that carrying in a pocket very thin and light batteries with a user friendly phone,like my Samsung, is NOT a daft idea, since it has come to my aid on many an occasion.
Go with Apple and you deserve all you get.
I rotate three batteries and use a wall charger as well as the normal charger and I never run out of juice. Perhaps you should try it before dismissing it.

Graphene is a possible way forward for high capacity batteries they say.
Don't know when though.

I'll still carry a spare even then.
lol

No more daft than rolling out expensive wireless chargers because you want to save a little space in your bag or going half the day with no phone.

Pah, I'm not convinced. With all the messing about removing batteries (Not that you can do it in most phones anyway) you'd break the battery compartment/case with a few weeks. They aren't designed for that.

Get a Samsung and then come back and post that drivel.
I've a good mind to put the process on YouTube for changing the battery on a Samsung Galaxy.
It would be one of the shortest videos ever posted.
But you believe what you want and carry on struggling.
Edit:
There are plenty on YouTube already, as I have just found out.

Well I got a Nexus 5 for Christmas and it is brilliant in my opinion. The fact it has a fixed battery is a none-issue for my use of the phone which has increased over my last phone as the 5 encourages you to use it more.

Now I don't spend my time constantly watching Netflix or BBC iPlayer on it, or spend hours catapulting birds at pigs but I am a heavy email user and use Facebook messenger a lot to communicate with my son at Uni.

I get well over a full day out of it using it like this.

When at work if the battery is low I just plug it into the usb port of the laptop to charge. At home I bought a 3rd party NFC charger for £15 and just plonk it on that.

Changing a battery would be more inconvenient for me than doing what I do.