Which Mobile Phone?

[lomuamart]

So, I've got a phone now.

Should I install anti virus, malware and adblock stuff on it?

The reasons I ask is because if I open up Utube, I get loads of ads. I don't want them. And most importantly, it seems like my email accounts are synched so I'm sort of guessing that my banking might be as well and if the phone is unprotected then everything's in danger.

This is my first smart phone and I'm getting used to it but the security aspect worries me.

Thanks for any advice.

[buksida]

Malwarebytes has an Android app.

This will get rid of the Youtube ads: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=40141

Don't do banking on a phone due to security issues so can't help you there.

[lomuamart]

Sorry, another question.

I've got a Thai SIM with Truemove. AFAIA, there's no way that'll work in the UK. My phone can take two cards.

Is there any way that I can call in the UK on arrival without having to buy a UK SIM at the airport?
Maybe a second roaming card? I don't know.

Any help appreciated.

[Dannie Boy]

Sorry, another question.

I've got a Thai SIM with Truemove. AFAIA, there's no way that'll work in the UK. My phone can take two cards.

Is there any way that I can call in the UK on arrival without having to buy a UK SIM at the airport?
Maybe a second roaming card? I don't know.

Any help appreciated.

Sorry that I can’t help with your specific question, however if you only want a sim for short-period use, I’d recommend going to giffgaff - you can buy data packs that provide decent data/£ and free calls in the UK, although you have to use the phone at least every six months to keep the number alive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[buksida]

I've got a Thai SIM with Truemove. AFAIA, there's no way that'll work in the UK. My phone can take two cards.

Is there any way that I can call in the UK on arrival without having to buy a UK SIM at the airport?
Maybe a second roaming card? I don't know.

Most Thai sim cards have roaming options/packages that allow you to make calls overseas - ridiculously expensive, but it works.

[thecolonel]

Sorry, another question.

I've got a Thai SIM with Truemove. AFAIA, there's no way that'll work in the UK. My phone can take two cards.

Is there any way that I can call in the UK on arrival without having to buy a UK SIM at the airport?
Maybe a second roaming card? I don't know.

Any help appreciated.

My take on this would be....

How long you in UK for?

Why not get someone to get you a 1 month UK SIM package, pref someone who's picking you up at airport and can give you on arrival

If so Asda mobile have some excellent deals, for £5 (valid 1 month) you get 6gb data plus unlimited calls /texts

Or do WH Smith(M'cr Airport) sell any sim cards with similar deals I don't know???

Probably cost £5 to make 2 calls in UK on your Thai SIM??

Bottom line is its only a fiver max....

Sent from my M2007J20CT using Tapatalk

[thecolonel]

Might be some useful info in here......


https://www.traveltomtom.net/destinatio ... n-heathrow



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[handdrummer]

OK, so Lomu is going to be dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming by buying a smart phone.

Any suggestions for something about 8-10K THB?

Me too.
I'm considering: Redmi Note 8, 9A Sport & 9 Active.
Any opinions or alternatives in the 3900-4500 Baht range?
I don't care about cameras or massive storage. Just reliability, headphone jack, gorilla glass, and, if it exists, ease of use.
Basically, I'll make a phone call once or twice a month, search the internet when out shopping and waiting for my wife to do whatever it is she does and controlling, via blue tooth, hearing aids.

[HHTel]

Although the Samsung J series have been discontinued (you still get updates though), you can still pick up a J8 for under 4,000 baht.
I've had a J7+ since that was launched in 2016. I've NEVER had any problems with it. Phone calls - of course but supports all the usual stuff - Messenger, Line, Whatsapp, Skype, E-mail, plus Google etc. Google maps is a must for getting around strange places. One of the things I've used a couple of times when travelling is 'find my car'. When you reach a destination you can instruct it to remember where your car is and it will redirect you back to it should you need it!

In fact it does pretty much everything my laptop does. Like you, prior to this I had a mobile that made and received calls/texts and never thought I'd go beyond that. Now I can snap a photo in a wink and send it off to family and friends.

So glad that I reluctantly arrived in the 21st century.

[handdrummer]

Although the Samsung J series have been discontinued (you still get updates though), you can still pick up a J8 for under 4,000 baht.
I've had a J7+ since that was launched in 2016. I've NEVER had any problems with it. Phone calls - of course but supports all the usual stuff - Messenger, Line, Whatsapp, Skype, E-mail, plus Google etc. Google maps is a must for getting around strange places. One of the things I've used a couple of times when travelling is 'find my car'. When you reach a destination you can instruct it to remember where your car is and it will redirect you back to it should you need it!

In fact it does pretty much everything my laptop does. Like you, prior to this I had a mobile that made and received calls/texts and never thought I'd go beyond that. Now I can snap a photo in a wink and send it off to family and friends.

So glad that I reluctantly arrived in the 21st century.

Thanx. I've heard that Samsungs had a steep learning curve & I have enough going on without adding to my confusion. I'm an analogue person stuck in a digital world.

[HHTel]

I certainly didn't find it at all difficult. I think the most I had to overcome was using a touch screen. You can turn on 'easy mode'. Not sure if other phones have that feature, but it really simplifies the screen.

https://www.samsung.com/in/support/mobi ... galaxy-j7/

Easy mode.jpg (7.07 KiB) Viewed 1410 times

[pharvey]

I was always against the iPhone and Pro Samsung..... My company gave me an iPhone 6 when I first joined 6 odd years ago, which actually I got used to to and enjoyed several aspects - especially the camera.

A year or so ago, the company decided to change phones - purely due to the fact that they did not want to purchase upgraded iPhones and that Apple would no longer support older phones/software.

I was therefore given a Samsung A40 - great I thought initially, Android - free Apps, Samsung - easy to use, Dual Sim etc.

These days however, I find the A40 slow, the touchscreen unresponsive at times and the camera poor (although this never compared to the iPhone).

Quite frankly, now not enjoying the A40. Though to purchase a decent alternative would cost!!

[VincentD]

If looking for an Android phone, would recommend the Samsung A12. They're affordable and the tech aspect won't be going out of date for a while, plus are still easily available on the market. The iPhone, while preferred by some, is overpriced for what it does imo. My wife has one, and sometimes struggles with the closed system and app store. But they both work. At the end of the day, we are still creatures of habit.

[PeteC]

Not smart but clever? The return of 'dumbphones'

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168

Seventeen-year-old Robin West is an anomaly among her peers - she doesn't have a smartphone.

Instead of scrolling through apps like TikTok and Instagram all day, she uses a so-called "dumbphone".

These are basic handsets, or feature phones, with very limited functionality compared to say an iPhone. You can typically only make and receive calls and SMS text messages. And, if you are lucky - listen to radio and take very basic photos, but definitely not connect to the internet or apps.

These devices are similar to some of the first handsets that people bought back in the late 1990s.

Ms West's decision to ditch her former smartphone two years ago was a spur of the moment thing. While looking for a replacement handset in a second-hand shop she was lured by the low price of a "brick phone".

Her current handset, from French firm MobiWire, cost her just £8. And because it has no smartphone functionality she doesn't have an expensive monthly data bill to worry about.

"I didn't notice until I bought a brick phone how much a smartphone was taking over my life," she says. "I had a lot of social media apps on it, and I didn't get as much work done as I was always on my phone."

The Londoner adds that she doesn't think she'll ever buy another smartphone. "I'm happy with my brick - I don't think it limits me. I'm definitely more proactive."

Dumbphones are continuing to enjoy a revival. Google searches for them jumped by 89% between 2018 and 2021, according to a report by software firm SEMrush.

And while sales figures are hard to come by, one report said that global purchases of dumbphones were due to hit one billion units last year, up from 400 million in 2019. ://www.counterpointresearch.com/more-than- ... ree-years/ This compares to worldwide sales of 1.4 billion smart phones last year, following a 12.5% decline in 2020.

Meanwhile, a 2021 study by accountancy group Deloitte said that one in 10 mobile phone users in the UK had a dumbphone.

"It appears fashion, nostalgia, and them appearing in TikTok videos, have a part to play in the dumbphone revival," says Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at price comparison site Uswitch.com. "Many of us had a dumbphone as our first mobile phone, so it's natural that we feel a sense of nostalgia towards these classic handsets."

Mr Doku says it was the 2017 relaunch of Nokia's 3310 handset - first released in 2000, and one of the biggest-selling mobiles of all time - that really sparked the revival. "Nokia pushed the 3310 as an affordable alternative in a world full of high-spec mobiles."

He adds that while it's true that dumbphones can't compete with the latest premium Apple and Samsung models when it comes to performance or functionality, "they can outshine them in equally important areas such as battery life and durability".

Five years ago, Przemek Olejniczak, a psychologist, swapped his smartphone for a Nokia 3310, initially because of the longer-lasting battery. However, he soon realised that there were other benefits.

"Before I would always be stuck to the phone, checking anything and everything, browsing Facebook or the news, or other facts I didn't need to know," he says.

"Now I have more time for my family and me. A huge benefit is that I'm not addicted to liking, sharing, commenting, or describing my life to other people. Now I have more privacy."

However, Mr Olejniczak, who lives in the Polish city of Lodz, admits that initially the switch was challenging. "Before I'd be checking everything, such as buses and restaurants, on my smartphone [when travelling]. Now that is impossible, so I have learned to do all those things beforehand at home. I got used to it."

One maker of dumbphones is New York company Light Phone. Slightly more clever that the norm for such products, its handsets do allow users to listen to music and podcasts, and link by Bluetooth to headphones. Yet the firm pledges that its phones "will never have social media, clickbait news, email, an internet browser, or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed".

The company says it recorded its strongest year for financial performance in 2021, with sales up 150% compared with 2020. This is despite its handsets being expensive for dumbphones - prices start at $99 (£75).

Light Phone co-founder, Kaiwei Tang, says the device was initially created to use as a secondary phone for people wanting to take a break from their smartphone for a weekend for example, but now half the firm's customers use it as their primary device.

"If aliens came to earth they'd think that mobile phones are the superior species controlling human beings," he says. "And it's not going to stop, it's only going to get worse. Consumers are realising that something is wrong, and we want to offer an alternative."

Mr Tang adds that, surprisingly, the firm's main customers are aged between 25 and 35. He says he was expecting buyers to be much older.

Tech expert, Prof Sandra Wachter, a senior research fellow in artificial intelligence at Oxford University, says it is understandable that some of us are looking for simpler mobile phones.

"One can reasonably say that nowadays a smart phone's ability to connect calls and send short messages is almost a side feature," she explains. "Your smart phone is your entertainment centre, your news generator, your navigation system, your diary, your dictionary, and your wallet."

She adds that smartphones always "want to grab your attention" with notifications, updates, and breaking news constantly disrupting your day. "This can keep you on edge, might even be agitating. It can be overwhelming."

Prof Wachter adds: "It makes sense that some of us are now looking for simpler technologies and think that dumbphones might offer a return to simpler times. It might leave more time to fully concentrate on a single task and engage with it more purposefully. It might even calm people down. Studies have shown that too much choice can create unhappiness and agitation."

Yet back in London, Robin West says that many people are bewildered by her choice of mobile. "Everyone thinks it's just a temporary thing. They're like: 'So when are you getting a smartphone? Are you getting one this week?'."

[migrant]

My old, old phone was a basic one as described. Mrs M, on the other hand, usually buys the new version of her I phone when it comes out. Back then she said " Now you can have my old I phone"
Me "I don't want it"

Two days later she hands me her old phone and said "Here you go"
Me "What's this?
Her "My old phone"
Me " I don't want it, I like my old basic one"
Her " Well I gave yours to my Brother"

It's been pretty much the same through all the new Apple versions.