advice on what to buy!

annae

I'm heading off travelling this summer for a year and am wondering what to buy phone-wise before i head off.

I'm with meteor at the moment and my phone is only dual-band so won't work when living in oz with an australian sim card. I don't even know whether meteor will work when i am roaming around asia. I also need to buy a new ipod and was looking at the ipod touch because it has wifi so i'm just wondering whether i should buy an ipod touch along with another tri-band phone with meteor or should i leave meteor and get an iphone or blackberry? would i need to get contracts for these?

I'll be heading to the USA and Spain soon so would i be better off trying to buy in one of these places?
any advice would be appreciated!

annae

if i was to get an iphone would i have to get a billpay contract with O2 or vodafone? if i was to get an unlocked one somehow would my meteor simcard work in it?

Cable

not an iphone anyway. unless you want the hassle of unlocking it. I reckon get decent enough sim free quad band. that way youre covering all bases. You're phone will work anywhere and you can throw a local sim into then aswell. Dependin on the phone you decide to go for, factor ahead. Check local sites of where youre going for the prices on the same phone, might save yourself 100 yoyo or more in some cases. Id also recommend getting a wifi phone. so you can be mobile and use the free wifi to make skype calls and such back home if needs be

Davy

I wouldn't recommend getting for an iphone if you are going away.

I would get a basic phone once it has triband or quadband to cover you. Also get it unlocked if needs be. Not much point spending a huge amount of money and the phone gets stolen/damaged while being away. The one thing i would suggest would be a phone with wifi which plenty have now.

Your main priority should be looking at what network would be the cheapest for you, for the countries you are visiting. Its going to be quite costly using an irish phone network sim abroad so using something like worldsim.com is a good idea, or just at a local sim in the country you are.

towel401

get something nice and compact, factory unlocked and not too expensive like the E51

i dunno what sort of travelling you are going doing but if you are going into the Australian backarse or any of these remote places you should probably get yourself a satellite phone. they're not too expensive and a lot are dual-mode. don't bring too much crap around with you like iPod touch and the like. you probably won't need it and has a good chance of getting robbed. especially in some of the more dodgy parts of asia

the nokia e-series phones have built in voip client, so if you're stuck you can just venture into some residential area and use some wifi. great for cheap (or free) calls home too.

towel401

Mr.S wrote: »

E51 is cheap enough at €180, and afaik its the cheapest Nokia wifi enabled phone, that alone for Skype would be worth the money:)

just use the VoiP client. its cheaper and call quality is much better

there's this german crowd called 'voipcheap' and they give you 300 minutes per week free to landlines in a ****load of different countries. havn't tried em on the e51 but you cant beat the price of free even if the quality isn't as great as a proper VoiP provider.

drunkmonkey

annae wrote: »

I'm heading off travelling this summer for a year and am wondering what to buy phone-wise before i head off.

One of these http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5140i-1150.php

Or http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_b2700-review-279.php

you'll thank me when your stuck in the bush and can't find a flash light or which direction south is, there also both great for the beach...enjoy;)