Vodafone « OneMobileRing

Samsung Galaxy Tab available to preorder

galaxy_tab Reserve the tablet in advance

Samsung’s recently launched Android tablet device has tipped up with on-line mobile phone reseller Expansys, SIM free and unlocked for £679.99.

The Galaxy Tab was unveiled at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics show last week, where the 16GB version’s retail cost has now been made public along with the arrival date of October 12th.

It’s been reported the Tab will be a direct rival to the Apple iPad, whose cost comes in at £529 for the same capacity and also with WIFI and 3G abilities.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is a 7-inch TFT LCD touch screen display based Android tablet, with Samsung TouchWIZ UI overlay to the Google OS.

Vodafone has also announced they will be selling the Tab from October onwards, only on a contract where no price details have been made available by the mobile phone network.

O2 is exclusively selling a similar Android product in the Dell Streak, where if their tariff details are anything to go by the Samsung tablet could be free on a £25 data or £35 data and voice contracts.

The SIM free 16GB Galaxy Tab model is much more costly than we first anticipated, where the 64GB iPad is just over £19 more.

Vodafone gets Nokia N8 - exclusively

nokia_n81 In colour alone, if not entirely

Mobile phone network Vodafone has made public via Twitter it’s exclusively going to have the upcoming Nokia N8, in the lime green casing that’s been seen on countless preview models.

Vodafone announced in a tweet that reads: “The green Nokia N8 will be available exclusively to Vodafone customers at launch”, which confirms they’ll solely have the colour that’s become synonymous with the Nokia N8 handset.

The N8 will be the first mobile run Symbian^3, with a touch screen, an HDMI slot, with HD 720p video recording capabilities care of its 12 megapixel camera - the highest MP count seen on a Nokia handset.

It’s been reported the N8 mobile phone will be available at the end of September, or early October with a possible SIM free and unlocked price tag of £419.99, according to Play.com.

No other mobile phone network has announced news surrounding the upcoming anticipated Nokia flagship handset and their exclusive colours.

The Nokia N8 is available in four more colours, silver, black, blue and orange. One Mobile Ring has noticed the SIM free models have only appeared in black and silver, where the two remaining colours could certainly find themselves on networks with relating colours schemes - with the obvious tie-in being Orange.

Vodafone tweet

Android 2.2 arrives on Vodafone’s HTC Desire today

Froyo comes to Voda

Mobile phone network Vodafone has starting rolling out the Google Android OS 2.2 from today onwards, to the HTC Desire handsets running on their network.

The carrier announced over twitter the update was coming, in a message that reads “Android 2.2 update for HTC Desire available on 23 August.” - with an accompanying link to their website’s forum. The webpage linked to the tweet ran through what needs to be done to prepare for its arrival, with what to do when an OTA (Over The Air) notification message arrives.

There appears to also be an option to opt out of using the Vodafone 360 software applications, as it’s been reported customers have noted a performance issue on the handsets with those apps running.

Elements such as HD 720p Video recording, app sharing along with better all around improvements to the OS are brought in with Froyo.

Google’s Android 2.2 will start being pushed out today and could last as long as two weeks to complete, according to Vodafone.

As always, we recommend downloading the update over WIFI instead of from the networks data means - due to the very size of the software, where the phone’s data allowance will be severely impacted otherwise.

Vodafone Tweet

Mobile WIFI comes to Vodafone

vodafone_wifi_hotspot_r201_angled_g1 MIFI under a different name

Mobile phone network Vodafone has launched a rival to Three’s MIFI product under the name of mobile WIFI, with a cost of £25 a month with a 5GB data allowance ceiling.

The Huawei R201 is also made by the same people behind Three’s MIFI product, with both of them being able to allow 5 devices to connect over WIFI to the mobile broadband network. Three was able to brand their device ‘MIFI’ in the UK, where others now have to use another name as a result of that imaginative piece of branding.

The rebranded Huawei mobile WIFI product arrives free on an 18 month contract, with a 5GB data allowance for use with laptops or even a WIFI enabled mobile phones, such as the Apple iPhone 4 for FaceTime video calling.

Vodafone also offers up their mobile WIFI product with lower data tariffs on an 18 month contract, although there’s a price attached for the device at this stage. Vodafone provide for £20 a month, a data allowance of 4GB with an upfront cost of £29 for the mobile WIFI device. Whereas, £15 a month with an upfront cost of £49 gives you a 3GB data allowance.

As a comparison Three’s 5GB MIFI tariff costs just £17 a month, where there’s pay as you go options available and even higher data plans with Three sharing T-Mobile data backbone and possibly Orange’s in the future.

O2 unveils Apple’s iPhone 4 on pay as you go

Former UK only iPhone seller’s latest offer

The original UK reseller of the Apple handsets has made available the latest iPhone 4 on prepay, at the starting price of £495 with O2.

The 16GB version of the new Apple mobile is just £5 shy of £500, where the 32GB iPhone 4 model comes in a £595. Apple’s own online retail store has the 16GB iPhone 4 at £499, with the 32GB version selling for £599 - where there’s not a great deal of difference between the costs.

O2’s tariff backing up the Apple phone has 300 text message and 500MB data allowance a month, if the phone is topped up with £10-£14. To obtain 500 text messages, the top up fee is £15-£29 and the unlimited message deal is priced at £30 a month.

This deal isn’t as attractive as Vodafone’s offer last week, where the purchase price of the phone includes a data allowance of 250GB a month, along with 1GB of free BT Openzone WIFI access.

O2 reportedly lost the exclusivity to selling Apple iPhone handsets in the UK when they opted to be the sole network provider to the Palm Pre mobiles, where the popularity of that series of phones has yet to make the impact O2 had once perhaps hoped.

Apple’s iPhone 4 arrives on pay as you go with Vodafone

Prepaid mobile with free Internet access

Mobile phone network Vodafone has brought the iPhone 4 on to a pay as you go deal, where the cost of the 16GB model is £480 with some incentives included to attract potential buyers to purchase the phone from them - rather than SIM free and unlocked from Apple.

The latest Apple 16GB iPhone mobile phone is just £20 shy of £500 with Vodafone, where the 32GB version comes in at £570 and the network is even selling the older 8GB 3GS at £385. In stark contrast, Apple’s own store has the 16GB iPhone 4 at £499, the 32GB version at £599 and the 8GB 3GS is retailing at the largest margin of £419.

Vodafones’ handsets are of course locked to that very network, where they are hoping to win customers over by the tariff bundle they are now included with every iPhone pay as you go bought.

Included as part and parcel of the purchase price is a data allowance of 250GB a month, along with 1GB of free BT Openzone WIFI access a month. Calls and text messages are on their Simplicity tariff, with a charge of 20p a minute and 10p for a text message.

Whether this offer will entice new iPhone 4 buyers time will only tell, although the data allowance does appear to be a good deal for light users where the heavier data users might struggle at keeping within the limits set out by Vodafone.

Vodafone and Orange see the light

BlackBerry Torch 9800 coming to UK networks

bb9800

Vodafone and Orange have both announced they will be carrying the first BlackBerry slider phone from Research In Motion - since its launch event in America on the AT&T network.

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the first slider handset from RIM, which also has a full touch screen and runs their new OS 6.

Orange announced over twitter they will be selling the new BlackBerry handset, in a tweet from the UK PR Manager that reads: “Good news: The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 with BlackBerry 6 will be coming soon to Orange UK. We will keep you posted with details…”. - with no further information on offer, or even Orange’s own ‘Coming Soon’ page listing its existence.

Straight after the USA launch event for the 9800, Vodafone also posted on twitter they will be carrying the phone, in a tweet that reads “The BlackBerry Torch will be coming soon to Vodafone UK. Register for updates here: http://bit.ly/dzJ72A”. That very link redirects to their ‘Coming Soon’ page for the BlackBerry Torch, indicating they are more prepared than Orange and will most likely have the phone on sale first.

No pricing has been announced by either network, although expect to pay around the mid £30 mark on a 24 month contract with the handset free.

One Mobile Ring was at the RIM launch event in the UK, where we will be posting a First Looks review on the handset soon. At the event there were a number of BlackBerry Torch 9800 phones on show, with various demos being held by members of RIM staff where we noted a handset on the O2 network - but there’s no news had been made public yet from them.

Vodafone

Orange Tweet

So, what can you offer me for £15 a month? - The Conclusion

Recently, we began a feature that surrounded £15 a month tariffs, comprising of what exactly they can offer within minutes, texts and data allowances. This also takes into account the free handsets accompanying those deals, in addition to SIM Only offers from the same networks.

Previously, we brought you news of the tariff details from the mobile phone networks Three, T-Mobile and Orange. This week we will wrap up with Vodafone and O2, followed by a break-down and what’s best within certain criteria’s.

Vodafone

Vodafone offers a few different contracts over 24 months and an 18 month period with numerous handsets, along with a few SIM only deals.

What Vodafone presented to One Mobile Ring as their “Option One” is a 24-month contract that comes with 100 minutes, with 500 texts and a 500MB data allowance.

There are 12 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Vodafone 360 M1 and rebranded Huawei Vodafone 845 phone.

There is also a variation to “Option One”, which tips up with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any networks, with an unlimited text message allowance.

There are 9 phones available on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, and the Samsung Solid Extreme.

Another Option One is a 24 month contract too, and comes with 100 minutes, 500 text messages where the only phones on offer are the Nokia 6700 Slide Purple and Nokia 6700 Slide Silver.

What Vodafone presented to OMR as Option Two is a 18-month plan, that comes with 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 500 text messages.

There are 9 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite and the Samsung Solid Extreme.

Vodafone’s SIM only deals start with 200 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with 3,000 text messages on a 30-day contract.

Vodafone also has a SIM only deal that comes with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls

Vodafone does retail a yearlong SIM only deal too, which comes with 600 minutes with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls.

O2 has both 12 and 24 month contracts on offer with free handsets as well, along with SIM only on-line deals.

The offer O2 presented to One Mobile Ring as their 24 month Handset tariff is accompanied by 100 minutes, with an unlimited text allowance.

There are 17 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Jet Ultra, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson C903 Black, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia X6, Nokia 6700, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.

Also on offer with O2 is their 18-month Handset tariff, which is accompanied by a 50 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with an unlimited text allowance.

There are 14 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.

O2’s SIM only deals come in three varieties, one with no contract, another with a 30-days and there’s also a 12-month contract.

O2 has a Pay & Go you Simplicity SIM with 100 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts, with 500MB of Internet browsing.

The Simplicity SIM only, 30-day contract offers 300 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.

An O2 Simplicity SIM 12-month contract comes with 600 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.

The Break Down

Breaking down all that’s on offer in the £15 tariff market place is a mean feat in itself, with close to 30 tariff deals from the various mobile phone networks. Taking into account the minutes on offer isn’t enough in choosing a tariff any more, it’s the text limits and more importantly these days - the data allowance. The most important question too is sometimes over looked, what handset accompanies the tariff, or what choices do I have.

After collating all of the details from companies such as T-Mobile, Orange, Three, Vodafone and O2 we have made some One Mobile Ring Editors choices as to what tariffs stand out. The following decisions do take into account the tariffs minutes, text and data allowance along with the handsets they have on offer.

The tariff with the highest range of phones has to go to O2, with 17 handsets to choose from on their standard 24-month tariff with 100 minutes and an unlimited text allowance.

The majority of the networks did actually offer an almost identical range of phones in their £15 tariffs, where the diversity across all the carriers weren’t as varied as we initially thought they would be. They were mostly budget models and non-popular handsets, where one network stood out by offering refurbished higher-end models and that was Three.

The tariff that came on top by providing the most minutes per month was Three, with their Internet Talker 500 24-month plan. This tariff comes with 500 minutes a month to any network, which beats even its closest rivals in minutes alone by 200 on Vodafone and T-Mobile.

There is a slight covet for the Internet Talker 500, where the minutes are traded off against the number of text messages sent in a month. That 500 figure is therefore taken down by 1 minute for every text message sent, whilst every minute used in calling takes the 500 text messages allowance down by 1.

We still believe this is an outstanding tariff, as although an unlimited text allowance offering sounds attractive on paper - 500 minutes in practice is a lot more useful.

Thrown in with the Internet Talker 500 is 5,000 minutes to any other Three mobile phone numbers, a 500MB data allowance a month where you also get free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and Windows Live Messenger use.

Whilst we were writing this piece Three reduced this tariff from £15 a month, to £13 and therefore undercut the remit of the “So, what can you offer me for £15 a month?” feature. At the same time we believe they rejigged their handset deals, where most of the phones accompanying the deal now come in it at £17 and £18 - also slightly over the feature’s remit.

Three also offers the best SIM Only ‘30-day’ contract, which comes with 300 minutes, 3,000 texts, 2,000 Three-to-Three minutes and a 1GB data allowance with free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and messages with free Windows Live Messenger use.

T-Mobile came close with their ‘30-day’ offering but they did come out on top with a 12-month SIM only deal, on minutes alone. This offer comprises of 600 minutes, 500 texts, with their flexible booster package of either unlimited texts, unlimited internet or unlimited T-Mobile calling.

Nokia C6 handset now available on-line from Nokia

Latest social networking phone from the Finish Fone makers

nokiac61

Nokia’s new C6 Qwerty based keyboard mobile phone has gone on sale, via their own website at a cost of £289 SIM free and unlocked. The new mobile phone is also around on a contract with O2 and Vodafone, or just on a pay as you go deal with Vodafone.

Nokia’s latest mobile has a similar look to their flagship N97, along with its cut down version of the N97 Mini. The C6 tips up with a 3.2-inch 640×360 resistive touch screen, along with a slide-out physical Qwerty keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera whilst running their own Symbian S60 OS.

The budget social network orientated phone from Nokia has a wide range of social networking features built-in, along with access to various email systems from Gmail to Yahoo.

C6’s Qwerty keyboard slides out from under the screen, unlike their previous N97 handset whose keyboard slid opened in an angular fixed position when exposed.

Nokia’s on-line store was the first to show the C6 arrival within the UK, with other resellers and mobile phone networks closely following suit as the phone starts to arrive them with all.

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Vodafone Google Nexus One gets Android 2.2

Froyo comes to the HTC rebranded handset

2.2.jpg

Vodafone in the UK has confirmed in an email they will soon be rolling out the update to Android for their Nexus Ones, according to the technology website Android Central.

The update that brings in the ability to natively view flash video content on the Nexus One, which has been with the USA Google handset owners for some time could be arriving in the UK anytime now.

However, it appears some of the States side version of Froyo on the HTC phone made for Google won’t be available. Stripped from the UK roll out of Android 2.2 is access to the Amazon MP3 store, along with Google Goggles that allows users to take pictures with their phone and then search the web with those images.

The letter goes on to mention updating over WIFI would be the best way forward, even though customers will be notified over the air (OTA) of its arrival. Seeing as the download could be on the large size, this is preferable as the data plan sold with the Nexus One will certainly be eaten away if downloaded any other way.

No mentioned of whether WIFI or USB tethering have been taken out, but we suspect they will be in tact along with the Flash video ability which effectively brings the handset on par with the HTC Desire.