Another Cheap Android Phone - £79.99

[Fonefixer]

Hi Guys...

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo is now discounted on the Carphone Warehouse site: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/SAMSUNG-I5800-GALAXY-APOLLO/PPAY

An official Froyo update should be out for it within the next month/ six weeks. Another advantage to buying from these is that 99% of their handsets are unlocked / non-branded.

If you buy in-store they may try and charge you a higher price ( dont forget the £10 top-up required whichever way you buy it). If this is the case, buy it online and choose "collect from store". When you go to collect it, have a look at the imei lable on the box, if it mentions a network its branded/locked ( in reality this is very unlikely). I just bought one for my daughter from them with the cheapest subsidy (Orange) which was totally generic, and have stuck her O2 sim in it. Ive also put Froyo on it as service centres already have the official Froyo update for this handset - it hasnt been released for end-user updates yet via KIES.

[Charlie]

Thanks FF,

I will go and check this phone out, sounds like this one would suit me

[Fonefixer]

The only thing people seem to whine about is the camera has no flash - other than that its a pretty good handset.
Covers are readily available on fleabay for a couple of quid.

[Kamikaze-X]

i personally went for the Orange Sanfrancisco from Fleabay pre unlocked and flashed to 2.2, great little cpacative screen phone for near enough £100.

[Tradavang]

Just bought an Orange SanFransico too for £60 unlocked, i've installed the Japanese_jellyfish_RLS9 on it. Seems good enough for me but battery life is short at around 1day per full charge and BT voice dialing is not very good.

[Kamikaze-X]

the battery life gets better after a few full dicharges and full charges. i've got an up time of 29 hours so far on mine, and its on yellow.

[Scope]

OK as an ex-marine anything with two working parts confuses me. So if I go into the Car Phone Warehouse and say I want the Apollo , they will ask me on what network ? I say just give me an Orange Sim and thats it ? check the box for a network logo , ( I have seen some with an orange logo on the actual base of the phone ) hand over my dosh and get home, install my Virgin Sim card and hey presto buzzin with the samsung ? or order it as per Fonefixers advice.
Last thing I want is an Orange locked-in phone.............

[Charlie]

well I have just got one today - I wanted it on Vodafone (no top up needed - as it would be a PAYG Upgrade) - but it was the same price on orange with a £10 top - so got it with a Orange sim - going to use that sim for messing about with and use the credit up and then pop my Vodafone sim in - It comes with a very small and cool charger and a 1gb SD card - also the guy in the shop said the 2.2 port for this phone is on xda-developers forum already.

Time to charge the phone.

EDIT - I bought the Phone from CPW

EDIT 2 - FF any tips on getting best from the battery - ie charging tips? Cheers

[Fonefixer]

Scope: (types in naff French voice!) "Read zis veree carefully, I shall type zis onlee once".


Easy steps:
1) Locate your local CPW store
2) Transport yourself to it by bus/car/bike/helicopter - whatever.
3) Speak to the spotty eejit, er I mean sales person, within said store. He may only understand/speak words of one syllable so take your time......
4) Ask him for a "Pay as you go Samsung Galaxy Apollo on Orange - aka i5800"
5) Examine the label on the box very closely - you are looking for words on there that mention any UK network - if there are none you have a generic handset and can put any sim card in it.
6) State that you wish to purchase said phone, and enquire on price. If he says any amount more than £79 plus £10 top up reject the sale and tell him you can order online at that price.
7) If he gets the arse, transport yourself home and order one online - whilst doing so choose the "collect from store" option. Once done you can collect the handset from store in 48 hours.

The handset you have seen with the orange logo is the i5801 - network locked to orange.

HTH

Charlie - the batteries on these are ok, charge it 12 hours minimum for the first 3-4 charge cycles, and discharge it completely before recharging.

The 2.2 port on XDA is not the official one Charlie, it will most likely kill your warranty unless you can flash it back to stock. The Samsung KIES software thats used to update the handsets send your imei etc to a special department at Samsung that updates the warranty on your handset if upgraded through the proper channels

[Charlie]

@ Scope

The Apollo I got today from CPW was unbranded, unlocked handset- £79.95 for phone with £10 top up on orange or £89.95 with NO top up on Vodafone (as this would be an upgrade for me as I have a PAYG Vodafone handset already - bought from CPW)

So either way - it was going to be £89.95 in total for me.

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@ FF - Cheers for the info - I will do the upgrade the official way - I have the phone charging now with the phone off - so you say it's best to leave it like that for 12 Hrs before I can PLAY with it???