The Nokia X3 currently has no deals available for it in terms of contracts or SIM switches, so why not take a look at the Nokia Slide. The Slide is a scaled-down smart phone; a slide-out keyboard leaves the relatively small 2.2 inch screen to function as a display only, no input. For a non-touch screen phone, the Slide is able to navigate the web with ease via navigation controls built into the phones shell as well as the slide out itself.
Using Apps on the Nokia X3 or Slide
While the X3 and Slide were both designed as smart phones for ‘light web browsing, the Slide is a bit more geared towards practical rather than entertainment use. Both phones can open HTML and XHTML and operate on Flashlite, Adobes answer for mobile devices unable to process the larger files used on Flash. This does mean that both phones are limited in the applications they can open and operate on the internet. Intended more for checking a quick email, the weather, and downloading files than running advanced business software or editing video, these phones fill a niche market for those consumers having no need of the latest technology sitting in their pockets.
The X3 offers YouTube as a feature while the Slide does not, which handles video calls instead. The utility in video calls, while questionable, is arguably greater than any usefulness offered by a YouTube app. Both the X3 and the Slide are like earlier incarnations of Nokias smartphone line, except they now utilize some of the older platforms and downscaled processors to get the work done for less.
Special Features
Take the Slide, in the Nokia 6000 line of classic phones with its Symbian 9.3 OS and limited memory. This phone was built to be used and used well, but was never intended to compete with the BlackBerry, iPhone, or smart phones in the line-up at Samsung or LG. What the Slide is good for is a solid communications platform that can take a fall or three and still get on with business. The keyboard that pulls out on command enables those with larger fingers to more easily text than with the capacitive screens on most touch-screen smart phones.
What the Slide and X3 lack in raw horsepower they make up for with virtues such as Bluetooth connectivity, easy syncing with a home computer for updates, contact lists and multi-media, and a price range that is more in line with the working class budget than some of their more elite counterparts. For around £75, the Nokia Slide is available on Amazon or your local retail shop. The X3 is comparably priced.
Nokia Slide Deals
The Nokia Slide is not on offer for a contract phone, and it is most often accompanied with a pay as you go plan. The old way of thinking about pay as you go was that it was not a plan at all but a race to the finish line for networks while crushing the customers in the pricing onslaught that follows from not being locked into a contract.
The opposite is often true, with operators competing to offer the most comprehensive, cost-effective plans to customers while requiring no contract or obligatory term periods. Customers can opt for the minute by minute method, putting as little as £5 on a pay as a you go phone and refilling the credits once they have run out. This non-plan version of the pay as you go version of mobile ownership does cost a bit in the breakdown of minute-by-minute usage, at as much as 33 pence per minute. There are other options for the Nokia Slide and its plans.
How Much Should You Pay For a Slide?
Operators are not going to be handing out free handsets when you do not sign up for a contract with them, but that does not mean that you have to spend a fortune for a smartphone. The Slide is reasonably priced at £115, on offer by Three as a pay as you go phone. Minutes, data and text messages can be purchased in lots beginning as low as £10, though the cost per minute at this price is greater than if you are willing to spend more at once. Do not spend more than a £115 for the Slide Black, as that is the price right now, and will only be going down as competitors and advanced technology conspire to lower the cost over time.
Freebies
Subscribers on T-Mobiles network can call friends on the T-Mobile network all weekend long for free. T-Mobile offers a free £10 credit to their customers who use pay as you go phones, to be used on weekends for calling mobile and land lines in the UK and 200 free minutes for international calls.
Nokia Slide Black Pay As You Go Packages
Premium rates on Vodafone, for instance, can cost as much as £2.10 per minute and average 60p for every minute you are talking. Regular minutes are still 25p a minute, so with that in mind it is a good idea to take a good look at purchasing lots of minutes, text and data so that you are stocked with the most cost-effective plan available.
£10 Package
T-Mobile has the most deals available for pay as you go phones, and they begin their offerings at only £10 at a time. This entitles customers to 400 text messages, 100 talk time minutes and 1 GB of data, available for 30 days.
£15 Package
For those pay as you go customers who need more talk, text and data allowance, T-Mobile offers 600 text messages, 200 talk time minutes, and 2 GB of data for £15. Put this on your C2 to become eligible for the free 200 international minutes and free weekend calls to friends who also use T-Mobile.
£25 Package
Customers with T-Mobile can have unlimited text messaging, 500 minutes of talk time and 3 GB of data for £25. This is enough data for even heavy users of mobile internet and data applications and the unlimited text messaging means being in touch as much as you can possibly stand.
Sam Jones considered getting the Nokia X3 for his daughter but the wide choice of deals was overwhelming. He used online price comparison sites like uSwitch to easily see the deals side by side; it helped him to make a more informed decision.
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