Tomorrow is 12th January.

And 12th January is the day my over-priced O2 mobile contract finishes.

The contract is overpriced because when I arranged it originally I specified that it must cost no more than £25 per month for the phone and retain the same number of minutes & texts as I already had available on my SIM-only deal. Well, they managed that bit of it, but there was a 'hidden' extra charge of £5 a month, where bolt-ons were juggled around to provide data etc. I *should* have called O2, made a fuss, got exactly what I wanted, but I'm not a natural complainer, and the longer it got left the harder it was to fix.

So there's a strong inclination to move phone providers.

On top of that, there's the burning question of whether to replace the phone or root it, mind you, it's a 2 year old phone that was already being obsolesced, so something a little quicker that didn't keep running out of memory with just the minimum of apps installed wouldn't do any harm, and if it could talk to the Macbook, so much the better.

Ironically, the new Windows 8 phones actually have sync software for Macs, while Android does not. I've no axe to grind about windows - it's just another operating system.

A WinPho - the Nokia 920 - is well up the list of possibles. WP8 isn't flawless, but then neither in Android 2.2, which I still happily use. In favour of the 920 is the best mobile camera readily available, with a Carl Zeiss f2.0 stabilised lens and some very impressive image processing algorithms that make iPhone 5 images look like they were shot with instagram permanently on. Call and data reception are said to be truly exceptional, and 3G reception is supposedly so good as to be close to typical real-world 4G data rates. And on top of that it includes access to Nokias' turn-by-turn mapping services, allowing maps to be downloaded and used off the phone, rather than using mobile data. Against is the fact that it's built like a brick, shaped like a brick, sinply huge (and I'd prefer a smaller phone) and is expensive to boot. Despite all the claims about no-one wanting WinPho, this phone is priced at least as highly as the Samsung SIII, and at the end of the day that may kill it as an option as much as anything. The smaller Nokia WP8 phone is an entirely ordinary phone with all of the issues that go with WinPho and not of any interest.

A close competitor, the HTC 8X is also interesting, but lacks the excellent camera, decent memory, battery life, and although smaller and lighter than the 920, is still bordering on being a tablet. The screen is apparently superb however, but that's not enough.

So what have Android got to offer?

The SIII and the HTC One X + are both interesting, both huge again, though a little less so than the 920. The SIII has the better (but not wonderful) camera, the One X + a better screen. Both are 'top end' consumer phones, and blingy, rather than nice. I know quite a few that have and like the SIII, but it doesn't appeal, although a trip to the shops tomorrow might change my mind about that.

There are, however, a couple of dark horses in the Android camp - the Samsung SII and the Motorola Razr i (irritating name). The SII has a reputation among reviewers as being one of the best phones for connectivity and real-world use. It's smaller and relatively overshadowed by the SIII, but is also a LOT cheaper on contract, and there are some great deals out there. Likewise, the R i has been a bit of a sleeper, but is showing some real promise. Although this is a phone with a 4.3" screen, external dimensions are close to my 3.5" HTC Desire, being about 5mm longer and the same width. The screen runs almost edge to edge, and is high-res at over 320ppi. Camera is OK, storage upgradable with SD cards, battery life decent, processor snappy and memory adequate. This is looking like the hot candidate right now, especially as I can buy one SIM-free for £320 or less and then use a £10/month giffgaff SIM for unlimited calls, texts and 1Gb mobile data. Total cost for 2 years mobile ownership then becomes £560 or less, which has to be a winner.

Anything else?

I'd pretty much written off Apple - the price of new phones is simply insulting, and most deals similar. However I've found a deal site where the offers are entirely acceptable. You know the adage of 'if something looks too good to be true', and that's a pretty good rule of thumb, but it will certainly bear further investigation. An iPhone should pair well with this Macbook (that will be around for another year) and aren't a bad phone, even if they aren't great phones. In a way I hate the idea of buying more Apple kit, but at the same time, it's daft to ignore a good and useful deal.

Comments and advice from those with recent phone-acquisition experience all very welcome too.

*edit*
The density of the plot has been increased somewhat with another couple of hours research. I'd forgotten all about the Nokia 808 Pureview, reviewed here, even though I mentioned it on here early last year - seems it's available in the UK now, and *sometimes* at a sensible price (3 new for £350 through Amazon right now, though price seems to fluctuate to >£500 at times). The upside of the phone, apart from the pro-quality camera, is that Symbian and OSX play well together and Nokias mapping applications work very well. The downside is the low res screen (poor even compared to my Desire) and the generally clunky Symbian OS. And it's a big 'ol lump.

A re-read about the Nokia 800 series WinPho 8 phone suggested it's a lot better than my comments about indicate, so that's another possibility after all, especially as it has a removable battery & can take SD cards.

We'll see.

Second edit

Just asking myself if a resolution of 640 X 480 would be adequate to read an e-book on a 4" screen. The conclusion is that I'm not at all sure it is.