Mobile Network Comparison

The latest experiment from constantly-inventive mobile network Giffgaff will launch today. It’s a small online store with a bit of a difference. And it’s running for one week only while they see how well it works.

If you remember, Giffgaff is marketed as “the mobile network run by you”. What this means in practice is that members are rewarded for helping out in the community with customer service requests and also for recruiting new users. They are given “payback points” which can be exchanged for cash every six months. Today’s shop marks a landmark in Giffgaff’s payback scheme as for the first time it allows users to cash out their points in advance for Giffgaff and mobile-related products.

While not too exciting, the products being initially featured will certainly be pretty popular and are as follows:

giffgaff branded hoodie

giffgaff branded mini speakers

giffgaff branded travel mug

giffgaff branded iPhone cover

giffgaff branded soft shell jacket

Nokia 1616 handset

£10 Amazon voucher

For the pop-up shop trial, Giffgaff will be covering all postage and packing fees themselves. And as you’re paying with your payback points, you won’t need to provide any payment details like your credit card or PayPal account.

So what do you think? Do you think this will become a permanent Giffgaff feature? Will this encourage you to earn more payback points to spend in the pop-up shop? Will you be buying anything this time round?

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Through the power of bluetooth technology, we are able to use accessories with our phone without the stress of tangled wires or safely make calls when driving in a car. Nowadays, bluetooth headsets are must-have items for busy phone users on the go. Today we’re looking at our top 5 Bluetooth headsets.

Jabra BTwave

Was £59.99 Now £36.64

This headset offers good reception, and pairs easily with your device. It blocks out noise extremely well, so if you work in an environment with a lot of background noise, this is definitely a good choice.

The build of the handset is small and light, and is comfortable to wear for long periods of time, the headset controls are easy to use and the battery will last a whole week of regular use which is outstanding. The volume control is quite useful, and it’s unlikely to need it at its highest setting.

 

Plantronics M50

Was £34.99 Now £23.94

This headset is reasonably priced for its high quality quality. It also has a range of features such as noise cancellation, call reject and accept, Bluetooth reconnect, call dial, voice search and a phone pairing button. The battery lasts up to 11 hours which is more than enough for a busy day out.

The earpiece is a little tricky to get over your ear, but once on it is a comfortable wear and will stay in place. The headset feels secure and the plastic components feel strong enough to withstand light pressure. It has a good call quality and receives great reception, unfortunately there is a somewhat-limiting predefined volume control which switches between minimum to maximum volume, which could be irritating when on the move when you need to turn the volume up or down slightly.

 

BlueAnt Q2

Was £79.99 Now £47.82

The major difference about this handset is that it offers very intuitive text to speech abilities, such as being able to answer a call just by saying “answer”. The Bluetooth headset will also announce when you have a new message and will request to read it out for you, you can then reply using speech recognition which means there aren’t any buttons pressed. This killer feature is perfect for car journeys for example.

The call reception is great and has a large range allowing users to place their phone where they need without any static. The headset comes with a choice of five ear moulds offering optimum comfort for everyone. Its RRP is £79.99 but you can get it on offer through us for only £47.82, saving a massive 40% off the usual price.

 

Aliph Jawbone Era

Was £99.99 Now £75.86

The Aliph Jawbone Era bluetooth headset is easy to use and holds the battery charge for a few days of regular use, the noise reduction is pretty good. Once you’ve chosen between the assortment of ear pieces to find one fit for you, the Jawbone Era is a very good fit, and can be worn for hours in comfort. It’s very small and light which means it can be stored easily, yet it isn’t flimsy which is reassuring.

This is a very outstanding piece of equipment but in terms of value it is a little disappointing – at its high price it feels a little low on features.

 

Plantronics Voyager Pro HD

Was £89.99 Now £57.44

The Voyager Pro HD headset is quite costly at £89.99 RRP, although you can get it on through us for only £57.44, which makes this deal more tempting to buy. On calls it cuts out background noise very efficiently and your callers will be likely to hear nothing of the noises in your surrounding environment. The reception is quick and stable, and reroutes all your phones sound almost instantly. The quality is not too bad when listening to music so it also doubles up as a decent pair of wireless headphones. On top of that the user will even hear audible noises when battery is low or after a connection or disconnection.

The battery life is only around 6 hours, but will last for an average day trip. The headset is comfortable to wear for long periods of time, although some people feel that it’s a little blocky in your hands.

 

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HTC have just announced a thrilling new range of smartphones and we’ve been looking at each model in detail. Now, our attention finally turns to the flagship model, the HTC One X.

The HTC One X clearly leads the lineup with an enormously powerful processor. It’s equipped with a staggering 1.5 Ghz Tegra 3 quad core processor, a processing power only seen on high priced laptop/desktop computers. This gives the phone, lightning fast internet speeds and a flawlessly smooth Android experience even with apps, music, movies and books downloaded. The 720p 4.7 inch HD screen will help add to the all round immersive experience of the phone and at only 130 grams the One X is already proving to be a heavy weight knock out to the brilliant Samsung Galaxy S2.

Another glowing feature is the NFC chip which is capable of transacting payments via a mobile. This is a potentially exciting route for next generation mobile use as Google Wallet continues to expand its availability to a greater range of shops throughout the country. The other features are standard with all of the other bells and whistles you would expect from a high end premium smartphone from HTC.

The impressive 1GB of RAM will help retrieve data rapidly. Similarly the storage space allows 32GB of freedom; a clear sign of the increasing data people store into their devices such as movies and music. The One X’s massive internal storage will swallow most users’ demands. One dislike though – there’s no way of expanding it.

An 8 megapixel camera encapsulates auto-focus, smart LED flash alongside a BSI sensor – helping it to take enhanced photos at low light. Furthermore, there’s a standard 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video chatting and self portraits. All of this mixed in with a 1080p full HD video recording capability matches the brains to the sleek beauties of the body. This is neatly tied in with the inclusion of Beats Audio and a micro-SIM to leave room for its large 1800mAh battery which dwarfs the iPhone 4S’s 1432 mAh offering.

Get the HTC One X from just £32/month with 500 minutes, 5000 texts and 250MB data

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