You're not getting the same sort of buzz as you did when you were 17 years old? What are you now? 19?
There aren't enough new features and so the phone is not living up to your expectations?

Grow up. It's a phone. It's also a half arsed camera and a music player.

Recognise that by whining about your lack of options you are succumbing to the mindless consumer drive that makes you just one of the herd, doing exactly what the marketing companies want you to do – buy more.

Get over yourself.

You're not getting the same sort of buzz as you did when you were 17 years old? There aren't enough new features and so the phone is not living up to your expectations?

Grow up. It's a phone. It's also a half arsed camera and a music player.

Recognise that whining about your lack of options you are succumbing to the mindless consumer drive that makes you just one of the herd, doing exactly what the marketing companies want you to do – buy more.

Get over yourself.

@nacho – I know its incredible!! As soon as you walk out the door its full signal… I'm on the phone to my lawyers as we speak

I'm happy to unlock a handset but by buying a handset on another network and unlocking it I am incurring extra cost. Most likely an extra £35+ a month for 18 months.. more than £400

I appreciate I can get round this problem by spending money, putting in the extra effort… Ive been doing it for years but my main annoyance with this whole scenario (that maybe I havent got across too well in the article) is that I simply cant just turn up to a shop, buy the phone i want on the network i want like i and everybody else used to be able to do….. 10 yrs ago!!

suggestions have been gratefully received though

Don't feel limited by the Magic – it's a lovely phone – and it's use of a 'more standard' Android build will likely work in it's favour. The Sense UI – well, I don't see what the fuss is about. At the end of the day it's all about the software.

And if you're set on the Hero, why not unlock it?

@philtrick – interesting comments I never really thought of it that way. One of the reasons I did start looking at contracts again was due to specific offers on individual networks for example skype calls on 3. I did wonder whether I was missing out in anyway….

The traditional model of buying a mobile allows a user to buy a handset at a greatly reduced price due to the fact that the operator makes money from the user on the network, from calls, data, SMS, and MMS messages.

I think that the popularity of unlocked phones will start to wane, or the price of unlocked phones will start to come down.

When you buy an unlocked phone, the network operator has not had to make an upfront 'investment' in your custom, i.e. is has not had to subsidise a handset for you. (Also, how much of that subsidy is money on the operator part and not just discount for quantity purchase of handsets is up for debate).

So effectively, by using the unlocked handset on the operators network, the operator has to work less and invest less to get your custom, so it could be argued that they might value you less as a customer.

Anyone want to disagree with this point of view?

Or am I just “not getting it”…