I've never had an issue with O2 anywhere in the North of England, there are a couple of others that take that crown, 3 by a country mile.

O2's 3g coverage is ok in city centres and their HSDPA is pretty quicker, but get out of any city for example to morpeth where I live and the coverage is appalling. Im thinking of moving across to three who seem to have the best deals on the new smartphones i.e the one x and gs iii

3s coverage is fantastic in my experience. They got a bad reputation early doors and it's stuck, whenever I say I'm on 3, the stock response is "But their coverage is terrible". Their network is the best of the major networks in my experience and I've used O2, Orange and T-Mobile extensively recently due to work. If you are on 3 and can get a signal, you can pretty much get an internet capable signal. The only place in the UK I've found that 3 doesn't work in was a remote hill in Cumbria we camped on once.

Of course there is an element of personal experience that clouds these judgements, for example because O2 doesn't cover my home and is next to useless at work I'm bound to criticise it. When it doesn't work in Warrington or on the outskirts of Manchester you have to wonder. The % coverage stats are very similar for O2 and 3 in the UK now and 3 has a significantly higher ratio of internet capable coverage than O2.

o2 was fine when i was living in Oldham but after moving to St Helens i have had to change to Vodafone as the o2 signal was non existant.

That said, Vodafone is pretty crappy too.

My contract is due for renewal on my Iphone 3gs, and tbh I'm pretty happy with the phone besides it's battery life so thinking of saving some money and Just going with Giff Gaff, which will more than cater for my needs and save me about 25 quid a month over my contract. I know they are cheap and you get what you pay for kinda thing but I'm not that dependant on my mobile and can't justify another silly contract paying a fortune each month just to have a newer handset with minutes and text's I'll never use. anyone any experience with them?

Also regarding my battery. Has anyone ever changed the battery and put it a newer higher capacity one? do they hold much more charge?

Are the "battery cases" any use?

ive got a motorola atrix and all of a sudden parts of the touch screen are not responding to touch. Is this a common problem? does anybody know if there are any easy fixes? would a factory reset help? or is it just kerput!!! im not very teccy so if anyone can help it would be appriciated

I've just made the jump to three and have found their coverage far better than O2, vodafone or orange. I have been able to get HSDPA+ coverage everywhere including up here in northumberland, so far with download speeds that are better than my home broadband. Got a GSiii for free (which is superb) 2000 mins and unlimited data for £34 pm. O2 wouldnt even attempt to match that deal and wanted £100 up front. One pac code later and I'm gone. Good riddance!

Contract is up end of next month.

Still dont want a masssssssssssivvvvvvvveee SIII or HTC One X. Any other recommendations?

I've got one. It isn't half as big and bulky as it appears. It weighs next to nothing and fits easily in my pocket. The screen is excellent for playing games, surfing the net and watching TV.

Other than dropping my S-Pen when drunk and it being squashed by a car (£15 to replace) I've had no problems at all.

I have to say having had my HTC one X now for over a week. It isn't as noticeable size wise in my pocket at my Desire was. I think it's down to the slimness of it, but it's easy to forget it's there.

had the s3 for a week now and it is fantastic, it incredibly smooth and the screen is stunning. The quad cores seem to take anything you can throw at them. Im pretty sure the One x would be on a par though as these two stand head and shoulders above anything out there.

On another note if anyone is thinking of buying into nokia and windows phone 7 dont. Not a single WP7 device will be capable of upgrading to WP8 so yr shiny nokia 900 will be obsolete come November.

Indeed, the way they've gone about WP8 does appear to make any purchase of a 7/7.5 phone seem a bit silly now and I can't see them selling many pre November.

But to be fair to MS, WP8 looks really good and will apparently run Direct X and be far and away the best handsets for video and gaming. I watched a thing on MS the other day and said there isn't currently a phone in existence that could even run WP8, so they are expecting something special when the WP8 handsets are announced.