My new phone

That dreaded time approached, when mobile phone contracts expire and you have to trawl through the latest phones and deals to see what to go for. Some people cannot wait for it, to go and find the latest gadget. Me, I can't stand it. The last time was January 2009, when my current contract expired and I was suddenly bumped onto a £40/month contract with no warning! I just did not have the time or energy to look around so plumped for an awful upgrade to 200 min and 200 texts per month plus a free Samsung Tocco - for £25 a month! The phone was a disaster and I just about survived on the minutes. I got rid of the phone on ebay and went back to my prehistoric Sony Ericcson k800i.

I was resolved to not commit the same mistake this year once my 18 month contract was over. Did a fair bit of research, dumped my old provider 02 when they refused to offer me a decent renewal (after five years of loyalty!) and switched to Orange. I just hope the future really is bright, because I've got a 2 year contract with them. £30 a month for 500min and unlimited texts and internet (in fact 3000 texts and 500Mb).

The phone I got free was the HTC Desire. A geek friend of mine recommended I go for a Google Android style phone, since I had an iPod Touch and did not want to get an iPhone. The Desire is quite flash. It has a touchscreen. You can slip through five main screens - one has the menu button and a giant clock with the weather report; the others vary from email access to favourite numbers and can be customised. The menu button gives you access to all the programs, which you can supplement by downloading new apps from the Google store (I've yet to find any worth getting, but then i don't rate many Apple apps either to be honest).

Sound quality is fair but not superb. THe touchscreen is very responsive, predictive texting is quite good. Battery life is decent, depending on how much of the apps you use (be warned - leaving the wireless internet access switched on is incredibly battery intensive). Internet speeds are pretty good. When the phone starts ringing, the ringtone reduces volume dramatically once it senses you have picked the phone up, which is rather sensible. The text messages took getting used to - it stores them in the form of conversations like gmail does, rather than in inbox and sent boxes, which is rather sensible. It can even read pdf files. Photo and camera quality are ok but not brilliant, it seems to have problems dealing with bright light sources, but maybe I just need to play with the functions and settings more. It can sync your contacts and calendars with your Gmail and download info from facebook, and has a FriendsStream app giving you all the latest facebook and Twitter updates. I haven't really tried the mp3 or radio functions.

All in all a fun flash smartphone. I just hope it is hardy enough to last 2 years. I have already bought a pouch to keep it safe.....