VirginMobile has updated their Sony Ericsson Android offers yesterday (or today?) with these two phones reduced.
When I looked at it yesterday morning it was still $5 on $49 FairGo, but now you can have them for
You also get 3 months free when you sign up online (offer ends 16 Nov).
I can recommend the Arc. I'd suggest get the Arc unless you plan on playing games that use the Gamepad, as the Play is pretty chunky.
Get ARC….very nice phone
Here's the GSM Arena's profile for both:
Actually pretty similar phone on the spec. Arc has better camera, bigger screen, but Play has the game pad and is "PlayStation certified" whatever that means (some exclusive games I guess?)
Edit: Some games here: http://www.sonyericsson.com/games/?cc=gb&lc=en Although I think most are also available on the Android Market.
Wow excellent find, thanks. Bought the Play it comes with 6 preinstalled games and there is a promotion at the moment where they are giving away 4 additional games for free (Need for Speed Shift, NFS hot pursuit, Dead Space and Bad Company 2. If you are not into gaming then the Arc is a very good phone, I know a friend who has it and says its an awesome phone.
I've got an arc, pretty good phone. Battery life is a bit dim but very clear screen, does everything a smartphone does, its very light and pretty durable as I am clumsy and drop sh1t all the time. The Bravia engine makes vids and pics look fantastic! And you can even get yourself a liveware watch and sync it to your phone and get all the latest updates on facebook on your wrist.
Pity this deal is on VodaFail
It's actually on VirginMobile (which I guess is not much better).
I think Virgin uses Optus network, unless they changed recently? Also, thanks for the phone advice, but I will pass on your other advice as per your username….prefer two-up action ;)
Yes, I just confirmed with Virgin they use Optus - which is second only to Telstra.
A very distant second though
If it is still using Optus then is the network congestion issue still going on? I know some places have some do not. For my case it was bad trying to use this in the Melbourne CBD. So if it's affecting your areas you better be careful being tied down for 2 years where Optus is not being upfront about it and that it will take around the same time it took Vodafone to fix their issues i.e. 2-3 years..
Unless you are going with Telstra, do we have any other choice? Vodafail?
Well Vodafone works fine in my area so I got on a 12 month plan. Depending on whether the phone you want is available or not, if you do not want to get Telstra then go for Vodafone if it works fine in your area.
Hopefully this means the Arc will be on pre-paid soon…..I want a new phone but not on a Virgin plan.
The Arc is a pretty good phone I must say, the specs might lead some to believe it is slow, but Android hasn't really taken advantage of dual-core very much, so this is still good.
I'd be interested if it wasn't on Virgin…
Just wondering how this compares with the Samsung Galaxy S? I note virgin has it on the same $29 plan
The Arc is definately better then the Galaxy S with better graphics and better camera.
The Arc is an underrated phone - I think this deal is a real bargain!
ARC original firmware is horrible compare with galaxy S.
but it's improved with the newest 2.3.4 update. tempting
The Galaxy S II is selling for $519 from Kogan with 12month warranty, and it's dual core with super amoled+, how does it compare to this arc/play (single core $608 with some phone credit)?
Are you comparing apples to apples? You can get the arc/play for $370 if you planning to buy outright. But this is on a $29 plan with $450 worth of phone calls and Internet a month. Very good deal if you ask me. The Virgin girl told me it ends end of this month?
If your area is experiencing the network congestion of Optus and Virgin then $450 worth of calls and internet means nothing with delayed SMSes, dropped calls and websites not loading.
With Galaxy Nexus rumored to be out around 10th of November (not here in Australia) with RRP $650+ outright (converted from the UK price), prices of current phones are expected to drop a lot. And Virgin saying that the deal ends this month seems more likely to be wanting to clear out their stocks while the prices have dropped too much yet..
You be looking to pay more than double this amount for the Nexus. And what carrier are you going to use with the Nexus, Vodafail??? I've never had any problems with Optus where I live and work. At this price its a bargain, worth just the phone on its own.
No I was not talking about getting the Galaxy Nexus when it comes out but getting the currently sold phones then, because the prices of other phones being sold then will surely drop and be even cheaper than the ones available now. And thus your choices of phones will be more than what you can choose now.
And these two phones' internal memories are very low..
No I'm not comparing apples to apples, since the price of the S II is not same as this deal. Also one has phone credit one hasn't. One is dual core and one is single core.
If we compare apple to apple, then we don't need ozbargain anymore.
I don't see I got any negative for my previous comment, ozbargain has became better.
are you actually asking for one, sir?
Erm one thing to note guys, I found out that the internal memory inside Play is 350+MB, which you will surely run out eventually pretty fast as not all apps are able to be moved to SD or able to function well when moved.
So please take that into consideration as well before deciding on a Play or Arc, as I think I have checked Arc's internal memory before and remember that it was the same as Play's which was shocking.
I am sure some HTC Legend users can relate to this, being that the Legend has 512MB..
Ok i just realised that GSMArena actually listed out the internal memory of the two phones:
Play: 400MB
Arc: 320MB!!
Now I remember why I was so shocked back then.. Arc's internal memory is lower than Play's!
I'm just impressed that articfox managed to find a virgin girl in this day and age! Well done, sir!
On the deal, I'm coming out of contract with 3 next month and an ARC was going to be my next phone, so this is timely, indeed!
Hahaha, wanted to make a comment about the Virgin girl too xD
Well played sir!
LOL, yes I was hoping someone would pick up the joke about "virgin girl", glad you did. It was my deliberate attempt to say that LOL.
I got the play, it was SOOOO buggy with the 2.3.3 firmware. I updated to the 2.3.4 and a lot better.
But I wonder can the optus one got update yet? if not, you can always flash it with the flashtool :) Telstra PLAY is still on buggy 2.3.3 firmware, no update yet.
there should be more games coming out for the play since it will finally release in jap later this month or early nov. good buy :)
I love Virgin mobile POSTPAID phones, they don't come with bloatware and update directly from the manufacturer and they are open line out of the box.
If you buy Virgin Mobile's stock outright from Telechoice or AllPhones you will also get the bloatware-free ones.
Why is it saying "$0 upfront on Fair Go $49"…? Or did I misunderstood something?
You could select other plans down the page. Big Plan 29 is the one to go for. For me the crazy international call rates are a big letdown but whatever, gonna sign up just for my first Android experience.
slack just got an s2…
does anyone know Virgin have all of three colors of Sony Ars (Black,grey,dark Blue)?
Thanks a lot
i think they drop down price for Arc because maybe they will provide Arc S soon
Sorry wouldn't recommend the xperia.Battery life is awful. Even with the app kill application programs are still running in the background and it drains the battery so fast. To get into calendar Applications you must sign yourself up online, which is a pain.
Dunno why you would be negged. I have the solution for you: never use task killers!
Android manages tasks differently so especially from version 2.2 onwards you won't have to kill any apps which will do more harm than any good at all such as what you have described:
And I dunno why you would need to sign up to use the calender app. Stock one should just need your Google account to sync your events.
Good find, thx Scotty! Definitely go for the $29 Big Cap (so much better than the $29 Fair Go).
I'm just considering getting a relatively cheap Android phone. Any suggestion as to which one of the two I should pick?