Time for a new Smart Thingy

BackCountry with its free
Ordinance Survery maps and GPS
is definitely my favourite app.

I'm reluctant to call it a Smartphone, as phoning is far from being its most useful function. In the two years that Matilda – my Samsung Galaxy Ace – and I have been together, she has become my diary, news reader (BBC and The Guardian), Satnav, Ordinance Survey map, calorie counter, exercise log, emailer, Classic FM radio, photo store, night sky mapper... the list goes on and on.

But Matilda is growing old, poor thing.  She was already technically old when I signed up for her, running Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread), but at £7.50 per month, including all the calls, text messages and Internet access that I could possibly want, she was a bargain I found hard to refuse.  And when I spotted that Carphone Warehouse (now trading as Talk Mobile) weren't just offering boring white and black versions, but also the girlie La Fleur, the deal was done.

Since she's been such a faithful friend, I could simply switch to a SIM Only contract when this one expires in a few weeks' time. However, Matilda does have her shortcomings:

• Several potentially useful new and upgraded apps won't work on her old version of Android.

• Although I've successfully substituted a nice big SD Card, the internal phone storage is limited. Damn it, I've even had to ditch Angry Birds.

It's hard to get really good photos with Matilda
in poor or unusual light conditions, such as this
snow scene last week.

Most importantly, though, the camera is not great.  I'm really pleased with my Canon 'bridge' camera, but it is rather bulky to take around all the time.  Perhaps I should have spent longer looking for a good compact camera before parting with my money, but that's history. A reasonably good camera on Matilda MkIII would solve the problem.

So the search is on.  At the outset, I'll make it clear that I have no desire to own one of the latest 'must have' models.  Something they were raving about 18 months ago will do me fine.  It'll be a lot cheaper, too.

My first foray onto the TalkTalk website has come up with the Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo @ £11 per month, which is not at all bad.  It's got a 4.8inch screen (compared to Matilda's 3.5 inch) and runs Android 4.4.2  The camera is rated at 8 megapixels, which seems pretty standard these days.  Tempting.

Or perhaps the time has come to move away from Samsung and consider the Sony Experia M2 @ £13 per month.  It's only available in boring black and runs a slightly older Android (4.3), but they make a big thing of its 8 megapixel camera, which may technically be a touch better than Samsung's.  Mmm... tricky.  Perhaps my next move is to chat to someone in a shop.  Yes, definitely.  A trip to Gloucester or Cardiff is called for.