Voice calls, multimedia playback and Internet access are all well and good, but for many of us a mobile phone is largely a texting machine. Here are a few tips for getting the right phone and package if you're a textaholic.
Text Friendly Handsets
You can pretty much rule out an old-style handset with just a number pad if you're going to be a serious texter. That leaves you with a couple of choices.
First you could go for a touchscreen, though you'll need a decent sized screen (a good 3.5" diameter or so) to make sure the virtual keys will be big enough for easy typing. Some phones will allow you to turn the handset sideways and get a larger virtual keyboard.
The other option is a physical "QWERTY" keyboard. On a decent sized phone these are much easier to use, though if you've got bigger than average fingers. consider a slide out model that has a separate landscape-keyboard, which is much more comfortable.
You can get some inexpensive handsets with QWERTY keyboards, even on Pay As You Go, though be wary of very cheap phones as the lettering may wear away, making them trickier to use. If at all possible, try out a phone before you buy to find one with the right level of responsiveness for your fingers.
Tariffs for Texting
If you're on Pay As You Go, you'll often find texts to people on the same network are cheaper than normal or even free of charge. This can make it worthwhile choosing a network based on the people you text most often. Note however that sometimes such deals are accompanied by very high charges for texting other networks.
Look out for special offers on Pay as You Go. For example, some networks will give you a large number of free texts or even unlimited texting whenever you top up your account to a certain amount in the same month.
With contract deals, you'll normally find that only the cheapest one or two tariffs from a particular network have a limit on the number of texts you can send. It's quite rare that it will be worth paying more to get extra texts. For example, O2 packages start at £15.50 for a deal with 250 texts and then £20.50 for one with 500 texts. As it charges 12p for texts above and beyond your limit, you'd need to be sending at least 291 messages a month to make it worth paying the extra -- nearly 10 a day. (You may want to watch out for some of the cheapest Virgin Mobile packages which have limits as low as 25 texts, which are really only for infrequent texters.)
Alternatives
There are several alternatives to texting, falling in to two main categories. One is services offered by networks such as BlackBerry's BBM or Apple's iMessage. These are free to use and can be more sophisticated than texting (allowing options such as easy multi-recipient messages and a search tool), but generally only allow you to message people on the same handset, eg iPhone to iPhone. Another option is a range of instant messaging services which run via apps. These are a mixed bag and may use up some of your data allowance, though they are unlikely to make a big difference.
