ITPP Top 10 Best Mobile Phone Deals [August 2010]

Every month, we provide you with the best mobile phones on the market in the UK. The phones owe their places in this list because of their incredibly good value for money or because they flog features that others do not currently offer.

Please bear in mind though that things change very quickly in the world of mobile phones; stock fluctuates all the times, clearance sales end up very quickly, retailers have flash sales and manufacturers pull or introduce models round the clock.

To make things even more complicated, you can buy a phone either SIM Free, on PAYG or on a contract and this weighs heavily on our final verdict plus some of the models displayed here are available as refurbished or end of line but all carry one year warranty.

And our usual T&Cs, the list is arguably a biased, subjective, UK-located one that's already obsolete by the time it gets published, so your suggestions, your remarks and your criticisms are more than welcomed to help us improve on the next iteration.

(1) Nokia 5230 On Vodafone PAYG

The Nokia 5230 is part of the celebrated Xpressmusic family whose first member, the 5800, was an outright success. The 5230 will soon be replaced by the 5250 which is why it is currently on clearance at a number of outlets.

It can be purchased on Vodafone for £59.95 with a £10 inclusive top-up and as it is being sold by e2save, the 5230 is likely to be unlocked.

The phone has a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen that can display 640x360 pixels (that's almost nearly VGA) and comes with onboard accelerometer and proximity sensor, features found on much more expensive models.

Users will like the fact that there's a 2-megapixel camera, 70MB onboard memory (expandable to 16GB), 33 hours music playback time and integrated GPS, HSDPA and Bluetooth support with a FM radio as well.

(2) Samsung S8500 Wave On Orange Contract

The Samsung Wave is an odd smartphone; it packs a very powerful punch but is available with Samsung's own OS, Bada with Touch UI v3.0, instead of Android, Symbian or Windows Mobile, all of which are well established mobile platforms.

Dialaphone offers a package comprising of the S8500 Wave with 300 minutes, unlimited UK emails, 500MB mobile internet, unlimited texts on a 24 months contract for £25 per month on the Dolphin 25 package.

You do get £80 automatic cashback within weeks which cuts the effective cost of the package to £21.66 per month. The phone itself is a proper bad boy; it packs a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, a 3.3-inch Super AMOLED screen (800x480 pixels), a 5-megapixel camera with LED and AF, 2GB internal memory, microHD, Wi-Fi, GPS, HSDPA and more; the only thing missing appears to be a HDMI port.