Ok, have been running a 595 for a few months now , I like it, much better than my old 550. Question is, I do not believe I am getting the most out of it without a smart phone for weather, traffic and spotify etc.
I am not a Luddite but have been resisting the clamour for me to get a phone for years, so what would you recommend ,what connects and runs best, which is reliable and which is cost effective?
over to you guys

Your not going to get much on traffic in Africa .. or most other places. The weather detail can be lacking too.

Suggesting a phone is dependant on where you want to use it... for around the world or in many other places you will want as many frequencies as possible ... so it will be compatible with what is available elsewhere (at least 4 band). You will also want cheap - they should be throwaway items ... you don't want a lot of money tied up in something that can be so easily squashed, stolen, dropped. That said - get a silicon sleeve for it and a screen protector - I have broken 2 screen protectors and put a few dings in mine (dings were before silicon sleve). I like to put maps and podcasts and music and quick photos on mine so a micro SD card extends the memory ... 32Gb is ok for me.

Weather and traffic and email and web etc rely on connection speed .. not something guaranteed in remote places ... so you may have to do without them anyway.

Ensure the one you get is 'unlocked' - not tied to a particular network .. as soon as you leave your country you will want to get a local SIM from very probably a different network. If 'locked' your phone won't work with the different networks ... meaning you have to pay a lot more .. and the network may well not have much coverage.

As for a particular phone .. changes too rapidly for me ... and location dependant too ... however you have first 3 broad choices as to operating system - iphone (apple), android (google) or windoes (m$) ... your choice there.

Good luck.

There are some other posts on this subject ... in the communications forum e.g.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...im-cards-73817
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...721#post448889
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...and-sims-85201
and so on.

thanks Warin, agree totally with all your thoughts, thank you for clarifying mine .

Micro SD card sorts out the music, one less thing to use up data, and I'd guess in bad reception areas then you'd have no music if using a streaming option.

I fell out with Apple over it's iTunes and happily use Android. Plus if you use Chrome as your browser then Google will know more about you than you do about yourself, but everything is then linked.

Would I get a phone just to get the fancy Smartphone Link app to work, no, I have a phone for 1001 other reasons. I'd suggest getting the cheapest option, maybe a monthly pay as you go and use if for a couple of months to see what's important to you with the phone, otherwise what you're asking is similar to what's the best motorbike / car etc in the world.