[petkow]

Thanks so much to inquisitor and other others for your helpful reviews and suggestions! To be honest I was not considering the Cubot P9 as a serious day-to-day contender, but a workable rugged travel phone, useful for taking to the beach and if it got drowned or found itself in a bag with other toxic substances.. then it would not be the end of the world! Although you are right, its not a very happy future-proof phone in terms of spec. Motel75, that Lumia 630 looks quite interesting as does the Galaxy Grand 2 DuoS though a little more than I want to spend at this point.

Yes, indeed that brandy was worth a lot more than the phone that it poisoned. It was a gift (..the brandy that is). I had a connection via Manchester airport where normally you can happily stay air-side to transfer onto other domestic flights if you are travelling with only carry-on luggage... well of course unless you are flying Ryanair of-course!! So to cut a long story short, I had to go land-side, pass through security again, knowing that the bottle I had picked up at the previous airport would now have to be checked in. I unfortunately had no choice but to check in my carry-on luggage! And that was the end of my 5 year old Nokia E71...and a rather nice Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva.

Anyhow, back to its replacement I have decided to take my time and immerse myself into reading about the risky business of buying cheap Chinese handsets ordered directly from their country of origin. I am now also quite seriously looking at the iNew v3. Its sounding like one of the best mid-priced mid-spec phones out there despite only a 1850mAh battery which seems way too low! I can live without GLONASS support as my main handset does most things this would not. I am basically looking for a cheap secondary dual SIM handset for my Toggle SIM sitting with a local for the data access.

Thanks again for all the banter here! I will keep you guys posted whatever I buy and in the mean time if anyone has any further tips or tricks, keep sharing them!