Cheap phones that will run Strava well

trek_dan

Anybody have a cheap phone that will run Strava? I really cant afford the £30-40 a month an Iphone would be, and dont want to sign a long contract. I would buy an older one second hand but heard bad things about battery life when the GPS is on.
I can get something called a Samsung Galaxy Ace for £15 a month that should run Strava, anybody have any experience or reccommend anything in a similar price range?

jm2012

If you get a cheap Palm Pre (can be pre, pre plus, and pre 2 - I don't know about the other Palm phones) for £30 - £70 on eBay then load an app called mojotracker on it, you can get a .GPX file of your route, which you can then upload to Strava, it's what I do. It might not be as good as the strava app, but it's very cheap, and it shows me everything I need when I upload it to strava (speed, power, elevation, distance, time, segments etc)

Wardster00

If you have a look on ebay you can get some second hand Garmin computers for a pretty good price.

I recently bought a second hand Edge 305 for £65 which is probably as much as you would spend on a phone.

Sprool

i got a LG optima E3 (i think) its PAYG on O2 and it runs strava fine. Its a lot cheaper than a galaxy ace. It picks up gps when I'm out cycling and I have roaming data set to OFF so it connects for free to my wi-fi when i get home, to upload the route data.
http://app.strava.com/athletes/1128687
Oh, it also works well as a phone, unlike a second hand Garmin.

Dorset_Boy

HTC Desire S on Talk Mobile - I pay £7.50 pm. Use Strava on it when the OH is using the Garmin.

declan1

Nokia 710 on TalkMobile for £7.50 aswell. Use Endomondo to record rides and then export to Strava on the PC.

sub55

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orange-Monte-Carlo-Black-Orange-Smartphone-/180987994386?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item2a23b9a112

job done

gabriel959

I have my Samsung Galaxy S2 on a 2 year contract (now only 15 months) for £18 a month. That will run Strava really well.

Diamant49

I have just started using a Sony Xperia Ray - £15 pm from Tesco (but it is with a 24 month contract). Wife & myself got one each - both at £15, but we each get 250MB extra data data transfer per month (750MB total).

The main attraction though, is that its a good bit smaller than an iPhone (similar to the Galaxy Ace, but a bt smaller still) AND the Xperias are one of the few phones which are ANT+ enabled, so can connect with cadence sensors & HR monitors.

Used Strava for 3 rides now & its really addictive - though I upload live to Endomondo (to keep wife happy as I am on my own) and then download a gpx file and upload to Strava for segments. Cadence & HR can be used with the Endomondo app, but not directly to Strava, if I understand it correctly.

Anyway, dead impressed with the phone - I just couldn't face the rates for an Iphone either and they are too big for my liking.

Mikey41

Samsung Galaxy Mini. Runs it just fine and they are cheap.

nathancom

Yeah get a secondhand garmin and upload to strava.

Paul 8v

I've got a really old Sony X10 mini. Blinkin' awful phone but it doesn't need a sim card to run strava. Just turn on the GPS and throw it in my jersey pocket then upload to wifi when I get home. It's tiny and weighs nothing. You can probably pick one up on ebay for nothing as they are such a godawful phone people would be desperate to get rid of them and they get about £2 on Mazuma mobile!

baldwin471

Lumia 800. Fantastic phone and have a look on buymobilephones.net for good deals.

nathancom

The gps on these phones is likely to be terrible though.

baldwin471

nathancom wrote:

The gps on these phones is likely to be terrible though.

Unlikely. GPS is tied in to radio, which is determined by the processor. So as long as the processor is a Qaulcomm the GPS Will be good.

nathancom

baldwin471 wrote:

nathancom wrote:

The gps on these phones is likely to be terrible though.

Unlikely. GPS is tied in to radio, which is determined by the processor. So as long as the processor is a Qaulcomm the GPS Will be good.

Why does my garmin pick up gps signal so much faster than my phone? The garmin takes about 30 secs, the phone up to 10 mins.

alihisgreat

baldwin471 wrote:

Lumia 800. Fantastic phone and have a look on buymobilephones.net for good deals.

isn't strava only on iphone and android?

slowondefy2

As a point of info, you don't need to run the Strava phone app to use Strava.com. In fact, using the Strava app is probably the worst way in my opinion! All you need to be able to do is get the .GPX file from whatever GPS tracker you use. I prefer to use a third party iPhone app, but there's lots of options.

One economic option is the Bryton Rider series of computers. Apparently it is a bit fiddly getting the .GPX file, in that Bryton's software has to upload the data to their own website, from which you can then export the .GPX before uploading that to wherever you like...

What I mean is, if you're simply looking to use Strava.com as economically as possible, don't get hung up on a notion that you *must* use their phone app. The only advantage of using the Strava phone app is that it's a one step process at the end of the ride - all you have to do is press 'Save' then a few minutes later the ride will appear on Strava.com.

alihisgreat

slowondefy2 wrote:

As a point of info, you don't need to run the Strava phone app to use Strava.com. In fact, using the Strava app is probably the worst way in my opinion! All you need to be able to do is get the .GPX file from whatever GPS tracker you use. I prefer to use a third party iPhone app, but there's lots of options.

One economic option is the Bryton Rider series of computers. Apparently it is a bit fiddly getting the .GPX file, in that Bryton's software has to upload the data to their own website, from which you can then export the .GPX before uploading that to wherever you like...

What I mean is, if you're simply looking to use Strava.com as economically as possible, don't get hung up on a notion that you *must* use their phone app. The only advantage of using the Strava phone app is that it's a one step process at the end of the ride - all you have to do is press 'Save' then a few minutes later the ride will appear on Strava.com.

Yeah but its outrageously easy to use the strava app.. press once to start.. once to stop.. and once to save.

thescouselander

I just got myself a Motorola razr I - it's the latest one. I have to say its bloody good - an inexpensive phone but it has plenty of poke and will run almost anything you throw at it. The GPS is also good and even picks up satellites while inside the house. The best bit is the battery - I've never seen anything like it on an android phone. Mine has been on since 6.30 this morning and its still showing 73% remaining. Worth a look if you are considering a new phone.

Grisley Paul

Just skimmed this thread, thought ''I like the sound of this the app''......

Now, I own an Iphone 3GS but am a TOTAL technophobe and once I'd found it in the apps menu and pressed install, it said my ''IOS'' was out of date....... well that's it for me......

I'm sticking to cycling and keeping it simple, all the time you're at the beck and call of computer programmers, it makes my teeth itch......

meursault

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

baldwin471 wrote:

Lumia 800. Fantastic phone and have a look on buymobilephones.net for good deals.

isn't strava only on iphone and android?

Yes, it's not on Windows phones. I have Nokia Lumia 800, upload to Endomondo then export .gpx to Strava. Works really well.

thescouselander

Grisley Paul wrote:

Just skimmed this thread, thought ''I like the sound of this the app''......

Now, I own an Iphone 3GS but am a TOTAL technophobe and once I'd found it in the apps menu and pressed install, it said my ''IOS'' was out of date....... well that's it for me......

I'm sticking to cycling and keeping it simple, all the time you're at the beck and call of computer programmers, it makes my teeth itch......

Well, you could always just update iOS on your phone - it's free! Just watch out though, apple maps on the latest iOS is rubbish and google maps is no longer available as an app.

chris_bass

i have a huawei (that may very well be spelt diffeently in real life!) blaze and runs runtastic fine for me!

start it off, pop it into top pocket and its good as gold!!

god awful as a phone though!!

chris_bass

sorry, forgot to say its about £80 sim free from asda, if you shop around it may be cheaper