Can't deliver it to her workplace. No family members within 80 miles. I have got a couple of friends nearby that I would normally consider but as luck would have it, they're away now. I suppose I could ask my neighbours. 

Not really surprised it's out of stock at that price - it was a top shopping hit on a google search*. And I doubt they'd post it to France (especially with a UK debit card) and even if they did, it would probably arrive after we'd left knowing my luck. 

*and I don't imagine they had a huge stock at that price. 

There'll be more offers at some point.

As of 5 minutes ago, it's back in stock at £9 less than the price I first saw it at. 

Mrs WmA took her Oneplus 2 out in the rain yesterday. It's currently sitting in a warm place with the case open. It goes into standby with a push of the button, but buzzes constantly and won't power off when out of standby. Shows no sign of drying out yet. Wouldn't be surprised if I'm digging deep in a day or so,

Once upon a time I read somewhere if you put it in a container full of uncooked rice, that will draw the moisture out of it.

Yes, I did some searching a few years back when I got water all over my phone. Rice is popular, also silica gel. I never have silica gel to hand or hang on to those little sachets that come with some posh electricals or other dry goods (who does?). Silica gel, and possibly rice, works by absorbing moisture from the air. I suppose the theory is that in a confined space like a small sealed container if the air is dry then it will hold more moisture as it evaporates off your phone. 

Anyway, I opened Mrs WmA's phone up so that all the innards pointed skywards and sat it on our cable modem as that's the hottest place available. Seems to be behaving itself now, so it's off getting a charge.

OK, it's down to £331. They're also admitting that it's the Chinese version*, but I'd be more worried about their support if it goes wrong. OnePlus are saying that they will support warranties on these CN versions (and since they allow unlocking, rooting, flashing under warranty that sounds good) but, well....

*which seemed likely/obvious at the price.

How do these compare to the Pixel 3/3a? 

Not sure. I'm a bit of a beginner with these smart phone things. Most of the comparisons I've seen online compare the Pixel and the 7 Pro and are a bit inconclusive. The Pixel seems to have a marginally better camera whereas the 7 wins for smooth scrolling, sharpness and gameplay. You get more storage and RAM on the 7 for slightly less cash. Personally, I think the pop-up selfie camera on the 7 Pro is a horrible idea and that's enough for me to never want one over the plain 7.

I think the general view is
Camera : Pixel
Price/storage/longterm speed : OnePlus

might be worth keeping an eye out for Pixel bargains, if you value longterm support. (as in, Google are really quick to replace if it breaks under warranty in my experience) as the Pixel 4 is just getting released so the 3 may be discounted in a few places too. Worth a look, anyway.

Yeah, if I'm spending £300 plus, it's nice to know that the goods will arrive/work etc. It's also nice to know that the warranty is good. That's my worry with some of these very sharp deals. For instance. "Techinthebasket" is said to be Manchester-based, but I suspect the only connection with Manchester is a couple of fellers renting some warehouse space or a big garage, and the firm is actually in China or Hong Kong. So if you want to claim anything under UK law, be prepared for a big fight and probably a lot of disappointment. Then again, they're offering CN phones. Yeah, they're fine and wonderful etc. but will the manufacturer accept liability under warranty when the phones are intended for a different market? Some will, some won't. 

 

When I bought a Pixel 2XL, it was a 'refurb in new condition' from Appliances Direct I think, and it turned out that - haha! - it didn't actually work for audio phone calls, I could hear them and they couldn't hear me. I went straight to google support and they made me run some tests, took the IMEI and all that, and then had me send it back to them. 2 days later I had a brand new phone in the full retail pack :) which I still use and am happy with despite the tempting new things people keep releasing. 

I seem to have gotten a lot less interested in the cutting edge of gadgets and gizmos in my middle age.

Mobiles arrived too late for me to ever really get excited. I was 40 before they started to take off at all. I like nice things that work well and I'll make an effort to get the best I can afford, but I know plenty of people who aren't nice to be around if they can't have the very best Samsung or iPhone. I had my previous phone for 4 years and current one for a year. I can't imagine I'll bother replacing it for ages unless it breaks. I do find the current crop of decent cameras a big plus. I also like a screen big enough to stream a film on or browse the web comfortably. If those weren't considerations I'd have been happy to keep using the Motorola V300 I had a few years ago or even the V2288 that preceded it - although that was quite a pocket-stretcher. Middle age lasts a lot longer these days.

Just works is now what I want. I used to be installing custom ROMs and all that, can't think of anything worse now. I suppose that's why the OnePlus phones have worked well for me. They just work. Reasonable price (less than Pixels, but increasing each year), fairly stock Android experience, good quality. Only real reason I upgraded from my OP3 last year was due to storage space, went from 64GB to 256GB. Had my OP6 for over a year now, should hopefully keep hold of it for at least another year. Improvements are minimal and I recently spent a fair amount on a new camera so the latest and greatest phone camera isn't going to push me to spend.

So, after all that, I bought Mrs WmA one of these for Christmas.

Late November she went for a walk in the rain with her OnePlus 2 in the pocket of her raincoat. The pocket being waterproof, and the rain being very rainy, when she returned the phone was soaked and this time, it couldn't be brought back. This is about the third time she's done this. By amazing luck, she found our daughter's old OnePlus 1 lying around, so she wasn't completely phoneless. I should add that our daughter dropped this a few years ago and I replaced the screen. It didn't take Mrs WmA long to drop it again and break the replacement. Well, it still worked, but a Christmas upgrade was in order.

When I bought the phone I paid £307, so it was even better value than before. It is 100% identical to the UK model with two exceptions. 1) It has a Chinese language sticker in addition to the English sticker on the back (both easy to peel off) 2) It was supplied with a Chinese 2 pin charger. However, Techinthebasket included a rather nice UK adapter, so that isn't a problem. The Android version is exactly the same as shipped in the UK. It's a very big improvement on the 1 and 2 models.

 

"I replaced the screen"

Is it user-replaceable by design, or did you resort to previously undisclosed, mad phone-repair skillz?

MrsD.'s cheapo phone has had a broken screen for years, with major, multiple cracks spanning it from a single trip to the floor. I tried to persuade her to just buy a new phone (my current phone cost me 50 bucks, which is probably cheaper than getting hers repaired by a shop).

Not exactly by design, but it was available as an OEM part and enough people had dropped phones for there to be YouTube vids. I don't know about mad skillz. It's comparable to working on a laptop which I've done a bit replacing batteries, fans, drives etc.

If you're thinking about doing it, then a search in your search-engine of choice should reveal whether the part is available and whether there are instructional vids. If you can find both then it probably isn't that hard to do. The hardest part with the OnePlus 1 was being organised and brave, because it meant dismantling almost every part of the phone.