After the exciting news that Orange where getting the iPhone and my contract with them coming to an end. I decided that i was finally going to join the iPhone revolution, until i spoke to one of the orange sales team! the contracts that they are offering for that particular phone are - in my opinion disgusting! - I have been with Orange for a long time so i was hoping that they would at least honour my pre-existing contract (600 minutes and unlimited txts) i wouldnt have minded if i had had to pay for the phone, but they wouldnt, 200 minutes and 150 txts was one of the deals they offered me as well as paying £187 for the phone.

I think my words to the sales rep where something like this "You're having a laugh"

To cut a long story short, i decide to go for the Motorola DEXT, i saw an advert on the telly recently an thought i looked quite cool. i does pretty much the same as the iPhone, so u can dowload apps from google market, its got facebook on it etc. It arrived yesterday an i must admit its better then i thought it would be - although it is a bit complicated to work (or is that a sign of me getting old!). Orange gave me the phone for free with exactly the same contract as i already had

I know the iPhone is good but is it really worth the money and the rubbish contracts they offer you?

To be fair to Orange, Apple set the handset prices and tariffs and so they have very little room for manoevre. You'll notice Orange's iphone tariffs are exactly the same as O2's. Where mobile phone network operators do have room to be innovative however is on the added extras they can offer to tempt customers. On this O2 offer their customers first access to bookings at the O2 and Orange have 'Orange Wednesdays' but it would obviously be good to see more perks like these emerge.

I have an iPhone and think it is worth it. When you look at the costs of an iPod and the additional functionality an iPhone offers as well the costs aren't too bad. For me being able to check my emails on the go saves me time, which is a real benefit, but as always whether it's really worth it is a personal decision depending on your cirumstances and based on your perception on what value for money money represents in light of your personal income.

There's no doubt iPhones are amongst the most expensive handsets on the market and the key questions to think about in my mind are:

- Are you going to actually use the additional functionality an iPhone offers?
- What is your current monthly text/ minutes usage (i.e. if you're not using 600 minutes, 500 texts it will be harder to justify paying £35 month)?
- How much more is the iPhone tariff you would choose, than your existing tariff (e.g. £15 - £35 is a big jump).

In what it does the iphone is unrivalled and there are many applications that are not only a great deal of fun, but are really useful too. It's also a great tool for social networking and can save you money as when you're out shopping and see something you can quickly look up the price of something and see if it's cheaper online. Amazon even have an application where you can take a picture of an item you see and they'll tell you what they have to offer that's the same or similar. Other apps allow you to take a picture of a barcode and you'll be told where you buy that product online and so compare prices.

This all does come at a premium in comparison to some mobile phone deals, but in the spirit of moneysupermarket.com lets not forget an iPhone can also be a vital tool for consumers in seeking out the very best deal by making the comparison of products and services easier and more mobile than ever before.