> Interesting. I was told (I mean, this was a while ago) that if you sign up 
> to an expensive monthly contract, they throw in the handset for free,

Yes, usually, and the handsets you can choose from will be determined by the 
contract.  Obviously if they are only going to get 15 GBP from you for 12 
months they are not going to offer you a 400 GBP handset for free.

> but if you buy the handset on its own, it's hundreds of pounds.

For certain handsets, yes, but there have always been cheaper ones.

> Also, what's with all these "locked" phones? What's all that about?

The phone will only work with a SIM card from a certain network, so you 
can't take out your vodafone SIM card and put in an O2 one.  Usually allows 
you to buy the phone cheaper, as the network it is locked to can expect more 
money from you than if they sold you an unlocked phone.  Of course some 
phones can be unlocked (although this is getting harder and harder recently) 
so you might be able to buy a cheap subsidised phone, unlock it, then either 
use it with another (cheaper) network, or sell the handset on ebay ;-)

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