I bought a cheap phone.....I might keep it.

[2kwik4u]

Since smartphones have existed I've always had a flagship device. HTC, iPhone, and the last few years Samsung Notes. They're great devices and I was always convinced I had a reliable tool by purchasing the biggest/fastest/newest device.

I broke my trusty Note 4 three days ago. Not exactly sure how I did it, but the screen is DOA and severely cracked. Convinced I needed another flagship device, I spent hours researching and talking with friends. Settled on a Google Pixel 2 XL. They're on sale right now for $600 and that seemed reasonable for such a capable device. As I was checking out I see it will be 8-10days for delivery. Well crap I need something to make calls with in the interim.

Enter the "cheap phone".....I walked into Best Buy and asked for the cheapest phone they had. $30flip phone, and a $30 smart phone. I picked up the smart phone and headed home. Once there I was expecting a terrible experience, but I slipped my sum card in and logged into my Google account. All my contacts and my other info is here and I'm getting my frequent apps downloaded and installed as I need them.

I gotta say, I'm pretty pleased with this device. The battery life is acceptable. The screen isn't awesome, but I'm making this post with it. The camera makes pictures, but they're grainy in general and not great in low light. The storage is tiny and the touch response isn't super. But overall this little thing is surprising nice for the $30 I spent on it. I've not placed my order for the Pixel yet. I'm going to give this device a run through the end of the weekend before I really decide I need to spend the extra money

Just thought I'd share. Not often you actually get surprised with such inexpensive things. This is really like the harbor freight tool that just works when you open the box.

 

[Maccam26]

prices are insane on new phones, i always buy mine new older models or even slightly used from Swappa.

 

[Rumbo]

Keep us posted on this! I have 2 kids with iPhones and 1 getting his first phone soon. If I can get them a decent and functioning phone for $30 we may be done with iPhone.

 

[Bruce]

I bought a pair of prepaid $50 Kyocera Hydro Android phones to use to control music, view maps, etc in the boat. They are surpisingly good for the low cost and get used to control various electronic toys around the house.

 

[AboveTheBest]

I miss my flip phone, actually I miss not even having a cell phone.

“I’m not here please leave a message, maybe I’ll call you back later tonight or tomorrow”

 

[2kwik4u]

Another day down. A few things I've noticed.

The camera is just OK. Not great pictures. Not sure what the specs are but low light is really bad and even bright shots are just OK. Here's one of the truck from earlier.


It's also pretty easy to get it bogged down. Was hooking up a generator in the dark last night (long story) and had to Google the manual. Also had the camera going, about 14 text messages and was intermittently using the flash as a flashlight. Starting getting laggy as I was flipping around alot. Not unusable, but a noticeable delay in swapping between apps. Battery life seems to be doing well though.

Found out it's an AT&T Axia. Still has some AT&T bloatware on it. Also doesn't have full version apps in a few places. Like the Gmail app is GmailGo. No idea what the difference is. I can't download Android Messages either, not sure what's up with that.

It's working as a solid backup right now, and it's not frustrating at any level yet.

 

[drewkaree]

Seems like you could tinker with the settings and get a better image quality. My wife and I had the same phones and she always had noticeably worse pix than me, turns out I fiddled with my settings and chose higher settings while she was using the default settings.

 

[2kwik4u]

Seems like you could tinker with the settings and get a better image quality. My wife and I had the same phones and she always had noticeably worse pix than me, turns out I fiddled with my settings and chose higher settings while she was using the default settings.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to look into that.

So far my only real complaint is the screen and the camera. At 480 x 854 the screen isn't overly sharp, however that isn't the bad part. The viewing angles are pretty bad, which makes it difficult to casually use the phone, or to show someone something else on it. It doesn't really affect the function of the thing, it's...well....just not great. I might just be spoiled. The camera might just need some tweaking, but at 5.0MP, it's a click below what I'm used to. It still takes better pictures than my handheld digital camera did just 5-7yrs ago, so it's not like they are bad, just not great. Since I take a ton of pictures, and a lot of them are of our boys, I kinda want that nicer camera built in.

I'm still on the fence about ordering a new flagship device. I'm 3 days into use of this one now, and I'm having a hard time justifying the extra $600 for the Pixel. At $150 I would probably have already ordered it, but $600 is new boat cover territory.

 

[Beachbummer]

Also, keep in mind, your choices are not $30 and $600.

For a little more you can have yesterday's flag ship, such as a G6 for under $200 and it will likely 98% match today's flagship.I got tired of my Samsung Flagship dying on me at 24 months for whatever bad luck I've had. I got the G6 to replace my Note 4 when it died some time ago. been pretty happy since.

Even another Note4 if you can find one new might be an option.

If the $30 option works, AWESOME!!! but if it doesn't you can still look one notch up before going to $600+ if you are curious.

 

[2kwik4u]

Also, keep in mind, your choices are not $30 and $600.

For a little more you can have yesterday's flag ship, such as a G6 for under $200 and it will likely 98% match today's flagship.I got tired of my Samsung Flagship dying on me at 24 months for whatever bad luck I've had. I got the G6 to replace my Note 4 when it died some time ago. been pretty happy since.

Even another Note4 if you can find one new might be an option.

If the $30 option works, AWESOME!!! but if it doesn't you can still look one notch up before going to $600+ if you are curious.

Yea, I've been considering that as well. I haven't bought a "new" phone in a long time. I've been buying off Swappa and getting last years model for less money, however it would still tend to be in the $500-$600 range it seems, as I like to buy either new, or VERY gently used equipment. I was considering an S8 Active for a little bit, as those can be found for around $350 or so. A little easier on the wallet for certain. Might go looking around for another Note4, or maybe some other variant of the Note family.

I'm a huge "professional grade" advocate. I buy tools and not toys typically for things like this. My truck is a GMC (yes I stole the pro grade slogan from them ), and my laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad. This is my 3rd Thinkpad and these things are just about non-destructible for my use. Lenovo sells a smartphone, but only to Europe and Asia markets. I've found some of those on Amazon for not a ton of cash. I've debated on trying that as well, however I'm a little nervous about getting support from either Motorolla (hardware mfg) or Lenovo since it's an "out of market" device.

 

[drewkaree]

I have used a mid-grade Motorola since their Moto G4 phones. Buying them when they were new, I would run around $200, completely unlocked. If I needed a specific carrier, I could always find a used one for about 50 bucks less if I needed it, but I always prefer new myself.

I currently have a moto X4, and the pictures and video I get from it are often equal to, or better than, what I see from other folks, while not breaking the bank, or making me feel overly concerned that I might have to replace my phone if something were to happen to it

As for out-of-market, the reason I upgraded to an X4 just recently from a G6 Plus was that I wanted NFC and no other mid-grade Moto phone offered it for the American Market, but the G6+ International version did.

I looked with my provider, and there were some limitations with using an international phone, so you may want to look into that. It may not be that way for every provider, and the limitations wouldn't have stopped me from using it, but since I would have had to purchase a new phone (unlocked international version) anyway, I just decided to upgrade to the X4, since it came with NFC right out of the box.

 

[suke]

I have used a mid-grade Motorola since their Moto G4 phones. Buying them when they were new, I would run around $200, completely unlocked. If I needed a specific carrier, I could always find a used one for about 50 bucks less if I needed it, but I always prefer new myself.

I currently have a moto X4, and the pictures and video I get from it are often equal to, or better than, what I see from other folks, while not breaking the bank, or making me feel overly concerned that I might have to replace my phone if something were to happen to it

As for out-of-market, the reason I upgraded to an X4 just recently from a G6 Plus was that I wanted NFC and no other mid-grade Moto phone offered it for the American Market, but the G6+ International version did.

I looked with my provider, and there were some limitations with using an international phone, so you may want to look into that. It may not be that way for every provider, and the limitations wouldn't have stopped me from using it, but since I would have had to purchase a new phone (unlocked international version) anyway, I just decided to upgrade to the X4, since it came with NFC right out of the box.

My wife has a moto x pure, and I just ordered her a moto z3 play. They're great phones for their price level. I have an S9+, but got that from my old job. When it comes time for me I'll be back to mid tier phones since I'm not paying $1k for a phone.

 

[2kwik4u]

Thought I would come back and update this post with another weeks usage.

Made a 1,400mi road trip on Wednesday of last week. Louisville, KY to Doddridge, AR and back. With some shorter trips to site and back in between. The Phone has been doing decently for me with a few exceptions.

The RAM is NOT adequate for serious multi-tasking. While streaming Pandora in the truck, attempting to use Google Navigation, and then getting emails/texts/etc, the bluetooth streaming started "skipping". I think this is a processor/ram limitation, not a data speed issue. It would only happen at times of peak multi-tasking, and then go back to working just fine again when I set the phone down. Similar lag was encountered when I was attempting to research something in Chrome, use a calculator App, and Read a PDF at the same time. The interface got clunky and slow, but picked back up as I started closing apps.

I've gotten two OS updates in the last week. No idea why, but the phone has installed them itself, and restarted. Once in a VERY inopportune time. This is probably a setting I can change, but dammit it was agitating.

The camera is junk......well maybe not junk, but it's not great. It's a 5Mp sensor, but there is zero software behind it. If you're just taking snapshots OK, but if you need to document something, even a cheap Canon Point and Shoot 12Mp took better pics. I suspect the optics in the Canon along with the higher resolution sensor are the reasoning, and that makes total sense. This is a $25, and the camera shows it.

The screen is NOT good in direct sunlight. I typically sit in an office, but was in the field for 2 days working on a problem machine. The direct sunlight washed out the screen so badly it was near unusable. I ended up hunching over it to keep it shaded so I could read the thing. The poor viewing angles didn't help it any either. It also has some lag to it when scrolling, and I'm often finding myself selecting instead of scrolling. Might be a technique thing, but it seems like odd behavior compared to what I'm used to. Had similar problems with my sons Kindle Fire. I think it's a lag issue combined with a lower end processor.

At this point I think I'm still going to keep it for the near term, however I'm keeping my eyes open for an S8 Active that ISN'T Gold or Camo Blue in color. If I can scoop up one of those for $200-$250 I might upgrade. I certainly would like the better camera, and the multi-tasking ability is key for me. I will say that this would make a very good device for a younger child. It's cheap if they break it, and it does MOST things pretty well. It's definitely a very usable phone for calls/texting/general communications.

 

[2kwik4u]

Nail in the coffin for this phone today. It lasted me a month and I'm just about done with it at this point.

The biggest issue is the screen. The poor viewing angles, and super low resolution make it hard to see details on the screen that are important to me. PDF's and images in general are hard to read, and see in general. Coupled with the less than stellar camera I'm just not please with how it's working.

A secondary issue that has been significantly agitating is again screen related, however it has to do with latency of selection/scrolling. Many times a day I will be attempting to scroll through a list or website, and the screen will not react fast enough and I get a false selection. When I'm trying to solve a problem on the shop floor with 4 guys standing around waiting on an answer, a false selection and slow reponse has literally taken 30-45 seconds to recover from. And that's not getting me to the right selection, that's just getting me back to where I started looking. The actual selection is still a minute off. With 5 guys at $85/hr waiting on my answer, this time is critical, and quite frankly somewhat embarrassing.

The phone is still making phone calls, texting, and all that. Just not at the pace that I need it to. As a first phone for a kid/teenager, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm going to take it and put it back in the box and toss it on the shelf as a spare.

Just ordered a very gently used Google Pixel 2 XL off Swappa. After realizing I spent $350 on my Note 4 and had it for a shade over 3yrs, the $350 price on the used Pixel seemed reasonable......if I can make it last me another 3 yrs.

 

[msavold]

Bought three off Swappa and had a great experience each time. Latest was an S7 when, ahem, "some idiot" left my phone on top of the car as I drove off...
Seems to me like a safer bet than eBay.