Time for a new SmartPhone

[danb]

Hello!! I am thinking about getting a new smartphone. I have a Galaxy S6 edge. Normally I get a subsidized phone from AT&T every 2 years.. Since they don't do that anymore it looks like I will have to pay full price for a new phone. Don't really plan on spending 800-100 USD for a new fancy phone. Any suggestions on a new phone that is good but cheap? Perhaps 200-300 USD. Thanks for any suggestions. Danb

[Randy W]

You sure you need a new phone? Why do you want to upgrade so soon. My old phone was 8GB (more than enough for most purposes).At that rate, you might just "upgrade" to a new S6 or S7. I'm very happy with my S8, which I bought in Hong Kong for not much over$500, in no small part because it has the Google functionality built in. Of course, you won't have to worry about that with any other non-Chinese phone.

[dnoblett]

I am of the buy it and own it outright, so for the past 6 years or so have bought various refurbished Apple iPhones that were of the prior generation, my current phone an iPhone SE I actually bought new directly from Apple, when shopping for refurbished iPhone SE phones the refurbished ones were at the same price as new.

 

I chose the SE last fall because I prefer the smaller size of my prior phone an iPhone 5, the SE is the shell of a 5 with the tech, cam, processor, and speed of the newer iPhone 7 generation.

 

I have invested in many iPhone apps so am not much interested in making a switch to some other platform, and my prior experience with android was the Motorola droid and it was not good.

 

My service provider is Straight Talk which uses AT&T service and provides unlimited voice, text and data, though with data they do throttle it if you exceed a certain amount in a month, also if you tend to use the phone as a hotspot Straight Talk does not allow this mode.

 

https://shop.straighttalk.com/shop/en/straighttalk/phones/st-iphone-se-32gb-grey-reconditioned-item?gclid=COmGibu_ltkCFYJOgQodtYkODw&gclsrc=ds (IPhone SE $99 Refurbished no contract)

[Greg.D.]

I'm comfortable in Mac (Unix), Win and the linuxes, have been a network manager and server and database administrator and, though I've owned a galaxy and another android phone, I much prefer the Apple system and iPhones. Even though Apple and android have a common ancestor (and Apple didn't invent the smartphone), I prefer the Apple security, ecosystem and included app's, especially FaceTime, the message app and smooth user interface perks. Yes: Samsung makes beautiful hardware, so does Apple.

 

yeh: re-furbs, last year's models, etc are ways to go.

[danb]

I have had my AT&T Galaxy 6S edge phone for almost 2 and 1/2 years. I am use to trading phones in every two years. I would kinda like to get a new phone with all the new whistles and bells.I like to get a phone with a newer camera, ( dual forward camera) , a phone that can do android pay( has the NFC function) , a phone with newer android software and a new battery. i work in a building that my carrier AT&T works the best ( reception issues). I have been with AT&T for maybe 15 years. As far as I know all the major carriers stop subsidizing their phones last year. Irks me that AT&T stop subsidizing their phones but did not lower my month payment. I pay about 70 dollars a month. That includes 200 message a month and unlimited data. As far as I know I am not allowed to tether my phone or used it as a hotspot. I need to pay them more money if I want to do that. We got some of the younger guys at work. They all have 800-1000 dollars phones. They don't have a problem with the high prices. Their phones seemed attached to their left hand. They are on them constantly. They also are very very comfortable utilizing their phones. Me, I am okay using my smart phone but I am a bit slow using it. The new younger guys are much much at ease using it. I wish i could use more apps on the phone. I normally use google, QQ, sometimes FB, messengers and occasionally actually use it as a phone for calling people. LOL. A Moto G5s ( no NFC) and a Nokia 6 seem like suitable candidates. It is a pain shifting thru all the reviews and specs. At work we either have the guys that don't mind spending 900 dollar for phones or the guys that still clinging to their flip phones. Me, I am just one of those guys looking for cheaper prices. Danb

 

PS I agree with you guys about refurbished and last year phones but some of them can be still quite costly. In part I got started on this kick is because of some advertisements that i have been receiving on my phone that Samsung is coming out with a new phone and that the price on the Galaxy S8 is dropping. I follow the ads but don't see any real price breaks.

Edited February 8, 2018 by danb (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

We're paying $94/month to T-mobile for our two lines of service, unlimited text and talk ... and maybe 4 GB data. Don't think it is the best deal going. Oh: tethering allowed.

 

So, $70 for 200 msgs/month sounds pretty behind the times.

 

I don't know that they subsidized the phone so much as just let you pay for it over two years. I would think the monthly cost would drop or you would go in and get that year's model at around two years.

 

True, they are basically cameras now, with messaging built in. I would prefer ATT for their wide coverage - I'm probably saving $10/month by using T-Mobile, which shows you how cheap I am.

 

T-Mobile also has a cheaper international roaming you can add by the month, if you think you are going to China.

 

It seems if you are already paying $70, you should have a never-older-than-2-years phone in your pocket.

[HotBaozi]

US secular phones are way overpriced. Anyone considering getting a new device should buy it unlocked and outright if they can; like Dan suggested. I recently bought a Huawei phone after my HTC One volume switch stopped working. It was annoying. Having used both Android and iPhone devices, I prefer Android hands down. New devices are way overpriced, with many costing in excess of $600, and the more price gouging over $1000. That's nuts in my opinion.

 

After my wife bought the Huawei Mate 9, I was very impressed with it, so I bought one too. I got mine just before Christmas from Best Buy for $399. They've now gone up to $499. Tough to beat for what you're getting. I once heard someone say, if you want the American government to spy on you, they buy an American device. If you want the Chinese to spy on you, buy a Chinese device. I feel safer with the Chinese spying on me than struck stroke, page, and comey.

 

Update: Price decreased on clearance to $449

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/huawei-mate-9-4g-lte-with-64gb-memory-cell-phone-unlocked-space-gray/5709704.p?skuId=5709704

Edited February 8, 2018 by HotBaozi (see edit history)

[Randy W]

On my first trip to the US in 2015, I bought a T-Mobile SIM that I could use for a month. They ran their "network setup" on it and told me, "sorry - this phone was incompatible" (meaning it was not a T-Mobile phone). I was able to use the phone, but not the dataplan. On the second trip, I told them not to bother. The network data access worked fine.

 

Unless they've installed software on your phone, I doubt that they could control (or even know) you're using tethering or hot spot.Neither function even uses the AT&T network, except from your own phone.

[danb]

Tethering has been around for a while. I looked into it a while back. It was expensive. The hotspot is relatively new. There is a difference between the two. I think I pay about 40 dollars for unlimited data. I am grandfather in from years ago. AT&T wont let me use tethering or a hotspot for free. They want to change me extra. Someone at work told me that I could get a tablet from AT&T and that it would only cost me 10 dollars extra. If that is true and if it comes will unlimited data, that wouldn't be too bad. I am going to try to check on that next week. I still say that AT&T is being awfully greed. There was no reduction in their rate when they stopped subsidizing new phones every two years. Essentially that adds about 600-700 dollars every two years to my bill. More and more I think about that, it is pissing me off. Greedy bas-----d!!

[Randy W]

Is there a difference between tethering and hotspot?

Difference between Tethering and Hotspot. ... Tethering can be done using different media such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB. Tethering usually allows sharing of internet connection of one device to another. All modern mobile phone operating systems have tethering capability to share internet.Jan 11, 2016

This is from Google

 

There is no way they can control either unless they have software on your phone that monitors it. Neither uses the AT&T network, except from the ONE phone CONNECTED to the AT&T network.

[danb]

Here is a video by Serpentza on 2018 Chinese smartphones:

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by danb (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Here is a video by Serpentza on 2018 Chinese smartphones:

 

 

 

I have yet to see ANY Chinese phone last longer than 2 years before BREAKING.

 

On a side note, Jiaying dropped her Oppo R11 with gorilla glass screen AND a screen protector, thanks to another kid at school. It showed about 5 or 8 lines that I'd swear were broken glass - it turned out to be the screen protector that broke. No problem!

 

Buy your phone in Hong Kong, NOT China.

[dnoblett]

This one looks like it will take a punishment, and the commercial is funny...

[Randy W]

Winston buys a Chinese phone

 

 

I'm surprised that they can install Google Play - I have an old Android 3.0 虹Pad (Yes, that's 虹 - the Chinese character 'Hong') which came with it pre-installed, but I've been unable to install it on more recent versions. I rooted my old phone, but was still unable to install it without burning a new ROM. Perhaps they're using the older version of Google Play, without the entire suite of Google services.

[Greg.D.]

Just wrong about American phones and networks being weird and not standard. I've travelled with Samsung, HiSense, and iPhone from China to India to U.S., swapping SIMs and not had a problem.

 

Guess the Oppo vendor is putting Google Play store on the phone, leaving it to the government to actually block google? As you said, it takes more than an app .. trying to remember, the google package to get the store to work was a little more complicated.