OT: Is this a good smart phone deal?

[Demeris]

I have a Tracfone smart phone, some kind of Galaxy Pro. I paid 100$ for the phone. I've forgotten what I paid for call-time and text, but I still have more than 15 hours and thousands of text messages to go, and I know I didn't pay more than 150$ for that (IF that much).

I pay 10 dollars per GB of data that I use. I usually add twenty or thirty dollars every five or six weeks, but I use more data than most people because I keep my home wifi router off most of the day.

[hdw]

Originally Posted by Izzy

I am no where near to being a phone geek and I know very little. I message my kids for help when I need it.

What I did learn is the phone is as good as the battery you have in it. Both my daughter and I got new phones 4 years ago. I got a 6 she got an 8. A year ago we had been talking about how slow our phones were getting, messages delayed, voice mails not coming through, batteries running out quickly etc and we waited another year to finally get new phones. It was our trip to her Boston Marathon run that sealed that decision. Here I am in Boston, trying to track her run, message the family etc etc and 1 hour into the experience my phone dies and the phone was over 65% charged and I had hardly used it. So on our drive back home we agreed we were ready for new phones. We could have gotten new batteries and that might have saved us some money but my phone was having issues. Bottom line is the older the phone the more likely you will have to replace the battery more often. I had already replaced my battery once. Keep that in mind when purchasing phones.


Mary

Iphone admitted that they intentionally slowed down the old phones.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/...w-down-apology

[sherry7899]

Originally Posted by hdw

Iphone admitted that they intentionally slowed down the old phones.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/...w-down-apology

My son's older iPhone slowed down. When he went from a 4 to a 6, the speed was much faster. I know a 6 is considered old now, but the newest ones are way too expensive. He has a no contract plan with no limits through Virgin Mobile . Since we have used them for so long and set up automatic payments his phone is only $30 a month.

[tamib]

I live in a rural area and we have very little cell service, I get 500 min. of talk, unlimited text and 2 MB of data from Tello for $8/month, and their customer service has been great. I bought a Moto G5 phone from them a year or so ago for $80. We had a Trac Phone before and the service is much better with Tello.

Tammy

[LAC]

If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can get certain unlocked cell phones as Prime Exclusive deals. Last summer I bought an inexpensive Prime Exclusive Moto X4 (Motorola) and I have no complaints. Once you buy an unlocked phone, you can use it with pretty much any carrier you choose. I have had a no-contract Consumer Cellular plan with an AARP discount for several years and think they are a great company. I used to have a no-contract TracFone plan, but I did find them aggravating to deal with at times (however that was awhile ago so I don't know what their service is like now).

ETA - I don't think $50 a month for one line is a very good deal. I pay less than $75 a month for three lines (me, my husband and my son) with unlimited talk minutes, unlimited texts and 5GB data.

[BigBadBetty]

I know a lot of people who have been happy with Google Fi. You only pay for the data you use. It runs on US Cellular, Sprint and T-Mobile networks so it offers coverage in a lot places. You can get a Moto G6 for $99 and the plan is $20/mo plus any data you use at $10/GB. If you mainly stay on wifi, you could have a really small bill. I had a Moto that I used for work. It was a bit slower than my phone that cost hundreds more, but the battery lasted forever. For the price, it is a great phone.

It is an MVNO (meaning they resell service but don't have their own towers. Cricket, Tracphone, etc., are other MVNOs.) The only problem with that is that you are a lower priority for service than the actual US Cellular, Sprint and T-Mobile customers. This is only an issue if you are in area with more demand than towers. (Think large events in a small town). This is a very small issue but something that you should be aware of. Most people never run into this issue.

My boyfriend lives in area that only has Verizon coverage so we have Verizon.

[Sue B]

Originally Posted by tamib

I live in a rural area and we have very little cell service, I get 500 min. of talk, unlimited text and 2 MB of data from Tello for $8/month, and their customer service has been great. I bought a Moto G5 phone from them a year or so ago for $80. We had a Trac Phone before and the service is much better with Tello.

Tammy

I've also used Tello before, when I had a Sprint phone that I gave to my daughter, and was very pleased with them. If the Sprint network is strong in your area then they're a good choice. My current phone is on Xfinity Mobile because we have Xfinity cable/internet (unlimited talk/text and $12 per gb of data, on the Verizon network).