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My cellphone died


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 So now I get to decide if I want to get another, or just fahgettaboutit.

I was thinking about dipping into the cheap end of the smartphone pool.

I'm really torn about phones. My inner old fart wants to tell it to get off the lawn. My inner gadget says 'bells and whistles, bells and whistles. My inner paranoid thinks they will spy on me, wouldn't be the first time. My inner super shopper says 'We have the technology, we can make you better, faster, stronger' (cue the theme music).

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You don't even have to get the latest and greatest to have a crap ton of functionality.  If you look at a phone one to two generations old (last years model...) You can get a helluva phone for a reasonable price.

The while big brother paranoia thing, can't help you there.

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9 minutes ago, late said:

 So now I get to decide if I want to get another, or just fahgettaboutit.

I was thinking about dipping into the cheap end of the smartphone pool.

I'm really torn about phones. My inner old fart wants to tell it to get off the lawn. My inner gadget says 'bells and whistles, bells ans whistles. My inner paranoid thinks they will spy one me, wouldn't be the first time. My inner super shopper says 'We have the technology, we can make you better, faster, stronger' (cure the theme music).

Do you use a lot of data on the phone when away from home.  If the answer is no the check Xfinity mobile.  You can get a plan that has no cost other than &12 per gigabite of data obtained when not at home or in a wifi spot.  Calls are free.  Text is free.  The phone you can buy low priced.  I have an LG.  Works good.  We have 3 lines on the plan and all we paid for were the phones.  We used a $12 chunk of data twice in the last year during power outages when our internet was down.

Unless you are streaming movies or pulling data all the time, this may be the plan for you.

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11 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Do you use a lot of data on the phone when away from home.  If the answer is no the check Xfinity mobile.  You can get a plan that has no cost other than &12 per gigabite of data obtained when not at home or in a wifi spot.  Calls are free.  Text is free.  The phone you can buy low priced.  I have an LG.  Works good.  We have 3 lines on the plan and all we paid for were the phones.  We used a $12 chunk of data twice in the last year during power outages when our internet was down.

Unless you are streaming movies or pulling data all the time, this may be the plan for you.

Not sure I'd need data, but I suppose it could come in handy.

I tried a $100 smart phone a few years back, it was dreadful, and I only got one bar at home, and that was on a nice day.

 

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I carry a phone until it just gets to wonky to use.  My Samsung S6 Active started gobbling the battery in hours and it would only charge on the charging pad, not through the charging port.  In fact, the day my truck was totalled was a Saturday AM and I was driving to my office to get my charging pad, as my phone was dead and I could not charge at home.

I upgraded to the Samsung S8 active it is a love / dislike relationship.  I knew how to get around on the old phone, still learning the new phone, but it has some cool stuff the old phone did not have.

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1 minute ago, late said:

Not sure I'd need data, but I suppose it could come in handy.

I tried a $100 smart phone a few years back, it was dreadful, and I only got one bar at home, and that was on a nice day.

 

That's just as much your service provider than your phone.  My daughter and her fiancé had identical IPhones but he was on Verizon, she had Sprint.  Her phone had shit service in our house where his was strong.  But connect to your wifi and it's not an issue.

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I would have been happy with my old Alcatel 5" Android 4.4 smartphone except that version load every app in internal memory so I was very limited and the camera was awful compared to the top-of-the-line stuff.  Two times I forgot my 2"x2"x4" camcorder and one of those times, the Eagles concert in Baltimore in 2015, the photos and video were crap.

So I looked on YouTube for the many side-by-side comparisons of various phones and when, with Android phones, when you get to Samsung Galaxy S7, you're close enough to the best that later versions - or Notes with a separate zoom lens - aren't enough better to spend the extra bucks in my opinion.  I got the S7 and I've pointed out in other posts here that I really like the S7 camera - stills and video - even in low light and for detail.

I in March I got a Galaxy S7 Tracfone for $430 and added 1 year's time and 1500 voice minutes, 1500 texts, and 1500 MB of G4 Internet for $125 plus tax, $590.77 total.  I already had time left from my previous phone that rolled-over, use less than 100 min/month (I have a landline phone at home) and won't have to add more time until June 22, 2020 (another $125 for a year - sometimes less if you don't need to add many voice minutes, etc.).  I currently have 1918 voice min. left (used at 1.5 min/min when roaming), 3820 texts left, and 3.32 GB Data remaining.  I download Google offline maps (everything including gas stations, restaurants, etc. but no traffic alerts) for various home and vacation areas by WiFi so I can use Google Maps & GPS offline and don't have to use my G4 Internet much.  The Google maps have to be updated every 30 days or they delete themselves so I also downloaded, as a backup, the free Here WeGo which has state and many country maps which are said to be accurate and nearly as good as Google and don't delete themselves.

I also spent around $40 for a 128 GB SDHC card and that let's me do everything I want, including vacation pics and videos, with my smartphone alone - I don't use the 2"x2"x4" camcorder anymore though it does a slightly better job of zoomed pictures, so I may use it for concerts, etc. in the future where a strong zoom is important.

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Guy at work paid about a hundred for a phone & 30 or 40 a month for service through one of the prepay plans. He probably gets the best reception of anyone in the mill. Snickers when guys are bitching about reception in the lunchroom.  He pays cash for cars, it's not like he can't afford a fancy phone, just can't see the benefit for paying more for less service.

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I am looking at the G6 Play, the Moto G5 Plus, and the iPhone SE.

Not really an apple fan, but my best friend swears by them, and that's a nice phone for $160. Consumer Cellular has that, and the G5 Plus, which is $200.

Amazon has the G6 Play for $190, but that means swapping out the SIM card. Never done that. I like that this phone is more rugged than the other two. I have a real talent for breaking shit. I left my old phone in my pants and threw them in the rocking chair that sits just behind my computer chair. The wife coming in to visit may have had something to do with it's demise..

 

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