new smart phone $170

[broken ed]

For years I've been using hand-me-down phones, these have been iPhones. Due to some circumstances and a dropped iPhone 6 that shattered the screen, I purchased a new Android phone to replace my iPhone 5.

My choice is a Samsung J3 (2018) unlocked GMS phone. Price? $169.99 everywhere, but got mine at Best Buy. This is a smart phone and is much larger then my old iPhone 5; and of course is not a flagship phone, but then it also doesn't come with a flagship price.

If you looking for a new phone and willing to give up on some features, I consider this a great buy.

So what do I miss in this phone? An auto sensor to brighten the screen when outdoors. What will you miss, that I don't miss? This phone doesn't have Google (Android) pay, no wireless charging, no fingerprint unlock and you can't tether it to a TV screen to watch movies over the internet. Oh yeah; I don't I miss, the price of a flagship phone, hovering at $1,000.00,,, and I'm guessing some of you won't miss that either.

At this price point I get a smart phone with a large screen, 16 GB of memory, witch I expanded an additional 128 GB (micro SD cards up-to 400 GB), a replaceable battery (or carry a spare), front 5 MP camera, rear 8 MP camera, a GPS receiver that can run off line maps (MapsMe and Co-Pilot) without cell connection (and Google maps if you download off line maps), a phone that can run on any GMS network (jut pop in a SIM card for carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, TRACFONE, Net10, Simple Mobile, H2O Wireless) and USB OTG.

What is USB OTG? With an adapter cable (Micro USB-to-USB Type-A Adapter Cable; I got mine for $4.86, close out Best Buy) you can run low-power USB devices on your phone or tablet. I use mine to mostly to read and write to an USB jump drive, but you can also run things like a keyboard or mouse, including wireless mouse.

This phone can also run on some pretty obscure frequencies, such as T-Mobile's 4G LTE Frequency 700, which they still use.


If you don't need top shelf - I think it's a great choice, but I'm sure there are other choices out there.

 

[Firtree]

Think you did well.

Right after Christmas came across an Amazon just for Prime members ad. It was for an unlocked Motorola G6 $199.99, now 209.99. I got it as a spare phone figuring it would be a good mp3, audiobook, kindle, NetFlix machine. Can run this on a different network from my regular phone putting something like a Red Pocket $60 a year plan on it. (100 min, 100 text, 500mb data each month).

As you found there are lots of good less expensive phones to be had.

 

[RVTravel]

How will you use a mouse with an android touchscreen? I am liking my LG stylo 3.

 

[brucedevauxone]

For years I've been using hand-me-down phones, these have been iPhones. Due to some circumstances and a dropped iPhone 6 that shattered the screen, I purchased a new Android phone to replace my iPhone 5.
My choice is a Samsung J3 (2018) unlocked GMS phone. Price? $169.99 everywhere, but got mine at Best Buy. This is a smart phone and is much larger then my old iPhone 5; and of course is not a flagship phone, but then it also doesn't come with a flagship price.

i am shocked at the $1,000 phones! who could have imagined that the price would ever be that high? i guess the answer goes to the saying (a fool is born every minute)- but how can there be so many fools in the world???

 

[broken ed]

How will you use a mouse with an android touchscreen? I am liking my LG stylo 3.

Really I don't, it's a bit of a novelty to see the pointer going around the screen but I guess if your doing a lot of work it could be useful. More so; I would think would be a USB keyboard with touch-pad with your tablet. My main use, everyday, is to read and write files to a USB jump (thumb) drive.

brucedevauxone I agree, maybe status, maybe just got cought up in the whole phone thing. What I ask myself is how many of these people are willing to walk around with a $1,000.00 cash in there pocket,,, every-time they leave the house and where-ever they go. :huh:

 

[B and C]

I'm a retired telephone guy. It still amazes me that these are called phones when PDA (personal digital assistant) is a much better description.

Anywho, I still have a J3 that now is my google maps phone for driving. I have it stuck to the windshield so it is easy to see. I took it out of service for two reasons:
1. The auto screen dimming feature (missing and blinding at night)
2. When taking a picture, it does not embed the coordinates in the meta file of the picture. I have a lot of pictures I took with it and now have no idea where the pictures were taken (exact coordinates). I never thought to check this until I started pulling off the pictures.

I now have a Moto Razr that has these features as well as a clip on projector with added battery capacity. I can now sit outside and project Netflix movies on the van wall as a big screen.

 

[broken ed]

I hear what you're saying. I had a Psion palm top computer from the UK back in the 90's (counldn't afford HP's palm top running  DOS), then went to a Palm Pilot X|T. Really didn't like the Palm as much because it couldn't run as a stand alone device. I have always sought out small - portable stand alone devices because of my mobile life. I first lived in a Dodge van in the early 1980's. This is a great time to mobile with GPS and devices so small. I have a 7 inch Samsung Tab A in addition to my phone, both can do USB OTG and run off line mapping with GPS. USB OTG means I can back up my files without the cloud or internet and place a document on a jump drive to be printed at a library or UPS store.

The projector sounds like a great option to tethering to a TV,,, with a whole lot less stuff.

Location metadata was completely off my radar. So, of course, I checked it straight away, the 2018 version of the Samsung Galaxy J3 does location in your photos, if you enable it. Haven't agreed to Google's location service.... yet.

 

[RoamerRV428]

just bought 2 new iPhone XR for Christmas. Price is high, got a bundle with each one with chargers and more free, free my azz, but I have money. Parting with 2K sucked but I can't take the damn money with me in my grave so what the hell. We went for it Husband and kid are in love with what these phones can do, mini computers basically. They love talking to Siri...haha. Me, I don't have a phone at all, I hate them

It boils down to what ya want, if ya got the bucks and want to spend and everyone spends their own money when they want. Not everyone who has money is a fool LOL, they just buy what the heck they do want cause they can.

broken ed it sounds like you got a great deal tho, glad you are happy with your purchase!

 

[Tom_M]

How will you use a mouse with an android touchscreen? I am liking my LG stylo 3.

Bluetooth.

 

[RVTravel]

Smart phones don't have the user interface to use a mouse to click objects...it's a touchscreen?

 

[willingtorelocate]

Verizon just made me fork out $240 for the same phone I had on T-mobile. Seriously, it's exactly the same phone. The only difference is that the new one has usb-c and the original just had the mini usb. But, it did come with a plan, and it got me out of the store with something on a decent data plan, so I'm not complaining. $170 isn't bad, and just about anything current is a huge step up from the iPhone5.

I've never liked iPhones. Ios is so constricting and difficult to use by comparison. The operating systems assumes you're an idiot, and forces you to do things their one very specific way. I've never understood how anyone, anywhere, could ever look at an ios device and remark about how easy they are to use. But I'm weird. If I'm going to be using a phone that's effectively a handheld computer, I would like it to behave like a computer. I understand how I might be an edge case.

I think you'll find Android to be simpler, and more flexible. Congrats.