Howdy doody friends and neighbors, Snuffy hyar....

I have been off (according the shrink)... I mean off the newsgroup for awhile. Looks like it's still going strong - good to see some familiar folks posting.

Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

Will only mostly used for phone, text & email. Photo 4MPx is good enough. Internet use will be little to none - just info, no video. Also don't care what G is it -- 3, 4, etc... all overkill for my purposes.

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon

Thankye fellers!

That's all and sign in,

Snuffy
aka Newgene McMensa, LiveBait McKinney, etc.

On 5/13/19 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:
Howdy doody friends and neighbors, Snuffy hyar....

I have been off (according the shrink)... I mean off the newsgroup for awhile. Looks like it's still going strong - good to see some familiar folks posting.

Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

Will only mostly used for phone, text & email. Photo 4MPx is good enough. Internet use will be little to none - just info, no video. Also don't care what G is it -- 3, 4, etc... all overkill for my purposes.

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon

Thankye fellers!

That's all and sign in,

Snuffy
aka Newgene McMensa, LiveBait McKinney, etc.


I like Motorola because they have a good track record of publishing Android updates and have models with easily user-replaceable batteries.


I got burned by HTC because they never published an update for the WPA2/KRACK vulnerability so I had to toss that POS.

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 1:42:09 AM UTC-4, Snuffy wrote:
Howdy doody friends and neighbors, Snuffy hyar....

I have been off (according the shrink)... I mean off the newsgroup for awhile. Looks like it's still going strong - good to see some familiar folks posting.

Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

Will only mostly used for phone, text & email. Photo 4MPx is good enough. Internet use will be little to none - just info, no video. Also don't care what G is it -- 3, 4, etc... all overkill for my purposes.

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon

Thankye fellers!

That's all and sign in,

Snuffy
aka Newgene McMensa, LiveBait McKinney, etc.

I would buy a phone online, either at one of the stores or Ebay. If you're
open to used and are OK with a midrange phones there are many to be had on
Ebay. If you're going used, make sure that the phone is clean, ie
not on the black list, and that it's not locked to some carrier. You
can Google for online services where you can check the MSID against
the blacklist for free. Blacklist phones would be ones where it's been
stolen or the customer has unpaid bills, etc. You also
need to make sure that it's compatible with the carrier you're bringing it
to, Spectrum uses Verizon I believe, so any phone that's compatible with
Verizon, not under contract and not locked should work. You can sort them
on Ebay by carrier. I've had two ZTE phones now, very happy with them,
but IDK if they make ones compatible with Verizon. IMO you get more bang
for your buck with an Android than an Apple, so that's probably the
first thing to decide.

If you're not locked into Spectrum already, I'd suggest checking out Mint Mobile.
They are another MVNO that rides on TMobile. Check out the Tmobile coverage
for your area and if it's good, they are an option. It's prepaid, you can
get a plan with unlimited voice and text and 3GB of data for $23 a month,
no contract and if you pay for a year at a time, it's just $15 a month. A plan with
11GB of data is $25 a month. It supports mobile hotspot and if you use
up all the data, it just drops to a lower rate, but still works. I've
had it for a year and a half, very happy. I've had Verizon, Boost/Sprint,
and now Mint and Mint/Tmobile is way better than Sprint and as good here
as Verizon. I think Mint has a trial starter kit for $5 where they send
you a sim with a new number and 100 mins of talk/text, 100MB? data, so
you can try it out. If you check it out and are interested, let me know.
They had a referral program going where if I refer you, you'd get a discount,
maybe $30, not sure of the details. I think they also started selling phones
so you could see what they have too. With any of this, even if you buy
a phone on Ebay, decide the coverage or something isn't right for you,
you can sell it back on Ebay pretty easy.

On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message ...
On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

I'm with you there. I may end up buying the cell phone outright and just using service month to month. Spectrum took over Time Warner here in So Calif and I can't tell any better or worse. But I just use internet for email and low data applications, no cable TV. in 2015 Internet and one phone line was $35. Now it's $65, still better that alternatives. Their tech support for mobile is in Raleigh NC, which is a big plus over "My name is Buffy, how may I kindly serving you".

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 10:56:49 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

Spectrum apparently is a MVNO using Verizon. So the coverage is probably
the same as Verizon, with some exceptions, eg if data traffic is very
high, Verizon probably gives priority to it's own customers.

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost. But then they decided to start selling wifi only cell phones.
Made zero sense to me. It will only work where you have wifi. Sure,
there might be some people who mostly use a phone where there is service,
but even those, you'd think they would want it to work other places too.
And there were other cheapo prepaid phone companies that offered wifi
calling that would work on any cell phone.
So they marketed that thing for about a year, I guess it failed and
AFAIK, it's gone.

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 11:27:10 AM UTC-4, Snuffy wrote:
"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message ...
On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

I'm with you there. I may end up buying the cell phone outright and just using service month to month. Spectrum took over Time Warner here in So Calif and I can't tell any better or worse. But I just use internet for email and low data applications, no cable TV. in 2015 Internet and one phone line was $35. Now it's $65, still better that alternatives. Their tech support for mobile is in Raleigh NC, which is a big plus over "My name is Buffy, how may I kindly serving you".

How does the cell phone fit it with that? Extra charge?

All my years of having a cell phone, only one time I needed support.
That was with billing, when Verizon wanted $140 in overage airtime.
It was due to one call to 411, their information service. You'd
think someone could quickly realize that something went wrong, that
I could not have been on one 411 call for an hour and a half. But
it was like dealing with morons. I keep explaining that to the support
person, she just keeps saying, not our problem, you have to take it
up with the person you called. I keep telling her, the 411 service,
AFAIK, is Verizon too. I got to the point that I said, I have to get
rid of this phone if it can somehow be doing this, next I could have
a bill for $1000. She said she can do that for me, terminate my service.
Finally I got to a supervisor and he immediately saw the obvious.
He said it looked like something went wrong on their side, the call
did not disconnect properly. He had me on hold for like 15 mins while
he checked with their techs, etc, to make sure what it was and that
it wouldn't happen again. Then he took the charge off. So, IDK, I'm
not sure paying for what's supposed to be a premium carrier is worth it.
Mainly because I haven't needed any support in 35 years, other than that.

In trader_4 writes:

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost.

Charter/Xfiniti worked out a similar program, which when you think
through what they did was both brilliant and sleazy.

The company-provided (and leased...) cable modems/wifi access points
incorporate _two_ separate wifi IDs. And a bigly chunk of
customers simply stay with them.

The first is the one you set up for your own use. That is, you
might program in an SSID of "myhome" (gee, that's special...) and
a password of "mxyzptlk".

HOWEVER, there's also a _second_ ID on _all_ the boxes, using
the SSID "xfinitywifi".

If you have a valid Xfiniti account anywhere in the system (and
you've programmed your phone/tablet/laptop), then anywhere
you go that has the default, leased, xfinity modem, you can
and will hook right up.

So... if you're visiting a friend, or enemy.. you don't have to ask
her for her password.. or in your car outside many businesses,
or pretty much any of literally hundreds of thousands (maybe
millions by now) places.

This dramatically reduces your usage of cellular minutes/data,
which helps you. And... helps out Xfinity 'cuz, yeah, you're
oruted directly onto their network rather than the third party
cellco they'd be paying.

Which is how they can add you in as a cellular customer for
just about zilch pricing.


--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key

[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

In article ,
says...

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost. But then they decided to start selling wifi only cell phones.
Made zero sense to me. It will only work where you have wifi. Sure,
there might be some people who mostly use a phone where there is service,
but even those, you'd think they would want it to work other places too.
And there were other cheapo prepaid phone companies that offered wifi
calling that would work on any cell phone.
So they marketed that thing for about a year, I guess it failed and
AFAIK, it's gone.



Guess that would be a fiasco.


I have been using Republic for a number of years. They try to use a
wifi system first, but if none is in range it goes to the radio towers.

Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

Spectrum has been good for me for internet and the phone over internet.
OUtside of trees falling over the lines about 2 times I have only had an
outage of the internet one time in several years. They got it going by
teh next day or maybe even the sameday. When TWC had the lines I had to
have them out here at least once a year to replace what I was told was a
fuse down the line. Usually took to thenext day . They would send an
inside man and he would have to call the outside man to replace the
fuse.

On Mon, 13 May 2019 08:27:06 -0700, "Snuffy"
wrote:

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message ...
On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

I'm with you there. I may end up buying the cell phone outright and just using service month to month. Spectrum took over Time Warner here in So Calif and I can't tell any better or worse. But I just use internet for email and low data applications, no cable TV. in 2015 Internet and one phone line was $35. Now it's $65, still better that alternatives. Their tech support for mobile is in Raleigh NC, which is a big plus over "My name is Buffy, how may I kindly serving you".

We have https://www.consumercellular.com/Products? No contracts,
~$30.00 a month. It is plenty for me. Have a Moto G-4. If you have a
phone now, they'll send you a free SIM card.

On 5/13/2019 11:27 AM, Snuffy wrote:
"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message ...
On 5/13/2019 1:41 AM, Snuffy wrote:


Anyways........ I am changing cell carriers from AT&T to Spectrum -- strictly due to price. So my question is do any of you have opinions about any of these choices - they are all in the same price range...

LGStylo4 -- $10/mon for the phone for 24 months (or bring own phone $0)
iPhone 6S -- $15/mon
iPhone 7 -- $19/mon


I don't like the iPhone as much as the Android so I would go with the
LG. Had an LG in the past and it was good.

I hope you get better service with the phone than they give with cable.
When we moved here we signed up with Spectrum and the phone and TV
service sucks. I'd not trust them to Fk up my cell phone.

I'm with you there. I may end up buying the cell phone outright and just using service month to month. Spectrum took over Time Warner here in So Calif and I can't tell any better or worse. But I just use internet for email and low data applications, no cable TV. in 2015 Internet and one phone line was $35. Now it's $65, still better that alternatives. Their tech support for mobile is in Raleigh NC, which is a big plus over "My name is Buffy, how may I kindly serving you".


Wife and I have Tracfones. Mine is just a flip phone for $100yr. Hers
is a cheap android smart phone which was about $30 including maybe 3
months minutes and additional small data plan, maybe 10 gigs, with
minutes is $125/year. She has never used data outside house and there
is no cost when she does in the house with internet wifi. If your phone
use is minimal, Tracfone is the way to go. Companies with plans can
screw you if you need a new phone.

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 12:24:47 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost. But then they decided to start selling wifi only cell phones.
Made zero sense to me. It will only work where you have wifi. Sure,
there might be some people who mostly use a phone where there is service,
but even those, you'd think they would want it to work other places too.
And there were other cheapo prepaid phone companies that offered wifi
calling that would work on any cell phone.
So they marketed that thing for about a year, I guess it failed and
AFAIK, it's gone.



Guess that would be a fiasco.


I have been using Republic for a number of years. They try to use a
wifi system first, but if none is in range it goes to the radio towers.

That's an example of one of the lowcost services I was talking about.
Couldn't remember the name. I looked at a bunch of those last time I
was looking, which was several years ago. The problem with those and
similar like Ting was that they made sense when plans were $70, but
now there is so much competition and choice at $30 or less, a regular
straight cell phone makes more sense.





Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

Mint Mobile is $15 a month if you pay for a year of service. They are
a Tmobile MVNO. For that you get 3GB of high speed data, unlimited V/T.
Also supports wifi hotspot if you need it.





I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?

In trader_4 writes:

they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?

Some, emphasize _some_, of the cellular phones and networks (NOTE, _both_
have to be set up for it), utilize "UMA", aka Unlicensed Mobile Access.

With UMA, the phone will invisibly switch over from (for example)
your in-hous WiFi to the cellular nwtwork as you walk out, into
your car, and drive away.

Most, perhaps just about all, of the "WiFi capable" phones
these days will _lose_ the connection as you transition
from one spot to another.

(T-Mobile _used_ to offer UMA which was very, very, handy.
They had this years ago before other folk set up their
Wifi capable arrangments).





--
__________________________________________________ ___
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key

[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

On 5/13/2019 11:38 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 12:24:47 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost. But then they decided to start selling wifi only cell phones.
Made zero sense to me. It will only work where you have wifi. Sure,
there might be some people who mostly use a phone where there is service,
but even those, you'd think they would want it to work other places too.
And there were other cheapo prepaid phone companies that offered wifi
calling that would work on any cell phone.
So they marketed that thing for about a year, I guess it failed and
AFAIK, it's gone.



Guess that would be a fiasco.


I have been using Republic for a number of years. They try to use a
wifi system first, but if none is in range it goes to the radio towers.

That's an example of one of the lowcost services I was talking about.
Couldn't remember the name. I looked at a bunch of those last time I
was looking, which was several years ago. The problem with those and
similar like Ting was that they made sense when plans were $70, but
now there is so much competition and choice at $30 or less, a regular
straight cell phone makes more sense.





Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

Mint Mobile is $15 a month if you pay for a year of service. They are
a Tmobile MVNO. For that you get 3GB of high speed data, unlimited V/T.
Also supports wifi hotspot if you need it.





I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?



Good suggestions all, but. . .

I like a good deal, but I prioritize and, for most, it's wise to do so.

1. RELIABILITY - first and foremost I want a cellular carrier that
works well where I plan to use it. Ask around with friends whose
lifestyle mimics yours with respect to phone usage/locations. A carrier
that promises you unlimited talk/text and plenty of gigs of data for
$10/mo is no bargain if your calls are dropped, voice quality sucks, or
download speeds are 200kbps.

2. PHONES - Once you have your contenders as far as carriers go, phones
are GENERALLY the same across the board. Yeah, some are crap and those
you can rule out looking through the reviews. Decide what YOU will use
the phone for, think a bit outside the box since if you're new to smart
phones, they kinda grow on you (as they did with my wife) and you're
likely to expand your technical horizons if you get hooked. Check with
friends and associates to see what they think of phones you may consider.

3. BUY or LEASE - NEW or REFURBISHED? I always buy but YMMV. Lease
and you are paying full price when you needn't. I also, since the
carriers shifted their business plan and no longer woo you in with super
low prices on phones, look hard for a phone I like and try to purchase
it refurbished by a reputable dealer. Refurbs generally carry a
comparable warranty to the new phones and the way I look at it is "this
phone has been gone over with a fine toothed comb and the electronics
have burned in." (If they are going to fail, they generally do so
sooner rather than later). Okay, it may have some cosmetic issues
(typically minor) but so will your brand new phone after a couple of
months usage.

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 12:58:40 PM UTC-4, Unquestionably Confused wrote:
On 5/13/2019 11:38 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 12:24:47 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

Biggest cable phone fiasco I ever saw was with Cablevision in the NYC area.
They have wifi hotspots around the area that their cable customers can use.
I never understood the economics of that, like how they can justify the
cost. But then they decided to start selling wifi only cell phones.
Made zero sense to me. It will only work where you have wifi. Sure,
there might be some people who mostly use a phone where there is service,
but even those, you'd think they would want it to work other places too.
And there were other cheapo prepaid phone companies that offered wifi
calling that would work on any cell phone.
So they marketed that thing for about a year, I guess it failed and
AFAIK, it's gone.



Guess that would be a fiasco.


I have been using Republic for a number of years. They try to use a
wifi system first, but if none is in range it goes to the radio towers.

That's an example of one of the lowcost services I was talking about.
Couldn't remember the name. I looked at a bunch of those last time I
was looking, which was several years ago. The problem with those and
similar like Ting was that they made sense when plans were $70, but
now there is so much competition and choice at $30 or less, a regular
straight cell phone makes more sense.





Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

Mint Mobile is $15 a month if you pay for a year of service. They are
a Tmobile MVNO. For that you get 3GB of high speed data, unlimited V/T.
Also supports wifi hotspot if you need it.





I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?



Good suggestions all, but. . .

I like a good deal, but I prioritize and, for most, it's wise to do so.

1. RELIABILITY - first and foremost I want a cellular carrier that
works well where I plan to use it. Ask around with friends whose
lifestyle mimics yours with respect to phone usage/locations. A carrier
that promises you unlimited talk/text and plenty of gigs of data for
$10/mo is no bargain if your calls are dropped, voice quality sucks, or
download speeds are 200kbps.

2. PHONES - Once you have your contenders as far as carriers go, phones
are GENERALLY the same across the board.

Agree with pretty much all you say, but I think this needs some clarification.
One big difference is that not all phones will work with all carriers,
eg some support only CDMA networks like Verizon, or GSM like Tmobile.
This is particularly true if you're looking at a used phone that was
bought from a carrier originally. You need to be sure it's off contract,
clean and very importantly unlocked if you intend to use it on another
network. Even then, while it's supposed to work and usually does, carriers
have used many tricks to screw people, so that it doesn't. Bottom line,
simplest thing is if you're going to be using say Verizon, then I'd
find a used phone that was on the Verizon network. I have Mint Mobile,
they are on the Tmobile network, so I found a ZTE Blade Z Max that was
on MetroPCS, also on the Tmobile network. You can also check with the
target carrier, they will have a list of phones that will work.

And then features vary, eg storage. For basic use, 2GB ram, 16GB Flash
should be fine. If you're thinking of storing a lot of pics, adding
more apps, then I'd double that. One good thing with Android vs iPhone,
with most Androids if you want to add more Flash with an SD card later,
you can. With iPhone whatever it has, that's it. And many Androids,
you can change the battery, though that's becoming less common as they
shrink in size. iPhone you never could change the battery, you can send
it in to them for replacement. One feature I love is Quickcharge, my
ZTE is Qualcomm Quickcharge, has a huge 4000mah battery and charges
really fast. It also uses USB-C connector which I like, it goes in
either way, no checking the orientation. Other features, eg fingerprint
sensor, less important. I like it, it unlocks the phone really fast
without having to put a number code in, but clearly it's not essential.
Size is also important, depending on what you intend to use it for.
I like a big display, mine is ~ 6".









Yeah, some are crap and those
you can rule out looking through the reviews. Decide what YOU will use
the phone for, think a bit outside the box since if you're new to smart
phones, they kinda grow on you (as they did with my wife) and you're
likely to expand your technical horizons if you get hooked. Check with
friends and associates to see what they think of phones you may consider.

3. BUY or LEASE - NEW or REFURBISHED? I always buy but YMMV. Lease
and you are paying full price when you needn't. I also, since the
carriers shifted their business plan and no longer woo you in with super
low prices on phones, look hard for a phone I like and try to purchase
it refurbished by a reputable dealer. Refurbs generally carry a
comparable warranty to the new phones and the way I look at it is "this
phone has been gone over with a fine toothed comb and the electronics
have burned in." (If they are going to fail, they generally do so
sooner rather than later). Okay, it may have some cosmetic issues
(typically minor) but so will your brand new phone after a couple of
months usage.

In article ,
says...

That's an example of one of the lowcost services I was talking about.
Couldn't remember the name. I looked at a bunch of those last time I
was looking, which was several years ago. The problem with those and
similar like Ting was that they made sense when plans were $70, but
now there is so much competition and choice at $30 or less, a regular
straight cell phone makes more sense.





Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

Mint Mobile is $15 a month if you pay for a year of service. They are
a Tmobile MVNO. For that you get 3GB of high speed data, unlimited V/T.
Also supports wifi hotspot if you need it.





I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?





Yes, when I first started with Republic it was a great deal for me. Now
there are many services for around the same price. I will probably
change if I have to change phones or plans with them.

I don't use the phone on the go, so can not say how well it will go bck
and forth if you get out of range of the first connection.

I may have ot check with mint mobile to see what they offer.

On Monday, May 13, 2019 at 5:56:16 PM UTC-4, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...

That's an example of one of the lowcost services I was talking about.
Couldn't remember the name. I looked at a bunch of those last time I
was looking, which was several years ago. The problem with those and
similar like Ting was that they made sense when plans were $70, but
now there is so much competition and choice at $30 or less, a regular
straight cell phone makes more sense.





Not bad for about $ 12.50 a month. They advertised it at $ 10, but add
something over $ 2 in tax. I don't think they offer this any more at
that price. If my phone fails, I will probably switch to another
service.

Mint Mobile is $15 a month if you pay for a year of service. They are
a Tmobile MVNO. For that you get 3GB of high speed data, unlimited V/T.
Also supports wifi hotspot if you need it.





I sort of like it that it goes to wifi first. Usually in a building
they have wifi where the cell towers will not give a signal.

I've only tried wifi calling a little bit, with Ooma. It didn't work
very well. I guess it depends on the company and how robust the wifi
is where you need to use it and probably on how fast your phone hardware
is too. I was also a little dubious about it
being able to go back and forth from wifi to cell, without dropping calls.
Seems hard enough to do that within the cell network by itself. Did
that work OK with Republic?





Yes, when I first started with Republic it was a great deal for me. Now
there are many services for around the same price. I will probably
change if I have to change phones or plans with them.

I don't use the phone on the go, so can not say how well it will go bck
and forth if you get out of range of the first connection.

I may have ot check with mint mobile to see what they offer.

If you decide to try Mint whenever, let me know here. I think they have
a refer a friend deal, where you get some bucks and me too.