Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I had a LG Nexus 5x phone that I bought In May 2016. I was hoping it would last me a minimum of three years. It came with a one year warranty. About 14 months after I purchased the phone it gets stuck in a boot loop. After researching I found this is a common problem for the phone. Currently there is no fix and it appears the issue is beyond LG's scope of competencies to resolve.
I bought my last phone for about $400 including tax. Thinking about the monthly depreciation makes me cringe (~$29). I bought my phone with the hopes that it would last at 36-60 months but guess planned obsolescence got me a bit too soon.
My issue leads me to wondering what is the most economical way to buy a smartphone. I need, I mean, want, an Android or iPhone since that is where our company has our email and other work apps.
So, what are economical ways to buy a smartphone, or economical phones (brands) to purchase?
I understand this is not a good place to be in (needing, I mean, wanting, to buy a widget) since the renaissance man would find other ways to solve his problems aside from buying a solution, but humor me, scold me, enlighten me.

I would say stick with android phones because there is a much wider selection. Most anything a few generations (as in phone generations) old are not that bad for performance. That being said, I'd recommend a Moto X, I've just heard that they are decent phones. I try not to be brand loyal, but Motorola usually has decent stuff, but that might just be me. Hope this helps.

I looked into the Moto phones. They are very inexpensive ($129 for the Moto E4) and that is about as fancy as I'll need.
One concern is if it's so inexpensive will it last long? If it lasts say just 12 months that will be about $12 a month after tax. But if I can get it to last 24 months then it would be about $6 a month.
But now what do I do with my old phone?

Well phones are prone to getting damaged as most people carry them around everywhere they go. I'd get a nice case, and just try to be mindful.
There is always the off chance that the phone could die, and that's just life for ya haha.

If you don't owe any money on your old phone then you can either sell it, or just keep it in case your new phone were to break. I would personally do the latter, but the choice is yours.
Also, consider a different provider. There are many new providers that might be able to give you enough coverage based on your location, but be sure to check first. Republic comes to mind, they have a wide variety of plans available.

I just passed my three year old Moto G onto my wife, it's been fine and I suspect it will have a couple more years life in it.

Loads of second hand ones out there for free or reduced.

Ive sold used cell phones on gazelle.com . You could probably find a good deal on something outdated.

The BLU R1 HD is THE ERE smartphone. It works for AT&T and T-Mobile. I use it on WIFI only (along with a MIFI device flashed with an old $5/month Verizon unlimited 3G data plan)

It's a great phone and only $60 as long as you can use someone's Amazon Prime account to order it.

https://www.amazon.com/BLU-R1-HD-Exclus ... =BLU+R1+HD

I used to get the cheapest smart phone I could find. (Had a $60 Lumia.) But I tend to fatally drop them. Finally just decided to stop being cheap and got a drop resistant phone.

I only unbox / power mine up when outside the city. No SIM card. WiFi is at enough junction points (intercity buses, trains, airports, etc) for coordination purposes. Preload offline Google maps for the area if unfamiliar. VoIP.ms works on them just fine. These devices make you dumb, anxious and impatient, I swear. Recent article to confirm my bias:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/smart ... -1.4179828

(The term "crackberry" back in the day did not get coined for nothing...)

C40 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2017 7:29 am

The BLU R1 HD is THE ERE smartphone. It works for AT&T and T-Mobile. I use it on WIFI only (along with a MIFI device flashed with an old $5/month Verizon unlimited 3G data plan)

It's a great phone and only $60 as long as you can use someone's Amazon Prime account to order it.

https://www.amazon.com/BLU-R1-HD-Exclus ... =BLU+R1+HD

Nice review unfortunately AT&T service turns all phones into expensive paperweights in the areas I roam.

BIFL where life is 1 year after the manufacturer stops support for that model give or take.

My first gen moto g with republic is three years old and still works well. It is getting slow though and the hard drive is too small. I use a small case and screen protector and try to take care of it.

I just upgraded a Moto G that was about two years old. The phone was still working for calls, texts, and email, but I'd noticed considerable performance degradation in both app speed and, importantly for me, camera quality (like, camera photo quality had probably fallen to 10-25% of its original quality). I'm guessing this had to do with general jostling damage to something in the camera, but I don't know for sure.

fiby41 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 05, 2017 11:10 am

BIFL where life is 1 year after the manufacturer stops support for that model give or take.

Sadly modern phones are really batteries with a phone wrapped round them, not much use if the battery is dead and almost impossible to replace.

C40 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2017 7:29 am

I use it on WIFI only (along with a MIFI device flashed with an old $5/month Verizon unlimited 3G data plan)

Can you explain a little bit more about this? I'm wondering how payments work to Verizon (are you taking over someone's old account?) whether you still need a Verizon sim card, and how the call quality is over the 3g network.

This is an intriguing option, thanks for sharing. I did not know how easy the MIFI devices would be to track down on eBay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Veizon-MIFI-220 ... SwnbZYC9NK

In short:

- I call a verizon 1-800 number each month and pay $5 using a credit card using a robo automated talker thing.
- Yeah, it's some kind of old account. Likely from a block of accounts from a large company that got sold off.
- Call quality depends on the data speed. It's not very reliable. When in a city or somewhere with decent 3G data speed (about 1mb/s) it works well. There is a little more delay in voice transmission than a normal voice call, which can at times cause me and the person I'm speaking with to interrupt or talk over eachother)
- I'm not sure but I believe the one I bought had the account/plan flashed to the device (not a SIM card)


See this thread:
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/forums/Thr ... -5-a-month