Budget phone and carrier thread; Amazon Fire phone for $159 plus year Prime? LG Leon?

[glenn1]

Ugh, had gotten a Nexus 5 to use on a "family plan" ATT account belonging to sister-in-law. Now the phone hardware is falling one feature at a time (speakers, then front camera, now microphone) and my SIL is dropping the plan in favor of using their work phones instead.

So now I'm in the market for both a durable phone and a budget but not sucky mobile carrier to run it on. Will happily go with an older model (was very happy with my Galaxy S3 before the Nexus 5) and I've been pretty diligent about keeping my data use under 2GB or so. For now I'm going to use a spare Republic Wireless Moto-E phone but I'm not a fan of their new pricing model so I don't think that's a long-term solution.

Anyone got a phone / plan recommendation? Need a limited data plan for myself and wife, and looking for an economy solution that allows unlimited voice/text and minimal data for an Au Pair. My wife has an ATT only LG G2 phone, so we may need to stick with them for now but willing to explore options there as well. Au Pair just needs a base model phone so might stick with a Moto E or the like for her.

 

[cronos]

If you've been comfortable on AT&T then stay on AT&T. Especially if you already have at least some of the devices so you don't have to bother swapping them.

Cricket would be the best for AT&T carrier with budget family options. Go check it out.

 

[paperwastage]

Moto G 3rd gen LTE is probably the best budget phone to get (~$210), water-resistant

Anything lower than that, Moto E (or Lumia 635/640 - $50)

 

[glenn1]

How about the Amazon Fire phone? $159 for unlocked GSM 32gb version with a year of Prime, seems like a pretty good deal or am I missing something?

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-P...pebp=1440528919478&perid=1H5DDCB7X7QSCYS2B6ZS

 

[A5]

Biggest problem is that FireOS is...not good to put it charitably. You can replace the launcher to make it more like normal Android, but you aren't going to get the good stuff that requires Google Play Services without some hacking.

 

[paperwastage]

How about the Amazon Fire phone? $159 for unlocked GSM 32gb version with a year of Prime, seems like a pretty good deal or am I missing something?

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-P...pebp=1440528919478&perid=1H5DDCB7X7QSCYS2B6ZS

as A5 said... run away from it

budget is difficult...

need to choose certain things to give up(i.e. inferior camera, display resolution, RAM,...).

Moto G 3rd gen manages to give up as little, and maximize the use of whatever it has (less lag, almost no bloatware etc). Get the 2GB version though

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...s-a-stylish-upgrade-worthy-of-the-original/2/

I think I'm willing to live with the "bad/ugly" parts from the review above, at $220



otherwise, look at carrier (branded) budget phones
t-mobile: Lg Leon is fine <$100
http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phones/lg-leon-lte.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-Leon-Smartphone-Review.142311.0.html

 

[Red Storm]

I wouldn't get the Fire phone even if it was free. Fire OS is terrible.

 

[cronos]

The Fire phone is $130 today. And it includes 1 year of Amazon Prime, so it's technically last year's flagship device for $30.

(not recommending it, just saying)

 

[Artdeco]

If you can swap the family over, TMobile has a killer deal on a month to month family plan, 4 lines, 10GB/line, unlimited voice/text/music streaming. I just set one up for family.

Look around on Swappa for used phones, there are some deals to be had, and at the end of the month, some people are scrambling for rent/bills, prices dip on Craigslist for stuff, meet at carrier store, have them confirm device is free and clear, save hundreds of $... for a little extra work .

Had a Fire phone, they're a mess., the free prime is worth it., resell the phone, keep the Prime.

 

[s44]

There's a KK ROM (CM11) for the Fire phone, but unless you're comfortable installing stuff like that I'd skip it.

 

[lopri]

I have a Fire phone and I would not recommend it for smartphone use. It is a great media player and a GPS, but it is not very smart.

 

[lopri]

Then again, if you are subscribing to Amazon Prime you really have not much to lose. That's how I got mine and I have no regret because it cost so little.

 

[jhu]

There's a KK ROM (CM11) for the Fire phone, but unless you're comfortable installing stuff like that I'd skip it.

Safe to assume that no one has been able to unlock the bootloader yet?

 

[lupi]

got one for a gift with no regrets.

 

[her209]

Do you guys think Amazon would be generous enough to give out the "key" to unlock the bootloader?

 

[paperwastage]

Do you guys think Amazon would be generous enough to give out the "key" to unlock the bootloader?

nope

 

[glenn1]

Then again, if you are subscribing to Amazon Prime you really have not much to lose. That's how I got mine and I have no regret because it cost so little.

That's my rationale for thinking of it. Wife does Prime anyway, if you back out that $99 cost, then how bad could a $40 Fire phone be? My wife isn't a power user, is it really that sucktastic that even she would hate it? If nothing else it seems like it might be worthwhile as a backup / emergency phone.

I'm also open to the LG Leon but is it really that much of an improvement over the Fire? The Fire is unlocked vs. T-Mobile, which I don't particularly care about but the flexibility is nice. Wife will get the new phone, so keeping complaints from her to a minimum is just as important a consideration as the price of one phone vs. another.

http://www.techbargains.com/deal/76741/lg-leon-deals

 

[cronos]

Is she depending on any Google Apps (Hangouts/GV, etc.) or a lot of paid apps from Google Play Store? Because if it's yes to any of those, then it would be somewhat of a pain for her to get used to the Fire.

On the other hand, if she's not, then the Fire Phone is definitely the better option.

 

[s44]

Nah, sideloading Gapps is easy. It's just blowing away the whole OS/ROM that's a pain.

 

[cronos]

Nah, sideloading Gapps is easy. It's just blowing away the whole OS/ROM that's a pain.

Which was my point. There are different degrees of 'pain' involved in this, starting to whether she even needs Gapps in the first place (some people don't, and for them, just Fire OS and apps from Amazon App Store is more than enough. Done). If she's okay with FireOS and loading Gapps, then that's enough and she wouldn't need to install CM. If she absolutely needs to have Google's Android, then it's considerably more effort needed to get the phone usable for her.

 

[vi edit]

I'd give cricket a look. They pair up family plans for cheap. Your wife's G2 will work there. You can get a Lumia 635 for $30 for the au paire. It's a cheap, durable and functional phone. Then you can move anything GSM unlocked over there for you.

 

[glenn1]

I'd give cricket a look. They pair up family plans for cheap. Your wife's G2 will work there. You can get a Lumia 635 for $30 for the au paire. It's a cheap, durable and functional phone. Then you can move anything GSM unlocked over there for you.

I'm leery of the "Prepaid prices include taxes & fees" language; anyone can confirm that on their Cricket bill that the quotes are "all-in" costs? I remember with Republic Wireless that there were still additional taxes and whatnot even though it was supposedly a "pre-paid" system.

 

[middlehead]

I'm leery of the "Prepaid prices include taxes & fees" language; anyone can confirm that on their Cricket bill that the quotes are "all-in" costs? I remember with Republic Wireless that there were still additional taxes and whatnot even though it was supposedly a "pre-paid" system.

I can't speak to other carriers, but I use Cricket and all fees are absolutely rolled into the bill. I pay $35 a month, done.

I use the Basic smartphone plan, which is $40 minus the $5 discount for using autopay.

 

[isekii]

Cricket is great you pay what they advertise.
I think 4 or 5 lines end up being $100 bucks all in. which is the best deal of them all

 

[paperwastage]

Lg Leon was just an example. If you want att/cricket, there are equivalent (lowend, and just as crappy) phones like HTC desire (eye)

Seriously... If you have the money, keep your wife happy and get a moto g 2gb. It'll last a lot longer too(software wise, and its water resistant too)

Look at the reviews for the lg Leon(and the other crappy phones(they talk about inferior displays, phone lag.) Then take a look at the moto g 3rd gen reviews (inferior GPU, which isn't a problem for your use case)