The Best Smartphones You Can Buy Right Now - WSJ

Wall Street Journal Online ^ | November 25, 2014 | Joanna Stern

[Erik Latranyi]

Lumia 1520 Windows Phone!

[dmet]

For cheapscates like me, there is the “bring your own phone” at Tracfone. You can buy a used Verizon Iphone 4 or 4S on Ebay and activate it as a Tracfone. Be sure it is not Icloud locked and has clean ESN

[corbe]

I miss the simplistic Rotary Dial and the Party line.

[KarlInOhio]

I wish they would have posted the non-contract prices. I haven't had a phone contract for many years and I don't foresee ever going back to one. I have no reason to chain myself to a cell phone company even for the "advantage" of getting a "cheap" phone and then having to pay for it and more in excess charges over the life of the contract.

[BunnySlippers]

I miss the simplistic Rotary Dial and the Party line.

My favorite part was having to sit just 8 feet from the wall for however many hours you were on the phone.

[Sherman Logan]

Word of caution about iPhones on Tracfone networks.

You may have a good deal of difficulty getting them to connect to cellular data, and the photo send and receive feature may not work at all.

[RangerM]

You only have to alter the APN settings and it will work fine.

[RangerM]

All Verizon Iphones (5 and below) are sim-unlocked.

That means you can put a compatible sim card in it and it will work for Trac or Straight Talk (which are the same company) on the GSM network (aka ATT or T-Mobile).

You can use a Verizon Iphone 5 on the CDMA network (a.k.a Verizon’s network) under Straight Talk (ST), but you’ll be limited to 3G speeds for data.

[Sherman Logan]

Uhh, no.

There are issues. I’ve been down all the roads and this particular phone won’t do pictures. Eventually got the data to work, thogh.

[1rudeboy]

For later.

[itsahoot]

I miss the simplistic Rotary Dial and the Party line.

Go back a little further and you would have had to get an operator to connect you to your party. For those on a 13 party line as I once was there were a series of rings, like 3 longs and two shorts, that you cranked to get your neighbor to pick up the phone, no matter what ring you cranked you could count on 12 people picking up.

[bk1000]

FReeping on my 2 year old Droid RAZR M right now. Usually need to charge the battery at night. Its a great phone and I hate to replace/upgrade. It will soon be time though.

[corbe]

Dinosaurs had phones?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I’ve been eyeing one myself.

[Excellence]

I really want one of those, just for the camera. But ATT has very bad coverage here, so I got the Icon from Verizon. It’s a nice unit.

[House Atreides]

“I miss the simplistic Rotary Dial and the Party line.”
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I remember that when my wife was carrying our now 19 year old son with a high-risk pregnancy and was home with doctored ordered “bed rest”, I went out and RENTED A BEEPER as a way of being constantly available if needed.

My, have times changed.

[Excellence]

In 1980, at Big Bear Lake, we still had to use the operator to call out.

[sheana]

I bought a new iPad air recently but it has been freezing so I took it to the Apple Store this morning. While I was there the gal says...is that a 5? We’ll give you $200 for it. I said how much is 6 plus? She said $299. I said deal!
Paid $100 for my new 6 plus and love it.

[SES1066]

In 1980, at Big Bear Lake, we still had to use the operator to call out.

How do you know when you lived in a small town? When you only needed 4 digits to dial any local phone (Beaufort SC 1965!) I don't think that exists any more as I believe that all phone computers require a minimum 7 digit number for connection!

[Major Matt Mason]

Since you are mentioning the Windows phone, I have the Nokia 928 through VZW. I'm pretty happy with it, overall, no major problems yet. MS may not have as many apps as Apple or Google, but I really don't care about that. The camera on the phone is by far the best I've seen on any smartphone (as of the time I bought the phone a year ago, at least). So, my take is to not be afraid of choosing a Windows phone (the 928, at least).