I guess I’m one of the few people on the planet that has still been making do with dumb phones. I’ve always been able to pickup something that suits my needs on sale at the Dollar Store for $5!
Having said that, I was just looking at a Tracfone when I was out this morning (an LG Optimus Fuel) that was on sale for $19.95. It utilizes Android 4.4, which I gather is rather safe for the time being.
Do you think getting one of those would be a good way for me to get my feet wet in the smart phone world without making a huge financial commitment?
I still use the non smart phone LG 306G. Simple texts are .30 of a minute. That’s how I use mine, mostly texting.
I understand tracfone charges full minute for comparable texts in their android smart phones.
I have been happy with their service. My phone runs on AT&T 3G network. TH LG306G was $9.95 on Amazon.
I’ve used Tracfone for several years and it’s great if you are a fairly low volume user of minutes. Got an Optimus Fuel last September and paid $58.00 for it. Tracfone has been dropping its price since they introduced several other smart phones with larger screens.
If you can work with the small Optimus Fuel screen, you would get a great phone for $19.95 and if you later upgraded you would have spent very little to get started with smart phones.
After a couple months, I got the Tracfone Alcatel One Touch Pop Icon because of the 5” screen. Actually, I like many things about the Optimus Fuel better, and still use it with WiFi as a portable radio and mini-tablet at times.
Check Amazon for deals on the Alcatel phone: $129.99 for the phone and a year’s service and 1200 minutes.
AFAIK, all the Tracfone androids are on the Verizon system, so if your area has good Verizon coverage service should be excellent.
Yes. Stick to the GooglePlay store for your Apps, though. They do try to keep it clean. If you must go off the reservation, do your homework and check with other Android users about which stores are safest.