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[Xvareon]

I've used an old Tracfone flipper for all my life, one of those cheap things that can barely access the internet at all, but it's served me well enough since I'm not a heavy mobile user. I must have around 1,000+ minutes saved up. However, before the pandemic screwed things over, I had a job in which employees were communicating to one another via group chat text messages, and my phone's not able to handle that very well if at all. I can't even use it at home due to trees and elevation blocking the signal.

So, that's my current situation. I'm looking to upgrade, but I've been out of the loop for so long I barely have a clue what's good anymore. I'm looking for something that fulfills these basic criteria:

• Can do group chat message service (like Skype etc.) in addition to normal texting & calls. E-mail access would be a plus, I couldn't even do that on my flipper.
• Isn't going to have support discontinued in less than a year, unlike Blackberries. I really wanted a Blackberry because of the physical keyboard, and still do, and ideally I could get one, but I'm worried about the shape of the company now so am not sure.
• Can be bought on a reasonable budget, not straying far from $300 or so.

And that's it. I'm not looking to play mobile games on it or anything, this is strictly for work, e-mail and document assistance. The thing is, I know nothing about smartphones. I barely even understand the relationship vis-a-vis a phone's maker and providers of internet service. Yes, yes, I know I can look all that up, but the reason I'm asking now is because I know everyone else is probably gonna have more experience than I do, and literally any help getting a decent, reliable phone and figuring out how data plans and all work would be welcome. Please and thank you!

[nenjin]

I feel like this is sort of an Intel vs. AMD question.

You have the industry standard pretty much, which is an iPhone. $300 puts you in a range of recent phones. I've been using an iPhone 6 S that's over 5 years old and have never lost the ability to do anything because I don't upgrade to the 12 or w/e they're on now. It does everything I need. Phone, email, text, apps, web browsing. I use it for work so it's tied to a lot of VPN registration and 2FA stuff. Apple's UI for the iPhone is graphical and well organized for the most part. Took my 60+ year old mother a couple months of using an iPad to learn it but she's pretty much a pro now. Has the Apple App Store so there's no shortage of offerings. Downsides are, you have to buy into the Apple Ecosystem.

Then you have Androids. A lot more flexibility than an iPhone, less strictly controlled, does all the same things an iPhone does without Big Brother breathing down your neck. Has other app stores just like Apple and people post their stuff to both. Downsides, perhaps, are that it might be less user friendly, less plug 'n play and more "figure it out as you go along." For your needs it doesn't sound like there'd be too much to figure out to get what you want. I don't really know what most Android phones go for these days but I imagine they're competitive in price to iPhones.

So you can go with what's easiest and what's most widely recognized, but which is less flexible and more tightly controlled. Or you can go with its more flexible competitor who does largely all the same things and restricts you less but maybe is slightly less user friendly and doesn't have everything all nice and clean and centralized under one massive company banner.

And then there are yet other options I'm sure, those are just the two biggest players.

[Starver]

I don't really know what most Android phones use these days but I imagine they're competitive in price to iPhones.

I don't know about currently, but when I was last seriously fishing around for "should I go Apple-wise?", Android was very much cheaper than Apple for what seemed to be similar-looking capabaility (might just have hit the "Applephone 27 has just been released, so they're pricing it at 10x the regular price to catch the rabid early-adopters" effect).

And I have not (yet!) gone for the iPhone/iPad/iTab/iWhatever angle, so I really can't comment about that.

But there are a wide variation of Android tablets. The latest Samsung Galaxy (frexample) is going to be all-singing-all-dancing and all-costly, vs. something a bit lower down the market (Lenovo, Onetel*, ...erm... other 'brands' straight out of the most generic of Chinese sweatshops, without even the prestige of having been cruelly exploited by the might of Steve Jobs's organisation).  I might suggest you avoid any (in fact, actively check this) that ship with the 'Go' version of whatever Android version they proclaim to have. That's the "Can't guarantee we can run the full version on this hardware" solution for the manufacturer.  I'm sure you'll find a budge-but-not-budget-budget model to fit your pocket.

Not sure I can give you definitive reasons for choosing any particular model, make or indeed OS flavour, but I think you're


(Never had a flip-phone. I remember wanting to get a (non-smart/no-internet!) flip-phone, maybe 20 years ago because I was fed up of pocket-dialing with my Nokia, and that seemed a good solution and finding that I'd missed the boat and they were no longer in vogue. Obviously missed them on the rebound, too... )


edit: * - I of course meant Alcatel, having misremembered a brand I have used! (OneTel is/was an ISP, which I also apparently get mixed up with OneWeb.  ) And you can add Huawei into that list nearer the Samsung end perhaps, but with various caveats.

[Akura]

Last time I looked for a replacement phone - and I use the exact same kind of phone using Tracfone - I saw some phones advertised as smartphones that used Tracfone. Just checked Amazon for prices, and they range from around $30 to over $250 depending on model and capabilities.

Sadly, I cannot really give you any good advice regarding this, since I've been using the same kind of phone for about 13 years. Never had a smartphone, never wanted one.

[nenjin]

Never really wanted one either until I was given one as part of work, almost a decade ago now. And today I have to admit there are a lot of advantages to even a standard one. Music player, web browser, note book, scheduler, calendar and planner, reminders, GPS, navigation, laser ruler guide and level, password manager, quality camera, pretty decent video recorder, health and nutrition tracker and monitor.....oh and making phone calls/face time and texting.

That's all shit I use on a daily basis. The ability to get into a car and get a visual 3d map to where you're going with someone telling you directions and telling you about traffic, while your music/interests are playing....it's kinda magical before you start taking it for granted. With the right apps, it's a borderline Star Trek Communicator/Tricorder combined into one thing. I'm generally a late adopter of new tech, but it's hard to overstate how many time consuming things become easy with a smart phone. I still hate doing anything on a smart phone a computer does better, but it's very convenient in so many ways.

[BigD145]

It all revolves around the sim card if you go Android. That and make sure the cellular antenna guts work on the bandwidth your provider uses through that sim card. https://www.gsmarena.com should have all the specs of whatever you might be looking at. Buy something within the past 6 months because they all drop support really fast. Hardware bluetooth keyboards are very inexpensive. It ends up being two things to carry, though.

[None]

Well, 'support' tends just to be system updates, it's not like your phone service provider is going to drop off the face of the planet. For the most part, system updates are just security updates, but anything within the latest year or two is going to do fine.

Also, if you're not sure about your service provider, consider a GSM unlocked phone so you can take it to whichever one you want. Dependent on if you're someplace with GSM service and not CSMA (?) service, since they've got their own SIM card format.

For the most part, you'll just be looking for the group chat app everyone uses through the app store, be it Apple or Google Play.

If you needed an example of budget Android phone, I've always bought along the Motorola Moto G line (well, three phones over ten years), currently with the G7 Power or whatever it is they're still selling. It seems to be on sale pretty often and it's still well below your budget. Some of the newer ones do a stylus thing, but I think that's weird.

[Xvareon]

Thanks to everyone for all their answers! Android looks to be the way to go, for me.