Posted: 8/5/2017 12:58:24 PM EDT
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So, as anyone who has ever owned a smart phone knows, they suck, and with integrated storage and batteries are starting to suck even more.
My wife is waiting on her third warranty S6. The first had a battery that would die and not charge. This one just started overheating and would die over and over again then went to a boot screen that turned off the phone no matter the selection. I've had phones batteries die, ports die, and acquire software issues that made them nearly unusable. So what I'm looking for is a backup phone to keep in my safe so I have a phone I can swap an SD card into until we get a replacement phone if/when a phone goes down. I need something I can replace the battery in, swap different size Sim cards into (do those adapter kits work?) and preferably the ability to add an SD card. It wasn't a huge problem to have a phone go down. But I'm AD military and travel a lot, we don't have a landline, and I need to make sure we both a phone no matter where we are. I considered an old Nokia or flip phone, but she needs to be able to send/receive emails when I'm working in secure areas. |
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Why do you need a guru? Buy an S6 (or something equivalent, shoot, S5 or S4) on eBay. The S6 will cost you around $150. An S5 is around &100. I cannot remember which ones the battery comes out of but chances are you can find a used one with accessories including extra batteries. Check Craigslist also.
I owned an S4, S5, and S7; I never had an issue with them but when the model allowed I always bought extra batteries and a charger. |
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FWIW I just bought my first smartphone?
Went with an LG G6. The Samsung S7 Egde battery debacle made Samsung a non option. My G6 gets warm once in a while but not enough to explode. YMMV Amazon Samsung S6 and S5 refurbs. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_condition-type_1/145-2655948-2567644?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A2335752011%2Cn%3A7072561011%2Ck%3Asamsung+s6%2Cp_n_condition-type%3A16907722011&keywords=samsung+s6&ie=UTF8&qid=1501954568&rnid=6503239011 I keep one of these handy if the battery in my phone gets low and there's no charger around. Pocket Juice |
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Buy a Samsung S3 or Note 4
Both have removable batteries Both take SD cards Get an Otter box Defender Simple, reliable, with good performance. A Galaxy S3 should be inexpensive. Or just go to Walmart and get a burner phone for $30. They have nice smart phones for that. |
| I used an unlocked $40 BLU phone as a disposable for my wife when she traveled through SE Asia. Two sim slots, removable and replaceable battery. It wouldn't run the faster cell network protocols but that didn't matter in places with somewhat poor cell infrastructure. They have more full featured models as well. Just swap your sim into one and it'll fire right up. |
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Quoted:
I used an unlocked $40 BLU phone as a disposable for my wife when she traveled through SE Asia. Two sim slots, removable and replaceable battery. It wouldn't run the faster cell network protocols but that didn't matter in places with somewhat poor cell infrastructure. They have more full featured models as well. Just swap your sim into one and it'll fire right up. A $50 bare bones smartphone is what I'm looking for. I like the features of the new phones but they don't seem to be reliable long term. ETA; why are BLU phones so cheap compared to a Samsung or Motorola? |
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Quoted:
Is the battery replaceable? And are there good cases available for it? A $50 bare bones smartphone is what I'm looking for. I like the features of the new phones but they don't seem to be reliable long term. ETA; why are BLU phones so cheap compared to a Samsung or Motorola? Samsung makes a nice product using technology that they often pioneer for their phones. Blu makes a surprisingly uncrappy product out of technology that has been around a while and is now not terribly expensive. Their phones have cheaper screens with less resolution, cheaper slower electronics, a crappier camera, and various models may lack a few seemingly standard features. My $40 Blu doesn't have a 3g/4g radio in it. Fine for Cambodia, it'll be fine the next time we fuck off to the Caribbean, really sucks here in the US. It's also GSM only, no CDMA support. That limits your carriers here in the US to AT&T and Cricket and I dunno what else. Sprint and Verizon and any other CDMA only carrier can't help you. GSM is pretty much the world standard outside the US. |
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Quoted:
The battery is replaceable, you just peel off the back plastic shield and the battery and sim slots are right there. I did not look into cases, we only needed it to work for a few weeks, seemed extraneous. Samsung makes a nice product using technology that they often pioneer for their phones. Blu makes a surprisingly uncrappy product out of technology that has been around a while and is now not terribly expensive. Their phones have cheaper screens with less resolution, cheaper slower electronics, a crappier camera, and various models may lack a few seemingly standard features. My $40 Blu doesn't have a 3g/4g radio in it. Fine for Cambodia, it'll be fine the next time we fuck off to the Caribbean, really sucks here in the US. It's also GSM only, no CDMA support. That limits your carriers here in the US to AT&T and Cricket and I dunno what else. Sprint and Verizon and any other CDMA only carrier can't help you. GSM is pretty much the world standard outside the US. I always end with Samsung because we seem to get our phones when they come out with the new ones and so get the old ones on sale. |