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owlhawk911
Nov 8, 2019

come chill with me, in byob

Biowarfare posted:

Prepaid or postpaid, what providers do best in your area, how much do you care about latency, how much do you care about being cut off for ToS violations, what device are you using this on, and how "above board" or legitimate do you want it to be?

$25/m visible (party pay, go on reddit and find one, you share no PII or billing, you just have to join a party) is 5-10mbps unmetered, 100ms latency minimums unless you are living in colorado or virginia. Unusable for gaming unless you are close to one of their points of presence (unlike direct carriers, they route all data traffic through very few points across the country) -- will not work on a hotspot directly, have to use a phone with hotspot running on it. I recommend one that can run without a battery, plugged into mains, for 24/7 service.

ATT has a legitimate option here: https://www.att.com/internet/fixed-wireless/, $50/m for 250GB/m

thanks for the quick response :) i was going to dedicate an old phone to being a modem and leave it tethered to a router all the time. lg v10 most likely but i have access to others and am not opposed to buying a device if i need to. got a samsung galaxy mega around if custom roms help, everything else is too old to have lte. i don't care at all about legitimacy or being above board, getting cut off for ToS violations would be annoying but i don't really care about that either. i'm broke as hell and just want to shitpost/watch videos, not a gamer so latency isn't a huge deal. i don't care about prepaid vs postpaid that much but ideally wouldn't have to put my name on anything

i'll look into visible, honestly that att option doesn't sound terrible either. i don't know which providers are best here yet, haven't been around long and ironically my current connection is too lovely to pull up the coverage maps

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Impotence
Nov 8, 2010
Lipstick Apathy
Visible requires very specific phone choices, FYI. But if you don't care and don't play super latency sensitive trigger games, it's difficult to beat $25/m perfectly-fine-for-a-few-hundred-GB @ 5-50Mbps. Use Paypal - their card processor often rejects almost every card or triggers fraud warnings/card suspensions. Videos are throttled to about 2-3 Mbps.

They will give you a mildly newer (though still crappy, but you can tether I guess?) Android phone at https://www.visible.com/swap if you ship them your oldest, shittiest Android. Note that this has a tethering limitation of hotspot max 1 device on the phone they give you. If you BYOD an iPhone SE [cheapest] or similar this won't apply.

ATT "Rural Home" requires a year contract.

They used to have a $35/m tablet prepaid plan that people abused (for tablets, but people would put in a fake IMEI to register and then move the SIM to a tablet), but they've dropped the unlimited prepaid plan and kicked off abusers, and are now locking out any remaining abusive accounts by asking people to re-confirm by moving their SIM back into a device that matches the IMEI they signed up with.

quote:

i was going to dedicate an old phone to being a modem and leave it tethered to a router all the time.

I use one of these https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNET-GL-MT300N-V2-Repeater-300Mbps-Performance/dp/B073TSK26W, they are about $10-13 used. They're tiny openwrt boxes that you can connect a phone or hotspot to tether via USB or wifi (it'll connect to the wifi, and then broadcast its own separate access point), and it'll do ethernet and wifi out in any combination. If you have an existing wifi router you can pretty much just put this in the middle and do ethernet out to it.

Impotence fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Sep 30, 2020

owlhawk911
Nov 8, 2019

come chill with me, in byob

Biowarfare posted:

Visible requires very specific phone choices, FYI. But if you don't care and don't play super latency sensitive trigger games, it's difficult to beat $25/m perfectly-fine-for-a-few-hundred-GB @ 5-50Mbps. Use Paypal - their card processor often rejects almost every card or triggers fraud warnings/card suspensions. Videos are throttled to about 2-3 Mbps.

They will give you a mildly newer (though still crappy, but you can tether I guess?) Android phone at https://www.visible.com/swap if you ship them your oldest, shittiest Android. Note that this has a tethering limitation of hotspot max 1 device on the phone they give you. If you BYOD an iPhone SE [cheapest] or similar this won't apply.

ATT "Rural Home" requires a year contract.

They used to have a $35/m tablet prepaid plan that people abused (for tablets, but people would put in a fake IMEI to register and then move the SIM to a tablet), but they've dropped the unlimited prepaid plan and kicked off abusers, and are now locking out any remaining abusive accounts by asking people to re-confirm by moving their SIM back into a device that matches the IMEI they signed up with.


I use one of these https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNET-GL-MT300N-V2-Repeater-300Mbps-Performance/dp/B073TSK26W, they are about $10-13 used. They're tiny openwrt boxes that you can connect a phone or hotspot to tether via USB or wifi (it'll connect to the wifi, and then broadcast its own separate access point), and it'll do ethernet and wifi out in any combination. If you have an existing wifi router you can pretty much just put this in the middle and do ethernet out to it.

if i got openwrt on my router there's no need for that box though, right? i've never done it before, but from what i'm reading should be able to tether right to it. it's super frustrating trying to figure this poo poo out when i can barely load a forums thread or wiki page, none of the carrier's websites work for poo poo. gonna run into town tomorrow and get this figured out on someone's wifi. looking like either visible (like you said) or us mobile are gonna be my best bet though. unless i'm missing some fine print, which i probably am because it won't load, us mobile seems to have unlimited data without throttling at $45/month prepaid which is really dang tempting. know much about them?

Impotence
Nov 8, 2010
Lipstick Apathy
Yeah, if your router has the correct ports too - https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/smartphone.usb.tethering - it might be a bit of a pain to initially set up.

The last time I used us mobile, if you are on a budget, they don't include fees in all of their pricing like most prepaid places, often adds up to $10+ in tax/fee per month, I don't know if this has changed. It looks like you can only use 10GB for hotspot if you pick the highest "ludicrous + hotspot" upgrade tier (so about $65-75/m all inkl.) - unlimited my rear end, pretty much. Also, throttling/"traffic management" starts at 15GB.

Edit: it hasn't changed, $2 access fee + $7ish "cost recovery charge" (CA), $5ish tax, bunch of other stuff. In comparison Visible charges me the flat $25, presumably they eat the sales tax and all.

Impotence fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Sep 30, 2020

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

What is a better phone than a Samsung galaxy s8? I really like the s8, and wish it would last for two or so more years, but if I'm going to buy a phone I might as well upgrade. It is currently randomly not receiving phone calls, and sending me my texts in batches.

My requirements are:
Verizon or unlocked.
A nice camera, and maybe decent video.
Not so fragile, the s8 feels like a tank compared to how fragile some of the newer phones I've seen look.
sd card support.
Can emulate video games up to psp. The S8 does this pretty well.

Ideally not 1000 dollars.

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer

gay for gacha posted:

What is a better phone than a Samsung galaxy s8? I really like the s8, and wish it would last for two or so more years, but if I'm going to buy a phone I might as well upgrade. It is currently randomly not receiving phone calls, and sending me my texts in batches.

My requirements are:
Verizon or unlocked.
A nice camera, and maybe decent video.
Not so fragile, the s8 feels like a tank compared to how fragile some of the newer phones I've seen look.
sd card support.
Can emulate video games up to psp. The S8 does this pretty well.

Ideally not 1000 dollars.

Either the Samsung S20 FE for $700, or the Google Pixel 5 (coming out late October) for $700.

Pixel doesn’t support a memory card, the FE does.

binaryhermit
Mar 29, 2015
Apparently the 765G is a slight step back from the Snapdragon 835 (Assuming you have a US S8 since you said "Verizon or unlocked) when it comes to the GPU.

Though for emulating the PSP, I suspect that beyond a point we got to years ago, CPU is more important than GPU, not 100% sure though.

sauer kraut
Oct 2, 2004
Hello goons, total smartphone newbie here. Country is Germany, with whatever prepaid card I can get at the local shop.
I need something inexpensive for a middle-aged person to browse the web, youtube, casual games and standard apps. ~6.5" 720p is fine. Camera quality is no concern.
Requirements are pretty much sub 200€, ideally more towards 100. 3.5mm jack, radio, NFC, Android 10 as clean as possible, full access to google store which I heard is an issue now for cheap China phones.
Oh and they need it soon, please no Aliexpress etc.

The Cubot Note 20 caught my eye for 93€ on Amazon. Specs are 3/64GB, Mediatek Helio A22 MT6761D
The Nokia 5.3 (Snapdragon 665, 4/64GB) also looks appealing, but it's literally twice the price. Is the peace of mind of Android One and general polish worth it?

Would appreciate any thoughts, cheers.

sauer kraut fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Oct 3, 2020

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

Duckman2008 posted:

Either the Samsung S20 FE for $700, or the Google Pixel 5 (coming out late October) for $700.

Pixel doesn’t support a memory card, the FE does.

Would the S10 plus be better than the S20FE?

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.

sauer kraut posted:

Hello goons, total smartphone newbie here. Country is Germany, with whatever prepaid card I can get at the local shop.
I need something inexpensive for a middle-aged person to browse the web, youtube, casual games and standard apps. ~6.5" 720p is fine. Camera quality is no concern.
Requirements are pretty much sub 200€, ideally more towards 100. 3.5mm jack, radio, NFC, Android 10 as clean as possible, full access to google store which I heard is an issue now for cheap China phones.
Oh and they need it soon, please no Aliexpress etc.

The Cubot Note 20 caught my eye for 93€ on Amazon. Specs are 3/64GB, Mediatek Helio A22 MT6761D
The Nokia 5.3 (Snapdragon 665, 4/64GB) also looks appealing, but it's literally twice the price. Is the peace of mind of Android One and general polish worth it?

Would appreciate any thoughts, cheers.

https://www.alditalk.de/motorola-g8-power-64gb-schwarz/p/30029360

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Motorola-Moto-G8-Power-Smartphone-im-Test-Viel-Akku-und-gute-Kamera.454241.0.html

It's unfortunately 200€, but it fits your specs perfectly and it has a gigantic battery, which is a good thing for smartphone newbies who might sometimes forget to charge the phone.

AlexDeGruven
Jun 29, 2007

Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box


Hey phone/plan nerds.

I've gotten a CAT S42 to review. It's a dual SIM unlocked GSM/LTE phone with Android 10 (promised to get 11, so that's cool).

Looks like it supports all the standard AT&T/TMo bands, and none of the Verizon or Sprint space.

I'm currently looking at the $15/mo Mint plan and then deciding if I want to keep it or ditch it after the 3 months for $45.

Is there anything else I should be looking for in the sub $20/month space? I'm in a pretty solid Verizon area, and AT&T/T-Mo seem to be fine, which is what steered me in the Mint direction.

Impotence
Nov 8, 2010
Lipstick Apathy
Verizon has a Visible MVNO but your phone isn't compatible

TMobile prepaid connect plans are $15/m for 2gb data

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006
The S20 ultra is too large. That is all. Swappa worked great though, paid several hundred less than the lower capacity model you can actually buy, and like 500? less than this thing would have cost new.

owl_pellet
Nov 20, 2005

show your enemy
what you look like


Anyone have thoughts on the Samsung S20 FE vs. the Google Pixel 5? Both cost the same, and except for the RAM in the Pixel 5 the S20 FE has it beat in every area. The usual Samsung bloatware really makes me hesitate though. I have a Pixel 1 now and I really like it but it is getting long in the tooth.

AlexDeGruven
Jun 29, 2007

Watch me pull my dongle out of this tiny box


Biowarfare posted:

Verizon has a Visible MVNO but your phone isn't compatible

TMobile prepaid connect plans are $15/m for 2gb data

Yeah. I have a shitton of Verizon lines already and if it was compatible, I would have just added it to our unlimited for $20/mo.

I ended up buying the 3 month Mint 3gb SIM, which should be sufficient to evaluate the phone.

Space Gopher
Jul 31, 2006

BLITHERING IDIOT AND HARDCORE DURIAN APOLOGIST. LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS SHIT DON'T STINK EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW IT DOES BECAUSE I'M SUPER CULTURED.

owl_pellet posted:

Anyone have thoughts on the Samsung S20 FE vs. the Google Pixel 5? Both cost the same, and except for the RAM in the Pixel 5 the S20 FE has it beat in every area. The usual Samsung bloatware really makes me hesitate though. I have a Pixel 1 now and I really like it but it is getting long in the tooth.

Samsung bloatware has gotten increasingly absurd. They do push notification spam for new Samsung products, and banner ads in stock apps.

From a pure performance standpoint it's not a killer. Phones are fast enough now that fetching a few ad images for your phone dialer isn't going to kill anything. But, you still end up with ads in your dialer, and the stock weather app, and your notificaNEW SAMSUNG GALAXY AVAILABLE NOWtions. If you don't like bloatware, stay away from Samsung.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Space Gopher posted:

Samsung bloatware has gotten increasingly absurd. They do push notification spam for new Samsung products, and banner ads in stock apps.

From a pure performance standpoint it's not a killer. Phones are fast enough now that fetching a few ad images for your phone dialer isn't going to kill anything. But, you still end up with ads in your dialer, and the stock weather app, and your notificaNEW SAMSUNG GALAXY AVAILABLE NOWtions. If you don't like bloatware, stay away from Samsung.

I haven't seen this yet but I pretty aggressively disable things. To the point I pay for this package disabler to help with the issue. Worked on my s7 w/ att+Samsung bloat, seems to be working with this S20 ultra. Bixby and all 3 integrated Facebook processes are gone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kinder.pksafety

This is the list so far:


It so has the ability to add things to a widget so that you can cancel toggle on/off things you want around but not on all the time.

H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Oct 6, 2020

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

Space Gopher posted:

Samsung bloatware has gotten increasingly absurd. They do push notification spam for new Samsung products, and banner ads in stock apps.

From a pure performance standpoint it's not a killer. Phones are fast enough now that fetching a few ad images for your phone dialer isn't going to kill anything. But, you still end up with ads in your dialer, and the stock weather app, and your notificaNEW SAMSUNG GALAXY AVAILABLE NOWtions. If you don't like bloatware, stay away from Samsung.

Their TVs do this too, it's gotten really egregious on TVs. Ads are showing up all over the UI where they weren't there before.

Uthor
Jul 9, 2006

Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.
I'm glad my TV is like ten years old and that all it does is display the signal that my receiver sends it. My only interaction with it is turning it on and off.

Impotence
Nov 8, 2010
Lipstick Apathy

Twerk from Home posted:

Their TVs do this too, it's gotten really egregious on TVs. Ads are showing up all over the UI where they weren't there before.

Don't forget that Samsung also uploads what you're watching regardless of method (similar to Shazam). There is basically no opt out. I think it's egregious bullshit that a $1-2k phone still has unremovable push ads.

H110Hawk posted:

I haven't seen this yet but I pretty aggressively disable things. To the point I pay for this package disabler to help with the issue. Worked on my s7 w/ att+Samsung bloat, seems to be working with this S20 ultra. Bixby and all 3 integrated Facebook processes are gone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kinder.pksafety

This is the list so far:


It so has the ability to add things to a widget so that you can cancel toggle on/off things you want around but not on all the time.

IIRC, OTA updates will roll these back or reinstall/reenable them

Impotence fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 6, 2020

howdoesishotweb
Nov 21, 2002
Are any of the iPhone upgrade plans worth it?

My employer reimburses me for phone hardware and plan costs, and I keep it. My plan was to hold on to my iPhone 11 Pro for a year or two, get a 12 or 13 at some point, and sell this one used. Is getting an upgrade plan through Verizon or Apple a better deal?

Impotence
Nov 8, 2010
Lipstick Apathy

AlexDeGruven posted:

Yeah. I have a shitton of Verizon lines already and if it was compatible, I would have just added it to our unlimited for $20/mo.

I ended up buying the 3 month Mint 3gb SIM, which should be sufficient to evaluate the phone.

Best buy just put this on special, 3mo for $30 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/mint-mobile-3-month-prepaid-sim-card-kit/6022211.p?skuId=6022211

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Biowarfare posted:

Don't forget that Samsung also uploads what you're watching regardless of method (similar to Shazam). There is basically no opt out. I think it's egregious bullshit that a $1-2k phone still has unremovable push ads.


IIRC, OTA updates will roll these back or reinstall/reenable them

I will spend sort of as much time on the phone with samsung as it requires to make that go away. I haven't hooked my LG TV up to internet due to that sort of bullshit. So far so good. My last phone I disabled all the OTA updates using this same application.

Renegret
May 26, 2007

THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*


Cat Army Sworn Enemy
I'm a big ole phone dummy. I've been on a T-Mobile family plan with my parents from back from the old Nokia Brick days, and I've just been buying unlocked phones for the past few years. Currently I have a Moto G5S Plus and I loving hate it. Plus we just moved a year ago and I have no service in my own home. Sure I can fight with T-Mobile to send me a booster, but we get semi-frequent power outages and I don't want to lose service when that happens.

I'm going to use this opportunity to buy a Pixel 5 and switch to a Verizon prepaid plan but I don't know the best way to go about doing this. When I try to pre-order the phone through verizon's website, it only lets me select unlimited plans. Pre-orders aren't up on google's website for the Verizon locked phones, but they are for the unlocked phones.

...why would you ever get the verizon locked phone when you can just get the unlocked version instead?

Just to confirm, it should work if I buy the unlocked Pixel5 from Google, then when it arrives, switch to verizon pre-paid and just BYOD? Or should I just wait for the 29th?

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer

Renegret posted:

I'm a big ole phone dummy. I've been on a T-Mobile family plan with my parents from back from the old Nokia Brick days, and I've just been buying unlocked phones for the past few years. Currently I have a Moto G5S Plus and I loving hate it. Plus we just moved a year ago and I have no service in my own home. Sure I can fight with T-Mobile to send me a booster, but we get semi-frequent power outages and I don't want to lose service when that happens.

I'm going to use this opportunity to buy a Pixel 5 and switch to a Verizon prepaid plan but I don't know the best way to go about doing this. When I try to pre-order the phone through verizon's website, it only lets me select unlimited plans. Pre-orders aren't up on google's website for the Verizon locked phones, but they are for the unlocked phones.

...why would you ever get the verizon locked phone when you can just get the unlocked version instead?

Just to confirm, it should work if I buy the unlocked Pixel5 from Google, then when it arrives, switch to verizon pre-paid and just BYOD? Or should I just wait for the 29th?

Yeah, Verizon literally won’t sell you the Pixel 5 as a pre order for a prepaid plan. The prepaid plans are fine, but the word is bare bones. The system def can’t do stuff like that.

Buy the unlocked phone, then you can go to the local Verizon store and get a prepaid SIM card and be fine.

Renegret
May 26, 2007

THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*


Cat Army Sworn Enemy

Duckman2008 posted:

Yeah, Verizon literally won’t sell you the Pixel 5 as a pre order for a prepaid plan. The prepaid plans are fine, but the word is bare bones. The system def can’t do stuff like that.

Buy the unlocked phone, then you can go to the local Verizon store and get a prepaid SIM card and be fine.

Great, thanks!

I'm assuming that I can get them to ship me a prepaid SIM if I set it all up online? Even though my local Costco has a Verizon Kiosk so I can just go there out of convenience if it comes down to it. I'm just lazy.

I really don't need anything crazy anyway and bare bones is fine for me. I don't even want all that poo poo that comes bundled with the unlimited plans, and even before COVID I rarely went over 3GB of data used a month. The only reason I'm considering Verizon over a cheaper MVNO is due to the terrible reception in my neighborhood. The whole point of me switching is so I can have such luxuries such as, making phone calls from my own home.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Renegret posted:

Great, thanks!

I'm assuming that I can get them to ship me a prepaid SIM if I set it all up online? Even though my local Costco has a Verizon Kiosk so I can just go there out of convenience if it comes down to it. I'm just lazy.

I really don't need anything crazy anyway and bare bones is fine for me. I don't even want all that poo poo that comes bundled with the unlimited plans, and even before COVID I rarely went over 3GB of data used a month. The only reason I'm considering Verizon over a cheaper MVNO is due to the terrible reception in my neighborhood. The whole point of me switching is so I can have such luxuries such as, making phone calls from my own home.

You might see how google fi works, or are those on t-mobile towers? You could in theory test it out right on your new pixel.

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer

Renegret posted:

Great, thanks!

I'm assuming that I can get them to ship me a prepaid SIM if I set it all up online? Even though my local Costco has a Verizon Kiosk so I can just go there out of convenience if it comes down to it. I'm just lazy.

I really don't need anything crazy anyway and bare bones is fine for me. I don't even want all that poo poo that comes bundled with the unlimited plans, and even before COVID I rarely went over 3GB of data used a month. The only reason I'm considering Verizon over a cheaper MVNO is due to the terrible reception in my neighborhood. The whole point of me switching is so I can have such luxuries such as, making phone calls from my own home.

I think online you should be able to order a SIM card. I assume Costco can sell prepaid but I can’t say 100% for sure.

Renegret
May 26, 2007

THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*


Cat Army Sworn Enemy

H110Hawk posted:

You might see how google fi works, or are those on t-mobile towers? You could in theory test it out right on your new pixel.

Fi is on T-Mobile. But how would I test it?

I partly suspect that my phone has a lovely antenna because my parents have okayish reception when they're over, and my wife is on a Sprint MVNO and she has okayish reception too. (I was going to switch to that MVNO but that's a saga in itself). But I never really considered Fi because the pricing scheme turned me off and it doesn't actually seem all that much cheaper in practice, especially compared to the verizon 5 gig prepaid plan. But hey, if the plan is 5G compatible, and I'm getting a 5G phone, I guess it's worth considering.

Regardless, I just want off my parent's plan so, might as well switch. I'm very open to options.

Renegret fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Oct 7, 2020

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

Apparently my 7 year old s3 is chock full of security holes so I should get a new phone. Not really worried about the plan because I can change that whenever.

Country/Provider: France/Free but probably going to change soon

Current contract status: I guess I can change whenever, but I'm on sim only plans and would like to stay that way.

Budget (phone/plan): Ideally not more than 200 euros? I don't think I need something super expensive for what I use it for.

Features I know I want: I have these apps installed: whatsapp, messenger, gboard, awful app, hangouts dialer, chrome. I don't use my phone for much more than messaging and calling, the awful app and occasionally surfing the internet.

I'd like something with decent battery life, probably dump some mp3s on it to listen to music for long trips and whatever. The s3 was a pretty good size, so something around that size would be nice?

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

ilmucche posted:

Apparently my 7 year old s3 is chock full of security holes so I should get a new phone. Not really worried about the plan because I can change that whenever.

Country/Provider: France/Free but probably going to change soon

Current contract status: I guess I can change whenever, but I'm on sim only plans and would like to stay that way.

Budget (phone/plan): Ideally not more than 200 euros? I don't think I need something super expensive for what I use it for.

Features I know I want: I have these apps installed: whatsapp, messenger, gboard, awful app, hangouts dialer, chrome. I don't use my phone for much more than messaging and calling, the awful app and occasionally surfing the internet.

I'd like something with decent battery life, probably dump some mp3s on it to listen to music for long trips and whatever. The s3 was a pretty good size, so something around that size would be nice?

I loved the s8 for this and that's about what they cost.

owlhawk911
Nov 8, 2019

come chill with me, in byob

ilmucche posted:

Apparently my 7 year old s3 is chock full of security holes so I should get a new phone. Not really worried about the plan because I can change that whenever.

Country/Provider: France/Free but probably going to change soon

Current contract status: I guess I can change whenever, but I'm on sim only plans and would like to stay that way.

Budget (phone/plan): Ideally not more than 200 euros? I don't think I need something super expensive for what I use it for.

Features I know I want: I have these apps installed: whatsapp, messenger, gboard, awful app, hangouts dialer, chrome. I don't use my phone for much more than messaging and calling, the awful app and occasionally surfing the internet.

I'd like something with decent battery life, probably dump some mp3s on it to listen to music for long trips and whatever. The s3 was a pretty good size, so something around that size would be nice?

you can get a super stable android 7 running on the s3 still, if yours is the i9300 i'd be interested in picking it up after you upgrade. international s3 and blackberry torch 9810 are still my all-time favourite phones

gay for gacha posted:

I loved the s8 for this and that's about what they cost.

s8 is much larger tho

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

If I root my phone to put android 7 on it will that clean up a bunch of the security issues? Be a drat sight cheaper than buying a new phone

owlhawk911
Nov 8, 2019

come chill with me, in byob

ilmucche posted:

If I root my phone to put android 7 on it will that clean up a bunch of the security issues? Be a drat sight cheaper than buying a new phone

all the ones between 4 and 7, none of the ones between 7 and... what is it, 10 now?

ClassActionFursuit
Mar 15, 2006

ilmucche posted:

If I root my phone to put android 7 on it will that clean up a bunch of the security issues? Be a drat sight cheaper than buying a new phone

4 versions out of date versus 8 versions, plus it'd be running software written by someone you can't trust--seems like six of one, half dozen of another.

Honestly if picking up a cheap phone, any of which would be many times faster and more usable than the one you've got, is outside your means and you've already been using this device for seven years without any reason to give it up and nothing's happened to you yet, I'd say gently caress it and not get a new phone until you're absolutely forced to. It's gotten you this far, right? I say it's ride or die at this point.

It's amazing there are still 3G networks for your phone to connect to, now that I think about it. Most of America's are gone and what's left barely work and have almost no coverage.

If you still want a new phone I'll let others recommend since I'm not in Europe and don't know what low cost devices are available to you but I'd say you're better off not buying now, saving up a little, and buying a phone that's better than bottom of the barrel since you seem to be willing to keep yours for a while. Might as well have a good one for those first few years.

owlhawk911 posted:

all the ones between 4 and 7, none of the ones between 7 and... what is it, 10 now?

11

owlhawk911
Nov 8, 2019

come chill with me, in byob

LastInLine posted:

4 versions out of date versus 8 versions, plus it'd be running software written by someone you can't trust--seems like six of one, half dozen of another.

Honestly if picking up a cheap phone, any of which would be many times faster and more usable than the one you've got, is outside your means and you've already been using this device for seven years without any reason to give it up and nothing's happened to you yet, I'd say gently caress it and not get a new phone until you're absolutely forced to. It's gotten you this far, right? I say it's ride or die at this point.

It's amazing there are still 3G networks for your phone to connect to, now that I think about it. Most of America's are gone and what's left barely work and have almost no coverage.

If you still want a new phone I'll let others recommend since I'm not in Europe and don't know what low cost devices are available to you but I'd say you're better off not buying now, saving up a little, and buying a phone that's better than bottom of the barrel since you seem to be willing to keep yours for a while. Might as well have a good one for those first few years.


11

s3 was 4g yo

and lineage is a pretty big name in roms, i trust them way more than any of the bloatware packing oems

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

Yeah the s3 can do 4g. If I disable mms without me hitting receive and don't download poo poo that reduces my risk yeah? Internet I use is pretty much youtube and twitter from forums links.

Oh I check my gmail too

ilmucche fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Oct 11, 2020

ClassActionFursuit
Mar 15, 2006

owlhawk911 posted:

s3 was 4g yo

and lineage is a pretty big name in roms, i trust them way more than any of the bloatware packing oems

Most S3s weren't but I know some variants were. As for Lineage, they can be as big as they want but they can't backport security patches that were never made and they simply don't exist for the chipset in question.

ilmucche posted:

Yeah the s3 can do 4g. If I disable mms without me hitting receive and don't download poo poo that reduces my risk yeah? Internet I use is pretty much youtube and twitter from forums links.

Oh I check my gmail too

That's a decent practice, sure. Like I said you've made it this far anyway. What's the worst that can happen? At click fraud, signing you up for paid SMS scams, and ransomware? Live dangerously.

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer
I had the Galaxy S3 in 2012 (the year is was debuted). Kudos it has lasted this long, but man, I would upgrade. Not just security, but at some point the apps are gonna stop working right with it.

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Paradoxish
Dec 19, 2003

Will you stop going crazy in there?
So here's a dumb question that I hate to even ask, but are there any remotely reliable phones with physical keypads left that aren't flip phones? My girlfriend's dad has severe vision issues that make using a phone somewhat difficult, but he could definitely manage to use a smartphone if he tried. He's also stubborn, however, and he wants something with buttons that's not a flip phone. He's basically been going without a phone for almost a year now and it's making everyone who gives a poo poo about him insanely anxious since those severe vision problems also mean that he sometimes has accidents. He still works and he still rides his bike everywhere, so it'd be great to find something that meets his criteria so he'll actually keep it and use it.

For what it's worth, I'm not really asking about phones that are accessible for someone with vision problems or easy to use for someone who isn't familiar with technology. He's a smart guy and he'll manage to figure out whatever, it just needs to meet the specific requirements of having physical buttons and not being a flip phone so he'll actually use the stupid thing.

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