I'm looking for a smart phone for cheap.

September 28, 2012 12:19 PM

What is the best $99 smartphone currently available from Verizon?

For many reasons, I am begrudgingly, heel-draggingly, kicking-and-screamingly going to have to upgrade to a smartphone here in the next couple of weeks. My beloved dumbphone is on the verge of death, and not surprisingly, nobody makes good dumbphones any more and I can't justify spending $50-80 on a dumbphone inferior to the one I have now.

My wife has an iPhone 4s, and I thought I'd probably get one of those when the 5 came out, because at that point Apple would (and did) drop the price of the 4s to $99. Then the iOS6 map fiasco happened, and I thought to myself "wait a minute, self. You help improve software for a living. Why are you automatically going to buy something that isn't the best it can be right now?"

So I'm expanding my search, and now I'm open to finding the best $99 smartphone that Verizon currently sells. Here's my parameters:

1. I don't do social networking, nor do I want to, so Facebook/Twitter integration doesn't matter to me
2. I might end up using the phone as a secondary music player, so decent music playback (either native or by app) is important
3. A decent-to-good web browsing experience is important.
4. Availability of apps is nice, but I'm thinking both Android and Apple will have anything I'll need, app-wise, as I'm not a sophisticated/power smartphone user, nor do I want to become one
5. Mapping is something I'll probably use fairly heavily
6. $99 is a hard cap. So please, as well-intentioned as you might be, hold back the "but for $149 you could get so much more!" type coments - I don't want a smartphone in the first place, and because of that, I'm not spending more than $100 on one.
7. I'm a Verizon customer, as is my wife, and our contract isn't up for a year yet so I'm tied to Verizon offerings (which is fine by me).

posted by pdb to technology (19 answers total)

Get a Galaxy Nexus. Review.
posted by subtle-t at 12:23 PM on September 28, 2012

Disclaimer: I have not personally verified this offer.

Go to a physical Wal-Mart. Get a Galaxy Nexus for a dollar. It's a great phone and as a Nexus model it gets every Android update quickly. Mapping is Android's specialty, and they've got a very solid music player too.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:25 PM on September 28, 2012

I just bought a 4S last week, and the maps (in my experience, YMMV) are totally fine. Also, I've found that waze, a free crowd-sourced navigation app, blows the doors off the built-in Android maps and pretty much every other mapping app I've ever used. For all the hype, I actually had a terrible experience with Android maps/navigation and they're a major reason I'm done with that platform. And don't get me started on the android music player. My experience was:
1. Open the Music app
2. Go make a sandwich
3. Come back and hope the app has finished loading.

Keeping music synced with a playlist in iTunes was also a huge headache. I'm sure it's great if you only have a few albums, but if you plan on stuffing with 10-20 GB of music you're going to have a bad time.

Whatever you get, be sure to check the buyer's remorse rules for your state. If you're unhappy with your purchase you can often bail out and get a refund if you don't wait too long.
posted by mullingitover at 12:29 PM on September 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think the posters above have it.

That said, these would be the most attractive alternatives to me:
HTC Droid Incredible 4G
Droid RAZR M

One caveat about the Nexus on Verizon is that its not quite like the Nexus elsewhere. Verizon still controls updates and they have been a bit cagey about support IIRC.

Mulling: If you go into a store today and buy a new Android phone and it takes a discernable amount of time to open any app, it's defective. The amount of CPU/RAM horsepower these get now is hilarious.
posted by selfnoise at 12:34 PM on September 28, 2012

Just a single data point:

I bought the Galaxy Nexus when it came out, and I am still very happy with it. In fact, usually by this point in my phones life I am starting to eyeball new ones. No desire at all at this point.

The newest version of Android rolled out for the Nexus last week, so that is definitely a plus.
posted by PlutoniumX at 12:41 PM on September 28, 2012

Another thing: AFAICT the Nexus has the largest screen you can get for that price on Verizon. When using the phone as a navigator it's nice to have a large screen: I've really appreciated that about my GS III.
posted by selfnoise at 12:43 PM on September 28, 2012

Get the 4S. The Apple Map App scrap would be a dealbreaker...but it's not the only map app you can use. Waze, as noted above, is even more useful in a lot of cases than Google Maps because of traffic and hazard warnings.
posted by inturnaround at 12:58 PM on September 28, 2012

I love Waze for it's real-time crowd-sourced speed trap reporting. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to drive my a cop, flag the location on my phone and by the time I get to work, see half a dozen people sent a "thumbs up" letting me know I helped them avoid contributing to the local government's revenue stream.

Oh, and if I am going someplace and I'm not sure how to get there, Waze goes turn by turn nicely as well.

(I post this as I'm waiting for my iPhone 5 to sync up, it's replacing an iPhone 4.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 1:03 PM on September 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

I have a Galaxy Nexus. It kicks ass.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 1:21 PM on September 28, 2012

I'm pretty satisfied with the Razr. If the Razr max hits the $99, go with it for a better battery life than the base model.
posted by pappy at 1:28 PM on September 28, 2012

Get on craigslist, search for 'Android' and 'Verizon' and limit your searches to $100 (or higher and try to haggle). Find which phone has the best review/rating online.
posted by wongcorgi at 3:01 PM on September 28, 2012

Amazon has the Galaxy Nexus for $49 on Verizon. It's a truly fantastic phone. Jelly Bean is amazing. Maps and Navigation are insane. It's fast, capable, and still works as a great phone. Love it.
posted by disillusioned at 3:28 PM on September 28, 2012

After three Android phones, two being of the Nexus line, I can't in good conscience recommend the Galaxy Nexus. The fact is, Android phones can be really great. Until they suddenly aren't anymore. And when they aren't, well, have you ever tried to RMA a cellphone? Impossible. So I'm switching to an iPhone, because if it breaks, I bring it to the store, maybe pay a fee but usually not, and either have a fixed phone or a brand new one. In under an hour.

Case in point: My Nexus S has been wonderful for 18 months. Just as my wife and I decided we might get the iPhone 5, BOTH of our Nexus S' have begun to spontaneously reboot. My phone is useless now because I can't get it to stay on.

Get the 4s, you'll be happy you did.
posted by InsanePenguin at 4:49 PM on September 28, 2012

I do a lot of mobile web testing for work and have used dozens of different smartphones. For web browsing and other basic tasks, I wouldn't recommend anything but an iPhone. Even the 3GS is tolerable, but I'd get the 4S at this time if I were you.

None of the Android, BB, WP, Nokia offerings I've seen come even close in terms of smoothness and ease of use.
posted by Nameless at 10:18 PM on September 28, 2012

Yes, Apple really dropped the ball with Maps, but only as far as pushing it out way too soon. It will get better, and fast. Remember this lesson when iOS 7 comes out and you're itching to upgrade right away.
posted by Nameless at 10:21 PM on September 28, 2012

For me, moving from my Verizon HTC Incredible (Android) to my new iPhone 4s was like going from a bicycle to a Rolls Royce. I have been assimilated.
posted by imjustsaying at 2:42 AM on September 29, 2012

Thanks all, you've given me a lot to ponder. I'll have to test drive the Nexus a bit to see what it's like, but I appreciate the help narrowing down my options.
posted by pdb at 9:38 AM on September 29, 2012

I suggested the Nexus, above. I should have mentioned that I switched to Android from iOS, just to offer up a different take than some of the other posters. I would never switch back and I'm an Apple person outside of phones.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 10:11 AM on September 29, 2012

I'm on an iPhone 4 running iOS 6 and on a drive-around-look-at-stuff vacation in an unfamiliar part of the country. Between the native map app and Waze - mostly the native app - I've had no trouble at all.
posted by rtha at 8:41 PM on September 29, 2012