Help me bow out of the mobile phone market
September 28, 2017 9:33 AM Subscribe
I have a 4 year old iphone 5. It is slowly dying. I resent that as a consumer I am expected to fork over $100 every two years for a shitty disposable smart phone, and closer to $1000 for a nice one. In the past I have used a very old nokia brick when my smartphone dies but it doesn't support group texts anymore. Is there a phone that will last years and support group texts? Doesn't need to be a smart phone.
My dad seems to think that i can buy a chinese cell phone that is built to last but I don't trust him because he still has a flip phone.
I am beyond pissed that in addition to spending $100 per month I need to buy into this market of planned obsolescence. I understand that cell phones are not "buy it for life" but how do I bow out of this bullshit?
My dad seems to think that i can buy a chinese cell phone that is built to last but I don't trust him because he still has a flip phone.
I am beyond pissed that in addition to spending $100 per month I need to buy into this market of planned obsolescence. I understand that cell phones are not "buy it for life" but how do I bow out of this bullshit?
Motorola's are pretty good, I have one now. Blu's are also pretty good. You can get both of these unlocked on Amazon and get a SIM card w/o a contract from Tello or Ting for crazy cheap, depending on what you want to pay for.
posted by erattacorrige at 9:40 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by erattacorrige at 9:40 AM on September 28, 2017
Have you looked into having your iPhone battery replaced? It's tricky, but there are places that will do it for you. I bet that would help.
I'm considering getting a refurbished iPhone 5 from a local shop that specializes in this. That pretty good and I've bought two phones from them over the years.
posted by amtho at 9:49 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm considering getting a refurbished iPhone 5 from a local shop that specializes in this. That pretty good and I've bought two phones from them over the years.
posted by amtho at 9:49 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I just replaced my wife's dying iPhone 5s with... an iPhone SE, which is functionally the exact same phone with better guts and an improved camera.
If you're on AT&T you can grab one from bestbuy for $150 here and just pop in your sim from your old phone.
posted by Oktober at 9:51 AM on September 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
If you're on AT&T you can grab one from bestbuy for $150 here and just pop in your sim from your old phone.
posted by Oktober at 9:51 AM on September 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
Afraid I have no first hand experience of it, but it sounds like you might be interested in a Fairphone.
posted by penguin pie at 9:54 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by penguin pie at 9:54 AM on September 28, 2017
Group texts will work on all modern smart phones, so I think you just want to find a smartphone that can last a long time. I will say I have an Android and I know a lot of people with iPhones and sometimes the group texts can be weird -- either messages will be broken up into multiples, or sometimes when I send a group text, my phone sends individual messages to each person in the group instead of a threaded message in the chain of texts. It doesn't happen a ton, but for my family group chat we started using Whatsapp, which is an infinitely better texting experience and eliminates any compatibility issues. If you're worried about still having iMessage, I think you would still need an iPhone.
I have this phone, which cost $150 and has lasted me two years and still performs well enough that I don't plan on replacing it. I always go with budget phones and often after a year I will start to notice my phone isn't fast enough to keep up or I dropped the phone and broke it, or it's not holding a charge as well, but this one has survived several drops and still works great. Also worth noting: It's a Chinese phone and most phones are made in China, so I am not sure what your dad means. This phone, unlike all other phones I've owned, can't be opened up to replace the battery, so you may want one where you can replace the battery yourself. You could also look for phones that can survive drops and abuse, if that's a concern.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:54 AM on September 28, 2017
I have this phone, which cost $150 and has lasted me two years and still performs well enough that I don't plan on replacing it. I always go with budget phones and often after a year I will start to notice my phone isn't fast enough to keep up or I dropped the phone and broke it, or it's not holding a charge as well, but this one has survived several drops and still works great. Also worth noting: It's a Chinese phone and most phones are made in China, so I am not sure what your dad means. This phone, unlike all other phones I've owned, can't be opened up to replace the battery, so you may want one where you can replace the battery yourself. You could also look for phones that can survive drops and abuse, if that's a concern.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:54 AM on September 28, 2017
If you get an older smartphone with replaceable battery, invest in a good case. My Samsung Galaxy S3 lasted for years in an Otterbox case, even surviving a two storey fall onto concrete. I only switched it for a newer model because I needed more memory.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:00 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:00 AM on September 28, 2017
Yeah, if it's just the battery, you can get a replacement. My mom upgraded her iPhone and gave me her old iPhone 5s with a new battery (she said she paid $75 for it at the AT&T store) and I can use it all day and it's still at 75% charge when I go to bed.
posted by jabes at 10:03 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jabes at 10:03 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I just replaced my wife's dying iPhone 5s with... an iPhone SE, which is functionally the exact same phone with better guts and an improved camera.
If you're on AT&T you can grab one from bestbuy for $150 here and just pop in your sim from your old phone.
I just replaced my old 5s with an SE, and it's working great--a good option at not much cost. I also paid $60 for a fix-a-phone place with good reviews to pop a new battery into my old phone, which is now being used by my daughter with no issues. (The Apple store would have done it for $80, not too much more.) My whole family uses iPhones, so it's convenient for us to stick with them, and you can absolutely do that without spending $1000.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:06 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you're on AT&T you can grab one from bestbuy for $150 here and just pop in your sim from your old phone.
I just replaced my old 5s with an SE, and it's working great--a good option at not much cost. I also paid $60 for a fix-a-phone place with good reviews to pop a new battery into my old phone, which is now being used by my daughter with no issues. (The Apple store would have done it for $80, not too much more.) My whole family uses iPhones, so it's convenient for us to stick with them, and you can absolutely do that without spending $1000.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:06 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
Do you have any reason to be on "a plan"? The math never made any sense to me. Why people do this, I don't know.
The recipe: Get a solid unlocked Android phone, cheap or fancy. Consider used (you can easily get a OnePlus One, a decent phone, for under $100). Spend a couple hours and learn how to root and flash the phone, and put something like LineageOS on it. Get an unlimited monthly plan. There are many ~$50. If you don't like it, just pick another plan, because you are not locked in. If the phone dies in a year, get another one, because now you know what to do.
This has worked for me for years--it blows my mind how much people spend on their phones by opting in to "plans" that they are so often unhappy with. But I'm probably missing something.
posted by quarterframer at 10:07 AM on September 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
The recipe: Get a solid unlocked Android phone, cheap or fancy. Consider used (you can easily get a OnePlus One, a decent phone, for under $100). Spend a couple hours and learn how to root and flash the phone, and put something like LineageOS on it. Get an unlimited monthly plan. There are many ~$50. If you don't like it, just pick another plan, because you are not locked in. If the phone dies in a year, get another one, because now you know what to do.
This has worked for me for years--it blows my mind how much people spend on their phones by opting in to "plans" that they are so often unhappy with. But I'm probably missing something.
posted by quarterframer at 10:07 AM on September 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
I paid 225 for a new unlocked motorola with a spiffy camera. One year old and going strong. I use Republic, one of several bring your own phone plans. (if you go with them, would be nice to get a referral that I could donate) Any companies like Verizon, Sprint, etc., that advertise that strongly are making big profits. I'd rather not not play that game.
posted by theora55 at 10:26 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by theora55 at 10:26 AM on September 28, 2017
Note that some recent Motorolas don't have user-replaceable batteries, even though you can open them up and see the battery right there.
posted by ropeladder at 10:41 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by ropeladder at 10:41 AM on September 28, 2017
Best answer: You can get a maxed out iPhone SE for $400. This is probably the most repairable phone on the market, considering the relatively unchanged formfactor over the last few years.
posted by oceanjesse at 10:49 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by oceanjesse at 10:49 AM on September 28, 2017
Keep in mind that with older phones, once they go out of their support lifecycle and stop getting security updates, they become risky to use. And low end ones may have extremely long delays to get security patches, even when they are theoretically still supported. Just getting a random SMS blasted out by a virus could infect you. Right now, mobile malware is still fairly uncommon but I strongly suspect that will change in the not too distant future.
The company that bought the rights to use the Nokia name is bringing out a revamped version of the 3310 and some other candy bar style devices but it's not clear whether they support group SMS. However, even the one that's about to come out only supports 3g and carriers are starting to limit their support for older networks in favor of 4g, so you may find yourself having trouble with signal in some areas.
in addition to spending $100 per month
So switch to a lower cost prepaid plan. My cell phone bill's been under $40/month for the past five years. You can get it cheaper if you forgo data entirely and only use internet features on Wifi.
posted by Candleman at 11:05 AM on September 28, 2017
The company that bought the rights to use the Nokia name is bringing out a revamped version of the 3310 and some other candy bar style devices but it's not clear whether they support group SMS. However, even the one that's about to come out only supports 3g and carriers are starting to limit their support for older networks in favor of 4g, so you may find yourself having trouble with signal in some areas.
in addition to spending $100 per month
So switch to a lower cost prepaid plan. My cell phone bill's been under $40/month for the past five years. You can get it cheaper if you forgo data entirely and only use internet features on Wifi.
posted by Candleman at 11:05 AM on September 28, 2017
Best answer: Keep in mind that with older phones, once they go out of their support lifecycle and stop getting security updates, they become risky to use.
This. Ironically, if you want longevity without the hassle of rooting things, Apple usually makes the best phones for making sure security isn't part of the problem.
The iPhone SE mentioned upthread has a 64-bit architecture and the same amount, 2GB, of RAM just like a base model iPhone 8 which should be extremely encouraging in how long the OS will be updated.
This is probably going to be a huge thing going forward with things like Stagefright and ExpensiveWall showing that the mobile attack space is only just heating up.
posted by Talez at 11:33 AM on September 28, 2017
This. Ironically, if you want longevity without the hassle of rooting things, Apple usually makes the best phones for making sure security isn't part of the problem.
The iPhone SE mentioned upthread has a 64-bit architecture and the same amount, 2GB, of RAM just like a base model iPhone 8 which should be extremely encouraging in how long the OS will be updated.
This is probably going to be a huge thing going forward with things like Stagefright and ExpensiveWall showing that the mobile attack space is only just heating up.
posted by Talez at 11:33 AM on September 28, 2017
And even if you're keeping your OS up to date with third parties, people are uncovering holes in the Wi-Fi chips used in mobile phones which need to be patched with updated vendor firmware. Can you be assured that third parties are keeping on top of this? Do you even want to be looking out for this?
It's a big big world out there and there are a lot of people looking to pwn handsets to send a lot of premium messages.
posted by Talez at 11:37 AM on September 28, 2017
It's a big big world out there and there are a lot of people looking to pwn handsets to send a lot of premium messages.
posted by Talez at 11:37 AM on September 28, 2017
Best answer: There are at least two factors here, if not more. First, the iPhone 5 is no longer supported. It won't get OS updates, Apple won't repair it, and compared to more recent models it has significantly slower hardware. It was released five years ago. The iPhone 5s (released in September 2013, discontinued March 2016) introduced Apple's currently-supported chip architecture (64-bit vs 32-bit in the iPhone 5) and TouchID. It is still supported by iOS 11, which was just released. The iPhone SE (released March 2016 and still for sale) jumped up two processor generations from the iPhone 5s and should have at least the same supported lifespan. If you're even remotely interested in staying within the iOS/smartphone world, you should just buy an iPhone SE, as other people in this thread have said.
Second, your plan seems awfully expensive for what it is. You should contact your provider and find out if you're paying for a plan that includes subsidized upgrades and maybe stop doing that. If you want to get off the treadmill, you should be buying your phone outright and paying for a right-sized plan. This is more expensive up front ($400 for a phone instead of $50 or free or whatever) but the longer you're able to use a phone the lower the eventual total cost. You should be able to find a prepaid plan that does everything you want. You may also be able to get a traditional postpaid plan without any upgrade subsidy for a much more reasonable monthly cost than what you're currently paying. We have two iPhones and two iPads on our plan and we pay $140/month for all of that (before a discount outside the scope of this discussion). We might even be able to pay less at this point, but I haven't done the math in a while. I do try to check new plans periodically to see if we could save money, and it sounds like you should maybe do that too.
posted by fedward at 11:38 AM on September 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
Second, your plan seems awfully expensive for what it is. You should contact your provider and find out if you're paying for a plan that includes subsidized upgrades and maybe stop doing that. If you want to get off the treadmill, you should be buying your phone outright and paying for a right-sized plan. This is more expensive up front ($400 for a phone instead of $50 or free or whatever) but the longer you're able to use a phone the lower the eventual total cost. You should be able to find a prepaid plan that does everything you want. You may also be able to get a traditional postpaid plan without any upgrade subsidy for a much more reasonable monthly cost than what you're currently paying. We have two iPhones and two iPads on our plan and we pay $140/month for all of that (before a discount outside the scope of this discussion). We might even be able to pay less at this point, but I haven't done the math in a while. I do try to check new plans periodically to see if we could save money, and it sounds like you should maybe do that too.
posted by fedward at 11:38 AM on September 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
Just a data point, but I've had cell phones for 25 years, and it's really only been NOW that it's been possible to have one really last and be functional in the current sense for more than 2 or 3 years.
posted by uberchet at 11:51 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by uberchet at 11:51 AM on September 28, 2017
Oops, I was wrong above re: my mom's new battery coming from the AT&T store. It was actually from the Apple Store.
posted by jabes at 12:06 PM on September 28, 2017
posted by jabes at 12:06 PM on September 28, 2017
If the battery life is the issue, as it often is, and you are minimally handy (i.e. you can use a screwdriver) you can get a battery replacement kit on amazon for $25. I've used this particular brand for both mine and my wife's iPhone 5s and it is super simple. It took about 20 minutes for the first one and 10 for the second one (once I knew what I was doing). Just follow the instructions carefully and you'll be golden. Or, you can have apple do it.
posted by zug at 12:52 PM on September 28, 2017
posted by zug at 12:52 PM on September 28, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. My husband and I did buy our phones outright and the $100 is our combined monthly bill. Before getting the iphone 5 I wasted money trying to get Republic Wireless to work for me and it was a disaster, maybe I should give another MVNO a try. The battery life on my phone is ok, it still works pretty well (I do baby it with an otterbox cover) so I'm just looking into the future, hoping to get another year out of it. I will keep it until it dies and then probably get an iphone SE. Thank you for all the great advice!
posted by pintapicasso at 1:06 PM on September 28, 2017
posted by pintapicasso at 1:06 PM on September 28, 2017
Here are some more tips on babying a older phone.
(1) Seriously, though, try a battery change if possible. A dying battery won't just cause shortened battery life but a lot of other issues.
(2) Give it some software TLC - I am an Android user so I don't know how to specifically do this for iPhones, but deleting unused apps, clearing app caches, freeing up extra storage, killing processes that run in the background, and so on, can put a new spring in the step.
posted by muddgirl at 1:27 PM on September 28, 2017
(1) Seriously, though, try a battery change if possible. A dying battery won't just cause shortened battery life but a lot of other issues.
(2) Give it some software TLC - I am an Android user so I don't know how to specifically do this for iPhones, but deleting unused apps, clearing app caches, freeing up extra storage, killing processes that run in the background, and so on, can put a new spring in the step.
posted by muddgirl at 1:27 PM on September 28, 2017
I am big fan of Swappa. I have bought and sold used phones there and never been disappointed.
posted by 4ster at 2:02 PM on September 28, 2017
posted by 4ster at 2:02 PM on September 28, 2017
I didn't have a smart phone, and just used little $16 flip phones, until my sister bought an iPhone 6 and gave me her iPhone 5. My mom wanted me to have a smart phone, so she kept the iPhone 5 on her family plan. I dropped it a ton, but I had it in an Otterbox case so it never suffered. Finally, the battery on the iphone 5 started failing and I looked into options.
I really hated the idea of having an expensive phone and of my mom paying for the plan, so I eventually bought a $50 Android phone from Virgin Mobile, with a $36 a month plan, no contract. My husband has had this same phone for a year or two longer than I have, and he hasn't had to replace it yet. I can group text, and group text my family who are still on Apple phones. I'm mostly satisfied with everything about it, but I might upgrade in a few months to a similar phone with a better camera. We'll see.
posted by Squeak Attack at 3:37 PM on September 28, 2017
I really hated the idea of having an expensive phone and of my mom paying for the plan, so I eventually bought a $50 Android phone from Virgin Mobile, with a $36 a month plan, no contract. My husband has had this same phone for a year or two longer than I have, and he hasn't had to replace it yet. I can group text, and group text my family who are still on Apple phones. I'm mostly satisfied with everything about it, but I might upgrade in a few months to a similar phone with a better camera. We'll see.
posted by Squeak Attack at 3:37 PM on September 28, 2017
$100 usually is too low to get a modern smart phone in decent condition, while $1000 is extreme overkill. Got my first one in 2008 for about $250, and even since then have been in the $150 to $250 bracket.
I've used glyde.com twice without problems.
posted by aerotive at 9:41 AM on September 29, 2017
I've used glyde.com twice without problems.
posted by aerotive at 9:41 AM on September 29, 2017
I haven't looked into it in a while, but I know that Samsung had a line of flip-phones that did proper MMS back in 2013. When sold via Verizon they were called the "Convoy" series, but I assume similar models were sold unlocked for GSM and other carriers.
I also know that LG makes a line of modern flip phones (with very long battery life, like a week) that do MMS and group texts fine, assuming you are OK with using the T9 input. I know a few people who have them, but they bought them overseas (in Korea, to be specific). There is at least one new flip phone that runs Android (the Gentle?), which I would avoid if you are interested in longevity because Android needs regular security patches (as does iOS), but one running some cut-down embedded OS is probably less of a target.
At any rate, MMS and group texting support is not a smartphone-only feature. You can get that in a more basic phone if you want to, without running a full-fledged Android or iOS phone with the upgrade treadmill that implies.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:59 AM on September 29, 2017
I also know that LG makes a line of modern flip phones (with very long battery life, like a week) that do MMS and group texts fine, assuming you are OK with using the T9 input. I know a few people who have them, but they bought them overseas (in Korea, to be specific). There is at least one new flip phone that runs Android (the Gentle?), which I would avoid if you are interested in longevity because Android needs regular security patches (as does iOS), but one running some cut-down embedded OS is probably less of a target.
At any rate, MMS and group texting support is not a smartphone-only feature. You can get that in a more basic phone if you want to, without running a full-fledged Android or iOS phone with the upgrade treadmill that implies.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:59 AM on September 29, 2017
Response by poster: Sadly my iphone is no longer making noises so I am replacing it with an SE. Thank you for the insight.
posted by pintapicasso at 4:10 AM on October 6, 2017
posted by pintapicasso at 4:10 AM on October 6, 2017
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posted by muddgirl at 9:37 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]