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New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

arstechnica.com

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Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#31

Post by emerod »

StudentStuff wrote: post #24
ktpsns wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a link to a shop where to buy a smartphone for $5?

Sure, I bought a bunch of LG Sunrise phones, but the current offer seems much better: https://slickdeals.net/f/11329603-8gb-alcatel-pop-icon-2-lte... Brick and mortar only though, and stock varies. I usually power dial all the local stores, then go to the ones with the most stock and clean 'em out. Easy way to get a few dozen Androids in short order. Sadly, at the $5 price point Amazon and eBay will never beat Brick…

The [older, lower capacity] Pop Icon, by the way, is free right now with airtime. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-al...

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#32

Post by StudentStuff »

emerod wrote: post #28
ktpsns wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a link to a shop where to buy a smartphone for $5?

You can get one online from Tracfone for $10, but then you have to pay shipping. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-al...

Hence buying in store. Plus, pay in cash and your new burner phone is way less traceable! Use the White House Switchboard phone number (202-456-1414) when prompted for a rewards card for bonus confusion points :P

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#33

Post by pishpash »

tudelo wrote: post #13
StudentStuff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the idea, but with only 8GB of internal storage, using Progressive Web Apps for things like Reddit would be best.

Hah. I have a phone with 5GB (probably marketed as 6 but I don't remember) and you really can not have many apps installed at once. Add to it the fact that if you run something like Spotify it will cache like 1GB of data over a few days. I have something different every week. As a bonus, it keeps my home screen free of almost any icons...

It's the perpetual software treadmill, bloat because the hardware can support bloat. If phones were not all 64GB monsters, devs would learn to be disciplined.

Until the day phones give me next level miracles, there is no need for the specs they have. A good camera, a large battery, good ungimped radio bands, thems be thar necessities.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#34

Post by timlod »

> This also means the battery is—get this—replaceable! When you take off the back you can actually pull the battery out and—if you have an extra on hand—replace it with a fully charged battery. Amazing.

Not sure if this is meant to be a joke... My understanding that most lower-tier phones have replacable batteries, at least my last phones (from the Moto G series) had.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#35

Post by StudentStuff »

emerod wrote: post #31
StudentStuff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I bought a bunch of LG Sunrise phones, but the current offer seems much better: https://slickdeals.net/f/11329603-8gb-alcatel-pop-icon-2-lte... Brick and mortar only though, and stock varies. I usually power dial all the local stores, then go to the ones with the most stock and clean 'em out. Easy way to get a few dozen Androids in short order. Sadly, at the $5 price point Amazon and eBay will never beat Brick…

The [older, lower capacity] Pop Icon, by the way, is free right now with airtime. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-al...

Jeez, see, this is why low end Androids are never sold unlocked in the US.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#36

Post by lucideer »

tudelo wrote: post #11
jdietrich wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't get a 4x for that price, but you can get a 5A for under $100. For that price you'll get a Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, a surprisingly bright 720p display and a non-awful camera. I can only assume that these devices will sell for vastly below the listed price in their target markets, otherwise they're going to flop miserably. https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-5A-Global-Edition-5_0-...

These phones seem like really good deals... too good to be true? I'm in the market for a cheap phone coming from a moto E 1st gen and these seem like promising options.

Previous HN discussions about the Chinese company making them:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7748542

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12171276

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12787766

For people who just like their Android flavour, they also provide ROMs for other devices: http://en.miui.com/getrom.php?m=yes&mobile=2 Presumably the same suspicion of Chinese goods coming packaged with spyware would apply to those images too I guess.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#37

Post by MarcScott »

I'm now on my third "budget" phone, my last previous premium phone being a Nexus 4. I used a Moto G4 until I broke it, a Moto G5 until I broke it, and now have a new G5, which given my history will last me about 6 months. I break phones too often to fork out anything over about £150.

If I can get a sub £100 phone, that will run Google maps, an email client, a web browser and give me the ability to tether then sign me up.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#38

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

MarcScott wrote: post #37

I'm now on my third "budget" phone, my last previous premium phone being a Nexus 4. I used a Moto G4 until I broke it, a Moto G5 until I broke it, and now have a new G5, which given my history will last me about 6 months. I break phones too often to fork out anything over about £150. If I can get a sub £100 phone, that will run Google maps, an email client, a web browser and give me the ability to tether then sign me…

> I break phones too often

Could you stop doing that? Or get insurance that covers accidental damage. The premium will cost less than £150 every 6 months.

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#39

Post by bruceb »

StudentStuff wrote: post #30
Grazester wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go apps are stripped down version of their normal counterpart. These stripped down versions are smaller in size and maybe be optimized for slower internet services. Android Ones is still going well in places like India but Google usually has a say in what hardware is used on Android One phones as they push the updates for these devices. With Android Go any hardware can be used.

> Go apps are stripped down version of their normal counterpart. They're slightly smaller, but the update model is still a total mess. You can never uninstall the baked in Google Apps, and updates are extremely bulky (basically storing a 2nd copy of each Google app). > Android Ones is still going well in places like India The #1 & #2 non-Apple phone manufacturers are totally uninterested, and Xiaomi (the current Andr…

>Xiaomi (the current Android One leader) is effectively banned from India after spying on millions.

How are they banned? they have the best selling phones in India. They now beating Samsung https://www.neowin.net/news/xioami-trumps-samsung-in-indian-...

Re: New “Android Go” phones show how much you can get for $100

#40

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

As far as I'm concerned, the only question that matters is "What is the chain of responsibility for making security updates get to my phone?"

If the answer is "Google-Carrier-Me" or "Google-Vendor-Carrier-Me" and not "Google-Me", then fuck it sideways. I'm so done with Android until the update model stops being garbage.

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