I need to buy a phone for emergency. Just a basic phone or smartphone.
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Looking for basic phone.
Raghu Arramreddy
I need to buy a phone for emergency. Just a basic phone or smartphone.
Comments
For a basic phone, you can't go wrong with the Alcatel Go Flip. It's VoLTE compatible, so you'll get the best coverage on just about any network.
For smartphones, I recommend using Ting's personal shopper program and let us do the legwork for you.
How much are you trying to spend?
Do not buy this phone! The software is so slow it renders it unusable.
I'm also in the market for a phone SIM. I've put in a shopper request for ruggedized feature phone. Is https://help.ting.com/hc/en-us/articles/205428218-Finding-your-SIM-card really the limits of phone compatibility? There are no actual simple featured voice ruggedized phones on there. Alcatel Go Flip is probably best but, it's out of stock and not rugged. I'm sure your techs can order whatever phone (CAT, Plum, HomTom, etc.) and get it to connect.
I don't even want a camera. My 20 year old verizon flip lcd is actually perfect. A phone is for sending and receiving calls. I'd rather have SMS disabled on my account as well. Any better options for a basic ruggedized feature phone?
Hey George,
The Finding your SIM guide only lists the devices on CDMA that would need a SIM to activate/access LTE on our CDMA network so it's not a comprehensive list. There are CDMA feature phones out there that can activate without a SIM as they would only provide voice/3G service.
There was a recent update that rendered quite a few feature phones obsolete on the Sprint network but if you're leaning towards CDMA something like the Kyocera XTP seems right up your alley and may well be one of the options our shopper team suggests.
That's good news. So is the sky the limit on unlocked GSM phones? I'd rather use GSM anyhow. Could I get SMS/MMS disabled for my account on your end?
An unlocked and compatible GSM phone will work just fine but as Mitch noted you would want VoLTE if at all possible as that will make for a far better experience as far as your signal and call quality go. If you're checking specs that means confirming VoLTE is available and compatibility with the 700MHz/Band 12 to get the best service in the most areas.
For the account/device settings, you can disable features you don't need anytime right from your account. Once you activate your SIM you would be able to go in and customize those settings so you only pay for what you need. You also have the option to add alerts/caps on your usage (minutes, messages, or megabytes) as well to help control your bill and track usage easily.
You don't use AT&T frequencies/bands anymore? Ahh, guess you never used their LTE coverage. Thanks you guys are helpful. Rep just got me a GSIM so, I'll hunt for a phone. Your pick had a camera and I'm gonna shoot for something more minimalist.
We've always used the other "magenta" carrier and we have a cheat sheet for the corresponding frequencies that are compatible. Its a bit of a pain to track down that info sometimes for every phone you're looing at but a great resource is GSM arena or you can let our shopper team do the legwork for you.
Sorry to Mr. Arramreddy for hijacking his thread. I should probably wait a couple days for research but, have a line on a cheap CAT B25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_B25
This is only compatible with 1900Mhz PCS I believe. Your frequency sheet describes 700Mhz/B12 as supplementary. I certainly wouldn't use VoLTE or data on this line. 1700/2100MHz (AWS) is still the primary signal? Would 2G (getting dropped in 2020?) and 4G at 1900Mhz be a terrible fit with Tings network? Hell, I should just read up more on this. Probably need an android, apple, or blackberry to be compatible with Ting app software anyway...
With the Cat B25 it would only support a 2g connection, so although it is compatible the signal will not be as good as a VoLTE phone that supports Band 12.
I'd wait to see what the shopper team come up with as they will also consider your budget when making a selection unless you wanted to look at something like a Sonim XP7 which is pretty well built and supports LTE bands, including B12.
I too recommend that you NOT purchase the Alcatel Go Flip.
I got one a bit over a month ago and it's barely usable. Ting used to offer an earlier Alcatel phone that was "dumb" in the best sense of the term; a phone unencumbered with bad software.
The Go Flip uses a really bad implementation of KaIOS software that is unintuitive, much more limiting in what it allows you to configure, makes it difficult to perform basic tasks, slow and prone to locking up, and even inconsistent in its behavior. I knew I needed to get rid of it when I learned that it was sometimes failing to indicate that there were missed calls.
I DID go wrong when I purchased this model, and I've ordered a different model.
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