Cheap Smart Phone

**Brucem** · 02-03-2021, 10:34 AM

I am looking at replacing my very dumb phone with a cheap smart phone that is capable of Covid 19 scanning. The current phone, a Nokia 3310 3G, is only used for very occasional texts, both in and out including appointment reminders from Doctor & Dentist. There are very seldom voice messages mainly to or from home. A camera would also be useful.

Has anyone any suggestions?

**1101** · 02-03-2021, 12:36 PM

1) define Cheap.
not being a smartarse, cheap varies by many hundreds of dollars . Some see $400 as a cheap phone .

2) what Telco provider are you with ?
Voda, Spark, 2degree have some 'locked' phones at cheaper than normal prices.

Im more than happy with My Moto G7+ (now unavailable?)
heres the cheaper Motorola 6 $229
https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MPH...tphone-2GB--32

Go too cheap on Android & it becomes a painfull experience
Also, "cheap" phones are often abandoned after release by manufacturer, so usually no updates or security patches on the cheapies
Check what version of Android a new phone has. Some cheapies may have obselete versions of Android .

Some Android phones are bastardized versions of Android , try and avoid those if possible.

Some chinese imports have non official Android installed. So when Google detected its a non authorized Android install, they Blacklist it & you cant download anything from the Google play store (so cant get the tracing app) . That hapened to my LG Tablet :-(

**piroska** · 03-03-2021, 08:01 AM

Any smart phone is capable. I have a very old one, thanks Kenj! Take a look on Trademe and sort by price....

**kenj** · 03-03-2021, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by piroska

Any smart phone is capable. I have a very old one, thanks Kenj! Take a look on Trademe and sort by price....

Good to hear it is still going OK

Ken

**piroska** · 03-03-2021, 12:37 PM

Yep, love it. Deleted some unwanted stuff off it, got a new case (and a spare) and it's great!!! I see no reason to chnage it.
Very happy, thank you again.

**Agent_24** · 04-03-2021, 03:00 PM

I wouldn't go with anything under $150...

As 1101 says, software updates are usually non-existent on budget phones, leaving you vulnerable to security risks or the inability to run some recent programs, potentially requiring the purchase of another phone in a couple of years.

Cheap ones are also often horribly slow, have very limited storage, and are likely to break sooner.

A Nokia 3310 on the other hand will outlast the known universe so if that's working for you otherwise, maybe just keep it!!

**1101** · 05-03-2021, 08:48 AM

They wanted something compatible with the Covid app, so that Nokia is a no go .

Many used phones may have also Android versions too old for the Covid app .
As above, save yourself some grief , just buy new. Look at PBTechs site , plenty there
Make sure the version of Android is at v6 to be covid app compatible, at least Android v9 to be reasonably current.
If the Android ver is stated , assume its horrendously old.

The Motorolla's seem to do a good job rolling out updates on the mid/cheapish phones, unlike many other brands

**bellbird** · 05-03-2021, 10:15 AM

I bought the Spark Plus 3 Smartphone for a family member. It has Android 9.0 op system. Smiths City ChCh currently has it for $89. Elsewhere it looks like prices are from about $110-$130. It has the Emergency Alert built in and is Covid Alert capable. Front cam 5MP, rear cam 2MP. The Spark Gold Plan for over 65's is great value at $12.99 per month. 50 texts, free unlimited calls to other Spark mobiles and landlines, 50min to other networks and 100MB data and free voicemail.

**yasir1** · 13-04-2021, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by 1101

1) define Cheap.
not being a smartarse, cheap varies by many hundreds of dollars . Some see $400 as a cheap phone .

2) what Telco provider are you with ?
Voda, Spark, 2degree have some 'locked' phones at cheaper than normal prices.

Im more than happy with My Moto G7+ (now unavailable?)
heres the cheaper Motorola 6 $229
https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MPH...tphone-2GB--32

Go too cheap on Android & it becomes a painfull experience
Also, "cheap" phones are often abandoned after release by manufacturer, so usually no updates or security patches on the cheapies
Check what version of Android a new phone has. Some cheapies may have obselete versions of Android .

Some Android phones are bastardized versions of Android , try and avoid those if possible.

Some chinese imports have non official Android installed. So when Google detected its a non authorized Android install, they Blacklist it & you cant download anything from the Google play store (so cant get the tracing app) . That hapened to my LG Tablet :-(

Thank you very much for sharing this information with us

And are you trying to say in simple words that cheap phones should not be used? Because they also unable to install tracing apps.

**piroska** · 14-04-2021, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by Agent_24

I wouldn't go with anything under $150...

As 1101 says, software updates are usually non-existent on budget phones, leaving you vulnerable to security risks or the inability to run some recent programs,

Cheap ones are also often horribly slow, have very limited storage, and are likely to break sooner.
!

Hah, son used to have cheap junk...they lasted quite well. Now he has seriously expensive and has had problems already...so it means nothing.
My so old (free) one is still capable of new apps.