
Walmart's $10 smartphone isn't actually $10 - rfjedwards
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp
======
ChuckMcM
From this article -- _" They're locked to Tracfone's network, and Tracfone has
a very punitive unlocking policy: you have to use this cheap, pretty lousy
Android phone for a year on Tracfone's network before you can unlock it."_

As opposed to the original iPhone which had a non-existent unlocking policy
:-)

~~~
mikestew
As did just about every other phone of that era. What would you say is the
state of that comparison today, in 2015?

~~~
ChuckMcM
The original conversation was that Walmart was selling a $10 phone that was
more powerful than the original iPhone which had been labelled by some in the
press as the "Jesus Phone". This offended the sensibilities of a number of
iPhone owners who have argued a number of side points to refute that
assertion. The article here pointed out how horrible the restrictions were on
unlocking so you were "trapped" using Tracfones crappy service for at least a
year. However, that fails to acknowledge that when it was first released, the
iPhone could not be unlocked and many felt its biggest weakness was the crappy
service from AT&T (I certainly did).

So today, with some legislation help, unlocking phones is not quite as
burdensome, and both Apple and Android makers have more carriers to choose
from given the amount of business they "swing". This LG phone and others like
it are totally adequate smartphones. Which only serves to illustrate the chasm
between where we started and where we are.

In alternate history speculation, had Microsoft released the Lumia 550 the
same year that Apple released the iPhone? Microsoft would have outsold and out
performed Apple in the smartphone market and Apple might never have gained the
necessary momentum to fuel its growth. But we know that Balmer didn't see it,
and as an employee working at Google when Android was being developed, Google
didn't see it either. The original Android phone concepts were very much like
Palm Pilots, not what you see today.

------
ck2
Are we going to do this every day now?

There are several "$10" phones out there and have been for the past couple
years.

I have a dozen various brands of android phones sitting on the desk in front
of me for testing, none were over $20.

Next Friday (black friday) there will be $5 phones, $10 phones and $20 phones.

Both Best Buy and Kmart will have this phone for $5 next Friday:

[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-paragon-4g-with-4gb-
me...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-paragon-4g-with-4gb-memory-no-
contract-cell-phone-black/4297500.p)

(net10 is tracfone, same no unlock policy)

You can even find middle range phones now for $20.

[https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/zte-
obsidi...](https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/zte-obsidian-
prepaid)

($20 phone with $40 airtime card - quad-core, 1GB of ram)

Yes Tracphone will not unlock the phone. But you can use mvnos on other phones
if you actually want a phone plan.

You can even get free phone service from services like RingPlus with
Sprint/Boost Mobile/Virgin Mobile phones and those phones are sometimes
$10-$20

------
droithomme
It's a few cents over $10 with tax, including free ship to store, no
additional purchase required.

Source: I bought it.

Minutes run $20 for 180 if you want to activate it, which is a fair price for
a pay as you go emergency phone, especially one running Android that includes
a data plan.

For a heavily used normal day to day phone sure, something else is better.

~~~
alwaysdoit
Is there anything stopping you from using it as a WiFi only device for $10?

~~~
jerguismi
Probably no, but is it a phone then?

~~~
sp332
Sure, if you use Skype or Google Hangouts you can call other phones.

~~~
bad_user
While you're right, depending on availability of Wifi is not very portable,
which decreases its utility.

Not sure how it is in the US, but in Romania we've got pretty good and cheap
4G-only Internet pre-pay cards. You can't call or receive phone calls, you
cannot send SMS, all you can do is to connect to the 3G/4G network. The price
is €5 for 1 GB, €7 for 3 GB, €15 for 13 GB of bandwidth. And you recharge
whenever you want, as this is not a monthly plan. And I have an Android that I
use with such a pre-pay card. It's like my personal 4G modem that I can also
use for Skype and stuff. And I was actually thinking of giving up my phone
number. If it weren't for my parents which are old-fashioned, I would.

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Broken_Hippo
It seems the author doesn't really understand the low-end pre-paid market.
Luckily I've escaped this, but for a long time, this has been what I could
easily afford. I had one that functioned best as a flashlight, but most
function well enough and are Much better than no phone - and these are better
than a non-smartphone. Limited power and space are things that people grow
accustomed to, much like trying to avoid using non-wifi internet. Most, but
not all, will understand that one will need a bit more money for working
service - though understandably, many are replacing or upgrading a phone and
don't need the minutes. A year lock on the phone doesn't seem like a horrible
thing since it is subsidised - as pointed out, there are other options that
cost less than replacing a car tire.

~~~
chrismcb
Why do you think e author didn't understand the low end market? It sounded to
me like the author was claiming the total cost of owning the phone was higher
than other lots end phone. That there were more expensive phone existed with
cheaper plans. And by more expensive I mean a few tens of dollars.

------
dogma1138
If it's made by LG I wonder how long until you could unlock it with one of the
5-10$ online mail the unlock code services, if it uses some standard LG
locking scheme that might already be possible. I've unlocked devices before
that weren't on the "unlock list" just by trying the most similar device to
that, that was pretty much the case when Nokia used to have 50 regional models
for the same phone, and while things have surely changed I don't think that
they've changed that much.

As a SHTF phone it's not that bad of a deal I have the new Microsoft Nokia 105
as an emergency and beach/club/night out phone it costs like 15 GBP unlocked.
No wifi and 2.XG only but it's 15GBP if I lose it I won't cry because it's the
price of 2-3 shots here in London. And for those that say I need my phone to
call Uber, well m.uber.com works on low end phones ;)

Oh and the most wonderful think about the Nokia it actually works as a phone
unlike pretty much every modern phone out there the reception is brilliant (2G
coverage is pretty universal) and as far as the voice quality goes it's by far
better than the iPhone 6S and the OnePlus I'm using atm it's much clearer even
in loud environments.

~~~
ck2
Note if you are in the USA, this is technically illegal under DMCA, but like
speeding, a great many people still do it.

~~~
yerich
As of 2014, it is explicitly legal to unlock a phone:

"Circumvention of a technological measure that restricts wireless telephone
handsets or other wireless devices from connecting to a wireless
telecommunications network ... may be initiated by the owner of any such
handset or other device ... solely in order to enable such owner or a family
member of such owner to connect to a wireless telecommunications network"

\- Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, 2014
([https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-
bill/1123...](https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-
bill/1123/text))

~~~
ck2
key word there is "owner"

do you "own" a (heavily) subsidized phone distributed by a specific carrier?

yes some people will argue, if you paid for it in a store it is "owned"

guess it all comes down to when corporations start asking the government to
jail people over this

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samspenc
As some of the comments in the article point out, you probably won't be
spending $10 on this phone to use it over a cellular network - rather, you
would probably just use it to connect over WiFi as an additional smart device.

It does have Android 4.4 with WiFi support - that should be enough to use as a
cheap additional smart device at home.

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vonklaus
often, when browsing website on mobile, and this is probably because I am a
tech savvy superuser, I use the "scroll" feature.

obviously, moving the page or "scrolling" as I've taken to calling it, isn't
typical behaviour. i really appreciate PC mag building on top of this feature.

with so little screen real estate available, I like them using as much as
possible to show me other things i might find interesting.

sure, it is almost impossible to read the current article, but the article is
someone describing a price tag. i am glad i can quickly consume the first
paragraph of many articles quickly, it gives me the insight and confidence to
espouse my opinion everywhere with little effort.

cheers pc mag.

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gravypod
Does anyone know if it has been unlocked and if Cyanogen Mod is running on one
of these? If those both happen, I will definitely buy this as a backup phone.
Hell, even using this as cellular modem in a log cabin would be cool.

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syedkarim
What is te cheapest smartphone (anything with wifi and a browser) that comes
unlocked and is not carrier-subsidized?

~~~
dogma1138
The Nokia Lumina 530 costs under 50 GBP on Aamzon SIM-Free without a carrier.
The Samsung Galaxy Y can also be found under 50 GBP without a carrier these
days, same goes for older S series mini phones. And if you just need a cheap
android phone then DealExtreme/Alibaba no-brand Chinese phones can also
usually be found under 50$.

Edit: The 520 costs 58$ on Aamzon US, the 530 cots 78$ both are unlocked and
quite good phones(decent hardware, great battery life) since they both run
Windows 10 these days you also get quite decent app support, not nearly as
good as Android as of yet but it's getting there.

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linuxkerneldev
I wonder if it can be rooted and reflashed with something completely
different.

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akerro
Ok, it's not 10$, but it's still few times cheaper than iPhone.

~~~
FussyZeus
You get what you pay for.

~~~
kzhahou
Exactly! It's great when customers can pay less and only get what they need.

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gPphX
this post's url is really:

[http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp)

~~~
dang
Ok, changed from
[http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp?kc=PCRSS...](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ziffdavis%2Fpcmag%2Fbreakingnews+%28PCMag.com+Breaking+News%29).
Thanks!

