I need help picking a phone

[Charlie121]

I need help getting a new phone for my mother. I don't really know much about phones. She had a junk phone thru the lifeline program they give to low-income people that broke.

The wireless carrier is Qlinkwireless which only allows certain phones. She almost bought this junk china phone for 70 dollars off their website that someone on here said is worth 9 dollars.

We don't have alot of money but i need something that is actually decent because she lost the use of her voice and we communicate thru text now.

She just needs a simple droid phone that hopefully works. They say you can bring your own phone, but aren't guaranteed to work? Idk, they have a list of phones.

I just need to know which would be the cheapest that has the most value and would last the longest. She's only ever used android. Probably best to stick to something familiar because she isn't very tech proficient.

Here's a list from their site.

Samsung

• Galaxy S7 Special Edition
• Galaxy S7 Edge Special Edition
• Galaxy S8
• Galaxy S8+
• Galaxy S8 Special Edition
• Galaxy S8+ Special Edition
• Galaxy Note 8
• Galaxy Note 8 Special Edition

Google

• Google Nexus 5
• Google Nexus 5X
• Google Nexus 6
• Nexus 6P
• Pixel
• Pixel XL
• Pixel 2
• Pixel 2 XL

Motorola

• Moto E4
• Moto E4 Plus
• Moto G4
• Moto G4 Play
• Moto G4 Plus
• Moto G5 Plus
• Moto G5S Plus
• Moto X Pure Edition
• Moto X4
• Moto Z2 Play

Other Brands

• Alcatel iDOLTM 5s
• BLU S1/Vivo S
• Essential Phone
• LG X Charge (Amazon only)
• Orbic Wonder

 

[Hadron]

All of those phones are old (apart from the Orbic, which I've never heard of and so don't know how old it is). Some are very old. This is important because you say you want the phone to last: an old phone will either be second-hand (so the battery will have been used, possibly abused) or else it will be unused but will have sat in a warehouse for a couple of years (which is also not good for the battery).

Are you sure that they've not just not updated that list in the last 2 years? That seems more likely to me than their not allowing any phone less than 2 years old onto their network. If they genuinely only allow those phones onto their network then they are driving themselves out of business.

 

[Dannydet]

https://qlinkwireless.com/byop.aspx
Try this...

 

[mikedt]

Get a Samsung S10. Probably can't go wrong.

 

[Trom]

I need help getting a new phone for my mother. I don't really know much about phones. She had a junk phone thru the lifeline program they give to low-income people that broke.

The wireless carrier is Qlinkwireless which only allows certain phones. She almost bought this junk china phone for 70 dollars off their website that someone on here said is worth 9 dollars.

We don't have alot of money but i need something that is actually decent because she lost the use of her voice and we communicate thru text now.

She just needs a simple droid phone that hopefully works. They say you can bring your own phone, but aren't guaranteed to work? Idk, they have a list of phones.

I just need to know which would be the cheapest that has the most value and would last the longest. She's only ever used android. Probably best to stick to something familiar because she isn't very tech proficient.

Here's a list from their site.

Samsung

• Galaxy S7 Special Edition
• Galaxy S7 Edge Special Edition
• Galaxy S8
• Galaxy S8+
• Galaxy S8 Special Edition
• Galaxy S8+ Special Edition
• Galaxy Note 8
• Galaxy Note 8 Special Edition

Google

• Google Nexus 5
• Google Nexus 5X
• Google Nexus 6
• Nexus 6P
• Pixel
• Pixel XL
• Pixel 2
• Pixel 2 XL

Motorola

• Moto E4
• Moto E4 Plus
• Moto G4
• Moto G4 Play
• Moto G4 Plus
• Moto G5 Plus
• Moto G5S Plus
• Moto X Pure Edition
• Moto X4
• Moto Z2 Play

Other Brands

• Alcatel iDOLTM 5s
• BLU S1/Vivo S
• Essential Phone
• LG X Charge (Amazon only)
• Orbic Wonder

You can pick up a last year model Xiaomi with good specs for about two hundred bucks on Amazon

 

[Charlie121]

All of those phones are old (apart from the Orbic, which I've never heard of and so don't know how old it is). Some are very old. This is important because you say you want the phone to last: an old phone will either be second-hand (so the battery will have been used, possibly abused) or else it will be unused but will have sat in a warehouse for a couple of years (which is also not good for the battery).

Are you sure that they've not just not updated that list in the last 2 years? That seems more likely to me than their not allowing any phone less than 2 years old onto their network. If they genuinely only allow those phones onto their network then they are driving themselves out of business.

I could call them, I'm sure this is all they do though. It's the low income government program, they just give you like 500 minutes a month. I don't think they have a good network. Samsung S8 would be good it's just expensive as hell used which doesn't seem worth it. I don't know I'm going to call them tomorrow.

 

[Charlie121]

https://qlinkwireless.com/byop.aspx
Try this...

Yeah, I copied the list from their website.

 

[Hadron]

I could call them, I'm sure this is all they do though. It's the low income government program, they just give you like 500 minutes a month. I don't think they have a good network. Samsung S8 would be good it's just expensive as hell used which doesn't seem worth it. I don't know I'm going to call them tomorrow.

The thing is that there's nothing on that list more recent than 2017(*), and the Nexus 5 is a 2013 handset. That's what makes me suspicious that they've just not updated their list.

I don't understand why they'd restrict phone selection anyway. OK, if they are selling the phone then they sell what they want, but if it's BYOD, which from what you say sounds like the case, why do they care? It all seems very strange to me.

(*) Except possibly the Orbic Wonder, which is certainly no newer than 2018 but I can't find a release date for. That would have been a low-spec budget phone even then though.