Walmart's $10 smartphone isn't actually $10

25 点作者 rfjedwards超过 9 年前

12 条评论

ChuckMcM超过 9 年前

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 :-)

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ck2超过 9 年前

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:<a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-paragon-4g-with-4gb-memory-no-contract-cell-phone-black/4297500.p" rel="nofollow">http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-paragon-4g-with-4gb-me...</a>(net10 is tracfone, same no unlock policy)You can even find middle range phones now for $20.<a href="https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/zte-obsidian-prepaid" rel="nofollow">https://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/zte-obsidi...</a>($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超过 9 年前

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.

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Broken_Hippo超过 9 年前

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.

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dogma1138超过 9 年前

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.

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samspenc超过 9 年前

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.

vonklaus超过 9 年前

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.

gravypod超过 9 年前

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.

syedkarim超过 9 年前

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

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linuxkerneldev超过 9 年前

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

akerro超过 9 年前

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

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gPphX超过 9 年前

this post's url is really:<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2495179,00.asp</a>

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