Lazy Man and Money

Kicking Off my $100 Cell Phone/Service Challenge

by 5 Comments

What if someone gave you $100 and asked, “How far can you stretch this money to cover your cell phone communication needs?”

Yesterday, I start on a journey to answer that very question (that no one is asking.)

The challenge has two parts:

  1. Buy a new phone
  2. Buy the service for that phone

The goal is to spend $100 on BOTH of those. Do you think Lazy Man can do it? Yes he can!*

In fact, I placed the orders yesterday.

In a world of $1000 iPhones, $100 isn’t going to get you very far. It might just pay the sales tax in some extreme places. I spent a long time trying to find the average cost of a cell-phone plan and came up empty. I found something that said JD Power put it at $73, but it seemed outdated. I’m thinking it might be closer to $60 or $65. In most cases, you probably can’t get two months of what the average person pays for cell phone service.

It should be obvious that I’ll be cutting some corners to get this done. Part of the challenge is to not cut too many corners where the whole thing falls apart.

Getting the Cheap Phone

I have written before that you can save money with Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones. If you are willing to put up with some extra advertising, you can get a new Alcatel A30 for $59. It was $64.19 including tax for me.

It’s a very low-end phone. It is a step below my old Nexus 5 that debuted nearly 4 years ago. I don’t have this phone in my hands yet, but if it’s anywhere close to that, for $59, I’ll be extremely happy. I was able to use that Nexus 5 as my regular phone until just a few months ago until I broke the screen.

Getting the Service

Amazon has had that cell phone deal for a long time. It’s been tempting, but I never had a real reason to buy it. The best way to save money is not to spend it, right?

However, Rick Broida from CNET’s Cheapskate mentioned this deal for 3 months of Mint cell service for $30. That’s 2GB of 4G data each month on T-Mobile. Without that “Foxtober” promo code it’s $15 a month. The comments on that CNET article seem to be split between people who like the service and those who ran into some difficulty with limited customer service when they had a problem. I feel like it’s worth the gamble, because if it works, I’ll save $20 a month. I currently have Cricket for $35/mo. with autopay. (I’m also presuming that over the long haul, I’ll pay the $15 a month price.)

Mint Sim (not to be confused with Mint the online personal finance software) also has very cheap plans if you use more data. I tend to use around 1.5GB a month.

I took advantage of the deal and bought 3 months of service. With shipping and the regulatory recovery fee it came to $35.55.

The big question is whether T-Mobile will be acceptable in my area. Cricket uses AT&T and I know it works well for me. For the price of 1 month of Cricket, I’ll roll the dice to find out.

Winning my Own Fabricated Challenge!

If you add up the $64.19 for the phone and the $35.55 for 3 months of service I spent you get… $99.74. Boom! Challenge won! I have 26 cents to spare. If I need to stick to AT&T, I can still stay with Cricket for $35 for one month and squeak in under $100.

The big win here will be if the Mint service works for me. That’s a potential savings of nearly $250 a year… maybe $500 if my wife does it too.

I’d like to make a final note about the phone I bought. It may seem silly to buy a phone for such a (fabricated) challenge. I could just pop the Mint sim card into my Moto X Pure and see how it goes. However, I learned the lesson a couple of months ago that it’s extremely helpful to have a spare phone. We really had to scramble with a couple of broken screens. This new phone doubles as an insurance plan. It’s also the kind of thing I can drop in the diaper bag with a few episodes of Blaze or Paw Patrol. That’s a huge value when you need to entertain a couple of toddlers.

I’ll report back in a month or so and let you know how it goes.

* Lazy Man is also very adept of referring to himself in the third person.

Save Money with Amazon Prime Phones

by 1 Comment

A few months ago, I bought a new cell phone, the Moto X Pure. It’s been a great Android phone, I have no real complaints. I don’t even miss the wireless charging much as I can get 12 hours of charge in what seems to be 20 minutes. I’m not typically too far from the charger so it works for me.

However, the Moto X Pure was around $300. What if you wanted to save a little cash or get a phone for a kid? It turns out that Amazon has about 3.8 billion options in the $200 and under range. I’m exaggerating the number, but there really are a lot… probably enough options to suit almost everyone’s typical cell phone needs.

These phones are for Prime members, but that’s seems to be a group that is very large and growing.

Since there are so many phones, I thought I’d give you a breakdown of the core features as I understand them. I’m going to start with the cheapest phone and then let you know the upgrades and downgrades as we go up in price. The problem with this method is that it becomes easy to say, “Oh, I’ll just spend another $20 for this upgrade.” It’s even easier to do that a few times and find yourself spending $100 more dollars (which might not necessarily be a bad thing). Also, I should mention that Amazon may give me a small commission if you make a purchase through these links.

Amazon has it’s own comparison chart. I don’t think it’s useful to cut and paste the same information here. Instead, I’ll break down some of the major numbers. With respect to the cameras, megapixels don’t tell the story, but I don’t have a better objective number to share. You might want to consider reading a few reviews online if that’s a key feature for you.

Also, all of these can take SD cards, which can save you money on buying extra ROM. You’ll also get some Amazon lock ads on these phones for the price I’m quoted, but I’m presuming that’s cool, since we are trying to save money.

BLU R1 HD

Price: $50-$60

Specs

Processor: MediaTek 6735 (1.3 GHz – quad-core)
RAM: 1/2 GB
ROM: 8/16 GB
Screen Resolution: 1280 x 720
Camera (R/F): 8/5 Megapixels

You can spend $50 for the 1GB (RAM), 8GB (ROM) version, but I think it’s definitely worth spending the extra Hamilton to double those numbers.

Interesting note: BLU isn’t exactly a household name, but I had heard of them as a budget phone maker for quite awhile. I had considered getting one to test with Freedom Pop as a possible, very low use phone. Unfortunately, the phones may have sent information to China, but I think that issue is long resolved.

Alcatel A30

Price: $60

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (1.1 GHz)

Since the specs are largely the same as the high-end BLU the only for me to update is the processor. It is different, but I don’t know if it’s any better. Qualcomm typically makes faster chips, but this is one of their lowest-end chips and the clock speed is a little slower than the Blu HD above. It’s probably a wash or close to it.

When PhoneDog compared the Blu HD and Alcatel A30, the author noted: “So these phones are incredibly alike. And while there’s no clear winner, I find myself gravitating more towards the BLU R1 HD.”

So let’s call it Coke vs. Pepsi… different flavors of the same thing.

Alcatel A30 PLUS

Price: $80

Specs:

Processor: MediaTek 6738 (1.5 GHz – quad-core)
Camera (R/F): 13/5

It seems like a Jackson buys you a slightly faster processor and a better rare camera. I don’t see a lot of value in this phone. It seems like you are spending 25% more for a tiny upgrade.

Alcatel A50

Price: $100

Specs:

I’m leaving the specs empty, because it doesn’t seem like the A50 is an upgrade to the A30 Plus in any of the core areas. I’m not sure why anyone would pay $20 more for this phone.

Moto E (4th Generation)

Price: $100

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (1.4 GHz)
Camera (R/F): 8/5

This is a solid midrange processor, but the camera loses a few megapixels. This is the only Amazon Prime phone that works with Sprint and Verizon two of the best cell phone plans providers in US. If you aren’t on those networks, I don’t think this provides a lot of value.

Moto G (4th Generation)

Price: $130

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (1.4 GHz)
Screen Resolution: 1080 x 1920
Camera (R/F): 13/5

We are finally getting into the phones that I would consider buying myself. I wouldn’t buy a phone with less than 1080 x 1920 resolution. The camera gets a boost from the E4 above and the processor is a 600-series by Qualcomm, which is very good for this price. I had to get this information from another website. I couldn’t easily find the numbers on Amazon’s website.

Moto G Plus (5th Generation)

Price: $185

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (2.0 GHz)
ROM: 32GB
Camera (R/F): 12/5

The Moto G5 has a big price jump at nearly $50 over the G4 above. You get a faster chip and more ROM. I’d pass on this phone. I’ve seen this phone at $180, so I’m not sure why it is an extra $5 as I’m writing this.

Nokia 6

Price: $180

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 (1.4 Ghz)
RAM: 3GB
Camera (R/F): 16/8

The processor is a little slower than some of the previous phones, but you’ll be able to keep more apps open. This phone also has the most megapixels of all the Prime phones. I’d definitely buy this over the G5 above.

Alcatel Idol 5S

Price: $200

Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (2.0 GHz)
Camera (R/F): 12/8

This phone combines the best of Nokia (3GB of Ram) and the best of the G5 (fast processor). Unlike the other Prime phones that are $50 off the suggested price, this is $80 off. I’m not sure if it would really sell at the $280 price given the value of the cheaper phones.

So what’s the best value of all these phones? My pick is the Moto G4. However, because these phones are so cheap, I don’t think you can lose with any of them. I find it hard to justify paying $600 for some of the high-end phones on the market today, when a phone at 20% of the price will do most of the same stuff.

I Bought a New Cell Phone… Guess Which One and Why

by 8 Comments

A few months ago, I started an article titled, “Cell Phones are Dirt Cheap!” The inspiration was ummm… a lot of dirt cheap cell phones that I happened to notice in the news.

It sat in the hopper with nearly 200 other articles I have in the works at any given time… until last night.

Save Money,Cheap Android Cell Phones

In series of probably my most intelligent thinking, I convinced my wife that going out for dinner would be good for the sickness I felt coming on. We picked up the kids at daycare and when out. Soon after we got to the restaurant, I realized that I wasn’t the only sick person, our youngest was sick as well. Except that, just barely 3, he can’t really tell us he’s sick. He exhibits some symptoms (red checks), but it is more his temperament that becomes obvious. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good scene. We ate as quickly as possible and in rushing out, my phone fell out of my coat pocket hitting the floor. The Nexus 5 that I’ve had for 3 years had a cracked screen. The case and screen protector that had served me well for years had finally failed.

I got home and started to research replacement phones. The most important thing to me was that the phone support wireless Qi charging, because I had them all over the house (there was a deal). If you don’t have wireless charging on your phones, you are truly missing out.

In an effort to save a billionth of an millimeter, most recent phones don’t have Qi charging. I suppose the theory is that you can quick-charge your phone in 30 minutes with a cord, so people just do that. Also, I’m sure that many people don’t have 4 Qi chargers around their house.

I fired up my draft on cheap phones and this article on Qi-enabled phones in 2017. While the later looks like a lot of choices, many don’t have Qi integrated and many of them are years old. Some of them only work on Verizon (not a carrier I have). Some of them like the Samsung’s are fairly expensive and don’t have the pure Android experience that I’m used to.

The Search Through Cheap Cellphones

I went back and forth from my cheap cellphones to the Qi phone list. My brain was essentially mush from the sickness and the despair of losing my beloved cellphone (a little over-dramatic on purpose). For now, let’s look at the cheap cellphones out there.

First on my list were the Amazon Prime Exclusive phones. These phones are typically around 25% off the regular price in exchange for viewing some ads. For example, this 4th Generation Moto G 16 GB for $150 is very good bargain and perfect for most people. For me the 16GB was a little small. I didn’t realize there was a 32GB version for $180, but if I had, I might have ended up with that phone.

Give the spec sheet a look which has these other Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones. I had almost thought about picking up a Blu RD 1 to have around as a spare for $59. Hindsight is 20/20.

I also had noted that LeEco Pro3 sometimes has flash sales for $299. While that might not sound cheap, it is almost a flagship-level phone with lots of premium features. Sometimes those phones go for $600 or more. Unfortunately, I’ve read some bad reviews with the software and the regular $399 price was out of what I wanted to spend.

Next up is the Huawei Honor 6X which checks in at $249. The Guardian’s review says that it’s “a lot of phone for the money.” I probably should have given it more consideration, but the software is a little old and unlike my Nexus 5, I can’t be sure I can upgrade it. The processor isn’t one of the Qualcomm Snapdragon ones that I know. The screen’s DPI (dots per inch) is a little less than my Nexus. Typically, that’s not a big deal, but it might come into play with new VR apps that I want to explore. (Unfortunately the Google Pixel which is ideal for this is way out of the range of what I want to pay for a phone.)

I gave strong consideration to the BLU LIFE ONE X2 which comes in at $199 (32GB version). I know I’ve said that lots of phones were finalists, but this was really the one I was going to pull the trigger on… until I read this review about a mediocre camera. That’s really the only “knock” I can give it and the $199 price is even below what I expected to pay.

And Then There Were Two

The final two phones that I remember (if my brain was mush before imagine it now) were “The Perfect Phone” and “The Phone I Bought.”

The “Perfect Phone” was the LG G4. It had everything I wanted. Even Qi charging through a special case. It had extras like a removable battery. (It’s great to give a device a new battery life as it goes down over time.) Did I mention the Qi charging? The screen has 538 DPI (which is elite territory). The cameras are great. It has a speedy Qualcomm SnapDragon 800 series processor. It even has Qi charging.

Here LG, please take my money!

Wait, you are telling me there’s a special offer on your home page here! So you are going to through in a fancy case and a micro-SD card? Okay, but I’m already giving you my money, so the jokes on you LG.

Add to Cart (*Click*)

LG’s response: “We’re sorry but LG G4™ Unlocked in Genuine Leather Black is currently out of stock and cannot be added to your cart. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Turns out that the LG G4 has a boot loader hardware issue that they acknowledge is a hardware defect. I read a story that they’d fix it, but you’d have find a place to get one (it’s hard to find it for sale anywhere) and then probably send it back into them. That’s simply not a workable solution for my primary phone.

Finally… the Phone I Bought

I ended up buying a Moto X Pure Edition (64GB) for $300. (Actually $307 for next day shipping so I didn’t have to wait the weekend.) It has no Qi charging and I’m sad.

However, it does have a lot of other things.

It has a Quad HD display (520 ppi vs. Nexus 5’s 441), 64GB (twice what I had on my Nexus 5), 3000 MaH battery (vs. the Nexus’ 2300 mAh), turbo-charging, a great 21MP camera (generations better than my Nexus’ 8MP one), SD expansion (not available on my Nexus), and 3GB of RAM (vs. 2GB on my Nexus).

In fairness, a lot of the above phones had more than a few of features. That’s just what $300 buys you now vs. what $399 bought me in October of 2013. It is unfair to compare technology more than 3 years apart, but it helps me feel a little better about breaking my phone.

There are a few extra that the Moto brings such as some hands-free use and gestures to activate the camera and flashlight. There’s some water repellent. The Moto X Pure Edition was $399 when it was released in September of 2015. However, that was for the 16GB version. The 64GB version would set you back $525 back then. The reviews back then said it was a great value.

A short 15 months later, it feels like more than 40% discount is also a great value.

How can you find the right Android Phone for you? I found this smartphone comparison tool to be extremely helpful

Switch to Cricket Wireless?

by 2 Comments

[Editor’s Note: The first time I published this, I found a bug in the WordPress publishing system where one typo can make the whole article disappear. Let’s give this another try.]

A year and a half ago, I wrote about the Best Cell Phone/Plan Savings Today. Nearly 18 months later, I still think the Nexus 5 on StraightTalk is extremely competitive. That phone cost me around $399 for a 32GB and StraightTalk is between $42-45 a month depending on how many months you buy at a time.

The cell phone industry moves fast and there’s more competition nowadays. There are bunch of Motorola Android phones that fall in the under $200 range (some even under $100). You have to be a little careful if you want LTE, the fastest data speed. I’m not sure sure if they come with full 1080P screens, but remember that Apple went “retina” with worse resolution quite a few ago. And if you don’t want to pay $399 like I did on a Nexus 5, you can get it on Ebay starting at around $250.

I’ve always be a fan of spending a little more money on the better phone. If you think about it, even spending $45 is spending $540 a year. You’ll pay more in service than for the phone, so a cost of an $50-100 shouldn’t break you. This is specially true considering that it was fairly normal to pay $100-$120 a month just for service as recently as 3-4 years ago.

What’s caught my attention is the Cricket Wireless’s new plans. They are offering a 2.5GB plan on AT&T’s LTE network with unlimited talk/text. The price is $35 if you give them a credit card to put it on autopay. My Straight Talk plan is 3GB, but everything else (even the network) is the same for that $42-45 a month. I rarely use more than 1GB of data, so the amount of data doesn’t matter to me. Thus I’d be looking at $35 with Cricket vs. $42-45 with Straight Talk.

A switch could save me $100, even $150 a year. That’s better than a poke in the eye, right?

I typically have the mentality of, “Why fix it if it isn’t broken?” There’s new sim card purchase involved, which is a few dollars. That’s a one-time cost, so it is still something that will be made up in a few months.

I’m a little on the fence of whether it was worth it until I realized that it would be around $250 a year because it is two phone plans (my wife and mine). That’s enough to swing me into action.

P.S. I know some people really like Ting. I think it has save families some money by sharing all the minutes, data, etc. However, I don’t like the idea of feeling like “the meter is running” when I use my phone. It is worth it to me to pay a little extra every month knowing that I’m not going to get surprised with a big bill. I think this Cricket deal makes Ting a non-starter for us.

Does Anyone Understand Cell Phone Family Plans?

by Leave a Comment

If you asked me this question a few years ago, I feel like my answer would be a clear yes. It seemed relatively simple. Split a bucket of minutes and data amongst your family and pay a price and be done. Every couple of years, each person could get a new subsidized phone.

Financially, I never considered them to be the best deals, but I could understand them.

A CNet article last week leaked information of Sprint’s new CEO telling employees that they were going to implement “disruptive” pricing cuts to grow market share. A few days later, CNet followed up with an article on Sprint’s pricing reductions.

The big takeaway from the article author and analysts seems to be that consumers aren’t likely to understand the plans. I tried to follow it and have to agree it is quite complex. Here’s a breakdown:

Sprint's Family Share Pack
Sprint’s Family Share Pack

This seems like an official image since it is also at Apple Insider, but am trusting CNet and Apple Insider that it is official. (It may have been buried on Sprint’s website as I couldn’t find it.)

Step 1 of picking an amount of data almost seems to easy except for the color change at 16GB to 20GB. The reason for the color change only becomes clear when you get to Step 2.

Step 2 is where it gets really confusing. The concept of subsidized and non-subsidized phones come into play. It looks like if you have a subsidized phone, you pay $40 per phone. If you are use Sprint Easy Pay (the irony!) it costs $25 per phone for up to 16GB and $15 for 20-60GB. So for some reason I can understand, the way I choose to pay for my phone can be discounted depending on how much data I add. As best I can tell, it doesn’t make any sense for anyone to choose the 16GB plan, since it is only $10 per month for the 20GB, and they’ll get a $10 per phone price reduction from the 16GB plan. A “family” of one would break even in the worst case scenario.

It makes sense to subsidize phones for those who can’t afford the up-front costs. I’m lost on why that subsidy should vary based on the amount of data used, especially when it adds this kind of complexity.

In fact, it really doesn’t make sense to have a monthly charge per phone. I can understand a one-time set-up cost for each device, but a monthly pricing based on number of phones simply makes no sense. My cable company does not charge me for each television I set-up in my home (though they may charge for the cable box rental, which is different and understandable). The water company does charge me based on how many faucets or how many people I have in my home… they charge me based on the resources I use.

(By the way, Ting almost works this way. They charge $6 per phone per month and the rest is based on how much data, text, minutes you use.)

Moving on Step 3… and yes, the pricing gets a little more confusing and nonsensical. The pricing for my tablet to use this data is only $10 per device per month. In some ways that makes sense, because it isn’t using talk or text. However, the lines of talk and text are significantly blurred now. Talk can be done using the data plan via VoIP from Groove IP. I can send text via Google Hangouts from a tablet without a texting plan. (Sorry, Apple people I don’t know how it would for you.) In theory, my Nexus 7 tablet can be jury-rigged into a phone, making it just a slighter larger than normal phablet.

It’s hard for me to see why monthly pricing would vary much between the two.

Finally with Step 3, there’s the nebulous +$20 for Mobile Broadband Devices. I had to search Google to figure out what those are. I had thought the phones and tablets that we were discussing all along were “Mobile Broadband Devices.” It turns out that this term refers to mobile hotspot devices… little boxes that convert your data to wi-fi for your devices to use. They can be handy if you need an internet connection on your computer to access a full OS instead of what’s on your phone or tablet. The thing is… that most tablets and phones from the last 2-3 years can already do this with a very cheap (or even free) software program. It makes more sense to buy a tablet and use it in this way for $10 a month than to buy a Mobile Broadband Device and pay $20 a month.

If anything you’d think it would be $5 for these devices, because they don’t have a screen and are simply converting LTE to wifi. I’ll try not to harp on how monthly device pricing doesn’t make sense… oops, too late.

Now that we’ve dissected this ad nauseum, the pricing changes significantly for new customers. Various promotions mentioned in the CNet article will waive the per device monthly pricing (yay!) for new customers as long as they sign up for Sprint Easy Pay (boo!). As the article points out, this effectively gives double the data of rivals at the same price. Thus the “disruptive” pricing is bit of a myth. It’s almost like a fast-food place giving you twice as much soda for the same price… you can’t simply choose to give them half the money. It’s a very good gesture, but not too disruptive.

It’s worth noting that the article points out that Sprint’s complex plan is similar to Verizon and AT&T’s. They didn’t start the fire. However, they are trying to play catch-up to those companies. I’m not the CEO of a big multi-billion dollar company, but I’d like to humbly make a suggestion that perhaps simplicity is the way to go. It is one of the reasons why I recommend StraightTalk’s $45 everything plan as the best cell phone/plan available today.

I’m going to leave you with two thoughts:

  1. If consumers can’t understand the pricing plan, are they likely to realize the benefits? My guess is no, which leads me to ask, “What’s the point of cutting the prices anyway?”
  2. I have mixed feelings about having to say goodbye to Sprint’s marketing term, Framily. It was so bad it was funny.