Time to get a new cell phone. Need suggestions

[DonMuncy]

4 minutes ago, nels said:

Don, my phone isn’t loud enough to easily understand someone. I also have to cup my hand around the mic in order for the person at the other end to hear me. When I press it against my ear it goes to speaker mode or mute mode or whatever else it wants to do. It seems to make a ton of calls (butt calls) no matter how I turn it off and no matter how many times I make sure all is erased prior to shut down. The battery sometimes runs down fast even though nothing seems to be open. The phone will sometimes over heat in my pocket. I know I’m no brainiac when it comes to modern technology but I tkink some of the problems are mine but many of the problems are with the phone. When I mentioned a flip phone I am really considering such. They are cheap, get the job done and when the lid is shut the phone is off. The cheap flip phone would allow me to justify a second iPad.

Sounds like you need a new one. I would still be using a flip phone except for the fact that you can only block a limited number of numbers on a flip phone, and used to get a very large number of them. I bought a cheapish ($160) android smart phone. The learning curve is rough, but I'm getting there.

[nels]

40 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

Sounds like you need a new one. I would still be using a flip phone except for the fact that you can only block a limited number of numbers on a flip phone, and used to get a very large number of them. I bought a cheapish ($160) android smart phone. The learning curve is rough, but I'm getting there.

Can only block a limited number of numbers with a flip phone. That’s something I didn’t know. Hmmm

[Hank]

2 hours ago, nels said:

The cheap flip phone would allow me to justify a second iPad.

Talked to a guy at work today who is having phone problems (LG). He's gonna look for a refurbed Galaxy S8.

He also bought his wife a Galaxy Tab at a corporate Verizon store, cellular enabled, for 99 cents plus $10/month for tablet data. So you can likely do both!  

[carusoam]

One sign of over heating is a lot of apps running in the background... or battery shorting power away internally...

 

idevice... double click the button and swipe each app away...

Then turn the device off completely... hold the power button until it gives the option to turn off... restarting can work wonders similar to a PC...

 

anything with access to the gps chip is going to use a lot of power...

 

if it’s a cold day... it will run down to a level and shut down... that level isn’t anywhere near 0%...

Experience from jogging outdoors not from flying... 

both the iPhone 5 and 6s experience...

Best regards,

-a-

[nels]

2 hours ago, carusoam said:

One sign of over heating is a lot of apps running in the background... or battery shorting power away internally...

 

idevice... double click the button and swipe each app away...

Then turn the device off completely... hold the power button until it gives the option to turn off... restarting can work wonders similar to a PC...

 

anything with access to the gps chip is going to use a lot of power...

 

if it’s a cold day... it will run down to a level and shut down... that level isn’t anywhere near 0%...

Experience from jogging outdoors not from flying... 

both the iPhone 5 and 6s experience...

Best regards,

-a-

I have double clicked and swipe anything that shows up away. I do that on a regular basis. Rebooting the phone does help but still the volume, lack of mic sensitivity and my cheek touching the screen and ordering unwanted commands, like mute, is just too much anymore. I’m thinking the used phone idea is probably a good move provided it’s been refurbished or I know the person who has it and can verify it’s performance. 

 

[DonMuncy]

Incidentally, there is an app called "call confirm" that eliminated all my butt dials. When you place a call, a screen pops up that, in essence, says "do you really want to call this number".

[McMooney]

grr, the top of my phone quit responding to touch, guess i'm in the same boat.

 

Samsung s9+ or Note9 for me

[ZuluZulu]

"Swiping" apps away in iOS, a.k.a. force quitting, does nothing.  iOS is designed to hold them in there, unused.  When you "quit" them you lose the quick-switching ability, slowing down your phone and decreasing battery life.  Even Apple personnel all the way up to the late Steve Jobs himself recommended not doing this.  Details here.

[ArtVandelay]

Swiping does help if memory challenged or a misbehaving app is running in background.


Tom

[kris_adams]

Iphone 10R here...very happy with size and capabilities.  It is $750 but I got $200 trade in for my old 6Plus.  You may want to check the trade in program if you are interested in IOS.  So I netted $550 and given what I will get when I sell it, it's pretty cheap for such a capable device.  Note this isn't with any compensation from cellular companies. 

I thought about moving to xfinity mobile who would have given me another $200 if I signed up for their $45/mo unlimited data plan (must have comcast cable or internet and must keep the phone 3 months).  Btw this deal extends to any phone not just iPhones.  On the low end I have an LG Stylo 4 that I really like.  It isn't loaded with a bunch of bloatware that seems to plague most androids I've used.  It was only $240 through xfinity though available for under $200 elsewhere.  I love the phone but it does seem to need a little more processor and memory to make it really zoom.

Good luck!

-Kris

[neilpilot]

24 minutes ago, Kris_Adams said:

Iphone 10R here...very happy with size and capabilities.  It is $750 but I got $200 trade in for my old 6Plus.  You may want to check the trade in program if you are interested in IOS.  So I netted $550 and given what I will get when I sell it, it's pretty cheap for such a capable device.  Note this isn't with any compensation from cellular companies. 

I thought about moving to xfinity mobile who would have given me another $200 if I signed up for their $45/mo unlimited data plan (must have comcast cable or internet and must keep the phone 3 months).  Btw this deal extends to any phone not just iPhones.  On the low end I have an LG Stylo 4 that I really like.  It isn't loaded with a bunch of bloatware that seems to plague most androids I've used.  It was only $240 through xfinity though available for under $200 elsewhere.  I love the phone but it does seem to need a little more processor and memory to make it really zoom.

Good luck!

-Kris

I’ve never wanted to pay for an iPhone and decide to switch to Xfinity 16 months ago. Received 2 LG phones for $4, including tax and shipping. We use little data outside of WiFi, and our 2 lines typically cost $6-$17/mo. Down from the $85/mo we had paid AT&T, and as a bonus our service in Europe cost way less.  As a CB I can’t bring myself to spending $xxx on a phone.

[steingar]

So I'm of two minds in this.  The first is my iPhone 5 something (yes, still a member of that club) still does most of what i need to to do.  Not all, but most.  And it still does all the things I do every day (check weather, make phone calls, stuff like that).  Why spend all that money on a new phone when the old one works just fine?

The second is the actually connection cost is really expensive for smartphones.  I think the phone itself is the minority cost.  If I'm paying all that for service, why not have the best phone?

I suspect I'll upgrade when Apple comes out with its new na greatest next year.  Them again, perhaps I will at last bail on Apple.  Making up for lost sales by raising prices seems particularly asinine.

[Kmac]

Lots of personal preference in this thread...

For our business I have some employees on iPhones and some on Android.  It depends on their tech savviness and age for what they get.  The older personnel who basically only talk get the iPhones for ease of use.  The younger people that share internet with other devices and need customizability have the Androids.

The actual size of the iPhone 5, 5s and SE is great.  If the screen area was larger but the phone size the same it would be perfect.

To @nels.  You have an iPhone 5 and are familiar with it.  You probably don't want to switch OS's.  You would probably be good with an iPhone 7.  The first to have a decent IP rating, reasonably sized and now reasonably priced.

Our business uses Verizon and personally I use Android.  I hate large phones and Verizon offers no smaller phones.  I have recently purchased a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact and brought it over to Verizon.  I like the customizability, apps and app pricing (I use all free apps).

Again...totally personal decision.  Each person likes something different except for the half that likes Apple products.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Kmac

[MARZ]

There's a trade in program for the XR- 499 with a trade....

 

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-xr?afid=p238|sdCV1lcXM-dc_mtid_20925d2q39172_pcrid_318616583919&cid=wwa-us-kwgo-iphone-slid--

 

[steingar]

I ever upgrade I'm going to keep my old phone and free it from a carrier.  Next time I go abroad I'll just buy a sim card for it at the airport.

[neilpilot]

9 minutes ago, steingar said:

I ever upgrade I'm going to keep my old phone and free it from a carrier.  Next time I go abroad I'll just buy a sim card for it at the airport.

That works fine if you don't need to maintain voice or text communication on your regular number, or if you like to carry a second phone.  That's what I did when I was working in Switzerland and later in China, but that was for 1-2 months.  Now when I'm in Europe it's usually for 1-3 weeks and I generally make very few calls or text.  It's much easier using my own phone.

Last March we were in London and SW France for 3 weeks, and IIRC my extra Xfinity charges totalled under $10.

[steingar]

Just now, neilpilot said:

That works fine if you don't need to maintain voice or text communication on your regular number, or if you like to carry a second phone.  That's what I did when I was woring in Switzerland and later in China, and was there for 1-2 months.  When I'm in Europe now it's usually for 1-3 weeks and I generally make very few calls or text.  It's much easier using my own phone.

Last March we were in London and SW France for 3 weeks, and IIRC my extra Xfinity charges totalled under $10.

If I'm not with Mrs. Steingar I wind up making long calls every day.  You married gents know the drill.  Last time I was in Guatemala I bought a $20 phone and  a special plan to call the US.  Ran out of plan the last day of the trip.  I think it was $30 all total.

I like the idea of a full fledged smart phone because in addition to the calls I get a lot more for about the same money.

[neilpilot]

9 minutes ago, steingar said:

If I'm not with Mrs. Steingar I wind up making long calls every day.  You married gents know the drill.  Last time I was in Guatemala I bought a $20 phone and  a special plan to call the US.  Ran out of plan the last day of the trip.  I think it was $30 all total.

I like the idea of a full fledged smart phone because in addition to the calls I get a lot more for about the same money.

When I spent a few months in China I called home daily.....using Skype on the hotel WiFi. In 2 months I don’t remember making one cell call home when I was at work, but the time difference helped as well.

[Hank]

31 minutes ago, neilpilot said:

When I spent a few months in China I called home daily.....using Skype on the hotel WiFi. In 2 months I don’t remember making one cell call home when I was at work, but the time difference helped as well.

Before I went to China, the wife and I downloaded WeChat, and whenever I had wifi I was able to call her [voice only and video calls]. The phone was in Airplane mode from just before departure here until after arrival back here.

When I went to Europe, a quick call a few days before got me on a $10 plan for a week; without it, I could send texts only for $2 per 24-hour period from Germany. Check with your provider.

[nels]

My son and daughter are still on our family plan and I pay the bill and they reimburse me. My son upgraded to the top of the line Apple product last summer. In prior months we never came close to running out of data but after he got that phone we ran out a week before the end of the billing cycle. I talked to Verizon about it. He checked and said my son was using a disproportionate amount of data and explained to me that my son’s phone could inhale such a large amount of data in a short period of time. All the ads and crap that we see to the side of the subject we are hunting end up totally downloaded where with the old phone he would have continued onto another search and all those ads etc would not have been downloaded due to the time constraint and lack of down load speed. Maybe I don’t want a lightening fast phone or maybe the Verizon guy was wrong. But, it made sense to me.

[nels]

15 hours ago, DonMuncy said:

Incidentally, there is an app called "call confirm" that eliminated all my butt dials. When you place a call, a screen pops up that, in essence, says "do you really want to call this number".

Don, thanks for that tip! Nice to get a butt load of info on butt calls..haha

[SantosDumont]

I just upgraded to the iPhone XR from the 6s.  I should have upgraded sooner.  It works amazing and Foreflight is actually usable.

[steingar]

Foreflight is still usable on my 5 something.  I never ever count on wifi when I travel, many of the places I go its spotty at best.  Cell coverage is just about everywhere now except certain parts of Pennsylvania.  What I think is truly hysterical is spending all this money on phones and service to have difficulty with unwanted phone calls.  

[Marauder]

Anyone have a picture of what Garmin Pilot looks like on an XR? Specifically the charts? I am using an iPad Mini 4 for charts and my iPhone 7+ & iPad Pro as backups. The iPhone 7+ is not too bad to read but a little bigger would be nice.