what cell phone for under $ 130

[trader_4]

It's not a function of the phone. Any Android or iPhone will support using it as a hotspot. The issue is what your carrier allows.

[trader_4]

Most people are not paying by the megabyte, they have some form of 'unlimited" data. And the carriers can tell. So, if you hotspot to three PCs and quickly use up the 20GB of high speed data, they know and they care. They don't want hogs sucking up the bandwith.

[Ralph Mowery]

I did send off for a Lg Aristo 3 plus that should be here Monday and just sent off for the 3 month trial of Mint Mobile. If it works out as far as the service area I plan on renewing for a year at a time. They did add in a tax and fee. Still will be less expensive than what Republic would be for the same or slightly lesser service if I ever change phones.

So if I did it right we should get that 'rebate' in a few months. I went to the url you sent and it did not ask for any special codes. It looked just like the other site.

From what I read into it, the service has unlimiated data. It is at full speed for the first 3 GB and then slows down to what ammounts to the old dial up speed. Might be good for text, but web pages and pixtures will take a long time to send or receive. So it is almost like just 3 GB of data.

If it connects to the wifi system for data and does not use the 3 GB of data when on wifi, I doubt I will ever run out of data.

On another thought. While at a club meeting one night we were going to have a skype session . The meeting place has some projctors that use screens about 10 feet square. The connection was very slow and skype was not keeping up due to many using the wifi system. A fellow did use his phone as a hot spot and Skype worked like it was suppose to for about a half hour.

[invalid unparseable]

My wife has only used her smartphone on wifi.

Wanted to mention and would like to hear how you make out that I think her very cheap smartphone is short on battery power. PITA since none of these phones have replaceable batteries. She had bought me a cheap tablet and battery completely ran down in a couple of years.

[micky]

Again, look on youtube for a video of how to change an non-replaceable battery. If it's not there look in google. Then look in ebay and amazon and google for the battery. For the phone that was stolen they had all of that. I'm mad at the new phone (because the previous phone was stolen, so I'm taking my anger out on the new one. ) and I haven't checked any of that stuff yet.

I think you really only have to know how to open the case (without a crowbar), because the rest is probably nearly obvious.

[micky]

I don't know if I mentioned having a no signal from mintmobile in Eldersburg. But I have reason now to think that was a fluke

Well of course. If you go with Republic, you have to pay for the Congress and the courts and all the expenses that go with them.

3 Gigs is a lot.

Here is one on of several links for the manual (without plus). It won't include a printed or digital manual.

Without the plus, it has wifi and it has hotspot. Maybe all recent phones have both but it was not true about earlier ones.

Maybe in a while there will be stuff on the web about plus, and maybe until then you'll figure out the differences.

[Ralph Mowery]

Many internet devices come with out or a very minimal manual.

I did find the manual for the plus version on line. Downloaded it,but have not looked it over very well. Phone should be here tomorrow if usps tracing is to be believed. Probably will be a few days before the sim card comes in from Mint as I just ordered it today.

I think I can give it a try on the wifi to download some aps,but will have to check. There is some info on my computer that I am going to try to put on a SD card and put it on the phone.

[micky]

I see that I have FREE international calls to Mexico and Canada, so I need to make some phone friends in Mexico and Canada. Maybe Clare will talk to me.

And you're right, 3GB of 4G LTE data per month; data speeds reduce after monthly allowance but data is unlimited. Same for my plan.

I couldn't find anything about the speed after you've used your quota. Even 2G is faster than dial-up, iirc. Hard to believe it's dial-up slow.

I have 8 gig now but when I signed up it was only 5 gig. If I'd known the would increase 1 gig to 3 gig and slow-unlimited after that, I might have gotten 1 gig, but I think they have some rule against getting a cheaper plan now that I have a better plan. Yes, it says "You cannot switch down data, though [in the middle of a plan]." Also says "Need less data? Choose it as your next plan."

Also says in the FAQ, "Do all plans include Mobile Hotspot?

Yep. All plans include the Mobile Hotspot feature at no extra charge. The data you use just pulls from your monthly 4G LTE amount. All you need is a hotspot capable phone"

I once only had 2G and I was trying to use a data app and it kept timing out, because the server at the other end didn't like it.

[joe sixpack]

Why not an obamaphone? Get a free phone paid for by taxpaying republicans.

[Dean Hoffman]

Some cut.

I was happy with my personal flip phone for years. We started using smart phones at work for time sheets and work orders. The work order app also had maps and directions on the fly. The woman even had that annoyed tone women get when someone doesn't so exactly as ordered. I finally got a personal smart phone just for a map app. It's handy when someone says meet me at ................... when I'm in unfamiliar territory. It's nice to be able to take and send pictures when I'm out wandering around. The picture thing is nice when I'm trying to describe something to someone and my few words aren't adequate. I'm using Page Plus which is hooked to Verizon. Many of the others don't cover a good share of Nebraska.

[trader_4]

Great. I guess the code was the last part of that link and it just works automatically. Hopefully, we'll see.

It's much better than that. When it slows down, it's still maybe 150kb/sec and usable, but it does take awhile for things to load, depending on how much stuff is on the page. The real problem is that some websites won't complete loading, it's like they get confused and just quit. But if you restart it again, it will continue and usually after a couple of tries, even the worst case pages work. Most apps work OK at the slower speed, like Ebay, Google Maps, but some don't work well or at all at the lower speeds, eg FlightRadar24.

Just depends on how you use it, what apps, etc. Make sure you go into the Google Playstore settings and set it to only update apps over wifi. I have mine set to not update at all, instead I check once a week or so and update when I choose to. Under data usage, there is a setting for data saver. If you turn it on, it will prevent apps from downloading most stuff on the data network, unless you're using the app. Many apps, like news for example, update periodically so that the latest stuff is there for you instantly. With DS set to on, it will only update when and if you open the app.

That's a good example of how wifi hotspot can be useful.

[trader_4]

You can use it on wifi, get it set up, load apps, etc. with no sim. You can do anything but call/text.

[micky]

Anoother lie by Republicans. That program was estabilished years before Obama was Pres. Maybe under Bush.

The other Republicans, some of whom know the story is a lie, are feeding you false stories and making you look like a fool when you repeat them.

[micky]

That's true.

If I take away the plus, the phone you bought is much fancier than I thought it was going to be. One would think "plus" would be an even better phone, but with the crazy naming system, lack of system, for phones, maybe it's not as good. Let us know.

[Ralph Mowery]

I think the big part of the plus is that it has finger print unlocking. I don't lock up my other phone, so not much use for me. The LG phone does have face identification unlocking so I may try that.

Companies often add just a little to make people thing the next year model is much better. I found out a few years ago when shopping for a new refrigerator that a company will put out the same basic unit, but may add a shelf or some minor thing and put a different model number on it. They do that so that the companies that advertise price matching can say that the one you are compairing at another store is not the same.

I got a Google Hub Max for Christmas that when I walk into the room it reconises my face, so I may try that on the phone.

I do like the way Google and that platform seems to automaticlly put various information on all the devices I have. Like the favorites. If I add one on one computer, it goes to the other ones and seems some other things also follow such as Gmail.

[Ralph Mowery]

Thanks for the tip on that. I will set the phone so it updates over the wifi. My other phone did that. I am using a cable modem/router with wifi at the house. The speed of the modem is listed at 200 but I often get about 230 whatever kind of bits so it is very fast.

As mentiioned I do not think that I have ever needed the cell tower data for the other smart phone so that 3 gb should last me forever. If I do run out, and the speed drops to 150 kb, that is about 3 times the speed of the fastest old dial up modem I had many years ago before DSL and cable.

I signed up for the 3 month plan and if all goes well I plan on going with the whole year at a time plan when the 3 months are up. Hopefully I did it right and we will get the 'rebate' money then. They way I took it that 'rebate' is applied to the next time we renew a plan.

The phone I have keeps getting news that I do not want. I leave it on the charger and may only pick it up every 2 or 3 days when I leave the house. It has a screen full of unwanted news. My land line phone is by the cable modem. It can be set to send the land line number to the smart phone at the same time. That way if I am out of the house, the cell phone will ring, or I could jut pick it up while around the house, but I have several of the land line phones invarious rooms.

[Ralph Mowery]

I though so. Just like my tablet then.

[Ralph Mowery]

The obama phone would be perfect for me except I am in NC and a Republican.

I did look into one of the Obama phones a few years back. Being retired, I still make too much money to qualify for one.

[Ralph Mowery]

I think it was Bush. I did see some investigating news storeies on them . One showed a man that had several phones and he called them Obama phones, so Obama was getting the credit by the Democratic voters.

[Ralph Mowery]

One reason now for me to get the smart phone is some devices around the house need the smart phone apps to set them up. I have a couple of home monitoring cameras that it takes a smart phone or maybe a tablet to read the QR code or download a special app and set them up.

I got my first one because a flip phone was not offered by Republic for their system if I recall correctly. Only a few phones would work with their system at the time. However the price of the service was fantastic at the time. Just under $ 13 after fees and taxes a month for unlimiated talk and text. They are now about the same as other companies now. More than some if you want any cell tower data.