Need SmartPhone Recommendations, under $200

1970FuryConv

Old Man with a Hat
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Family of 4.
We had Samsung J3 Emerge, decent quality phones, which were provided as free starter phones 2 years ago on a Boost Mobile Plan
I broke my J3 and my daughter broke her J3, so I offered the family new phones. One person wanted to keep her J3, so ended up buying three Samsung J7. Several basic problems with 2 of them:
  1. Calling and receiving calls: for no reason, phone will stop receiving calls, and voicemails will not appear until phone is restarted. Have begun restarting once a day, but have not resolved issue.
  2. Texting: same problem as calling. Phone arbitrarily stops receiving texts. Will not receive until restart.
  3. Roaming: one J7 will start roaming, while the other J phones in the same room are on LTE. Usually if restart and wait 5 minutes, LTE comes back.
Have been on the phone with Boost. Have used ##72786# to reset to factory defaults. Have not resolved problems. Could return under warranty, but then would have no phone.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a Smartphone under $200 that is reliable for basic phone functions?
 
(Considering that many email providers used to send "batches" out at once, rather than individual emails as they were sent, wondering if the provider is doing things their sales reps might not know about? Which is why the restart usually clears things up?)

As the holidays near, shop the deals when they come up.

CBODY67
 
I don't have a advise on a phone for under $200 I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S10 because I need the office functions. But I do suggest that you don't call them smart phones. They aren't
 
I had all kinds of problems with Iphones, and Samsung. My latest one is a Moto, see what kind of deal you can get on one of them.
 
When I went to Sprint, we got a deal and the phones we got are the Moto E5 Play, work well for what I need. They were new to the market when we got the plan last year and were $100.00
 
Family of 4.
We had Samsung J3 Emerge, decent quality phones, which were provided as free starter phones 2 years ago on a Boost Mobile Plan
I broke my J3 and my daughter broke her J3, so I offered the family new phones. One person wanted to keep her J3, so ended up buying three Samsung J7. Several basic problems with 2 of them:
  1. Calling and receiving calls: for no reason, phone will stop receiving calls, and voicemails will not appear until phone is restarted. Have begun restarting once a day, but have not resolved issue.
  2. Texting: same problem as calling. Phone arbitrarily stops receiving texts. Will not receive until restart.
  3. Roaming: one J7 will start roaming, while the other J phones in the same room are on LTE. Usually if restart and wait 5 minutes, LTE comes back.
Have been on the phone with Boost. Have used ##72786# to reset to factory defaults. Have not resolved problems. Could return under warranty, but then would have no phone.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a Smartphone under $200 that is reliable for basic phone functions?

Could it be faulty/incompatible SIM cards that are causing the problems?
 
Family of 4.
We had Samsung J3 Emerge, decent quality phones, which were provided as free starter phones 2 years ago on a Boost Mobile Plan
I broke my J3 and my daughter broke her J3, so I offered the family new phones. One person wanted to keep her J3, so ended up buying three Samsung J7. Several basic problems with 2 of them:
  1. Calling and receiving calls: for no reason, phone will stop receiving calls, and voicemails will not appear until phone is restarted. Have begun restarting once a day, but have not resolved issue.
  2. Texting: same problem as calling. Phone arbitrarily stops receiving texts. Will not receive until restart.
  3. Roaming: one J7 will start roaming, while the other J phones in the same room are on LTE. Usually if restart and wait 5 minutes, LTE comes back.
Have been on the phone with Boost. Have used ##72786# to reset to factory defaults. Have not resolved problems. Could return under warranty, but then would have no phone.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a Smartphone under $200 that is reliable for basic phone functions?


Google Fi has the Moto G7's for $199. Google Fi - Phones Been on Fi for 2 years now it's been fine. They run on three cellular carriers. Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular, which ever signal is best it auto selects. Then if you're near an open network it usually auto connects and encrypts your calls/ traffic.
 
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I just got a Google pixel phone it was pricey but you can get a older one cheaper. I'm on Verizon and Google does not play games all their phones come unlocked in other words they have no apps and your not stick with all the provider's stupid apps you cannot remove. So far I like it,but it is not as rugged as my old Motorola.
 
I've had a J7 for almost 2 years now without a single problem that wasn't caused by the user.
Our J3 phones from 2 years ago were OK. If you go on Boost.com, a lot of the newer reviews mention the same problem with J7.
We've had a Samsung flat screen TV for years. It's been wonderful. Disappointed in Samsung's apparent quality lapse.
Could it be faulty/incompatible SIM cards that are causing the problems?
How would I know if the SIM card is wrong? J7 does not have a backing plate.
Pic, my daughter's J7
20191107_165930.jpg

I had all kinds of problems with Iphones, and Samsung. My latest one is a Moto, see what kind of deal you can get on one of them.
When I went to Sprint, we got a deal and the phones we got are the Moto E5 Play, work well for what I need. They were new to the market when we got the plan last year and were $100.00
Boost is running a deal on the Moto G7 for $109. I'll go check that out. Have you tried the Moto as a hotspot? How well did it work?
 
Our J3 phones from 2 years ago were OK. If you go on Boost.com, a lot of the newer reviews mention the same problem with J7.
We've had a Samsung flat screen TV for years. It's been wonderful. Disappointed in Samsung's apparent quality lapse.

How would I know if the SIM card is wrong? J7 does not have a backing plate.
Pic, my daughter's J7
View attachment 328383


Boost is running a deal on the Moto G7 for $109. I'll go check that out. Have you tried the Moto as a hotspot? How well did it work?

If you don't have the pin, a paper clip works.
maxresdefault.jpg


 
Boost is running a deal on the Moto G7 for $109. I'll go check that out. Have you tried the Moto as a hotspot? How well did it work?
I have used it a couple of times, worked decent. My son has used it when the internet was working poorly and had better results with it at those times.
 
Spoke too soon. Partial lockup today. Couldn't hotspot or update location. It did still receive and send calls. Restart.
 
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