this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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Cellphone questions (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by InevitableSwing@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
 

I need a cellphone.

  1. I can spend up to $300 including any fees. But cheaper is always better.

  2. A better camera would be nicer but I don't need anything fancy for the phone.

  3. What's the difference between locked and unlocked?

  4. I'm in the US now. I might move to Canada next year. I'd like my phone to keep working if I move. But it's not a deal breaker and I need a phone very soon.

  5. From my ~3 minutes of googling - it seems AT&T has the best coverage where I live.

  6. Samsung A14. I found it when I was googling. Amazon has it from $99 to $180. I don't understand the range of prices. How it is for that I need? In any case - I think it's a useful benchmark for this thread.

  7. What am I forgetting to ask about?

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I need to buy a cellphone and I know next to nothing about them. Long story short - I've lived without a cellphone for a very long time. I'm not a cellphone guy. For the phone I'll buy I don't think I'll use it for much except talking on it when I have to and I hardly get around much anymore.

I've never used Instacart but I plan to and I assume I need a cellphone for it. I'd prefer to use Instacart entirely on my desktop but I assume that's impossible.

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[–] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 7 points 3 months ago

Most phones these days have specs that are going to cover you for all of your needs. This doesn't apply to people who use their phones for high end mobile games but if you're using one for stuff like maybe listening to some music or doing some web browsing or using a banking app, just about anything will do.

Caveat here to say that ram is more important than processors or anything else. I wouldn't go below 4gb or your phone will probably be a bit sluggish and slow on response.

Most phones have really good cameras these days. I'd say you're likely completely fine. I hear Motorolas have shitty enough cameras that people remark on them being bad but I wish all Motorola a big BDS fuck you anyway (they do a lot with Israel and they should be high on the boycott priority list).

I'm not in the US so I can't speak to bands that comms towers use but you should be able to check if a phone model is suitable for a country by looking it up on https://willmyphonework.net/

The Samsung model you mentioned is good because it has expandable memory, so if you wanted to make your phone a music player then that's completely doable even with an extensive music library.

The ram is a little bit light on but nothing of concern given your described use case however it will be less futureproof (very few phones are though thanks to weaponised obsolescence) but it would be the limiting factor imo and you won't necessarily have lots of room to grow if you, say, start using it as a music player as you're using it as a GPS simultaneously.

You'll probably find the camera to be very capable for your needs. It also has fast charging which is handy and the battery is decent.

I think the only thing that you might want to consider as a feature this phone lacks is that it doesn't have wireless charging. This is a handy feature to have for people who like holding on to their phones for a long time as charging ports often get pretty shitty after a couple of years of use and wireless charging bypasses this issue.

Once you get your phone you should make another thread asking for app recommendations. There are some really good ones out there and YouTube Revanced sits very high on that list.