This might not be the best place to ask this as you’ll all be asking far more of your phones than I ever will, but I need to buy a mobile phone so friends can get a hold of me when we meet up in a different city next month. The battery on the mobile I bought when I moved two years ago won’t take a charge now.

I’m mostly housebound because of chronic illness and my life is very lonely, so even when I am out it’s not like anyone is trying to reach me. Home internet with a laptop and tablet serves 99.999% of my needs.

So I suppose the big criteria is that the bloody thing won’t die when I don’t manage to keep it charged.

EDIT: I bought a replacement battery for £17. It should be here end of the week. What I need is a grandkid who can just tell me those sorts of things. Anyone want to adopt me? 🙃

  • Nokia and Motorola make good phones. The software isnt great compared to say Samsung. The charge on the Motorola phone we have lasts for 3 days it’s very impressive. That’s a decent smart phone which sounds like you don’t really want or need.

    That being said it sounds like a flip phone would be your best option? A Nokia 2780 would work. :) Cheap too. At $30

    •  mudeth   ( @mudeth@lemmy.ca ) 
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      211 months ago

      I’d argue that the nokia software is better than Samsung! It has fewer bells and whistles but that’s precisely why it’s better. It’s stock and updates regularly.

      Lenovo is pretty much the same but they don’t update as regularly because they have too many devices on their portfolio.

      I bought a cheap nokia tab and it is excellent for watching videos and playing non-demanding games.

    •  emma   ( @emma@beehaw.org ) OP
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      311 months ago

      Back when I had a two bed flat I used to joke about hosting political escapees from the US. Best I can offer now is space in the back garden for a tent. The council insists on calling these cottages “amenities housing”, but that only works if you consider a walk in shower because there isn’t enough room for a tub an amenity [lolsob]

      If you can manage a visa though, I’ll be your nana. Can you cook? I gave up on account of the number of pots I was ruining.

  • If you want it only for SMS and calls buy some dumb brick. But if you need more things from it I can’t help you I am dissatisfied with most phones but now I have second hand FP 3 and it is enough for me.

  • @emma@beehaw.org If you are looking for a phone with an huge battery, CAT phones (“CAT” from “Caterpillar” - yeah, they make phones) can be interesting for you. You can choose one of them depending on how much you’re ready to spend on it.

    Otherwise, Fairphone 3 and 4 are good options as you can replace their battery when it dies, and they provide spare ones for as long as thhe device is supported (they support them usually much longer than most phones from other manufacturers, so far). I own a Fairphone 4 and it’s very good. But maybe too expensive if it isn’t your main internet/entertainment device.