Submitted by chevron-preplan-29 t3_yyudid in BuyItForLife
I am looking for some very cheap smart phone, running Android, that isn't a scam. Not being a scam in this case means that the phone is built to last. Of course, some parts of a phone — such as the battery and charging port — can't last due to chemical and mechanical wear respectively, so these parts are simply easily replaceable in a non-scam phone. There is also the concern of software being no longer updated, so a non-scam phone has robust third party options for software, such as lineageos or grapheneos. A non-scam phone is also upgradeable, so I can, for example, buy a new 5G modem and maybe antenna to add 5G support to my existing phone without wasting money on a whole new phone if I am happy with the existing feature set. Lastly, a non-scam phone makes no attempt to restrict what code I run on my phone, violating fundamental ownership rights. This means that anything that has to run IOS is out as one can't easily run apps that Apple finds unprofitable on such a phone, and some corporation's profit margin has absolutely no business determining what I run on my phone that I paid for and own.
Every single phone that I have had has had numerous issues within only a few years of buying it. I am only okay with spending money once I have a phone if there's a new feature that I want, and even then it must be the minimum that is technologically possible. For example, I'd have been okay with buying a 5G modem and/or antenna to swap into an existing phone when 5G came out, but I don't want to constantly be buying a new phone. I am sick and fucking tired of it, in fact. I don't want to pay for a new phone regularly. I don't want to pay for costly repairs regularly. I don't want to deal with restricted OEM parts. I don't want to have to fight with customer support people and contact a god damn lawyer to get a faulty repair (that I was forced into not doing myself because of parts availability restrictions!) made right. I just want to buy a phone, then have a phone, not have a phone subscription.
Which phone should I buy to be done with the scams, and be the last phone that I buy?
I'd get the Fairphone, but unfortunately I live in the backwards hypercapitalist shithole that is the United States so it's not available and even if I managed to get it it doesn't properly work on US carriers. If there's some third party modem or something that can make it work on US carriers though, then that'd be a strong option.
BoilerButtSlut t1_iwwq2k7 wrote
>cheap
>Lasts a lifetime
Yeah, good luck with that.
You can get phones that last a long time but they certainly are not cheap.
The upgradability idea you have for radios is not possible. That is a limitation because of how sensitive modern radios are. You have to certify with identical environments and surroundings.