Author Topic: mustachian smart phone recs  (Read 2074 times)

Case

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mustachian smart phone recs
« on: February 26, 2017, 11:34:57 AM »
In the past I've gotten economy model smart phones, which tend to be satisfactory but run out of steam earlier than I'd like.  My current moto E has sufficient power, though sometimes slow, and doesn't have enough memory to update apps (I've transfered as many as I can to the supplementary SD card, but it seems some apps must remain on the phones hard drive).  I've had the phone almost 2 years.

I'm thinking to get maybe spend more money than I normally would to get something that ideally would last a long time (4+ years), and not run out of memory or have insufficient hard-drive power to handle the growing demands of operating system software.  I was thinking to get an iphone SE for this reason.  Thoughts?  Main rationale was that the iphones seem overpowered for simple users like me.

Ting is my phone service.

joonifloofeefloo

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Re: mustachian smart phone recs
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2017, 12:02:50 PM »
Following.

Mine is a Samsung Galaxy Ace, six years old, so I imagine it will die one day soonish. I love it because it has lasted this long, is very droppable, etc. I don't like that its Bluetooth works with nothing, bloatware takes up all its remaining App space, moving pictures off it is a stupid process, etc. I also moved to a rural area in which the phone carrier it started with doesn't work, so I need to pay $50 + long contract to switch, whereas I can get a fancy new phone free with just the latter.

So far I'm looking at either no separate phone—just carrying around the fancy ipad that was given to us—or getting an LG4.

Spork

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Re: mustachian smart phone recs
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2017, 12:13:11 PM »

I had a Moto E until I stupidly placed it in the washing machine for an entire cycle.  (It fared amazingly well from that incident, btw, but had a list of annoyances that finally made me abandon it.)

Just an aside for the "I can't update" problem.  I was there, too.  A work around here is to find built in apps you have never used.  Do "uninstall updates" for that app, then "disable" that app.  You will eventually free enough memory for updates.  But... from my understanding, you'll never get anything beyond Lollipop.

Case

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Re: mustachian smart phone recs
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2017, 12:26:43 PM »

I had a Moto E until I stupidly placed it in the washing machine for an entire cycle.  (It fared amazingly well from that incident, btw, but had a list of annoyances that finally made me abandon it.)

Just an aside for the "I can't update" problem.  I was there, too.  A work around here is to find built in apps you have never used.  Do "uninstall updates" for that app, then "disable" that app.  You will eventually free enough memory for updates.  But... from my understanding, you'll never get anything beyond Lollipop.

I have searched through and uninstalled everything that is uninstallable (and not thigns I actually want, like the camera).  A lot of items don't have 'uninstall' enabled.
In any case, I have maybe 4 non-original apps that are on the device... I have not installed many apps because the hard-drive space is so limited.  I can barely take any pictures before needing to transfer to the SD card... therefore I figured it's time to move on.

It was overall a nice phone though; excellent battery life.  And I got it used via a Ting user for $75!
However, it did overheat/shutdown during a backpacking adventure somehow, and I lost some awesome videos, which I very much regret. 

Spork

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Re: mustachian smart phone recs
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2017, 12:35:27 PM »

I had a Moto E until I stupidly placed it in the washing machine for an entire cycle.  (It fared amazingly well from that incident, btw, but had a list of annoyances that finally made me abandon it.)

Just an aside for the "I can't update" problem.  I was there, too.  A work around here is to find built in apps you have never used.  Do "uninstall updates" for that app, then "disable" that app.  You will eventually free enough memory for updates.  But... from my understanding, you'll never get anything beyond Lollipop.

I have searched through and uninstalled everything that is uninstallable (and not thigns I actually want, like the camera).  A lot of items don't have 'uninstall' enabled.
In any case, I have maybe 4 non-original apps that are on the device... I have not installed many apps because the hard-drive space is so limited.  I can barely take any pictures before needing to transfer to the SD card... therefore I figured it's time to move on.

It was overall a nice phone though; excellent battery life.  And I got it used via a Ting user for $75!
However, it did overheat/shutdown during a backpacking adventure somehow, and I lost some awesome videos, which I very much regret.

No... not "uninstall the app".  Uninstall the updates.  Updates take up space.  If you're not using "FM radio"... uninstall the updates then disable the application (so that you'll never get updates for it.)  This will work for apps that you cannot uninstall and will free up space.

My wife still has the Moto E2... and updates are chugging along just fine with the above.

Also... if you tell the camera to put the pics on the SD card in the first place... you won't have to move them.  ;)

I'm not trying to talk you out of a phone upgrade if that's what you want.  But there are work arounds.

Case

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Re: mustachian smart phone recs
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2017, 01:03:18 PM »

I had a Moto E until I stupidly placed it in the washing machine for an entire cycle.  (It fared amazingly well from that incident, btw, but had a list of annoyances that finally made me abandon it.)

Just an aside for the "I can't update" problem.  I was there, too.  A work around here is to find built in apps you have never used.  Do "uninstall updates" for that app, then "disable" that app.  You will eventually free enough memory for updates.  But... from my understanding, you'll never get anything beyond Lollipop.

I have searched through and uninstalled everything that is uninstallable (and not thigns I actually want, like the camera).  A lot of items don't have 'uninstall' enabled.
In any case, I have maybe 4 non-original apps that are on the device... I have not installed many apps because the hard-drive space is so limited.  I can barely take any pictures before needing to transfer to the SD card... therefore I figured it's time to move on.

It was overall a nice phone though; excellent battery life.  And I got it used via a Ting user for $75!
However, it did overheat/shutdown during a backpacking adventure somehow, and I lost some awesome videos, which I very much regret.

No... not "uninstall the app".  Uninstall the updates.  Updates take up space.  If you're not using "FM radio"... uninstall the updates then disable the application (so that you'll never get updates for it.)  This will work for apps that you cannot uninstall and will free up space.

My wife still has the Moto E2... and updates are chugging along just fine with the above.

Also... if you tell the camera to put the pics on the SD card in the first place... you won't have to move them.  ;)

I'm not trying to talk you out of a phone upgrade if that's what you want.  But there are work arounds.

Thanks for the suggestions; I have now done that and freed up about 1GB.  Should keep me going a little bit longer.

I will still consider a new phone though, just to make things simpler (though not entirely mustachian).  Not sure if you're wife has had this problem but mine seems prone to overheating and occasional random shutdowns.  Usually not an issue at all, but every rare once in a while it's a disaster.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!