Is there actually a flip phone available?

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AnOminous

AnOminous

Any road will take you there.
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28 de Dic, 2014
I know a boomer, a literal boomer, who has had it with current phones and actually just wants a phone where if someone calls him, he can flip it open and answer it. He doesn't want texts, he has had it with that shit, he just wants to be able to pick up a phone and answer it, like it used to be possible to do.

Is there even such a thing available?
 
Yes, actually. There are still companies that manufacture flipphones for 4G and possibly even 5G networks, Kyocera makes some of the better ones. Most major carriers will still support these devices.
 
In Japan they're still popular. Docomo is the most popular brand I think.
They're fairly cheap, but the transport cost makes them not worth buying overseas.
 
A few companies are trying to get a flip-phone resurgence going, but in the sake of being modern, they're basically just smartphones that you can fold. The flip aspect is purely for aesthetics.

Example:

If he's looking for something without all of the modern smartphone shit, he'd be better off just finding an old used flip phone that is able to get a card for his plan. Since he's a boomer, he'd also do well to get some replacement battery packs.

Edit: ninja'd
 
Jared™ dijo:
Yes and now they are smartphones, meaning telemetry and data collection for everyone.
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This might be unavoidable post-3G sunset anyhow, but I imagine there are ways to turn some telemetry off on flipphone OSes.

Another possibility for flipphones for boomers would be the Doro 7050. Most of the oldsters who came through not wanting a smartphone found the Doros to their liking. Decent phones with surprisingly adequate cameras and the ability to slap in MicroSD cards for storing photos/video and music if so desired. I would personally avoid the Alcatel flipphones, they were fairly mediocre and had middling-to-poor reception.
 
Hell, yes. Check out Tracfone - burner phones. Have had a flip phone nearly four years now. Can get them at Walmart or directly from Tracfone. A variety of flip phones available for older people, too.
 
I use a LG Exalt with Verizon. It has some internet capability but really that's just for show, it's basically just a talk-and-text phone. I personally never understood the need to be constantly surfing the net literally fucking EVERYWHERE you go, we've all heard of zoomers who ruin sex by preferring to surf instead of diddle. The only thing that could make me buy a smartphone is full implementation of "contactless payment systems" where the only way to pay for anything is by using your smartphone like in China. Until then, Verizon offers flip phones for old farts like me, the main manufacturer is LG Electronics. Walmart burner phones are ok, but as you'd expect they aren't sturdy and fall apart quickly. Walmart burners are made by Alcatel. Flip phones are available in 4G, my Exalt is 4G compatible.
 
Comandante Marcos dijo:
I use a LG Exalt with Verizon. It has some internet capability but really that's just for show, it's basically just a talk-and-text phone. I personally never understood the need to be constantly surfing the net literally fucking EVERYWHERE you go, we've all heard of zoomers who ruin sex by preferring to surf instead of diddle. The only thing that could make me buy a smartphone is full implementation of "contactless payment systems" where the only way to pay for anything is by using your smartphone like in China. Until then, Verizon offers flip phones for old farts like me, the main manufacturer is LG Electronics. Walmart burner phones are ok, but as you'd expect they aren't sturdy and fall apart quickly. Walmart burners are made by Alcatel. Flip phones are available in 4G, my Exalt is 4G compatible.
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Verizon's autistic adherence to CDMA is much less of an issue with a customer who just needs basic telephony functions, but Verizon's a habitual asshole to its customers. They tend to be better about coverage than most of their competition, though. Their insistence on ramming through 5G implementation is annoying.
 
Verizon literally owns most of the actual physical infrastructure (cell towers, repeater hardware, etc) in most of the country, so it's no surprise that their signals work better. I suspect that AT&T keeps dropping calls because of Verizon techs fucking around with the hardware and associated software that run the backbone so as to force people to switch to Verizon. That sort of shit is why the old Ma Bell was so heavily regulated. And yeah, big companies are always assholes to their customers, because spoils of monopoly.
 
Comandante Marcos dijo:
Verizon literally owns most of the actual physical infrastructure (cell towers, repeater hardware, etc) in most of the country, so it's no surprise that their signals work better. I suspect that AT&T keeps dropping calls because of Verizon techs fucking around with the hardware and associated software that run the backbone so as to force people to switch to Verizon. That sort of shit is why the old Ma Bell was so heavily regulated. And yeah, big companies are always assholes to their customers, because spoils of monopoly.
Presiona para expandir...
AT&T does have their own towers, at least in some areas. A number of other carriers inc. prepaids will utilize AT&T and/or T-Mobile networks and towers, and AT&T's stuff being GSM is a point in their favor. I find that AT&T tower coverage is decent, not quite as robust as Verizon's but usually still workable. T-Mobile and Sprint are very highly dependent on where you are in the country - T-Mobile has fairly good coverage on the West Coast and it gets really spotty the further east you go from what I gather, until you hit the Eastern seaboard.

AT&T themselves are ginormous assholes, but I've had good experiences with prepaid carriers like Cricket (which uses AT&T towers/networks). There are other carriers like Consumer Cellular which are very accommodating to seniors and people on tight budgets or people who just want basic telephony, and my experiences with Consumer Cellular's CSRs were positive.
 
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