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Phones can only last so long and my admittedly ancient BlackBerry Curve took one-too-many tumbles and now needs to be replaced. Thanks to recent changes in the cell-phone market, I'm looking to purchase a phone, outright, and get a month-to-month plan for it.
I am very privacy conscious and have, so far, avoided Apple (walled garden - blegh) or Android (tell Google everything). I suspect there are fellow Soylentils who hold a similar perspective. (My current cell provider is US Cellular. I'm open to change, but would like to avoid AT&T and Verizon --- have heard too many horror stories.)
Background: I've been programming computers since the 1970s. I've tried using Apple products, but it seems they are user-friendly to the extent that you want to do what they have already decided is okay. They seem to expose a bare minimum of controls to allow customization. That would frustrate me to no end.
So, that leaves me with Android as the other major alternative. I am leery about giving any more info to Google than necessary -- given a choice, I regularly choose an alternative over a Google product (i.e. DuckDuckGo for search, openstreetmap, etc.)
My thoughts, at the moment, are to get a phone and load cyanogenmod on it. I've read good things about the privacy capabilities it provides; especially fine-grained allow/deny access permissions. Added bonus is ability to apply updates more frequently than a telco-branded phone would provide. I have no experience with rooting/flashing a phone, so I need this process to be as idiot-proof as possible. Also, I'm leery of getting a phone only to see support for it dropped shortly thereafter.
[Continues...]
Must-have: SOLID cellular reception (my apartment seems to have plaster walls - the BB still got great reception), removable battery, removable storage (micro-SD card), WiFi, LTE (USA), good camera, and fine-grained permissions control.
Nice-to-have: hardware keyboard, tethering (i.e. use my phone to get an internet connection that I'd share with my laptop), FM Radio.
REALLY nice to have: Ability to bring up a terminal window and have full CLI ability (e.g. bash) where I could edit/run custom scripts/programs.
Size/specs: I do not want or need a phablet or the latest/greatest processors. I'm reminded of the adage to buy last-year's top-of-the-line model. For some degree of future-proofing, would like to be able to view 1080p content on it.
Other: What did I forget? What things do you wish you knew that you only found out after you got your phone?
My main system runs Win 7 Pro but I could also run a live CD with some Linux distro.
What have your experiences been? Both positive and negative? Please save me from making a mistake that you have already learned from!
I'm looking to replace my phone within the next day or so. I've been impressed with the shared knowledge of this community -- please help!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Zinho on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:14PM
For carrier I'd recommend Ting. [ting.com] They are an MVNO for T-Mobile and Sprint, so you can have your pick of phones that will work on one of those two networks. They do not do bundled phone plans - you have to own your phone outright, Ting is only interested in selling you minutes, megabytes, and messages. My family has 4 smartphones and a dumbphone on our contract, and our bill last month was $49 total. The contract is pay-for-what-you-use, so billing changes month to month depending on usage; we've used a few more minutes and megabytes this month, so it'll probably be $65 for April. There's a bonus program for referring friends as well; I won't post the link here unless requested, I don't want to be shilly in this forum.
Anyhow, reception is as good as T-Mobile or Sprint will give you in your area. Tethering is allowed by default in the contract. As far as service goes, it seems like a good fit for you.
For handset I'd suggest looking at BLU. I kinda wish I'd looked harder at them whem making my last phone purchase, I think I'd have been happier with a BLU than with my Huawei. Decent hardware at a good price, reputation for not bundling too much bloatware, and active developer community for custom firmware. [blu-dev.com] I can't guarantee you'll find the perfect phone, but it's at least worth your time to check it out.
One more thing, if you intend to go GSM with Ting make ABSOLUTELY SURE that the phone you choose works on the T-Mobile network. There's a guide to required frequencies. [ting.com] I suggest making sure your phone is capable of all those frequencies; I tried one that had the right 4G antenna, but was missing the 3G, and it suffered from frequent network disconnects while driving. T-Mobile's network depends on fallback to 3G to cover dead spots between 4G cells, and if you don't have it your reception will suffer. I ended up turning off 4G and falling back to 2G only on that phone; I eventually gave it to my daughter to use.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin