A few days ago, my trusty Samsung t159, a feature phone built in 2012, died.
It still turned on, but all the buttons save for the power button stopped working. I could see that I was receiving text and phone calls, but I could do nothing about it.
For some situations, when a thing breaks, you go out and just buy a new thing. Broken fridge broken? Go to your local appliance store. Broken TV? Go to Best Buy. Broken limb? You need Lea Press-on Limbs.
But if you’re someone who doesn’t have a smartphone, it’s a little harder. Non-smartphones are hard to find. My local T-Mobile store has a grand total of zero of them on display.
So what is to be done?
Repair
You could get your phone repaired. I don’t know if phone repair places do this now. They might. They might also only know how to fix smartphones, or just not think it’s worth it.
While I like the idea of fixing things that are broken, a feature phone has two things going for it that makes repair a less worthwhile prospect:
They are cheap. And abundant. So I’d move right on to…
Buy it used
Feature phones are cheap. They are cheap when they are new, and they are super cheap when they are refurbished.
I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than about $30 on a phone.
eBay is a goldmine of phones. Look at this:
I typed “basic phone” into eBay’s search feature, and, I’m not joking, my phone came up as the first entry. (And no, I’m not logged in so eBay and was on an incognito window so eBay didn’t have any knowledge of me and my buying preferences.)
There exist new phones, refurbished phones, used phones, the whole lot, all for a steal.
Buy it new
Believe it or not, you can still buy feature phones new. All major carriers, at least in the US, advertise at least one feature phone.
- T-Mobile, my carrier, currently advertises the Alcatel Go Flip.
- AT&T advertises the Cingular Flip 2 and a few rugged options from Sonim.
- Sprint advertises the Alcatel Go Flip, the Kyocera DuraXTP, the Kyocera DuraTR, Sonim XP3 and XP5s, and the Coolpad SNAP.
- Verizon offers the LG Exalt LTE, Kyocera Cadence LTE, Kyocera DuraXV LTE, and the Sonim XP5.
I don’t know anything about these phones. My gut feeling is that these might not be as sturdy, functional, and long-lasting as ones made a few years ago. That’s just the way of things. For example, the first portable CD players were tanks, and the latter portable CD players were effectively disposable.
But who knows? Maybe it’s time to buy a few and test them out!
Everything old is new again
For my situation, I went to eBay, bought another Samsung t159 for $30 and had it in a few days.
While I was waiting, the weirdest thing happened: my phone started working again.
Over the past few days the phone has started and stopped working a few times, so I’m still glad that I got a backup phone. And frankly, it might not be a terrible idea to pick up yet another extra. Who knows how long non-smartphones will even be available?
But for now, everyone who tells you that you need a smartphone is wrong, and having your phone die doesn’t make them any less wrong. You can still buy phones that aren’t smartphones, and we should be thankful for that.
Do you own a newer feature phone? Any recommendations?
