Author: Jefferson Graham / Source: USA TODAY
If you want to avoid paying thousands of dollars for a new phone, USA TODAY’s Jefferson Graham breaks down a list of quality phones for under $100. USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES—The Samsung Galaxy J phone won’t win any critics awards.
It has a smaller 5-inch LCD screen to the brighter 6.
4-inch AMOLED display of the top of the line S10+, a weaker battery and processor and less storage, 16 GB vs. 128 GB.But the S10+ starts at $899, and if you’ve got the cash for it, great.
You could also pick up the J at B&H Photo for $99 and get yourself a working smartphone that will let you do everything you probably want to do, like make and receive calls, text, use apps, take photos and the like.
You don’t have to spend $1,000 for a smartphone, despite what Apple and Samsung continue to tell you, in trying to entice you into buying the latest iPhone or premium Galaxy phone.
We found many, many choices in the $100 range, either low-price phones aimed at developing countries, like the J, Chinese brands that specialize in low-price phones, older models, like the J, that have since been upgraded and plenty of refurbished recent models from 2016 and 2017.
We tried out the J, as well as other under $100 phones, the Nokia 2 and Alcatel Dawn, using service from Mint Mobile and Unreal Mobile.
What worked
Everything. We made calls, answered them, texted, surfed the Web, took and shared photos, downloaded and uses apps.
The fine print
On the downside, these cheap phones are slower than what you may be used to with premium phones, the screens aren’t as pretty to look at, and your pictures will be lower resolution than on top-of-the-line iPhones and Galaxy units.
You won’t be able to shoot video in 4K resolution – you won’t even get to 1080p high definition – but instead 720p. Shooting panoramas, time-lapse videos and in slow motion are features you won’t get.
But if you’re, say, a parent with four kids looking to get a cheap phone for each of them, there’s no reason to spend…
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