which smartphone for a gift?
 

I have a relative who is irresponsible but needs/wants a smart phone. No international travel, only domestic US, Southern California.

I'm thinking of getting her a GSM smart phone with a prepaid plan. I could go Straighttalk, but not sure if she can get TMO coverage where she is, which in my experience is spotty.

I could buy an AT&T sim from eBay and buy an unlocked phone, set up a pay plan with STraighttalk that I would pay for, and ship her the phone.

Any suggestions:

1. Which plan
2. Which phone, would like to spend less than $100 if possible

thanks

Unless you want an older apple model iPhone, eg 3Gs, probably would have to be an Android. I just my first android so can't comment further.

Here's a google search result: http://www.zdnet.com/back-to-school-...0019312/#photo.

TMO has some good prepaid and post paid deals. For simple choice @$50, I think you get unlimited voice, text and data [first 500mb at LTE].

Nokia 520 is $60 often on Microsofts website

I got one for $40 on amazon the other day :)

The Motorola G is also a nice option.

Google Nexus 4/5 is inexpensive and has no plan affiliation

Stop right there. Walk away. Actually, run.

LOL

that's why I intend to go prepaid...

hey we don't choose our family

I'm thinking used phone, is that a bad idea? And Android, for sure...

You'll definitely get more phone for your money used. Just buy from a reputable seller on eBay or wherever.

If you look on Amazon, Blu is a no name Chinese brand which does a lot of interesting Android stuff and the quality is pretty ok. Swappa.com is a pretty good place for used phones as well.

If the person has wifi, I might preconfigure the phone to use Google Voice by default for calls and text and use the by the minute plan as a fallback.

If you go with TMobile, try to get something that has 1700mhz as well as 1900mhz GSM. WiFi calling may be a nice bonus (but see my Google Voice comment above).

If MNVO coverage for T-Mo isn't good for the relative, you might want to re-visit StraightTalk again @ Walmart - they are offering GSM Sims that operate on AT&T bands again (T-Mo was the choice for a while)

$45 mo/unlimited talk & text and "unlimited data" capped at 2.5GB of high speed data and even at HSPA/+ coverage area, it's plenty fast for newcomers to smartphone - under their BYOP option - http://www.straighttalkbyop.com/shop.php

A used one like the 4" screen Motorola Atrix 4G in good condition being offered for about $65 shipped http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-Atr...item53fb9b33cf - might be locked to AT&T, but shouldn't be too difficult to get the code ...

Simple Mobile, another MNVO, just released a new $40 unlimited plan with 1GB 4G data (plus included int'l text) - any 850/1900 Mhz GSM phone will work on their network. https://www.simplemobile.com/wps/por...UBAAyFa8U/?s=y

yeah Straighttalk is good, didn't know they were doing AT&T again, that's great news.

Atrix 2 looks great, you can get it for $100 pretty easily...

thanks

Is your relative's irresponsibility financial or just forgetfulness/clumsiness?

If it's the former, you're on the right track with prepaid. If you really want to make it easy for them, you can do 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month refills for Straight Talk with some associated savings (strangely, the per-month cost is less for 3-months than 6-months, but 12-months is the cheapest).

If it's the latter, I'd say either go super-cheap on the phone (cheap to replace if lost/stolen) or add an Otter Box or similar rugged case to help prevent breakage. (though doesn't help much with preventing loss). On the low end of phones I'd lean towards the Nokia Lumia 520 or something from Blu if they'd prefer Android. Otherwise, the Moto G, Moto X (if the Today Show $150 discount is still active), or Nexus 5 are tough to beat depending on how much you want to spend.

One last option, if you think Sprint coverage would be adequate, would be Republic Wireless. You get a Moto X for $300 with no contract and plans range from $5 (wifi only) to $40 (unlimited calls/text/LTE data), with a couple of interesting options inbetween ($10/mo for unlimited calls/text but wifi only data, $25/mo for unlimtied calls/text/3G data). The drawbacks CAN be the Sprint network (depending on your location) and the Republic Moto X hasn't received the KitKat update yet. I was about to switch to Republic from ATT, but I switched jobs and my employer just took over my ATT line.

bought a "new without box" Atrix 2, with square trade 1 year service plan, and Straight talk AT&T, cost around $200 shipped out the door. I'll have the phone plan auto billed to me every month.

She's financially irresponsible but this is perfect for that.

Thanks for your help!

This is (or was, I think they're issuing Lumia 625's now) the default company issued phone where I work and while it isn't an iPhone by any stretch, it's pretty good. We're "all in" on Windows Phone for other reasons, but nobody complains about them the way people complained about the Sony Ericsson Xperia devices at my old job.