Simple fix: don’t buy them. Buy an iPhone, or do what I did recently - I bought an unlocked Samsung Galaxy A14 from Amazon for about $150. Works well - very happy.
This link was in the article, offering cheap alternatives. I am not happy with the quality of my latest Motorola phone.
The best cheap phones in 2024: our 9 favorites for tight budgets | Digital Trends
Yawn. You got bad news companies all around. The Motorola line was sold off to the ChiComs long ago, as was IBM line of personal computers. I understand that Chinese-made is ubiquitous these days, but don’t be surprised that they would actually produce Chinese junk.
Then, of course, you have “Don’t be Evil” Google, the purveyor of Android which they built on Linux. Google is about as evil as they get. Back in the day, it was possible on some phones to flash the firmware with your own; I did it on a handful of phones, getting rid of the crap ware that phone companies install before they “give” you a phone. And then the phone companies are notorious about updating your firmware.
It seems to me that Apple is the lesser evil. An unlocked iPhone is generally lacking in telco crap ware, and the IOS updates are pushed out regularly. Even for phones that are several years old. I like to buy as fresh as I feel like paying for, used of course.
I used to like Motorola phones. I had 2different Moto Z phones in years past, and they had great features and performance for the price. But I swore them off when their support and quality dropped off and they didn’t stand behind defective batteries they installed. I’ve switched to a Google Pixel phone with GrapheneOS operating system. The GrapheneOS is open source and very privacy focused. I’ve been pleased so far and don’t miss the invasive google software features that made ME the product (instead of the customer). I decided against an iphone because there are just too many apps that I use that aren’t supported by an iphone. If you have technical ability, android has much more functionality.
Question for craig2web: Did you buy a Samsung Galaxy A14 5G?
No, I bought the standard 4G version, which was still substantially less back in January. If you were going to buy a new Samsung Galaxy today, you can probably get the newer A15 (4G) for less money now.
The link in the article offering alternatives lists several Motorola phones. That’s odd.