Retiring the 950

[breaker119]

My wife's Lumia 950 is finally down for the count. When Win10 Mobile was still kicking I could go to Swappa and find 640s and 950s for $40 to $150 and be happy with whatever I chose. Now I need to switch her to Android.

What are my best options in the $100-$200 range for my family's first venture into Android?

 

[Old_Mil]

To be honest, you aren't going to find android or iOS phones in that price range that compare favorably. A used LG6 may be your best option if you are willing to go up to around 250 or so....with the understanding that LG won't update the OS as frequently.

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

My condolences. I still have my 950 XL however I alternate between that and an Alcatel IDOL 4S. Not sure what the latest pricing is for those but you can get one pretty cheap and you're not really compromising on anything except the camera, which is why I keep my 950 XL around. If you really love the ecosystem, I'd look at that phone first and see what the price point is before jumping ship to Android.

 

[RumoredNow]

@breaker119

I suggest a gently used Blackberry DTEK50. A pretty nice set of hardware for the asking price and Blackberry security and productivity make Android much more palatable, IMHO.

Love the BB Hub as it fully integrates all my Outlook services and I don't believe Google has access to my Contacts, Calendar, Email, etc. because the hub runs them. I'm signed into a gmail only for Play Services and nothing else on the phone. The Hub also lets you sign into as many accounts as you have and manage them all via the one app: phone, SMS, calendar, email, contacts, social media, chat clients - all your conversations on one screen.

Productivity tab is killer for your life at a glance sort of thing.

Love the DTEK50 so much (I traded for one) that I found a DTEK60 to swap up to. Those are a bit harder to come by and a bit more $.

 

[Old_Mil]

A DTEK50 isn't a bad suggestion. In the android world, Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony do the best job keeping the OS up to date.

 

[RumoredNow]

A DTEK50 isn't a bad suggestion. In the android world, Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony do the best job keeping the OS up to date.

I've never liked Samsung's Touchwiz, even the newer "lite" version. Sony and Blackberry have a very adroit touch in terms of skin. Usable features that are easy to dial in or scale back as desired and neither of them lay it on too thick.

Sony hardware is very nice, the price might be outside the OP's range.

 

[jeffchapik]

Amazon had the Moto X Gen 4 running Oreo for prime members yesterday for $249. I almost bought one. But I still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from my last foray into Android territory. But I know it's coming eventually...

 

[TechFreak1]

I've never liked Samsung's Touchwiz, even the newer "lite" version. Sony and Blackberry have a very adroit touch in terms of skin. Usable features that are easy to dial in or scale back as desired and neither of them lay it on too thick.

Sony hardware is very nice, the price might be outside the OP's range.

Unless the OP has a look around ebay :winktongue:.

Also for a cheap foray into android there's Blu, their smartphones are ridiculously cheap as they go for £40-£99 on amazon.co.uk

@breaker119 take a look at Blu and see how that experience is - if you don't want to spend much at first.

For a decent experience on Android for cheap, I would say Blu Vivo XL2 it has 3gb ram. The main reason it's pretty cheap is the mediatek SOC, it won't be blazingly fast but it's an adequate experience.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BLU-Grand-...ag=hawk-future-21&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3734943.

If Ebay is an option, you can get decent phones at that price range like the galaxy S6 or S7.

 

[breaker119]

I ended up buying her the Blu R2 yesterday... It will be here today. We'll put the Microsoft launcher on it and go from there. Hopefully her contacts don't get all screwed up. She already has a Google account that she stopped using years ago so we'll use that as the shell. Her MS account is the primary.

I'll start with the outlook app and then get the rest of the MS stuff plus Untappd.

 

[TechFreak1]

I ended up buying her the Blu R2 yesterday... It will be here today. We'll put the Microsoft launcher on it and go from there. Hopefully her contacts don't get all screwed up. She already has a Google account that she stopped using years ago so we'll use that as the shell. Her MS account is the primary.

I'll start with the outlook app and then get the rest of the MS stuff plus Untappd.

Cool, keep us posted how the experience is for you both.

As WM10 is pretty much no more, others most likely will be in the same situation and may want to try out android without shelling out too much.

I've also moved your thread from the Ask Dan! section to the Microsoft Lumia 950 section, as your question is pretty much solved-ish :smile:.

 

[RumoredNow]

@breaker119

If you want to put as few of your eggs (or your wife's) into the Google basket as possible, you can get a 30 day trial offer for BB Hub. After that, it is a paid subscription to remove ads and unlock features - or continue free with ads.

I've really found it the best way to integrate Outlook into Android. Before the Hub I was pulling out my hair trying to shoehorn Outlook into Gmail, Gcalendar, Gcontacts, etc. They really make it a pain so that you feel you have to drop all your eggs into their basket and I say, "Kiss my hairy behind you are NOT entitled to all my Personal Information, evil Gempire." The Outlook App on Android also leaves a lot to be desired.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blackberry.hub

 

[michaeljohara]

I still have my beloved 950XL and 640XL (which works well as a dash cam). But, I couldn't wait any longer. Two weeks ago I purchased an Honor 7x Red for 199 bucks. I could not be happier. Today I got the latest update OTA. This is a hellofa phone. Google "Honor 7x" and check out their web site, and and there are lots of reviews and YouTube reviews out there as well.

I've tried a Blackberry Key One. Had three major manufacturing issues and, after two returns, I gave up.

 

[breaker119]

So far so good on the conversion. I've even tried out Launcher 10 and Launcher 8, and how close they get to the Windows Phone GUI is pretty impressive. I think she's pretty happy now with the Microsoft Launcher...things just take some getting used to. Her Google account is just a shell so I first downloaded Outlook, and I then turned on the contact sync. That all seems to have worked great. The fingerprint unlock is also stupid fast...better than the iPhone I have to use for work. Some of the things that are killing me about the platform:

• Settings - these are an absolute mess in Android. Just to find something as simple as changing ringtones, etc. is a challenge
• Apps Apps Apps for everything! Very annoying
• Of course, the lack of live tiles sucks - we're very reliant on a calendar view and while the launcher does provide a good option for a calendar on its own page the widgets just can't match a live tile.
• System apps - I know that I could root the phone and get all of the junk apps off, but I shouldn't have to
• It sounds silly to say, but too much choice. It's very easy to try something out and then have it break something that you were already very happy with.