What is the best basic phone?

[dpham00]

Yes, I know most here have smartphones, I was looking at getting a new basic phone off contract. NOTE, I would use the upgrade to get a smartphone .It would be nice to have something with a decent camera and video. I am not expecting smartphone quality camera, just good for basic phone.

It would be nice to have a qwerty keyboard, camera with flash and camcorder, like the env3. I looked on Verizon's website and no current basic phone meets my needs. I might be willing to forego the qwerty keyboard if the camera was better than the env3.

Btw,I am passing on the twom because you can't transfer contacts.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk 4

 

[Eclipse2K]

The Verizon store has a few QWERTY phones you may want to check out but I can't actually give an opinion on these. None of them have good cameras most likely though.

 

[dpham00]

The Verizon store has a few QWERTY phones you may want to check out but I can't actually give an opinion on these. None of them have good cameras most likely though.

Unfortunately the current options do not work for me based on what I see online, which I think has larger selection than in stores. It seems like basic phones were improving up to about 2009ish. After that it has been stagnant or even going backwards.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk 4

 

[Eclipse2K]

Unfortunately the current options do not work for me based on what I see online, which I think has larger selection than in stores. It seems like basic phones were improving up to about 2009ish. After that it has been stagnant or even going backwards.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk 4

They really have and that's a tough break for those that don't want a smart phone. Plus, now that I think of it, most of the display models are not even real phones but plastic toys.

Sent from my Motorola Droid Maxx using Tapatalk 4

 

[Simon_y7]

My kids like/liked Samsung Intensity. One of them has the II, but said that the original Intensity was somehow better. Now I see the III on the Verizon website. The other has Samsung Brightside, but has had all sorts of problems wit it. But they use their phones almost exclusively for texting and like the keyboard. My wife has LG Cosmos III and she's okay with it.

 

[raichur0xx0rz]

Seems like the Cosmos and Intensity lines are just repackaged version of the same device. There are some differences and CNet prefers the Intensity III over the Cosmos 3. I'm picking up a $50 Intensity III off of eBay for a parent, since it has basic Mil-Spec rating and just seems like a solid basic phone.

Unfortunately we won't be seeing any RAZR v9m kind of devices, with fancy build quality and what not. The Brightside is pretty annoying to use, so really I think the Intensity line is probably the best for now, which isn't saying much, on Verizon.

What don't you like about the Cosmos or Intensity?

 

[mohair3]

I was told by an AT&T saleperson , they make the basic phones so terrible that nobody will want them thereby "forcing" people to buy a smartphone instead. And after using many basic phones, I have to agree with her. Even Motorola's basic phone was horrible. Just adding a contact was misery the way the phone was set up.

 

[Eclipse2K]

I was told by an AT&T saleperson , they make the basic phones so terrible that nobody will want them thereby "forcing" people to buy a smartphone instead. And after using many basic phones, I have to agree with her. Even Motorola's basic phone was horrible. Just adding a contact was misery the way the phone was set up.

I feel the same way. Although I do suspect this may simply be because we've been using smart phones so long that its tedious to do anything on a T9 setup.

Samsung Galaxy S5 (Verizon)