My Portuguese mobile phone now insists that it does not have a SIM card in it. When it quite clearly does. It also doesn’t ask me to log in. Which is odd – usually it asks for a code when it’s turned on.
So, anyone any bright ideas on what’s wrong with it – and I can’t ask Vodafone because I’m in England.
The other q. What’s the cheapest landfill Android phone out there and where can I physically go to buy it to stick this SIM card into?
Any High Street has dozens of shops flogging ex-display, refurbed and unlocked phones.
There are 4 in my home town’s main shopping street.
Alcatel do really cheap ones, that mostly work.
If you want it just to test the SIM, why not borrow one from a friend/neighbour for a few minutes?
I assume you’ve done all the standard stuff, slide the in and out a few times to clear a bad connection, exchange sims with another phone to confirm it’s the phone, factory reset?
It sounds to me like a hardware fault. In order of likelihood I’d guess 1) the connections between the phone and the sim 2) the phone 3) the sim.
I would inspect and carefully clean the connections on the sim and the phone.
I haven’t got any specific recommendations for a landfill level android in the UK, but I’d start with the Argos catalog, or gird you loins and physically go to a big Tesco or one of the Currys that houses the vestiges of a Carphone Warehouse.
The SIM card can get slightly loose. Take it out, cut a piece of ordinary paper to size, and put it back in with the paper behind the SIM but under the clip, to make it tighter. If it works, it should give you a few months extra life, plenty of time to sort out a new one.
If it’s asking you to log into the mobile network, it may be that you are out of credit. Mine does this when I use up all of my monthly data allowance – once I log in I can access only the page for topping up the account.
Cheapest landfill? Personally, I wouldn’t go for *that* cheap because they really get compromised in various ways. Like the Moto E20 is £80 but it doesn’t have much memory, doesn’t have NFC, only about a 14 hour battery.
Spend just a little more on a Moto G31 and you get a good, cheap capable phone with a 36 hour battery, NFC etc.
As others have said,
Give your SIM card and contacts a clean.
Check the SIM in another phone.
As for a decent phone at not silly money…
I use this
https://motorolarugged.com/en-gb/
The Motorola Defy. Its basically a Motorola G series previous model, but ruggedised so can withstand being dropped from 1.8m onto concrete (I tested this getting out of my truck, whoops), water, dirt (I get all sorts of crap on mine in the factory), high temps and still hasn’t missed a beat.
Pretty reasonably priced too.
And also, with it being ruggedised as standard, you don’t then have to fork out for a case as well.
If you want really cheap, any branch of Computer Exchange will have loads of second-hand stuff.
If you want cheap and durable, a Tesco saleswoman told me recently the best value for money is around the £130 mark and suggested the Samsung A13.
I was impressed because I had gone in with a budget of £250. She could have sold me something at that price, but said the bang for buck ratio in that range is not as good.
I think I paid £15 for my Alcatel just-a-phone-ma’am.
I don’t know where you are Tim, but there’s plenty of Vodafone shops near me and they’re all over London.
Take your phone into one of them and they’ll give it a kick. And they can blow a new SIM card from your old details if necessary.
CJNerd,
You can see with the announcement of the iPhone 14 that everyone has run out of ideas with phones. An SOS feature to call emergency services via sat phone? That’s all you have?
Meanwhile the tech is trickling down to the cheap phones. Maybe the camera isn’t quite so good, but you’re not Helmut Newton or Roger Deakins. You’re taking holiday snaps and sharing them on Facebook. And if you are Helmut Newton or Roger Deakins, you’re using a high end Canon camera, not an iPhone. And no, the CPU isn’t as fast, but what are you using a phone for? Rendering 3D movies? No, it’s watching a funny dog video and checking Twitter. All of which is not an issue for £130 phones.
The only reason I’d spend much more than that is for the Moto Defy that Chernyy mentioned for the ruggedisation.
You going through service provider frequency changes in Port? I had to change all my Lebara SIMs here in Spain. The top-up place swapped them for new ones. I believe it may have something to do with 5G. In total I have 6 Spanish mobile numbers. Or had. Two of them are now non functional despite having credit on them.
So have you had any SMS’s from the service provider on the matter? Easy to miss if your service constantly bombards you with marketing SMS’s
And a thought. If your service provider is doing a frequency change & you’re not in-country, you may not complete the change. You’re phone’s not handshaking with Vodafone PT but whoever’s providing the UK service. So you’ve lost the handshake without being reinstated on the new one.
OK, I’m sure there’s some expert here will tell me the above’s a load of bollox. But it’s the nearest to what I can understand’s been going on. August 31 was the change day according to the SMS I got. And Lebara here use the Vodafone network
I agree with CJ Nerd. Most high streets have a CEX (Computer Exchange) or indeed multiple competitors (usually run by East Europeans or Pakistanis as Phone Repair Shops). They can sell you a good second hand phone and generally there’s a few months guarantee. If it’s landfill you aren’t going to need a new phone
On buying a phone, my phones are all Motorola G7. They do what fones are supposed to do. Receive calls. And they do do internet for apps & have cameras. Dual SIM. 160€ a phone from Amazon
But the important thing. The batteries last about a week on a recharge. Because there’s no fucking point to a phone with a dead battery. Something seems to escape Samsung fans who inevitably want to plug into a phone recharger as soon as they come through the door.
For testing SIMs or as a backup, Nokia 3310 or any such feature phone you can get. For an actual smart phone to use, don’t go cheap. The main thing is: for how long do you get security software updates? Don’t connect things to the Internet without up to date software. So the answer becomes: Samsung Galaxy A53 (should have 4 years of support starting in March 2022), Google Pixel 6A (has 5 years of support starting more or less now) or whatever the latest iPhone SE is (should get 7 years of support from release date of device).
If you buy any weird cheap brand, then you can literally landfill it after a few months, or else you have to do your own research about security updates. Even if they get them, they tend to get them late.
“The main thing is: for how long do you get security software updates?”
If you don’t use payment apps, it doesn’t matter a fuck does it? The answer is, don’t have anything on a phone you wouldn’t want someone else to get access to.
Look. Odds on you’re running Android. On a popular piece of shit like a Samsung. So there’s an entire world of hackers out there working night & day trying to crack into your phone. Occasionally one succeeds. Don’t be a target!
BiS
I’ve had my Moto G7 three years. Got it after my Blackberry (pbuh) finally snuffed it after 8 years of valiant service.
Great phone, excellent camera and battery life was vg. But after 3 years the battery is buggered. As I don’t use it much these days, it isn’t a huge problem, but something to lookout for.
@Ottokring
Yeah. My first G7’s about the same age & now gets a couple of days on a battery. Some of the problem may be my fault. It’s a trifle hot here & sometimes it gets left in the sun. Pick it up & it’s too hot to touch. Don’t suppose it does it much good.
But.
They’re 160 a go. About a quarter the price of a Samsung. So you buy a new one. What’s the problem?
And the next one I get I’ll be running it on Linux. So no more Android. Hurrah!!!
“They’re 160 a go. About a quarter the price of a Samsung. So you buy a new one. What’s the problem?”
Long lasting phones are a false economy. You could buy a Pixel 6A which yeah, gets 5 years of updates, but what if the main board dies, or the connector busts inside after 3? Or you lose it?
And if you buy a cheap phone and bin it after 3, the next phone you get will probably be better than the Pixel 3A from 3 years earlier for £160.
Bought a Moto G31 for a relative recently and like @BoM4 was impressed what you now get at that price range – £120 from John Lewis and you get a 2 year JL warranty which is worth having. (I have been pleased by previous experiences with JL tech support and their willingness to replace faulty goods even near the 2 year mark!) Moto also have a decent record with updates and it helps their Android is very close to “stock”. Xiaomi might get you a better spec of phone at the same price point but they’ve put more of their own stamp on the product and you might not want to get sucked into their software/services ecosystem.
https://www.johnlewis.com/motorola-g31-smartphone-android-4gb-ram-6-4-inch-4g-sim-free-64gb-sterling-blue/dark-grey/p5910258
But that’s really “budget Android” not “landfill Android”. For most people it would be a perfectly usable everyday phone and at the end of 2 years, if its performance is no longer up to scratch, you can buy whatever the next model is. If you only want to test – well, cheapest way to test something is just to borrow someone else’s phone of course. If you do insist on buying, and you’re not going to use the phone for anything else, there are plenty of 2nd hand or refurbished options for £20, and companies like Alcatel (Chinese firm using the French brand these days), TTfone or XGODY sell genuine landfill Android (often the stripped down Android Go, also some are sold using KaiOS) phones for £40 or so. You might consider the Alcatel 1 for example, not that I’ve used it and be aware that the reviews have been less than complimentary:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alcatel-Smartphone-16GB-Volcano-Black/dp/B09MTT2H2W/
BiS, it’s not just payment apps. A smartphone is a computer and if you connect it to the internet and it becomes infested with malware, why would you be happy carrying that around in your pocket? If you think that can’t cause any problems for you, you lack imagination.
Bloke on M4: “Long lasting phones are a false economy.” They can last 2-3 years just fine. A lot of the cheapest phones never get security updates, or get them 3 months too late. BiS’s and Ottokring’s Motorola G7s haven’t had a security update since January 2021 and they still work, so you can’t say hardware does not outlive software.
Are you in London for current events or was that just unfortunate coincidence?
Heh. No, in Bath for familial duty with our own near 90 year old. Not even “care for” but just a good idea that there’s someone making a coffee or tea every few hours. Popping head around door, that sortof thing. So, someone from the extended family tries to make sure that most weekends are so covered…..
A smartphone is a computer and if you connect it to the internet and it becomes infested with malware, why would you be happy carrying that around in your pocket? If you think that can’t cause any problems for you, you lack imagination.
If you don’t use for anything secure & don’t connect to another device, it doesn’t make the slightest difference how much malware it’s got on it. Phones may be computers but using them like computers is a mugs game. Get a proper machine.
Rob Fisher,
“Bloke on M4: “Long lasting phones are a false economy.” They can last 2-3 years just fine. A lot of the cheapest phones never get security updates, or get them 3 months too late. BiS’s and Ottokring’s Motorola G7s haven’t had a security update since January 2021 and they still work, so you can’t say hardware does not outlive software.”
And how much has this caused a widespread problem?
There are security issues that people have exploited (e.g. sending an email with a certain payload that causes a problem), but many security issues are highly theoretical, almost impossible to exploit. Some guy out there who is going through the Android or Chromium code spots it, sets up the situation and proves it and Google send him a load of money to fix it.
Some of these bugs could even be shielded by other levels of security. You have a bug in the kernel, system layers, maybe the app sandbox layer is preventing them from ever getting called. Now, it’s still a bug and Google will fix it, but a user running apps is never going to be able to recreate it.
BiS,
“ If you don’t use for anything secure & don’t connect to another device, it doesn’t make the slightest difference how much malware it’s got on it.”
There’s plenty of malware out there that will make your phone call a premium rate number in the background. You might get the money back eventually but some of them are fiendishly good at mimicking a real wanker’s call patterns…
DK
@DK I solve that unlikely problem by not having a call plan I can make premium rate calls on. Can’t think of any reason why I’d want to make one.
My Galaxy A12 is fine. Battery is good for several days.
But mostly it is not Chinese.
The answer is, don’t have anything on a phone you wouldn’t want someone else to get access to.
Hmmm, that rules out email as that is the most precious thing you have given it provides the password reset feature for everything else.
“The answer is, don’t have anything on a phone you wouldn’t want someone else to get access to.
Hmmm, that rules out email as that is the most precious thing you have given it provides the password reset feature for everything else.”
Have more than one email account.
Hmmm, that rules out email as that is the most precious thing you have given it provides the password reset feature for everything else.
Basically why I detest Android. The necessity to have a gmail account to use it. Because I also detest freemail. Worth precisely what you pay for it.