because i'm tired of staring at my phone, waiting for it to unlock

[rone]

I'm sick of my smart phone experience.  Motorola has done a shitty job at keeping Android up to date on the original Droid and the Droid 4.  In addition, i want to avoid the temptation of a hand-held distraction.  Right now, my first choice would be a plain phone that can act as a WAP, plus a small tablet like a Nexus 9 or iPad Mini.  That way, my phone will just be a phone, and if i truly need to do something that requires Internet access, i'll pull out the tablet.

The crux is the first part: the plain phone with wiffy hotspot.  Do you, gentle reader, know of such an animal?  If not, do you have an alternative suggestion?  I'm not going to get an iPhone or any other smart phone; i want a phone that is just a phone, like in the old days, when we beat out text messages with rocks on a 10-digit keypad.  Any other suggestions are welcome.

Comments

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

I know there are people using "feature phones" but I don't know if there are any that do a good wifi hotspot.

Maybe one of the super-cheap Lumia devices? There's fuck-all by way of apps so not much temptation to use it as a toy and they do quite well at the "be a phone and provide wifi" functions.

(They are also quite inexpensive, should be able to get one off-contract but with good data support for ~$100 tops.)

[xtingu]

You were a Droid4 guy? I still have my Droid4, and I will continue to treat it like my first born because I know they'll never make another keyboard phone ever again. I simply REFUSE to be one of those assholes who stops giving fucks about their tragic autocorrect typos.

As for your phone-phone, must it have WiFi, or would you consider tethering (wired) an option? I seem to recall my ancient LG EnV (circa 2005?) having that capability. I'm pretty sure I could plug my laptop into my phone and use my phone like a modem, kinda. That would probably cost you a fortune in data though. I wonder if dumb phones come with WiFi. I'm too lazy to look on Verizon's website right now.

Gee. My reply was really not helpful.

[ltempt.livejournal.com]

I did the original Droid (Milestone) and the Droid 3. Interestingly, while I still have them neither will actually power on any more. I ended up dumping cyanogenmod firmware on both towards the end of their working lifecycle because Motorola seemed to be incapable of actually delivering updates.

The turning point when it came to onscreen keyboards was modern Swiftkey. It doesn't do the autocorrect horrorshow that launched iPhone memes because it gives you fair bloody warning before trying to correct anything. Really, I think they've released it for iPhone as welll now.

Since ditching Motorola, the phones I've liked have been the original Samsung Galaxy Note (stolen), the Note 2 (grabbed by Jasmine), the Note 3 (hangs around the house as a SIP phone) and I'm currently using the Note Edge. Using the stylus to poke at the onscreen keyboard removes the fat finger/nails/whatever element that has always annoyed me with other devices.

I'm not sure about the whole CDMA situation if you're using Verizon, but I'd assume a Note 1 or 2 should be almost free on fleabay to give the idea a test before spending anything.

If I was going to actually answer your question, I'd probably suggest just getting a classic Nokia symbian phone of the later generation (like the E71 style) and an LTE enabled tablet (and I'd probably make it one of the stylus enabled Samsungs). There are outfits still rebuilding batteries for the classic Nokias, so they're good until your carrier shuts down support for older networks.

[haineux.livejournal.com]

Not going to argue, just offer you a no-contract iPhone 6 or 6+ for less than retail. Ping me if interested.

Yes, I carry a 6+ and I love that it's huge. No, I am not a freak. Much.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I still have the Droid 4 but its escalating pissing-me-off events make me want to take a hammer to it. I too want to preserve the purity of keeping a physical keyboard but it's just not worth it anymore, and if i'm going to use a virtual keyboard, it's going to be a big one.

It must be wiffy; if i just wanted a craptop to have wiffy, i'd get a USB modem. It's so i can use it with a tablet. I looked at Verizon's Web site and the results went from "no" to "reply hazy ask later".

[boutell.livejournal.com]

You could get a shitty android phone that offers tethering but is unpleasant to use as anything but a phone.

You could also blow all the apps off the homescreen, except the phone and messaging apps.

I think you could get pretty much to what you want just by conventional tweaking of what's installed or at least what's visible.

But if you need more... taking it further would make an interesting custom version of android... and then you wouldn't have a handheld distraction, you'd have a year-long yak-shaving distraction.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if i wanted yak-shaving, i'd put CyanogenMod on this thing.

[rbarclay.livejournal.com]

Hmm, for a feature phone I can recommend the Samsung GT-B2710. Sturdy, waterproof, 2-3 weeks of battery life. No Wiffy, of course.
But what about getting a tablet with its own SIM slot/LTE/UMTS etc. capability? Looking at the local shopping sites there seem to be tons of those.

Droid 4 and tweaking the OS

[(Anonymous)]

I am too attached to my Droid 4 and wondered if rooting and tweaking to OS would be of any use? I am unfamiliar with using Sysop commands to optimize the performance of the device. I can say that after factory resets the device has performed beautifully for quite a while.

A Droid 4 user in Minneasota

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I might just do a factory reset and see how that goes.

[holywar.livejournal.com]

I have nothing to offer, but if you find a workable solution I'd appreciate it if you post about it. I've often thought I'd rather have a phone that was nothing but a phone and [SM]MS device, but I don't want to go back to multitap/T9.