Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
I wouldn't automatically rule out most phones (a few I would). We all have different needs and uses and something that wouldn't work for one person could easily work for another. I'm just expressing concern when too many red flags (512MB RAM, 4GB ROM, older CPU, older OS) pop up on one phone.
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I think we're sometimes too focused on specs, and less focused on what works for the intended use.
I'm using a several-year old Kyocera Rise (android 4.1, I think) as an on-hand ereader, music player, "toolbox" apps, a few games, document reader/writer, etc. 512mB, 4gB, single core. It works fine for all this, but I'm not really focused on video player use. It's got better Wifi reception than our Nexus 7, and loads internet pages just a fraction slower (partially due to choosing a browser that's much leaner than Chrome). I'm not close to running out of internal storage. 4.1 allows transferring more apps to the uSD card than KitKat (4.4) does. 4.1 works with Flash video online. No upgrades to the OS are available, and I wouldn't update it past the point where Flash isn't broken even if I could.
I recently read an article by an Android expert that claimed we're too focused on RAM in Android devices. Assuming that a particular app isn't really RAM-hungry, Android is designed to constantly operate on the edge of running out of RAM, no matter how much you have, and to release RAM on demand as needed for new use. Android doesn't use RAM in the same way that we're trained to expect from PCs. The expert's claim was that number of cores and core speed was significantly more important than the amount of RAM-- but just like a PC, if you aren't using apps that are processor intensive, that doesn't matter much either.
I'd certainly buy a low-spec phone for this type of use at $10. If I felt like spending 30-50, I'd expect a lot more phone...
.... and if I needed a PHONE instead of a little tablet, I'd worry more about the phone part first. BearMountainBooks, your Tracfone solution is nearly ideal for the type of use you're talking about for an occasional phone if all you need is a phone. You can select GSM or CDMA carrier, the phone will roam between carriers as needed in weak-coverage areas (which a lot of pre-paid phones won't, and Tracfone Androids won't), and it's dirt cheap to add time for the type of use you describe. I do exactly this with a Tracfone dumb phone, and carry an un-activated android phone/mini-tablet for the non-phone stuff.
KentE