A review of the $10 Walmart phone—better than nothing, but not by much

We bought an LG Sunrise for the low, low price of $10. We regret it.

Read the whole story

 

[bb-15]

aruisdante[/url]":3iyyx593]

Gendou[/url]":3iyyx593]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

This sentiment has come up every time Ars has attempted to do a budget, well, really anything but especially phones, review (and not just Ars really, most of the major tech sites/blogs). The problem is that none of them seem to have anyone on staff that isn't coming into these reviews with the prospective of having come from something worse, because none of them have ever been in the target audience for something like this. And that's somewhat to be expected given the requirements that tend to come with getting a job writing for a technology site on the internet. But it always makes coverage of things like this seem lacking at best, and downright mocking at worst, of people for whom this might really be their only option.

I'm somewhat surprised that they haven't done something about it, but I'm not really sure how you solve the problem without being exploitive while still maintaining the writing standards expected of the site.

A writer with a "prospective of having come from something worse," (or what the Ars reader considers to be worse) is not guranteed to give a rock bottom device like the Sunrise a positive review.
- For instance let's say a tech website tried to find a writer who only used cheap feature phones and had never owned a smartphone (I'm sure that's possible).
The result could easily be an article which claims that it is a waste of time getting a smartphone like the Sunrise because the writer doesn't need one.
- I've read a few articles like this and one frustrating thing about a writer previously never having used a type of device before is how uninformed they are about the technology.
The message of this kind of article is; the writer doesn't know much but doesn't need to because he/she doessn't like this kind of tech.

Bottom line; for a tech website the writer imo should be knowlegeable about the tech being reviewed. That is definitely preferred over the alternative imo.

 

[AndreaFaulds]

This device has better specs than the phone I got in 2013 for more than ten times that price: newer OS, more built-in storage, albeit with a worse screen. That phone was very much usable - I used it every day and did everything you'd expect to do on a smartphone, yet I imagine this Ars writer would be mocking it for "only" having the screen resolution of a 2G iPhone.

Screw you, Ars. Don't mock budget phones. They're far from awful.

 

[diracultra]

I think there is a small error in the caption "The back has a grid texture, once of the few luxuries on a $10 phone."

Otherwise, I'm impressed by what LG was able to do for such a low price... 10$ is almost the price of the microSD card alone !

 

[NoTimeForTrolls]

I'm glad you ran with this phone since I bought one three weeks ago. I don't use smart phones, preferring my legacy flip phone for calls and texting. The only use I have for smart phones is for their non-network apps and abilities. I've bought probably ten or eleven Droid X2s off eBay for $15 apiece for use on WiFi, as a camera and camcorder, MP3 player, voice recorder and, yes, I do use the builtin FM radio. Also handy are the around the house apps such as the handyman utility calculators (figuring concrete yardage, electrical values, angles, construction measurements, etc.).

But back to the LG Sunrise, my Droids top out at Android 4.0 and the live FPV app on a recent drone (SYMA X5SW) purchase demands Android 4.1 minimum. When I saw the $9 sale price for the Sunrise, I picked one up with a 60 minute card. I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but the phone comes with triple minutes, texts and data for life (in case I decide to use it as a phone).

The drone FPV video comes across fine on the Sunrise and the DVR app on the software works for what I need it to do. I don't really intend to use the Sunrise for anything else, so it serves my needs at an acceptable $9 price.

 

[Gooner1]

PhilGil[/url]":gzbvrz7x]Smartphones have become so commonplace that we've already forgotten what remarkable devices they actually are. The phone Ron reviewed is a $10, fully functional handheld computer. That's pretty amazing.

And, to revisit the old standby, probably has more computing power than the moon lander.

But, no, I won't make any comment about potential uses the reviewer could find for it.

 

[pxc]

"It feels weird saying this about a device that runs an OEM-skinned version of Android 4.4 KitKat in 2015;"

If it weren't so sad, I'd also be laughing about my less than 2 year old Kindle Fire HDX 7 still running the gimped version of KitKat called Fire OS 4.5.5, with Amazon stating it won't get an upgrade to Lollipop-based Fire OS 5. I may do the downgrade voodoo which allows custom ROMs to be installed if I can get over the fear of bricking it.

 

[PaulWTAMU]

does it take calls? I mean...that seems kind of important for a phone...right?

 

[tipoo]

As much as the experience isn't at 2015 standards, if you think about it with the mental frame of a 10 dollar device having better specs than the original iPhone, which was sort of a big deal at release day, it's somewhat neat in that sense even for a technophile.

Actually that first iPhone would probably be a more interesting comparison point than the GS6, which we all know would demolish it.

Now, i wouldn't gift this to my worst enemy, but I'm not going to sit here and judge people on super tight budgets or that just have extremely modest smartphone needs either. Or these could be good trip/burner phones, heck,buy a 3 pack!

 

[ITawAPuttyTat]

My girlfriend's son (18 years old, senior in HS) dropped and cracked his iphone 6 after being repeatedly told to put it in the case she had bought for it, advice he ignored because he couldn't "show off his phone" with the case on. Then, he expected mom to just pony up the $150 warranty deductible so he could get a replacement. Instead, he is stylin' and profilin' with the moto e until Christmas. Of course, the obvious reason is to teach him to place more value in and care for the things he is given, because there's no magic iphone fairy. But I also wanted him to know he didn't need an expensive iphone, that a $50 moto e running android can pretty much do everything his $700 phone could. Doing my part to pull people out of the apple ecosystem, one misguided soul at a time.So I picked up 2 more of the moto e's for $10 from BB on Black Friday. Now THAT'S a $10 phone.

 

[rj_king]

Got my friend a zte zinger (tmo) early this year that had almost the same specs as this phone early this year (he lost his job a couple years ago and has been struggling ever since). It replaced an old flip phone he had been using, and while it was slow he loved it for actually working. It was $20 and i was nervous about an android phone at such a low price but it turned out to be great for a while until he could affors something a little better.

It is great to see functional phones brought within reach of almost everyone.

 

[dhughes]

How long until you get a phone as a prize in a box of cereal?

 

[teran]

RicheTheBuddha[/url]":t2fjytgf]The reviewer left out a a few very important aspects:

How well did the phone functionality work? Could a user hear calls on it OK? Could the person on the other end of the call hear OK? Was it around average or worse when it comes to dropped calls?

Did the texting function work OK or was the weak screen a hindrance in typing SMS messages?

How tough was the phone? Could it easily survive most drops onto a tile floor undamaged?

Finally, would most users be better off with this smartphone with a bad screen or should they go with a "dumb" call/text/camera phone with a clearer display?

And as for the camera on the Sunrise, while far from "great" I sure wouldn't call it "awful," at least in conditions with good lighting.

Yep. Not one mention in the review of how it works as a PHONE.

 

[AncientCreep]

dhughes[/url]":24psmaef]How long until you get a phone as a prize in a box of cereal?

Well given last week you could get a computer free with a magazine, I'm guessing not long at all

I got a TracFone LG Optimus Fuel at my local supermarket for $10 recently. I have no plans to use mine as a phone, I just got it because it had BT 4.0 I was going to use it for experiments, couldn't care about the phone portion but overall it wasn't that bad. Its got KitKat, a dual core processor and a 3.5" screen. For the price that's kinda amazing relative to what you could get in the past.

LG Optimus Fuel phone

 

[Decoherent]

Well, yes, it's obviously a really cheap phone, but the cost of service for any phone dwarfs the initial purchase price. Especially since you can get a Moto E for $30-50 which is incomparable to this thing. A price delta of $20 is completely manageable, even on the most stringent of budgets, and yes I've been there.

 

[kansanian]

Kind of amazing how far we've come.

As others stated, the moto E deal was where it was at for $10.
It is actually very usable. Far better than the first gen, though it'll never get another official update. Still far better than some of the even lower res devices out there by other brands. Really, it's one of the best lower end phones even at list price.

The saddest part is that it's got the exact same guts a the new G, except for the screen. Sad that they aren't going to update it.

 

[iolinux333]

As usual a phone reviewed without any mention of the phone part. You know, like RECEPTION, MICROPHONE and quality thereof, SPEAKERS and all that silly stuff phones have.

 

[PuiuCS]

if you are going to do a review for something this cheap at least try not to sound condescending while doing it. it's really annoying.

 

[SYNERDATA]

If this came out in 1999, it would have been called miraculous, even for $500, worth every cent.

 

[alxx]

macemoneta[/url]":2cetogk3]I love these. Cheapest WiFi connected X displays for projects. Less than a third the cost of a Chromecast Audio with the ability to play Google Music, local audio, or streamed from a server / cloud. Cheap bedside ebook reader, using large font and (hands-free) blind scrolling. Google Voice home phone replacement - with no monthly service charge, unlike the cable company's $29/month for the identical functionality.

In short, these cheap Android smartphones are awesome devices. Oh, and they're basic cell phones too.

or hook up via the usb to a arduino or similar to read sensors or enable your server/system to send automated sms etc
http://android.serverbox.ch/?p=549

 

[macnews]

Ron your phone reviews suck.

It's a $10 phone, and you are complaing?!

It includes a 4GB microSD card, on which you can download offline maps and Google Translate languages. Yeah, a whole lot to complain about.

Sheesh.

 

[disarmyouwitha]

I bought 2. =] I plan on using them for a "free energy" project and give them to the homeless with hand-crank or stationary bike generators to keep them powered.. explain how it all works, and how to find open wifi to get online.. How they can use free apps to message people or make calls instead of paying for service.. Or how to lookup Homeless shelters / read the greatest works of man. =] Or whatever.. sell the $10 phone for $20 and get a meal, lol.

I think it could be really cool / helpful!

 

[Deleted member 192806]

TruthSeeker57[/url]":yfdqdpn7]Regret it... you mean you can't make a phone call with a $10 phone?

I regularly now spend $12 to $15 dollars for a lunch. All-righty then.

You know it's bad when the phone call costs more than the phone itself.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

rj_king[/url]":2z4aks2s]Got my friend a zte zinger (tmo) early this year that had almost the same specs as this phone early this year (he lost his job a couple years ago and has been struggling ever since). It replaced an old flip phone he had been using, and while it was slow he loved it for actually working. It was $20 and i was nervous about an android phone at such a low price but it turned out to be great for a while until he could affors something a little better.

It is great to see functional phones brought within reach of almost everyone.

The funny thing about this story is some of the specs are a bit better than my old Nokia E71 and I got through life easily with that phone.

 

[rwxatc]

Doesn't a good condition iPhone 4s (the oldest iPhones that can support the current iOS 9) cost about 50$ ?

 

[rwxatc]

SYNERDATA[/url]":177eqg6m]If this came out in 1999, it would have been called miraculous, even for $500, worth every cent.

And if you were caught with one of these in 1450, you would either be crowned king or burned at the stake.

But it's not 1450 or 1999.

 

[Choops]

Guys, calm down. It's just a satirical The Onion like review, likely. Ars rarely runs these, but I'm pretty sure they ran another troll article earlier this year in April.

 

[toasterwaffle86]

Gendou[/url]":3ru4khus]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

Ehh - I drive a used Honda (11 year old Civic). And sure, it's not as powerful, quiet, smooth, or luxurious as an s-class, nowhere close. Yes, this car cost me $5K instead of $95K. Yes, it was a budget car when new, and it's nowhere near top of the line. Yes, I wish it had more sound dampening at times. But it runs reliably, gets on the freeway reasonably fast (although you have to rev it up a bit), keeps up with traffic easily, etc. Driving that car, unlike using a $10 phone, isn't at all a constant exercise in frustration. No, this phone is like a 1L 3-cylinder Geo Metro XFi from the early 90's (half the power + torque of my Civic + much cheaper build), further hampered by a 3-speed automatic transmission. You have to floor those to even hit the freeway at a semi-decent pace.

I also have a Lumia 520 as a spare phone ($20 a year ago), and I swear, this thing is so slow that it would be a safety hazard if I used it as an mp3 player in the car. Nothing else I own responds that slowly or can't keep up with the music when I tell it to do something.

 

[YetAnotherAnonymousAppellation]

From a hardware hacker's perspective, this phone is worth it just for the parts. The removable bits, a 4 GB microSD and a 1540 mAh lithium battery, are worth more than $10 just by themselves.

 

[Sulla]

What's the difference between the Sunrise, the Destiny, and the Lucky, which all appear at $20 on Wally's website?

 

[macnews]

Sulla[/url]":iiyr6hdi]What's the difference between the Sunrise, the Destiny, and the Lucky, which all appear at $20 on Wally's website?

I believe some are CDMA, some are GSM. And they might be locked to different MNVOs (Such as TracFone, Straight Talk, Net10).

 

[core_dump]

Yeah, almost every Ron's review feel is like that. I don't get it why is it so hard to realize that every product has its customer, that's been the law since humans started bying and selling stuff.

Edited for spelling.

Gendou[/url]":2ub16o3q]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

 

[fluxtatic]

I've got what was probably the prior generation of this phone, the LG Fuel, also $10 on TracFone. Does the Galaxy S-whatever my co-worker just got look a lot nicer? No doubt. Work better? Again, yes. Was it $10? Hell no.

The author's being a bit of an asshole here - it's $10. Given that it's probably more powerful than the desktop PC I had not so many years ago, it's fucking amazing that I got what amounts to a full-blown computer in my pocket for $10.

 

[kkeane]

I don't understand the review. Based on the review, I'm actually going to buy this phone today to replace my Samsung Galaxy 4G.

The first thing I noticed: a removable battery. Yay - a major plus in the age of glued-in batteries.

I was actually planning to go back to a feature phone because I don't feel like spending $300 or so every year just for security updates. Frojo is perfectly fine for me in terms of features.

I only use the phone for phone calls; the only reason I need Android at all is to use ActiveSync to sync my address book.

Going from Froyo to Kitkat for $10 (or even $60 for the unlocked one) sounds quite reasonable to me. Even if the screen is poor.

At that price point, I might even make this a second phone and throw Cyanogenmod on it - something I've been reluctant do with my main means of communication.

All in all, it seems like a great deal to me!

 

[Deleted member 192806]

Gendou[/url]":31c2v36d]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

But practically everyone can afford a $10 phone and that's the real story here.

 

[macnews]

I can't figure Ron out.

$700 phone: Terrible, over-priced.

$10 phone: Terrible, under specced.

What on earth will he be positive about?

 

[c_los]

What is wrong with you people? A $10 smart phone is amazing! Sure it's nowhere near as good as current fare but what did you expect for $10? For $10 this isn't for you. This is for people who would otherwise not be able to ever afford a smart phone and will be super happy to get one.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

127.0.0.1rules[/url]":3wqypdxl]

Gendou[/url]":3wqypdxl]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

Ehh - I drive a used Honda (11 year old Civic). And sure, it's not as powerful, quiet, smooth, or luxurious as an s-class, nowhere close. Yes, this car cost me $5K instead of $95K. Yes, it was a budget car when new, and it's nowhere near top of the line. Yes, I wish it had more sound dampening at times. But it runs reliably, gets on the freeway reasonably fast (although you have to rev it up a bit), keeps up with traffic easily, etc. Driving that car, unlike using a $10 phone, isn't at all a constant exercise in frustration. No, this phone is like a 1L 3-cylinder Geo Metro XFi from the early 90's (half the power + torque of my Civic + much cheaper build), further hampered by a 3-speed automatic transmission. You have to floor those to even hit the freeway at a semi-decent pace.

I also have a Lumia 520 as a spare phone ($20 a year ago), and I swear, this thing is so slow that it would be a safety hazard if I used it as an mp3 player in the car. Nothing else I own responds that slowly or can't keep up with the music when I tell it to do something.

Hell until the new generation that just came out yours is better than the last ten years of civics, that is, if you don't have the dorky instrument panel.

 

[Zassounotsukushi]

norton_I[/url]":26j7wo08]

kray28[/url]":26j7wo08]

Gendou[/url]":26j7wo08]I don't know why this article rubs me the wrong way, but it does.

I guess it feels like a Mercedes S-Class owner reviewing a used Honda:
"It has wheels and an engine, I guess it fits the definition of a 'car' LOL."

Not everyone can afford a $600 smartphone.
Not everyone can afford a $60 smartphone.

This is exactly right.

You paid $10 for this...it is an amazing value for that investment.

Sort of. If you are using it for wifi only, maybe. But if you want to actually use it for a phone, you have to consider the cost of service. Even with tracfone's "pay as you go" service, phone only costs about $80/year (assuming you use less than 240 minutes *PER YEAR*), and smartphone/data costs more. So it isn't really a $10 phone, at best it is a $10 wifi mini-tablet. That could be a good deal for some people, but in that case doesn't serve the necessity/emergency use of an actual phone. If you want a phone for infrequent/emergency use, I think most people would be better served by a feature phone with much better standby battery life. For people who are going to use it for anything more, tracphone is a pretty expensive service, and the pre-paid plans from tmobile and a variety of MVNOs are a better deal, even if you pay more for the hardware.

I've been using tracfone for about 15 years now. So I will be the one to set the record straight.

Smartphone data for tracfones does not cost more. That's just flatly untrue. Tracfone has always had prepaid cards (that's the entire point). Due to technology inflation combined with their pursuit of absurdly low cost customers, they introduced 2x and then 3x minutes. When they introduced Android phones, they replicated your units for both text and data, on TOP OF the 3x minutes.

The most economical option for Tracfone remains the online special of 1500x3 = 4500 units - those units being minutes of talk, number of texts, and MB of data. That card is a little over $200. There is a 4th complicating factor, which is service time, can I can't speak to how relevant that is for other people.

You mentioned T-mobile pre-paid. Their plans (yes, prepaid) appear to start at $50/month

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/simp ... paid-plans

There are legions of people on tracfone who have >$20 / month phone costs. There are people who get the $200 Android card for an Android and use it for the full year of service life it comes with.

I guess I'm tired of people mis-characterizing tracfone economics, while being outright ignorant of the numbers. Look at the LG Sunset if you want a realistic example of an Android someone would actually use as a Tracfone. It's behind the curve, but there's no difference in quality of life from owning that phone versus the bleeding edge.

 

[Lex-Man]

I own a 20 pound smartphone I bought in the UK when my main phone was stolen. It was horrible, it would take a couple of minutes to load some apps and constantly freeze. Really if you only have 10 dollars to spend on a mobile you're probably better off going for a dumb phone I'm.

 

[macnews]

Lex-Man[/url]":22h7cguy]I own a 20 pound smartphone I bought in the UK when my main phone was stolen. It was horrible, it would take a couple of minutes to load some apps and constantly freeze. Really if you only have 10 dollars to spend on a mobile you're probably better off going for a dumb phone I'm.

Those criticisms don't apply apply to the Sunrise. I bought it for $8, and it is tremendous. I have loaded dozens of apps on it, and they all work.