Solved! Idiot proof basic usage Smartphone

[terrymac]

wife and i both have old basic cellphones which are only used very occasionally when out of the house, maybe 6 times a month.
we have had a couple of occasions in stores, recently, when we've been told "why not look up the nearest xxxx on the web and you can use our WIFI?"
which is great except our phones are an old Nokia (2004) €20 and a Samsung from around 2012 that cost €35.

what we need is a smartphone that could deal with calls, texts, emailing, web browsing (not streaming films, music or you tube) and maybe store a few albums on it, plus it should be WIFI compatible. our SIM's are dirt cheap €2 and Zero and allow us 2 hours calls+free SMS but only 50mb data hence the need to find WIFI when we are out and about.

anything out there that won't break the bank and easy to use?

 

[hang-the-9]

You need to check with your service providers what pones will work. If they work with a standard GSM unlocked phone, this should help https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-unlocked-phones,review-2927.html or here for cheaper stuff https://www.androidcentral.com/best-android-phones-under-200

Also depends on size you want. I like the Honor 8x, my son uses one, and for $200 it has good features and screen, runs fast, but it's over 6" screen size so pretty large.

Used market is also an option. I would rather buy a used phone in good shape that is a higher end model than a new lower end phone.

Once you start using a smartphone you will probably want to use more features on it and upgrade to a better data plan. 50mb of data won't allow you to do much at all. In addition some service providers limit the minimum plan you can run on a smart phone.

 

[terrymac]

thanks for that, i'll check the links. unfortunately our service provider has no "in between plans", we have the cheap option that gives 50mb per month then you pay any extra, but the next one jumps to 50gb, then 100gb, then unlimited.

 

[webworkings]

You could always try a carrier that has it so that when you reach the limit on your data, it doesn't either stop it or start charging you more, it just lowers your speed, usually to 2g.