Need help choosing Smart Phone

[David]

I need to pick up an Android and maybe an iPhone so I can use them to test software and user interfaces. So, I have a few questions for the more smartphone-inclined:

-- Can I just buy a phone that can I use on local Wifi, without having to be tied to some cell phone company and a contract? I have no need to make/receive calls. Am I looking for a phone that has been 'jail broken?' A one-generation behind phone would be fine to keep the costs down. Same questions for the iPhone. Ideally, like to keep the cost per phone under $200. Is that reasonable? and, where to buy? I do need to be able to download apps from the respective stores.

Thanks for all of your generous thoughts

 

[hitchicken]

I am fascinated & perplexed by your question. You're not interested in making/receiving calls, but you want a phone that is 'jail broken'. That can only mean you want to mess with the operating system and/or even the firmware. That is considerably harder than your everyday app software and user interface development. That requires a high degree of sophistication. Yet, you don't seem to know that virtually any cell phone can be paired to your local wifi without a cell phone company or contract... and yes, you will be able to download apps over the wifi link. The two seem at odds with one another. I'd recommend getting a TracFone smart phone. You don't need to activate any minutes and your given a couple of minutes to activate it, which is more than you need. They're cheap. You could even get a couple of throw-aways from drug dealers or cheating spouses.

I don't mess with Apple products. They are restrictive and way over priced. The iOS operating system is the hardest to work with and change. They charge for everything. Stick with Android. Up until recently, 'jail broken' iPhones would get you in trouble.

I'm still curious and a bit baffled. You tell me more and I'll tell you more of what I know. No offense intended.

 

[GURPS]

-- Can I just buy a phone that can I use on local Wifi, without having to be tied to some cell phone company and a contract?

I purchased a One + 1 earlier this yr, until I got the Straight Talk working, I used it on my home wireless

 

[GWguy]

-- Can I just buy a phone that can I use on local Wifi, without having to be tied to some cell phone company and a contract? I have no need to make/receive calls. Am I looking for a phone that has been 'jail broken?'

Maybe what you are looking for isn't a phone, but a WiFi tablet, of which there are tons. All the very same features and OS as a phone (thinking in terms of Android) but no cell service.

 

[LostNFound]

I need to pick up an Android and maybe an iPhone so I can use them to test software and user interfaces. So, I have a few questions for the more smartphone-inclined:

-- Can I just buy a phone that can I use on local Wifi, without having to be tied to some cell phone company and a contract? I have no need to make/receive calls. Am I looking for a phone that has been 'jail broken?' A one-generation behind phone would be fine to keep the costs down. Same questions for the iPhone. Ideally, like to keep the cost per phone under $200. Is that reasonable? and, where to buy? I do need to be able to download apps from the respective stores.

Thanks for all of your generous thoughts

I think what you are looking for, when you say you wont need a service provider, are unlocked phones.

Testing software and user interfaces ...hmmm... maybe you do need to jailbreak (or root) the phones. Depends on what exactly you are doing and on that note I am not sure. You can start with unlocked phones and if you end up needing to root them- find someone that knows how. Plenty of geeks out there that just like to do it for the fun of it. You're probably not going to find rooted phones for sale easily.

Best Buy (normally never shop there..but..) they have unlocked Iphones. Unlocked droids are probably for sale all over the net. Ebay, maybe amazon and other resell sites. If someone geeky doesnt help you here- find a geek. In this town that should be easy. These phones, not connected to a service can pick up wifi and will do what any tablet would do while connected to wifi.

We just bought a galaxy s4 off ebay for $100. Dont care for eye-junk so surf around- Id assume older ones are about the price of a proper paper weight.

 

[GURPS]

rooting my One + was trivial

... as was jail breaking my iPhone back when I had one
.... the crackers generating the jail breaks make it simple, plug in
... click, click, click
... reboot - insert hack automatically

 

[PeoplesElbow]

I would buy used unlocked phones from ebay.

 

[Tilted]

I need to pick up an Android and maybe an iPhone so I can use them to test software and user interfaces. So, I have a few questions for the more smartphone-inclined:

-- Can I just buy a phone that can I use on local Wifi, without having to be tied to some cell phone company and a contract? I have no need to make/receive calls. Am I looking for a phone that has been 'jail broken?' A one-generation behind phone would be fine to keep the costs down. Same questions for the iPhone. Ideally, like to keep the cost per phone under $200. Is that reasonable? and, where to buy? I do need to be able to download apps from the respective stores.

Thanks for all of your generous thoughts

I don't have much thought to offer when it comes to which Android phone might make the most sense, but there's enough variety and a wide enough range of pricing in that world such that you should't have much problem finding something that suits your needs for $200 or less.

When it comes to iPhones though, you're gonna have a tough time finding something a generation old for $200 unless there's something wrong with it. If you just need something that's capable of running the latest iOS (9), their 4 generation old model still will - that would be the 4S. That said, I think Apple sometimes stretches old models a bit too far in trying to keep as many of them as is reasonable running the latest OS updates. So I wouldn't be surprised if the 4S was sluggish running the newest iOS. I think I'd at least try to get an iPhone 5 (3 generations old), I know quite a few people that are still using those with iOS 9 and they don't seem to complain about it being sluggish. It won't do some things as well as the newer generations, and it lacks the hardware to be able to utilize some of the newer functionality (like Force Touch and Touch ID), but it may well do the trick for you. Plus I expect it to get iOS 10 when it comes out next year whereas I expect the 4S will finally be dropped from that upgrade. And the 4S screen is really small by current standards.

Anyway, eBay typically has unlocked 16GB iPhone 5's selling for $200 or less. I had a stray one up until about a month ago, but a friend needed a replacement. The 4S's can be found throughout the $100 - $200 price range. Even the 5S's can be found in the $200s, but I don't think you'll find a healthy 6 or 6 Plus (the 1 generation old models) that cheap. If you see some iPhone 5C's, that's basically the same generation tech-wise as the 5 - older than the 5S. You should be able to get those fairly cheap as well, it's just a plastic body as opposed to a metal one.

 

[Tilted]

I forgot to add: Yes, the phones will work on Wifi without any kind of cell service. And they don't need to be jailbroken for that.

So, actually, when it comes to testing stuff for iPhones you could probably just use an iPod Touch. An iPhone that isn't using cell service more or less is an iPod Touch. And the latest iOS will run on 5th or 6th generation iPods. The latest iPod (6th gen) sells for $199 in the base 16 GB configuration. It's not comparable to the latest iPhones tech-wise, but like I said it runs the same OS and will for the most part run the same apps. So if you went that route you could surely stay under $200, either by finding a sale or buying used.

 

[migtig]

My husband got us both newest Google Nexus 6P phones. I still have mine on Verizon, but my husband's is nothing but Wi-Fi, for voice and everything, through Project Fi. If the phone can't find Wi-Fi, it pings Sprint and T-Mobile cell towers. Which means where I live, there really aren't any such towers. That makes me nervous, so I stayed on Verizon. I need to use my phone if the power or wi-fi goes out. But he loves it. I can't give you much more details, but I think there's got to be info out in the tech world about the new Google Nexus 6P phone using Google Fi.

I found this:
http://www.wired.com/2015/09/new-nexus-phones-offer-access-googles-wireless-service/

 

[LibertyBeacon]

I need to pick up an Android and maybe an iPhone so I can use them to test software and user interfaces.

If that's what you're doing -- testing software -- then why not get an emulator? The easiest way I know for Android is to download the SDK which includes the emulator. I'm sure the same thing exists for iOS, but might have to be an Apple Developer which probably costs $$. You can write your own code, or just download the .apk file and run it in the emulator. It provides all the interfaces required to test everything. You can simulate low bandwidth, high latency network connections, as well as different versions of Android/iOS. You'll have the ability to run debuggers, and use packet sniffers to see what sort of traffic the app is sending and to where, as well as suites of tools that will allow you to test the security of the app.

You run the emulator on your host, fire up whatever version of Android and it just bridges itself to your existing network connection. You can proxy it if need be, but it is able reach out to various Android stores (I think anyway, certainly at least the Google store) and get what you need.