Pre-order new Alcatel Idol 5S Unlocked for $200 with Prime Lockscreen Offers

If you don’t like contracts, but do not object to seeing ads and sponsored screensavers on your phone, and if you are a Prime member (or do not object to becoming one), you can get an $80 discount on the brand new Alcatel Idol 5S, unlocked and without contractual obligations!

Prime members can get this in the Prime Lockscreen Edition for $200, versus $280 for the standard version. It is the same phone, except for the ads. It is up to you to decide whether a $80 discount is an acceptable trade-off to seeing ads. Check reviews of previous phones Amazon offered in this fashion to see if this is something you can live with.

Certainly $80 is a bigger discount than some of the other phones Amazon offers in this program that range from $30 to $50. Trying to capitalize on the success of the Idol 4S, they pick up a well-received Snapdragon for this model, the 625 Octa-Core, with 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, and a microSD slot that can take up to 512GB cards, which is nice.

You get a 5.2-inch 1080p touchscreen, a very fresh Android 7.1 (compared to the fast majority of other Android phones out there). It supports T-Mobile and AT&T out of the box, and per the description over there, support for Sprint and Verizon is coming later in the summer.

The Snapdragon 625 is used in other “all carrier” phones like the Motorola Moto G5, so it is certainly capable for supporting Sprint and Verizon.

Both the Standard and the Lockscreen Ads versions of the phone are expected to be released on July 10 in 2017. So many phone choices, so little time 🙂

IF you are not a Prime member, but you want to get the discounted version, you’ll have to buy it at full price ($280) but after you become a paid Prime member, in other words after the 30-day free trial ends and you pay for the Prime membership, Amazon will give you an $80 gift card, the difference between the lockscreen and non-lockscreen version. There are some conditions in place to make sure people don’t try to cheat on this, so check the terms/conditions.

Motorola Moto G (3rd generation; 1GB RAM, 8GB storage) for $50 [Virgin Mobile USA]

In addition to the previously mentioned LG Stylo 2 sale, the official Virgin Mobile USA online store also has a sale on the new condition Motorola Moto G (3rd generation) for $50 with free shipping. That’s it, you own it!

You don’t even have to start service with it, but it will pester you to activate when you reboot it. There are ways to make this less painful [see our post for the LG Stylo 2].

Note also that this is the entry-level of the third-generation Moto G models. Unlike most other smartphones, the entry-level model has half the RAM and half the on-board storage from the more advanced models. So with this one you get 1GB RAM and 8GB on-board storage.

I haven’t used this smartphone, but I have the first generation Moto G, and it’s holding up rather well considering it was a $20 phone when I bought way back then.

LG Stylo 2 (Virgin Mobile) drops to $80

The Virgin Mobile USA official online store has the new condition LG Stylo 2 Android smartphone on sale for $80 with free shipping.

You have no contractual obligation, so you can buy it and use it as a Wifi-only device if you want to. However, every time you reboot it will try to activate. You cannot stop that but you can counter it – see our detailed post on this.

This comes with Marshmallow out of the box, but a Nougat over-the-air update is already available for it. I have this phone, and I will post a review of it as a Marshmallow phone, and once I do that, I will upgrade it to Nougat.

One thing that makes me delay the Nougat update is that Nougat blocks the various Task Managers apps, so it makes it harder to monitor and kill misbehaving apps (if you like to do this sort of thing). This is particularly relevant for this device because LG is almost TouchWiz level of having all kinds of apps you can’t turn off or uninstall.

The phone is versatile compared to many of today’s phones, it has both a microSD and a removable battery. See what’s included in the box in our LG Stylo 2 unboxing post. Fear not, it’s only text and pictures, you won’t be bombarded with annoying videos and slideshows and whiny voices 🙂

As the Stylo in its name suggests, this comes with a built-in Stylus, HOWEVER, this is not the same level of a stylus and stylus integration as the Samsung S-Pen. Then again, the phone sells at a small fraction of the price of a Galaxy Note 🙂

BLU Advance 5.5 HD for $76 (Unlocked, GSM, Dual SIM)

You can get plenty of smartphone for under $100 these days, although, as always, with apps and OS and the mobile web bloating up, you can almost always get a better experience in the $200+/300+ price range. But if $76 is all you want to spend…

… then you can get the new condition BLU Advance 5.5 HD for $76 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual with a limit of up to three per customer. As with all BLU phones, this is GSM unlocked, without any contract obligations. It is a dual SIM.

This is not part of the Amazon Prime Sponsored ads program, only the BLU R1 is under that program. As the model number hints at, this has a 5.5-inch display, with the Mediatek 6580 quad core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, and a microSD slot (takes cards up to 64GB).

1GB RAM is not a lot these days, but BLU has little bloatware compared to carrier phones (they seem to have fixed the “China phone home” problem with some of their models), so if you are vigilant about which apps you install and allow to run in the background, it’s still usable. I have an older one like that, running Lollipod. I can free up about half of the RAM by paying attention to Task Managers.

This one though is running Marshmallow (Android 6.0). They only mention “HD” as screen resolution, which means it is 720p, which “computers” given the current price 🙂

As usual, double check to make sure it works with your carrier(s) of choice. There are many reviews and answered questions, and both are searchable when you drill further down the ever-growing Amazon website.

LG G Stylo 2 (Boost Mobile) for $50 with free S&H

If you are looking for a Wifi-only smartphone with a basic built-in stylus, this is a pretty, pretty, pretty good deal for $50 with free shipping! It is the LG Stylo 2 for Boost Mobile sold for a limited time at this price by Best Buy on eBay. Limit one per customer. Free store pickup is also an option where possible.

I have the Virgin Mobile USA version of this. I haven’t finished writing the review yet, but at $50, this is a slam dunk buy. So far I posted the Unboxing (text and pictures only; no annoying video), along with a walk-through how to deal with activation pestering.

Here’s what you get in the Virgin Mobile kit:

This is a no-contract phone, but it is locked to the carrier it comes from.

Seller Refurbished 32GB Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (unlocked GSM, 4G LTE, S-Pen included) for $150

If you want to get your Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone fix while waiting to see what the follow-up to the ill-fated Note 7 (which may have been the best smartphone of all time – ironically), the used market is one way to go. Among the latest eBay Deals, you can get the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in seller-refurbished condition for $150 with free shipping by QualityCellz on eBay (99.4%, ships from Southern California). This is model N910, with 32GB on-board storage, microSD slot, and unlocked 4G LTE. No contract – you own the phone upfront!

NOTE if you are planning to use this with a cellphone plan (not as a Wifi-only device), make sure you check the bands are compatible with your carrier(s) of choice. If not certain, check the various Android/smartphone forums, or use your favorite search engine.

The S-Pen is included per the ebay listing. Some claim the Note 4 was the first in the Note series to “get it right” but of course that’s always subject to debate. It came out in 2014, with a Snapdragon 805, and 3GB of RAM which is nice (assume 1GB is eaten up by “TouchWiz”).

NOTE #2: the Note 4 is not currently among the first wave of smartphones supported by CyanogenMOD-Reborn, aka LineageOS. I wish they gave it a better name. LineageOS sounds like an ancestry-obsessed fan club 🙂

LG Stylo 2 (Virgin Mobile) for $80 [no contract!]

This is a great bang for the buck phone, whether you need one for Virgin Mobile or want to use it as a Wifi-only device, or having it grab internet from a hotspot or another connected phone. It is the new condition LG Stylo 2 for Virgin Mobile, on sale for $80 with free shipping, with a limit of up to three units per customer, at Amazon by Amazon actual. This comes with a Stylus that is included/stored in the phone’s body. It also has a removable battery and takes microSD cards. It has 2GB RAM of which is almost a must for today’s Android phones. It comes with Marshmallow out of the box.

I have this phone, and I am reviewing it in progress right now:

LG Stylo 2 (Boost Mobile) for $86 [limit 3]

If you like smartphones with a stylus but don’t want to pay the Galaxy Note big bucks, there’s a double-figures alternative. The new condition LG Stylo 2 in the Boost Mobile edition (under of the Sprint umbrella) is currently on sale for $86 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual with a limit of three per customer. There is no contract requirement, but these are locked to the specific prepaid carriers. You can of course always use them as Wifi-only devices.

This has a built-in pen, and you get some special features that are linked to the pen, but note that this is not as good as the Samsung S-Pen, which is factored in the price 🙂 But for the price and given the 5.7″ screen size, this is not a bad value under triple figures.

I purchases this a couple of weeks ago and will be reviewing it. I’ve already posted the first part, how to deal with the Activation Menus of the Stylo 2. The one in review is the Virgin Mobile version, but given the links between the two, things should be similar.

This is what’s included with the Virgin Mobile kit (excluding the ruler of course):

Motorola Moto E (Tracfone) for $20 w/free S&H

If you need a budget Android phone that is actually usable considering the price, the new condition Tracfone edition of the Motorola Moto E is on sale for $20 with free shipping by ShopCellDeals on eBay. They have a 99.5% feedback score and they ship from Virginia. Over 3650 phones got sold so far from this listing.

Tracfone is a prepaid seller, so you are under no obligation to start or transfer or continue service with them. It’s all up to you. Note however that the Tracfone is the only wireless carrier that you can use this phone with.

The specs are basic on the phone, but the Moto E was part of the earlier budget wave started by the Illinois pre-Google pre-Lenovo version of Motorola, along with the Moto G and the Moto X. It has a 4.3″ qHD screen, “q” in this case is “quarter HD”, not “quad HD”, which translates to 960 x 540 pixels. It runs on a dual core 1.2GHz processor and Android 4.4.

If you need more power, there are many great choices out there, but you won’t find them for $20 delivered and in new condition 🙂

Huawei Union (Boost Mobile) for $20 w/free S&H

For a limited time, prepaid carrier Boost Mobile (“lives” on the Sprint network) is offering the new condition Huawei Union smartphone for just $20 with free shipping. Since Huawei was selected by Google to manufacturer the Nexus 6P their profile has improved in the Western markets.

This phone is obviously no Nexus 6P, but it’s only $20 🙂 It has a 4.5″ touchscreen with 1GB RAM, 8GB on-board storage plus microSD slot, and a quad-core 1.1 GHz processor. It comes with Android 5.1 (that’s Lollipop).

HTC One M9 (32GB, Unlocked, No Contract) for $350

With current generation flagships priced so high, a previous generation flagship may be an alternative if none of the mid-tier flagships from upstarts and big names alike strike your fancy. Which brings us to the new condition factory-unlocked no-contract 32GB HTC One M9 going for $350 at amazon.com. Make sure you check that Amazon actual is the seller and not any of the iffy marketplace sellers. Amazon actual is authorized, so you get the USA warranty. The marketplace sellers, I have no clue, so don’t buy from them unless you know for certain.

Note that Amazon’s compatibility listing appears to be inaccurate. Check the reviews and answered-questions and HTC’s own website for more details.

The M8 and M9 were a bit divisive, some people did not like them and prefer the the M7/M10 releases, while others are fine with them. It’s good to have choices in the market, as long as you are willing to do the necessary research to get the phone that best fits your priorities. The M9, just like the M8 (but not the M7) support microSD cards.

LG Stylo 2 for $100 (Boost or Virgin) [no contract]

If you like phones with a built-in stylus but don’t want to pay the Samsung flagship bucks for the Note line, there is a prepaid phone by LG available at a couple of Sprint’s cousins going for $100. It is the LG Stylo 2, a second generation model, going for $100 with free shipping at Amazon in the Virgin Mobile and the Boost Mobile.

NOTE: when reading reviews and price-checking around, make sure you are looking at the second generation model. The first generation model was under-powered and plagued by performance issues. The “2” has more reasonable specs and comes with Marshmallow out of the box. It has a 5.7-inch, 2GB RAM, Snapdragon 410, 16GB on-board plus microSD, etc. 2GB RAM is a good minimum to shoot for as apps, just like the web, get bloated as time goes by.

$50 Store Credit with Sony Xperia X Compact purchase

Sony is trying to make a statement that you can still have a top-tier smartphone under 5-inches tall, and their brand new Xperia X Compact is available for pre-order for its starting price of $500 at amazon.com but for a limited time, they have a promotion that gets you a $50 Amazon store credit when you pre-order it. While this offer is running, you will see it mentioned on the product page. Here’s a screenshot of that below:

sony_xperia_x_compact_storecredit

This is an unlocked smartphone, with Sony USA warranty, and no contract requirements. Make sure the seller is Amazon.com actual, and not some iffy marketplace seller.

Back In-Stock: Unlocked 32GB Honor 8 for $400

The resurgence of the mid-range flagship continues to build up momentum, while some will argue that the Nexus line was the OG of this philosophy. Regardless, to cut a long story short, both the black and white color schemes of the new condition 32GB Honor 8 (unlocked with USA warranty, no contract) are back in-stock at Amazon by Amazon actual. Make sure you double-check that Amazon itself is the seller, as some of the other sellers may not be authorized dealers or they may be offering international versions.

LG G Stylo 2 Android phone for $100 (Boost Mobile)

The first generation LG G Stylo was a bit of a disappointment, so LG upped the specs and the OS version with the second generation, aptly named “LG Stylo 2” (hey, at least they got the name right!). As the name suggests, its claim to fame from a bushel full of entry to mid range phones is the built-in stylus. It has more usable specs than the first generation, with 2GB RAM, Snapdragon 410, and Android 6.0 out of the box. It has a 5.7-inch IPS 720p display, along with 16GB on-board storage and microSD slot.

This is however locked to Boost Mobile, so if you are planning to use it as an actual phone, you are stuck with them. Later on you may be able to use it on other Sprint-affiliated networks, but don’t count on it. On the other hand if you are planning to use it as a Wifi-only device, eg as a general purpose “household remote” and “bedtime phone” type of a device, then you don’t need to worry about the cellular aspects.

By “bedtime phone” I mean you can use this at night, and save the battery life of your day-phone. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does not feel comfortable sleeping with a phone connected to live electricity throughout the night 🙂

All that brings us to the sale, it is currently going for $100 with free shipping, in new condition, by ShopCells, with the order fulfilled by Amazon (so it is Prime eligible) or from the same seller but through eBay (over 370 units sold so far).

PS: if enough people are interested, I can get this and review it. I have a lot of balance on my prepaid account, so I can get it through that. Let me know if the comments if you are interested in seeing a detailed review of this critter 🙂