LG Nexus 5 for $175

The launch of Marshmallow (Android 6.0) changed the depth chart of the Nexus phone line-up. No longer can the trusty Nexus 4 get official OTA Google OS updates with the rest of the pack. So the lines have moved, now the Nexus 5 is the oldest phone that is going to be Marhsmallowed (yes, it’s a verb!). Of course there is (and will be) more work at XDA and other places to get 6.0 on the Nexus 4, but if you prefer the official OTA, it has to be Nexus 5 or newer.

Speaking of which, eBay seller “mobilepros1” (97.9%) is offering new-condition factory-unlocked 16GB LG Nexus 5 (model D820) for $175 with free shipping, with a limit of five per buyer. Only the black color scheme is available. This is a GSM model. No contract!

The warranty is curiously described as “Remaining US Warranty”. Remaining as in? 🙂

A quick refresher, this has 2GB RAM, 16GB on-board, no microSD, 5-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 800 with Adreno 330, and things like that. Some are reporting battery life improvements with Android 6.0, which is a good thing since battery life was one of the knocks on this one when it came out.

Now strategically the question is, do you get this one or a Nexus 6? Other things equal, the Nexus 6 may get an additional official OS update over the Nexus 5. On the other hand, there’s breaking rumor-news now that Google will merge Android and ChromeOS, so I don’t know if that will throw a monkey-wrench in their OS upgraditis situation.

October 29, 2015 Filed Under: android, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

LG G Stylo LTE (Boost Mobile) for $150

If you like stylus phones but don’t want to pay big S-Pen dollars, and want them in new condition, you can get the Boost Mobile edition of the LG G Stylo LTE, with its 5.7-inch screen, for $150 with free shipping, sold by eBay seller “ShopCellDeals” (99.7%). No contract! You can always use it as a Wifi-only model if you don’t want to sign up for a Boost Mobile plan.

September 26, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , ,

Refurbished LG G2 D801 (T-Mobile locked, No Contract) for $130

If you are fond of former flagship phones, you can find many and more of those at the eBay Deals. Case in point, you can get the manufacturer refurbished LG G2 (D801, T-Mobile, 4G LTE) for just $130 with free shipping from eBay seller “Pangea Deals” (98.9%). One of the reason the price is low is because this is locked to T-Mobile, so you have to use it there for cellular. As always, you can use it as a Wifi-only device. No contract!

This phone has been out for a while, so there are plenty of reviews and tips and hacks available on the interwebs for you. As a refresher, this is a 4G LTE device, running on the Snapdragon 800, with 2GB RAM, a 5.2-inch 1920 x 1080 Gorilla Glass 3 display, 32GB on-board storage, microUSB, OTG, etc. As you can see, this is not a bad spec sheet.

Good Candidate for the T-Mobile 10GB/month Family Plans
Particularly of interest if you are planning to sign up for T-Mobile’s 10GB/line family plan that requires a minimum of two lines, and it is a data-hungry user’s dream. Each line gets 10GB of its own per month, with a 12-month Data Stash (their name for rollover).

Two lines are $100 total, so you get 20GB per month, with rollover. Optionally, for +$10/month, you can add an extra 10GB per line, so $130 gets you 30GB/month, $140 gets you 40GB/month. Nom nom indeed. Plus music streaming and Speedtest does NOT count against this limit. On top of that, you can use up to 10GB per line for hotspot/tethering (this of course comes out of your total 10GB line bucket).

September 16, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , ,

[DEAD] refurbished FreedomPop sale [LG G2 for $100, Galaxy S3 for $80, Moto E (2nd g) for $80]

This daily deal expired, but things have a way of resurfacing every few days at Woot…
[Read more…]

September 16, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , , ,

LG G3 (D851, 32GB, T-Mobile Unlocked GSM, No Contract) for $250

If you like the sweet value of former flagships, and also prefer no-contract GSM unlocked smartphones, there’s another temptation among the latest eBay Deals, you can get the new condition LG G3 (32GB, D851), T-Mobile Unlocked GSM smartphone, no contract, for $250 with free shipping. Limit five per customer. The seller of record is MobilePros1 (97.7%). Over 1900 units got moved so far from this listing.

This was opened for unlocking purposes but it is otherwise new. As a refresher, it has a 5.5-inch screen, 3GB RAM, 32GB on-board, comes with Kit Kat and can be upgraded to Lollipop, and such. As a former high profile release, there’s plenty of information, reviews and hacks posted about it.

September 2, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , , ,

LG G Flex 2 (H950, unlocked, no contract) for $290

Start singing Duran Duran’s “The Reflex” because here comes the Flex screen! Among the latest spotlight deals on The eBay, you can get the new condition with one year LG warranty LG G Flex 2 (H950) smartphone (unlocked, 4G LTE, platinum-silver) for $290 with free shipping, no contract, and a limit of five per customer. The eBay seller offering this is QualityCellz (99.2%). Nearly 1000 units sold so far from this listing.

This phone’s claim to fame is of course its curved OLED display and shape. This was a former AT&T phone but it is sold unlocked. It can be upgraded to Android 5.1.1, and features a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 screen. It is powered by the SnapDrogon (ha!) 810 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB on-board. Despite the curvature, they still managed to squeeze in a microSD slot that eats up to 128GB cards.

So many smartphone temptations these days! And you can put them to work – for $120 you can get the limited time T-Mobile plan (deadline to sign up is 9/8/15) that gets you 10GB per line per month for four lines, with unused data rolling over and smartphone hotspot finally included without annoying restrictions. If nothing else, you can designate one of those four phones/lines as a dedicated hotspot. Perhaps find one with a solid battery life for this task.

August 18, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

LG G Flex 2 (H950) Unlocked GSM for $300 [no contract]

The flex is not just an offense basketball coaches at under-talented colleges employ. It is also a smartphone. Which brings us to eBay, where the new condition LG G Flex 2 (model H950), unlocked, in the silver color scheme, is offered for $300 with free shipping, with a limit of five per buyer. The seller is “QualityCellz” (99.2%).

This was a former AT&T phone, but it has been unlocked to work with other compatible GSM providers as well. It comes with Android 5.0 out of the box and it is upgradeable to a newer version. It gets its name from the curved OLED HD display which is the main attraction of this phone. Plus it has a microSD slot that can take up 128GB, something the all new Galaxy S6 cannot do (assuming you want/need a microSD slot).

July 29, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

Refurbished LG G2 (Verizon) for $140 [no contract]

Back to the smartphone deals on eBay, this one is described as a seller-refurbished B+ stock, it is the LG G2 for Verizon, model VS980 with 32GB on-board storage, offered for $140 with free shipping, with a limit of five per customer, in your choice of white or black color scheme. No contract, you own the phone right away. This is locked to Verizon with a clean ESN. That’s partly why the price is lower because you don’t have carrier choices as you would with GSM phones. But if you are planning to use it as a Wifi device, paying less is good 🙂

July 29, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Macally Nexus 4 case for $3.41 [add-on; limit 3]

If you are looking for a light case for your LG Nexus 4 smartphone and you like it when your fingers don’t bump in the edges of a case when you furiously touch-screen around, and if you are planning to place an Amazon order of $25 or more, you can get this baby blue (North Carolina blue?) Macally Nexus 4 case for $3.41 with a limit of three per customer. The are four more colors but they go for $7.50+. There are seven pictures of the case over there to get a good feel for it. I just received it, and I like it but I’ve only been using it for a few hours so far 🙂

July 2, 2015 Filed Under: smartphones Tagged With: , , ,

[DEAD] Seller-Refurbished 16GB LG G2 (Unlocked GSM) for $140

This limited time offer expired…
[Read more…]

May 20, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , , ,

LG Volt 4G LTE (Sprint or Virgin) for $80 [no contract]

On the prepaid smartphone front, the LG Volt 4G LTE smartphone is available for $80 at Virgin Mobile (USA) and also for the newer Sprint Prepaid Service. Since you own the phone immediately, you can also use it as a Wifi-only device without a plan.

It has a 4.7-inch quarter-HD (not quad HD) IPS display (960 x 540 resolution) with Gorilla glass, Android 4.4 out of the box, Snapdragon processor, microSD (up to 32GB) and such. It averages 4.1 at VM based on 460+ customer reviews and 4.2 out of 5 based on 1300+ customer reviews over at Amazon.

May 11, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , ,

32GB LG G2 (unlocked GSM, no contract) for $190

More new phones on the horizon means more deals on previous models. Case in point, the 32GB LG G2, factory unlocked GSM, in new condition, in either black or white, is offered for $190 with free shipping by QualityCellz (99.2%) on eBay. Limit five per customer. No contracts!

This is a 4G LTE (Band 1- 2- 4- 5 and 17) phone, with a 5.2″ display, 2.26 GHz quad-core processor, etc.

According to the “Questions and answers” section towards the bottom of the eBay listing, it says:

“This phone is new and comes in the original at&t box along with charger, usb cable and user guide. The box was only opened for unlocking. “

April 27, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , , ,

Used Nexus 5 (Freedom Pop) for $200 [no contract]

Wow, this came out of left field at Stacksocial. A Nexus 5 Freedom Pop bundle! The good old LG Nexus 5 is offering without contract and with one year of free service from Freedom Pop for $200. This is a certified pre-owned with 16GB of on-board storage. See the details at the Stacksocial listing.

This is the basic Freedom Pop free plan (up to 500MB of free data per month) with a trio of non-free features include for free for a year (tethering, visual voicemail, usage alerts). You own the phone right away, so you don’t even have to activate Freedompop if you don’t want to!

This is last year’s Nexus device, with the Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM (remember, this is pure Android, no skins to eat up memory), 1920 x 1080, Android 5.1, but sadly no microSD.

April 27, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

LG 450 Black (T-Mobile) for $22.50 [Pay As You Go]

For the shopping week of March 15-21 in 2014, at Walgreens brick and mortar stores (their website does not offer it), you can get the prepaid no-contract LG 450 Black Flip Phone for $22.50. This is because of a 25% off sale on select prepaid pay as you go phones. The phone includes a SIM but no airtime. This is no contract, no commitment, you just pay for it at checkout. It typically goes for $30. No coupon is needed. There should be a discount sign in the store. Availability may vary by store and region, and obviously I have no way to checking every store in the country.

This is a fairly simple phone, with a camera and front status display, you can see details and customer reviews at amazon.com.

The lowest price Pay As You Go plan at the Uncarrier is $3 per month, which includes 30 minutes of talk. They have $10 refill airtime cards that last 90 days, so technically, you pay $10 for 3 months. Every month, it will deduct a $3 minimum from your balance.

Note that this phone is locked to T-Mobile.

March 17, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , , ,

LG Flex (32GB, Unlocked GSM) for $250 [3G AT&T only!]

If you are flex-screen curious but don’t want to get hog-tied with a 2yr contract, among the latest eBay Deals, you can find the new condition LG Flex (32GB, Unlocked GSM) for $250 (was $200) with free shipping, no contract, by eBay seller “mobilepros1” (97.4%), with a limit of five per buyer. This is a great deal if you are planning to use it as a Wifi-only device.

PLEASE NOTE this does not work with T-Mobile! With AT&T, it only works on 3G. The 4G LTE bands are not compatible with US carriers. Check the listing details over there for more information.

This could make a fun Wifi-only device for the price, with a Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board, and such.

PRICE UPDATED in blog-post on 3/11/15.

March 5, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , ,