So I have this Samsung Galaxy S8 Active that... [pause for laughter]
Yeah, I know. An S8 Active (SM-G892A, if you want that) is impossibly old in cellphone terms. It was a warranty replacement for an S5 Active (Active meaning a slightly ruggedized AT&T-only special) well over five years ago, and it's been rock solid until today. At some point this morning it decided not to respond. All indications were that it had no charge. I put it on the factory charger and, after several hours and dozens of false starts, it finally booted, with the charge indicator on the home screen showing 100% charge. While charging but not turned on, the screen showed 100% charge many times, but until the most recent attempt, it never managed to fully boot up; on most attempts, it shut itself off before the startup process was finished. Now that it's on, I'm afraid to take it off the charger.
I could have the battery replaced but am not confident that the battery pack itself is the problem. At this age it's overripe for replacement anyway. Being of a certain age and not particularly interested in technology for its own sake, I've not kept up on phones at all since this thing arrived.
Not that I am a photographer, but I take a fair number of pictures, sometimes indoors in fairly low light, and this phone has a decent camera. I also like the fact that it's less fragile than most phones (e.g. stronger body, and the screen does not wrap around the edges) and I generally don't have to baby it. Other than that, I'm not tech savvy enough to know what I am missing.
We are on AT&T, but only because this phone is GSM only. I have no love for AT&T or Verizon but Verizon's coverage is superior in our area. So far I have not made time to compare alternative carriers.
Given that replacement is almost a given, what do I want to replace this with?
If you're willing to change providers look at Visible. They're owned by Verizon and have the same coverage for $25 a month. They are trying to push everyone to the new $35 a month plan. My only issue with them is the hotspot is limited to 6 Mbps. I use an unlocked Pixel 7a that I bought elsewhere. If I were you I wouldn't worry so much about how fragile the phone is as all phones can get a case that protects them. Otterbox being the gold standard imho.
Any preference between Android or Apple?
I was with Verizon for about 22 years until I got tired of the insane price increases so I started shopping for another carrier. I decided to try Mint. They use T-Mobile's network. Where I'm at in BFE New Mexico, their network coverage and performance isn't the greatest but I find it acceptable as I'm on wifi 95% of the time anyways. I have a 15gb, 5G data plan that I pay yearly for. It's $240 a year or $20/month that way.
I don't have any phone recommendations though. I'm still using a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra from 2020. I tend to buy a flagship phone every 4-6 years. I have no idea what is good right now.
On a Galaxy S22 plus here. In an Otterbox defender case. I work in a machine shop(lots of hard surfaces, metal grit/dust, high temp environment) go out riding bicycles in all sorts of weather with it in the back pocket of my jersey and in general am not gentle with my stuff. Has been going strong for well over a year and a half. These can be ordered open box/ used unlocked on Ebay for around 375 bucks since they are a couple model years out of date, but still on the factory update schedule for a few more years.
In reply to Stampie :
Very willing to change providers. We owe AT&T nothing. Thanks for the Visible suggestion - I'll look at them now. We don't use hotspots so that's a non-issue for us. I do use cases (Supcase on my last two) as well as screen protectors, but having seen how almost deliberately dainty these things seem, I always try to consider robustness.
In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :
I'll look at Mint as well. Preference would be Android mostly out of familiarity. I've never owned an Apple product.
In reply to travellering :
Other friends have suggested the near-new unlocked approach as well. Something to consider, though it would be nice not to do so under duress.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
In a pickle I've hit CL or FBMP and bought a temp $50ish phone just to get me going for a few days.
I spent 14 years in the cellphone game but that was 12 years ago. I worked for Sprint (miserable company), AT&T, Nextel and then Nextel was bought out by Sprint which I knew was the signal to the end. And, it was for me; now Sprint no longer even exists.
Since leaving the industry, my personal phone has been Verizon (VZ) but that choice was because they had the best rural coverage that I needed (and I was very versed in the network/coverage limitations of all the carriers.)
Specifically, I have remained a VZ Prepaid customer all those years. I also know that I do not want to play the "billing games" that ALL the post paid carriers have. Free is the most abused word in that industry. I am a VZ $45 customer and "long customer" discount takes me down to $35 -> $38.50 after tax.
Since you dont change handsets often, I would not recommend wholesale change at this time. Get a handset that works with ATT and then maybe as a second step, switch carriers.
Personally, handsets for me is Motorola. The Moto G line is their mid-tier product. It will meet your need.
These Moto handsets are also sold in Best Buy, Target and more if you need to get your hands on one immediately.
Be midful the the poor Moto product naming scheme.
- Moto G is the product line
- 5G is the extra capability (and you'll want that) but the also have Moto G's that are not 5G
- Moto then adds a release year to the name. There are 2024's but they will cost more...you'll be fine with 2023.
- Added word...
- Stylus ( has a pointer too as well as being the high feature model)
- Power (accentuated the big battery that the Stylus has also)
- No extra word (the plain model)
- Play (a designation for the more stripped model)
I'm recommending the Moto G, 5G, Stylus, 2023
Uniquely, all these still have a 3.5mm headphone jack. Most phone no longer come with one as they push you to bluetooth headsets. These that have a 3.5mm jack do also have the ability to do bluetooth headsets if that's the option you choose.
All these unlocked handset will work with all carriers if you decide to switch in the future.
In reply to Stampie :
I'm charging up Mrs Monohue's old Galaxy S7 now. She retired it in favor of a Note 9 we were given. IIRC, battery life is poor, but it is a phone, and should be a sim card away from short-term usable.
In reply to John Welsh :
That's especially valuable input. Thank you!
Some similar GRM Chatter from almost a year ago choosing Google Pixel handset
Not an expert. But i very curious about the Fairphone for its emphasis on serviceability and even update-ability (e.g. if they improve the camera between major renovations, you can get the updated camera for your current phone). They also do a de-Googlefied version of Android, but I think you need a normal device to side-load apps or something. I'm too far from phone shopping to recall or look it up again...
Been surfing around a little trying to learn what I can. The '23 model Moto G 5G Stylus looks passable other than the absence of wireless charging and no IP rating. For ten bucks more (at least right now), the 2024 model Moto G Power 5G at least gets wireless charging and loses a few phone features I could probably never figure out. Still no IP rating, just the same "water repellent" claim. I'm in western Oregon and it is going to get wet. How wet it can get is important to know. Anyway, the current Power model is Cnet's pick for a $300 phone. Beyond that price range they start liking the Pixel 7A and that's another hundred Samolians, until the sales end and it goes up even higher.
I'll leave the old dog on the charger overnight on the off chance it wants to work tomorrow. If not, one local repair place claims they can still get a replacement battery and can install it for $65. If they can confirm that the battery itself is the problem, that's likely what I'll do for now. I'm just leery of spending money on work that doesn't fix the problem.
First world problems...
I would recommend against a Moto G anything at this point. We have owned Moto Gs for years, however we have had 3 Moto 5Gs (Stylus, power and a play) that will not stay connected to the network. My current phone is a 2023 5G and it is going to get replaced soon because I am tired of restarting it and/or putting it airplane mode so it can reconnect to the network. It will drop signal ~25% of the time it needs to transition from tower to Tower. My wife got a Galaxy S28 to replace hers and I will constantly have no signal when she has excellent signal.
We've asked Verizon and they are just like "yep that happens sometimes". Otherwise I like the phone and I would recommend it if this wasn't a problem or was isolated to 1 of them. But it's been on multiple.
Sucks to hear of their quality failures!
IP vs Water Repelant: with a 3.5mm "leak hole" it can not achieve IP. It's a trade off. Lucky for you, most handsets have eliminated the 3.5mm.
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/1/24 10:18 a.m.
I am usually at the pointy end of the cellphone stick, not very GRM-like. I picked up at pixel9 proXL a few days ago (and they released.... a few days ago). It replaced my admittedly aged Oneplus 9pro, which replaced my Oneplus 7 pro. I'm happy so far. Does way more stuff than I need it to. Has neat AI and photo editing features, and not a ton of bloatware that you'd see from Samsung or Apple. Still trying to learn a new ecosystem, but after Oneplus went back to no pro-line phones, I bailed.
John Welsh said:
Sucks to hear of their quality failures!
IP vs Water Repelant: with a 3.5mm "leak hole" it can not achieve IP. It's a trade off. Lucky for you, most handsets have eliminated the 3.5mm.
The old S8 Active claims IP68, as does Mrs Monohue's Note 9, and even her old S7, for whatever that's worth. All have headphone jacks. Maybe it's easier than we thought to create a sealed headphone jack. Speaking of, it's in the "nice to have" category. I don't use it often, but I do use it.
The dirty old S8 sat on the charger all night and is no closer to usable than it was yesterday. Most of the time it will not make it all the way through the startup process. On the rare occasion it boots up successfully, it may stay awake long enough for me to swipe through a few screens, but it usually goes black within seconds. Battery charge indicator shows either single-digit charge or a full tank. Good times.
Hopefully the repair shop can verify that, with a battery, it's still a functional phone. Total failure now would be a pretty big headache. All the important photos, etc, are on the SD card, but I don't know how viable it is to retrieve contact lists and text messages from a phone that won't stay running.
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/1/24 12:02 p.m.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
In regards to retrieval-
Did you back up to google? I have one solid backup of all of my old phones dating back a number of years at this point, and when I upgraded a few days ago I backed up the phone in Tmobile's local store. A quick download later and I had everything down to my text messages back on my new phone.
You can get a 3 months sim card on Mint for $20-$30 on ebay
Then you can see if you like it .
In reply to Mndsm :
Did I back what up to Google? Photos and downloads should all be on the SIM card. I'm pretty sure the browser (Chrome) was set to sync. Contact lists and text messages should be the domain of the carrier, I think, so Google is probably not involved there.
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/1/24 12:25 p.m.
DarkMonohue said:
In reply to Mndsm :
Did I back what up to Google? Photos and downloads should all be on the SIM card. I'm pretty sure the browser (Chrome) was set to sync. Contact lists and text messages should be the domain of the carrier, I think, so Google is probably not involved there.
*IN THEORY*
your entire phone can be backed up to google, if it's set up that way. Contacts, texts, photos, all of it. Might be worth checking your google one account and seeing what's out there. I'm guessing you don't have it set to do that based on what you've said, but it's possible it got auto-set at some point. worth a shot in any event.
In reply to Mndsm :
Oh, boy.
I do not know what a Google One account is.
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/1/24 12:49 p.m.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Ok. I'm going to operate on several assumptions here.
I am going to assume you have gmail. Gmail is sort of a lock and key to the world of Google. When you do that, you basically create a google account. within that there's google photos, google drive, etc, all wrapped up under google One. backups of EVERYTHING can go to this. Now whether or not any of this has happened, is anyone's guess.
Your best bet at this point is to check via laptop/desktop and hop onto google, and login if you have one. There's a whole google suite of apps. Check google Drive (it's a little colorful triangle, if you're not familiar) and see what's in there. Anything that gets backed up, goes there. Any of your potentially lost treasures will be in there.
Not being terribly trusting of big tech regarding my privacy, I tend to avoid handing the keys to digital services, but yes, I do have a Gmail (ergo Google) account and can fumble my way around Drive. I'm in it now, in another tab of the same desktop browser I'm typing from, and there's nothing resembling a cellphone backup. Lots of tax records from 2015, some loose artifacts of home projects and receipes and holiday plans, but nothing that looks even remotely like a backup.
I did at least have the presence of mind to keep important photos on the SD card. It's really just contact lists and texts that are at risk. Not likely to be the end of the world if they can't recover it. I'm heading over to the repair shop in a few minutes to see what minor miracles can be worked.
Mndsm said:
I am usually at the pointy end of the cellphone stick, not very GRM-like. I picked up at pixel9 proXL a few days ago (and they released.... a few days ago). It replaced my admittedly aged Oneplus 9pro, which replaced my Oneplus 7 pro. I'm happy so far. Does way more stuff than I need it to. Has neat AI and photo editing features, and not a ton of bloatware that you'd see from Samsung or Apple. Still trying to learn a new ecosystem, but after Oneplus went back to no pro-line phones, I bailed.
I've had a Pixel 6a since shortly after they came out as my Oneplus 7T Pro decided to go all weird on me. So far I can't complain about the Pixel, whereas the Oneplus shenanigans like promised updates not materializing for the 5G version didn't exactly endear me to them.
The most recent Pixels also seem to have the most generous update promise of any Android phone, which is important to me as I use the Android for work and the work device policy requires fairly up to date security patches.
As to cell phone plans, this might come in handy: https://clark.com/phone-plan-finder/
My general preference is to own the phones outright and change providers as necessary. Although due to our fairly regular international travel, I tend to get stuck on T-Mobile anyway, although I've been tempted to try Google Fi on my Pixel.
Mndsm
MegaDork
9/1/24 1:38 p.m.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
I don't blame you on that front. Shame a backup doesn't exist- hopefully they can resurrect the corpse long enough to get what you need.
