this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2026
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Every time I see the next "phone for people who dislike modern phones" concept they never address my problem. A phone should not cost more than $100.
Edit.
Everyone saying you can't get a phone for $100 didn't even attempt to look. I found this immediately and I'm sure with little effort I could find many more.
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/verizon-prepaid-verizon-samsung-galaxy-a17-128gb-prepaid-black/JXJCJKC9VH
A phone that actually costs less than $100 will make money from something other than its purchase price.
In some markets, that means the carrier subsidizing the phone and charging you a high monthly rate. I would counter that phone service should not cost more than $15/month.
The other thing it might do is preload adware, spyware, or outright malware.
It's barely economical to address it. Hard to pay off r&d and setting up production. Also, would probably require own Android fork or entire different OS with a lot of tradeoffs to run smoothly on ultracheap hardware.
I'm willing to pay upwards of £300 max, but it should also include being able to have a SIM card AND an SD card, as well as a headphone jack.
I just bought 2x sony experia xa2's off ebay for £15each - so as I have some back ups for if i lose my other one. Unlockable bootloader so long as sony keeps its developer website thingy open. lineage os (dependant on above) . headphone port. micro-sd card slot. decent size. I don't see any downsides - i don't understand why people get rid of em. Maybe they don't know about lineage OS.
£300 for a fucking phone ? good on you if you can afford that.
I said it was my upper limit, I'd obviously prefer cheaper.
I've not delved into lineageos yet, even with those older xa2s it's it running the most up to date version? And as an aside, do bank apps and contactless payments work on lineageos?
I used to love my xperia Z and Z3, would love to get a Sony phone again like.
I don't do banking on my phone. I hardly do any apps really so can't advise - pretty much just co maps, libera reader, vanilla music player, and vlc. So mostly I'm just using f-droid apps.
I'd guess you might need to install at least microG or even full blown play services to use a lot of fancy apps..
Mine run on lineage v24 which is based on android 17.
I bought a new Nokia E63 for AU$199 in 2009 (around US$160 at the time). I liked that phone! It had a QWERTY keyboard. Replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy S3 in 2013.
$100 or even $200 is likely not doable for a modern touchscreen phone, unfortunately.
HMD (the new nokia) have the Fusion for AU$500 ($340), I got one on offer to play around for €150 a couple of months ago as you can unlock the bootloader.
For that kinda money, you should get yourself a flip phone. They still exist. ;)
Have you considered a trip to India?