Best Cheapest Blandest Cellphone Available?

[getbak]

This is the one I have: http://virginmobile.ca/vmc/en/phones...uctId=10-00062

I think it's pretty much the most basic thing available.

$50 and it's a plain phone with decent sound quality. No camera, no MP3s. It can send texts, but otherwise, that's it. Its battery lasts nearly a week, depending on how much it's used and takes a couple of hours to fully charge.

I got mine last July, and at the time, Virgin had the cheapest rates, but all the "cheap" providers (Virgin, Solo, Koodo, and Fido) offer roughly the same deals.

The only thing I don't like about Virgin is their whole "Hey Dude" attitude and the flirty voice mail chick. I hate it when huge, faceless companies try to act like they're your buddy.

[MRCboicgy]

I've found the best battery life has come from my Nokia, miles better than the Samsung or Moto I had before. You can usually get them with 7-11, PC, or Fido (as I have). I only like to call and txt so I don't care about anything.

As far as battery, I only charge mine every three days (overnight) now, and I spend about 30 min a day on the phone and around 25 txts. I've had mine for well over a year and it's still holding a decent charge--nothing like the 5 days I'd get when i first got it, but still good.

[Bobblehead]

If your contract is expiring then you must have a phone, why don't you just use that one? Then just use pay-as-you-go.

[Vulcan]

It used to be that I could buy a pay as you go $50 phone from Future Shop or BB and get a $50 credit plus another $25 credit for activating it on line, so I didn't care to much if I lost it. Now it seems they only give a $20 credit. I rarely use mine except if I'm making a trip, so I have them automatically add $10 every month from a credit card to keep it active.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by fotze

The battery lasts about 20 minutes of talking its pooched.

Have you considered a replacement battery from ebay? I bought a couple for 8 bucks each on a previous phone and between the 2 of them they lasted over a year. I would have repeated the entire process, but my phone had so much sand and dirt in it that I bought a $60 pay as you go phone from Bell and activated it on my account.

[Kipper is King]

Superstore has some really basic ones.

[jtfrogger]

I'll add that Virgin is a good deal. If you don't use it much, you end up paying $25 + GST for three months of service. You get voice mail and caller ID for that as well. Up until I got an iPhone, that is what I had. You do have to buy a phone, but there are reasonable options and you are not locked in.

If you do go the Virgin route, make sure you get a referral from someone. You each get a credit of I believe $10.

[HOOT]

What company are you with?