Even compared to a $5 Android Tracfone you can get at any Safeway, these are pretty underwhelming. Why would I pay 12x more and only get double the RAM & LTE compared to a $5 Alcatel Android phone?

Essentially the only reason is for modern Android, but its not as though any of these Android phones (except the Nokia) will ever see multiple years of software updates.

Can you provide a link to a shop where to buy a smartphone for $5?

Sure, I bought a bunch of LG Sunrise phones, but the current offer seems much better: https://slickdeals.net/f/11329603-8gb-alcatel-pop-icon-2-lte...

Brick and mortar only though, and stock varies. I usually power dial all the local stores, then go to the ones with the most stock and clean 'em out. Easy way to get a few dozen Androids in short order.

Sadly, at the $5 price point Amazon and eBay will never beat Brick & Mortar stores, as shipping is more than half the cost.

The [older, lower capacity] Pop Icon, by the way, is free right now with airtime. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-al...

Jeez, see, this is why low end Androids are never sold unlocked in the US.

Crazy if you compare this with Raspberry Pi Zero at $5 - you get: better CPU, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB storage, display, 2 cameras, GSM, GPS, microphone, speakers, battery, enclosure and a charger... if this continues, in 5-10 years you will get a solid machine for $5...

The Raspberry Pi Zero is a board of compromises. Look at what the OrangePi Zero is in comparison, then wonder why Broadcom couldn't compete with two guys in Shenzen on features, price or getting their hardware mainlined into the kernel.

Isn't LG sunrise complete garbage because of the 16bit screen? It can't properly display more than 65k colors and has to use dithering which effectively turns the 320p screen into a 160p screen.

It might be a 16bit screen, regardless the phone is hot garbage as it only has 3G and Android 4.4. Can't expect much for a few bucks tho!

You can get one online from Tracfone for $10, but then you have to pay shipping. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-al...

Hence buying in store. Plus, pay in cash and your new burner phone is way less traceable! Use the White House Switchboard phone number (202-456-1414) when prompted for a rewards card for bonus confusion points :P

You won't get a 4x for that price, but you can get a 5A for under $100. For that price you'll get a Snapdragon 425, 2GB of RAM, a surprisingly bright 720p display and a non-awful camera. I can only assume that these devices will sell for vastly below the listed price in their target markets, otherwise they're going to flop miserably.

https://www.banggood.com/Xiaomi-Redmi-5A-Global-Edition-5_0-...

These phones seem like really good deals... too good to be true? I'm in the market for a cheap phone coming from a moto E 1st gen and these seem like promising options.

I own a Xiaomi Note 4. It's a fantastic device for the price and has given me no trouble at all. Xiaomi's Android skin (MiUI) is nicely designed, performs well and is regularly updated even on older devices. Xiaomi aren't well known in the west, but they're the fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.

Depending on your country, you may have to pay import charges if you buy direct from China or Hong Kong. Even with import charges, Xiaomi phones still usually work out to be a good deal. Warranty coverage is limited if you're outside of Xiaomi's core markets, but parts are cheap and readily available if you need to replace a cracked screen or a weak battery.

I wouldn't recommend other Chinese brands like Doogee, Leagoo or UMI. The hardware is usually good, but the software is often poor and you can forget about updates.

> I wouldn't recommend other Chinese brands like Doogee, Leagoo

Those names sound like Dodgy and Leakgoo, easy to remember, don't get those. Thanks.

Must say I've had kind of the opposite experience - I found that the MiUI skin was actually quite confusing and definitely didn't add anything useful. Otoh, my Leagoo T5 has been a great phone, has better specs, a gorilla glass screen (RedMi Note 4X has regular glass and cracked within days of getting it), and has been getting system updates about once per month from Leagoo, all for less than the price of the Xiaomi. ymmv I guess, but that's been my experience so far.

Previous HN discussions about the Chinese company making them:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7748542

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12171276

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12787766

For people who just like their Android flavour, they also provide ROMs for other devices: http://en.miui.com/getrom.php?m=yes&mobile=2 Presumably the same suspicion of Chinese goods coming packaged with spyware would apply to those images too I guess.

Moto E4 can be had for ~$130 unlocked. I got one as a temporary replacement for my beloved Moto G LTE until I could find a decent 4.5" phone. I'm mostly happy with it other than I wish it was smaller.

The Samsung 2017 A3 is what I wish I could get but thanks to pointless market segmentation, the only variant that works well in North America is impossible to buy and it's now being obsoleted by a replacement with a 5" screen.

I too have a Moto E4 and it works beautifully. I don't play games on it, but for everything else its very snappy and it takes pretty good photos. I got mine for $99 when it first came out. I have yet to run out of internal storage (16GB for those who don't know). 2GB RAM seems good enough atm. I can plug pretty much anything into the usb port and it will work with the device too.

The Xiaomi phones absolutely work. They're amazing for the price, and very popular as imports here in Ireland. There's always the chance they might have Chinese govt spyware however, as has been alleged with Huawei https://mashable.com/2018/02/14/huawei-prove-phones-not-spyi...

I've installed lineage os on mine. Availability of lineage is a prerequisite of any phone I can consider buying.

My Xiaomi Mi5 won't power on after 2 months of use. My friend's Mi5 won't power on after less than a year. It seems it's a common problem: google "Xiaomi Sudden Death". For warranty I have to ship it to China, which I knew when I bought it so I'm not complaining, just not recommending Xiaomi in light of the "sudden death" issue.

A sample search: https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mi+5+not+turning...

Isn't it nowadays down to: who's spyware do you prefer?

LTE band support isnt great for the US market. Its supports exactly zero of Tmobile's 5 LTE bands, for example. 3G should work fine just about anywhere though.

Isn't Xiaomi subsidized by the government? Hard to compete against that in price.

You have other manufacturers like Ulefone, Doogee, Leagoo, Wiko, Bq, Archos, Zoji, ZTE, Bluboo, Cubot, Oukitel, Fantec, HomTom, Kazam, BlackView, Elephone, Umidigi, Wieppo, GigaSet, HiSense, Gretel, Nabo, Siswoo, Hafury, Coolpad, STK, Keecoo, Meizu etc. offering better specs than any Go phone. Go just seems like a rebranding of what couldn't sell and got outdated.

source? a google search turns up nothing

Every American phone is underwhelming compared to what Chinese manufacturers are doing.

They make all of the phones, actually. You have to pay hella licensing to get a cell chip that works in the west. Then, they sell that phone to the company wholesale. Then the American company upcharges for retail.

You can get a Samsung S whatever for 1/3 the price if you don't want to connect to a cell network and don't mind waiting 3 months for it to ship.

Or just what Motorola has done with their E series