Very disappointed with this year's BF phone deals. I fondly remember the $10 MotoE's and $20 Tribute HD's from past Black Fridays. And also Walmart's $45 clearance on Moto G4 one past October. This year is very disappointing, especially since I've been waiting for Black Friday to buy any phones.
I think it's disappointing, too. Some good deals on mid-range devices (like the Moto G6, which is showing up at a lot of stores), but not much at the low end. The best deal I've seen at the low end might be the AT&T prepaid LG Phoenix 3 that Best Buy will have for $25. (Not far from that $20 Tribute HD.) I believe these would be usable on any AT&T MVNO without effort.
In years past, BB has made their loss-leader phones available online at the doorbuster price, for at least a few hours on Thanksgiving Eve or Thanksgiving day. I don't know if this will repeat.
The specs on Best Buy's $25 AT&T prepaid LG Phoenix 3 are very disappointing - 1.1 GHz processor. That $10 MotoE that I so fondly remember from years ago was faster at 1.2 GHz! Very sad Black Friday this year!
It seems the focus this year is on higher end phones or even mid rangers.
The honor view 10 for example is suppose to be $150 off from $499. It is a very good phone for $349.
The pixel 3 is $150 off and 3XL $200 off and they just launched last month. Pretty good deal for a flagship released a month ago.
Still using my tribute HD as a backup.
The Phoenix 3 does have twice the system memory, and 1.5x the RAM, and of course a later vesion of Android. The display is likely worse than than the $10 Moto E, though.
Speaking of the $10 Moto E..... that one was a Verizon Prepaid version. I bought one, but never did anything with it. I've noticed that NIB ones from that same promo are bringing $35 or so pretty regularly on Ebay. Why is that? As far as I can determine, it's no longer usable on VZW prepaid at all (doesn't support VoLTE, according to the Verizon checker.) According to the rules, it shouldn't be usable on a Verizon MVNO, either, if it hasn't paid it's dues already on Verizon Prepaid. Does it have use beyond a WiFi mini-tablet at this point?
No idea about Verizon MotoE's. The $10 MotoE I think of so fondly was Boost, for my favorite provider RingPlus! Aah, the free service of RingPlus -- still get nostalgic about those heady days!
Available now
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/at-t-prepaid-lg-phoenix-3-4g-lte-with-16gb-memory-prepaid-cell-phone-black/5748617.p
Just a little reminder about the AT&T prepaid LG Phoenix 3 at Best Buy: (Thanks, mmfacemm!)
It should be usable out of the box on any AT&T MVNO (Red Pocket, H20, Tracfone BYOP, etc., etc.). I think AT&T offers the most lenient policy around for using their branded phones on MVNOs,, and we should all appreciate it . I think it's a good deal if you need a cheap phone for AT&T MVNO use despite the flaws mentioned above in this thread..
But.... the chances of unlocking this for use on T-Mobile MVNOs look slim, or at least slim at a price that makes sense. It seems AT&T had enough of losing their prepaid devices to non-AT&T use, and they've tightened up on the possibility of using 3rd-party unlocking services to cheaply unlock. Last year, many (most?) LG models (and some ZTE, etc.) could be unlocked for $2-3, and used on T-Mo MVNOs. Not anymore. I'm seeing ebay prices listed from $7-$12, and reading the descriptions makes me think that they won't be able to unlock these either without the required prior use on AT&T Prepaid. The unlock sellers I've used before (who seem well-known and trustworthy) specifically state that they can't unlock 2018 models from AT&T prepaid. So, YMMV on getting these unlocked for T-Mo use.
Happy Turkey Day Folks !!
Great coincidence here:
A great & tech challenged friend just emailed me for a suggestion to replace his dying TF, and here it is.
Just about impossible to beat a deal on an LG GSM phone for this price & free shipping...so I've passed the link on to him.
Thanks for this great info !!