XPost: comp.mobile.android, misc.phone.mobile.iphone   
   From: arlenholder@anyexample.com   
      
   What purposefully helpful advice would you give a tech-averse older couple   
   for their 1st smartphone?   
      
   I am being asked for advice for a budget smartphone by an old couple in   
   their seventies who are on the old LG 240 flip phones on Verizon back east.   
      
   They claim no other carrier has the coverage they need (so I'm not gonna   
   argue that point because I tried and they are adamant), so they're gonna   
   have to get a "Verizon" compatible smartphone.   
      
   The problem is they're getting creamed by Verizon, apparently on unexpected   
   "data" (to the tune of more than the cost of the base service), where I had   
   to explain to them that the MMS messages they _receive_ cost them "data"   
   dollars.   
      
   They are strongly considering updating their phones to smartphones where   
   Verizon has a good starter plan for them, but it has to be using a   
   smartphone.   
      
   That's the business constraint, where both are as tech averse as you can   
   imagine - and where we have to take into account that their every decision   
   is made on the basis of fear.   
      
   The first starter phone issue, always, is the ecosystem, of course.   
      
   I'm trying to advise _them_ to pick either iOS or Android (they're both on   
   the same Windows computer and one has an iPad that was gifted to them).   
      
   My main summary to them is that for a budget iOS phone, I think there is   
   only one, which is the 2nd-gen 2020 iPhone SE (AFAIK).   
   o iPhone SE (about $200 on sale)   
      
   For Android, there are too many to choose from so I had to cull the list   
   down to just three, which, IMHO, were:   
   o Google Pixel 3a   
   o Samsung Galaxy S10e   
   o Almost any Motorola G series phone, such as the G7 series.   
      
   As for how to advise them on iOS versus Android, that's wholly up to them.   
      
   They did ask "what's the difference", which I gave them a short summary,   
   but it's really hard, particularly for people who make decisions based on   
   fear, to point them in either direction (since both have issues but both do   
   the same things, for a beginner, in the end tally).   
      
   What other phones or Verizon plans do you know of for budget conscious   
   noobs who are tech averse that you might suggest they consider?   
   --   
   Together we give better advice than any one of us all alone can provide.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)