Best Unlocked Cell Phones
Fast 4G LTE speed, up to 2.0 GHz octa-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a bright 5.2” full HD (1080p) display ensures videos and games run smoothly and look great.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It was a huge upgrade from the 1st-gen, 2014 Moto G LTE (XT1045) which had served me well for nearly three years, but whose limited memory (8GB flash and a mere 1GB RAM) had become frustrating to deal with, struggling to keep up with today's heavier apps and web pages, no longer even able to follow links from an RSS reader without the reader app having to restart afterwards. I need this for special network requirements (IPv6 tethering, firewall, VPN routing), but also like having full control over my phones, and being rooted allows working around a few G5+ foibles, like the missing notification LED and low speaker volume. Moto's camera app is fast and easy to use, with manual adjustment options for shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, etc. A few things I don't like, and consider regressions from the original Moto G: - lack of a notification LED for texts or missed calls, as earlier Moto G's and even very cheap Moto E's of the 1st and 2nd generations had. I guess the "Moto Display" feature, which dimly lights the screen to show alerts when the phone is picked up or moved was meant as a replacement, and this might work for someone who ALWAYS keeps the phone in a pocket or purse, but it's not an adequate substitute for those of us who often leave it on a desk, nightstand etc. I've done so, and it's certainly better than nothing, but being dimmer than the older G's LED, and recessed inside makes this harder to see, easily missed when the phone's lying flat more than a short distance away. [July update: earlier this month the software was brought up to the May 2017 security patch level, via OTA update NPNS25.137-35-5]. - no longer being able to take the back off the phone, as every previous Moto G allowed, is bad news for repairability, thinking especially of the need for eventual battery replacement. Hoping to never have to do this for the life of the phone, I've avoided fast-charging it except when traveling, or otherwise actually needing a fast charge, and set it to accept USB power but not charge when left plugged into a computer for long periods, for tethering or development purposes (unless the battery's low, in which case it stops at 70%). - Screen brightness, at maximum seems slightly less than the original Moto G. It's plenty bright indoors, but can be a little harder than the older phone to read under direct sun. - The original Moto G was supposedly waterproof (to some degree), but G5 Plus is only splash-resistant. - reversal of the power button & volume rocker, compared to their placement on all previous Moto G's and E's was inconsiderate to loyal Motorola users who are upgrading. I've finally gotten used to the new layout, but still carry an older Moto E as a backup phone on another carrier, which doesn't help. I don't care about these, but others might: - micro-USB rather than USB-C -- I have a pile of other devices still using micro-USB, and it's nice having to carry just one cable type. - lack of NFC - I've no interest in Android Pay, which is a pain on a rooted phone anyway due to CTS/SafetyNet checks. REGARDING ROOT ACCESS: I chose the unsubsidized "Standard" version without Amazon ads, partly because root access is near the top of my requirements in a phone. I don't know if paying the ad-removal fee back to Amazon will also release it for unlocking, but suspect not -- the unlock procedure requires going to a Motorola site and entering a unique hex string that's programmed into each phone at the factory (possibly derived from the IMEI, ADB serial number, etc. ), then getting another unique hex string in return - Moto keeps track of which phones are unlock-eligible and which aren't, and would have to update their records after the fact based on whether Amazon's subsidy has been repaid, which probably doesn't happen. * For control of the charging (ad hoc notification) LED, the magic command is 'su -c "echo 1 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness" ' to make this LED blink quickly; echo 0 to turn it off; echo 2 for a slow flashing, 3 for solid-on. I made a simple Tasker script to flash it on new texts or missed calls, and extinguish when the screen transitions off -> on (not counting motion-activated Moto Display wake-ups): pastebin(dot)com(slash)SsUCa3fe. Suggestions for Moto / Lenovo to consider in future software updates: - please improve the One-Button Nav feature with more customization options. - allow the earpiece Charging LED to optionally serve as Notification LED (off by default), without having to root the phone. In future phones (G6? ), please consider improving the LED to be nice and bright/exposed as old early G's, and also making the battery removable, like on the non-Plus Moto G5 sold in other countries, or at least reasonably serviceable as on previous Moto phones with their removable back covers, even if this adds an extra gram or two of mass, or a mm of thickness."
"I usually wait a full week of ownership or more before I write a review. I am a light to moderate cell phone user coming from a Samsung Galaxy S5. I have not received any money, merchandise, discount, or any promise of such for my review. My phone met a watery death and it was time to upgrade. Pros: Camera. No bloatware. Android 7.0. Performance. Screen clarity. Wi-Fi calling. Construction. Cons: Text and call notification. Speaker quality. No removable battery. Screen brightness. Overall, I am very happy with the phone. The phone performance is snappy, camera is fast, screen is decent, and there are few limitations. If you are a low to moderate user that knows how to use the google play store, then this might be the best value for your money of any phone currently on the market. The highlights of the phone that stand out most to me are the camera, screen, and performance. I am a parent of 3 kids, so 10 seconds means a lot of missed photos. I found this to be superior to my brother’s IPhone 7, my friend’s S7, and the T-Mobile store’s S8. A second double twist motion will bring up the selfie camera, which is also of good quality. The stills are not as amazing as an IPhone, but they are comparable to a S7 (getting spanked in low light but close in all others I tried). Again, real world speed from wanting to a taking a picture to picture being taken is fastest I have ever seen on anything short of a top end SLR camera (with obviously inferior quality). If I listen to Amazon Music for 5 hours, watch a video or two, and do some light browsing, I am at 72%. ****08/17/17 UPDATE****. I am not going to comment on what is the best phone currently on the market as things change in a few months. I dropped the phone very hard today and shattered by screen protector. Fortunately, the phone was unharmed, but it was literally launched while running with 2 kids in my arms and hit the floor screen first. The G5 Plus does not hold a candle to these phones in terms of sheer processing power. I still can take a no flash picture from an off screen faster with the G5 Plus than either of these phones. It is on par with the S7, while having a slight bit more image noise and poorer low light performance. I recently pulled a 3 full day with no power off with light phone usage. I had an error message on the phone when loading the camera app, but that has since been resolved after a quick Lenovo website search. I always wear a pocketed shirt to work and my phone always spends time there."
"Pretty much stock Android with a few Moto quirks (twist for camera, flick for flashlight) that don't bog down the phone like Samsung software tends to do (my old Galaxy S6). Basically, the difference between this and the standard version ($60 more) is twofold: mine came with Amazon's apps pre-installed on the phone, all in their own folder and the lock-screen will almost always have an ad."
Octa-Core processor(16nm) and 3GB RAM, Plus the smart file system allows for gaming, browsing, listening to music or running multiple apps at the same time.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After few more days of use: the 6x clearly outranks the 5x in design (which is growing on me), WiFi and cell reception, performance and battery life. Metal design and fingerprint sensor where rarely seen on any phone with close price tag at that time, are becoming more and more standard now. The performance with the snapdragon was lacking under pressure and the EMUI android skin is not everybody’s cup of tea. That being said the Honor 6x is more round around the edges, has more mate finish on the back (both has aluminum body) and feels more comfortable to hold. This is confirmed by multiple benchmark tests although I will not bore you with the details (easily obtainable by googling both processors). I hated those extra seconds of waiting on 5x when checking traffic in the morning before I head to work – no more with 6x!). One last word: my only concern regarding the 6x is the GPU (which handles the display and 3d part, gaming mostly). The GPU on the 5x is Adreno 405 – no match for much better GPUs in today’s flagships but performs OK and tried in and out. but for practical purposes both did great with a small edge for the 6x, colors seems more accurate. However, for the price range they may be the best you can get and it looks amazing for watching a movie or displaying pictures. This seems odd as the two lens format seems to be a selling point to Honor but the phone has more to offer anyway. It is somewhere in the middle of Android and iPhone and I think it took some nice features from both (I like that you can search for apps simply by swiping the home screen down like you can do on iOS). For what it is worth, I think the EMUI is one of the best android skins to prevent battery drains – it seems well optimized. I am looking for a phone that can give me few hours (3-5 at least of screen on time) to check my emails and browse internet, may be the occasional game or two, and not drain itself to death when I am not using it. My biggest problem that I do not get good reception in my work area where I spend several hours a day and this seems to suck the life out of every battery I tried. It may be the software or the way honor handles the bad reception but that was why I stuck with the 5x for a year. At the price range I really do not care about the extra 30 min it seems to take when compared to, say, Axon 7 which took me around an hour and a half to fully charge. The honor 6x sensor is faster than the 5x. Both are fully compatible with T mobile and AT and T. LTE is excellent: I get around 10-15 mg download speed in a major metro area. After few more days of use the much better battery life, design and performance easily justifies the price difference."
"I'm really surprised what a great phone this is for $250."
"(1) Most apps I had on my iPhone, I can find them in Google Play Store. I spent some time researching an Email app that most resembled the iPhone email app, but eventually decided to use the default Huawei email app. After having used the Honor 6X for a few days, I find it so much more convenient to do things such as closing an app, login to the phone. I used to use the fingerprint reader to login to my bank account apps on my iPhone, but most Android apps don't support login using fingerprint yet. (Correction: I stand corrected: Most apps do support fingerprint login with a few exceptions, one being the Fidelity app)."
Default resolution is Full HD+ and can be changed to Quad HD+ (WQHD+) in Settings.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"People bought used products or from a private seller and got something not covered by amazon. After owning the phone long enough to be familiar with it, I thought I would leave a decent review outlining some of the pro's and con's, as well as some neutral's. Simply put, the AMOLED allows for some amazing battery life and the 3000mah batter holds up well. As stated in #7, it helps with battery life but other than that, it has plenty of brightness and picture clarity. I also carified in #3 that the screen size and pixel ratio were simply stunning. By far some of the best I have owned, as far as ear buds go, and you don't have to pay for good quality here. The material of them is great and they come with extra different size earbuds. Keep in mind, android has A LOT of settings, and it would be wise to go through them all including the basic options that samsung offers. You can actually adjust the size of every single widget, and fit more apps on the pages as well as the default home row. I personally have a camera and the phone app on the lock screen, and keep all my apps on a single page, in folders, the weather, a google search bar with the mic button, and lastly a control panel for quick access to bluetooth and auto-sync buttons etc etc.. All on one page, with plenty of empty space. Maybe I am just to used to an older, smaller phone, but one handed operations is going to take some getting used to. I do not see this as a negative still, just takes some getting used to and as outlined in the pro's section, the overall screen size is perfect. IMHO, it does look really cool, but SAMSUNG needs to give us more control over it. I feel it can definitely cater to some users who enjoy always being able to look at their phone. I chose the basic setting, but there is even an option to change balance which let's you arrange a set of liked color boxes, whites, and blacks to your liking and all kinds of other options for personal preference. It really is a great setting, however, it is a neutral and not a pro simply because they enable a very rich color by default. The standard one IMHO, is ugly and not aesthetically pleasing to read. I have a search bar and I have turned off all settings both in the phone and google, but for some reason if you say those two naughty words, it still comes up. I think samsung needs to address this before anything else, even the bixby issues some people are not liking or failing to change. This belongs in the negative because most of us are drop prone, and even if you are not, it is very easy to make a mistake. That said, I have NEVER dropped a phone to a point where it broke (fingers crossed, knock on wood). I personally do not use it at all, but if I did and wanted to take a picture, you would be cleaning your lense as soon as you unlocked it. Nobody wants to take an unclear photo because they used the finger print security feature. I like the Google Plus one, but feel that if any, Apple has the best one being in the home button. Please pay attention and buy a new phone from Amazon only. I do not ever recommend getting a refurb on this kind of product, or buying from a private seller regardless of their rating. As for Bixby, all you have to do is not set it up and hold the home screen like you are adding a widget, scroll to the left and hit the button to turn it off. This will not remove it, but will stop it from doind whatever crazy stuff these other reviews are talking about. Also, make sure you go through your settings, including the subsettings imbedded into android like background data usage etc etc and turn it all off. The list of pro's, con's, and neutral's are simply my take and my opinion. At least if you are in a position to think about it and can try it, go to a local store and pick one up on the display to play with it, but it's just not the same as owning it. I was torn between a google pixel xl and this one, but when this dropped in price it made my decision that much easier. I did like the idea of a bigger phone, however, I just kept thinking how big it would be in my pocket. I do a lot of fishing, hiking, and outdoor stuff and 90% of the time, I TRY to keep my phone around me in my pocket in case of an emergency. I think you can get used to this phone and if you are complaining about the things I have outlined here, the only one to blame is you. So give it a try, navigate ALL the settings, get used to android, and don't drop this phone lol!"
"So far the best phone I ever had. I did a comparison with my old phone and you certainly can feel that it's more powerful. I love shooting video and it nails it in video quality and it does slow motion!!"
"I was skeptical about buying this phone off Amazon instead of Verizon because the reviews were half good, half bad as far as activating it on the Verizon network."
"This phone should be a no-brainer. Enter Samsung's software."
Best Carrier Cell Phones
The new Moto E features a vibrant 5” HD screen designed to fit right in your hand. Fast 4G LTE speed, 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM with 16 GB internal memory and support for up to 128 GB microSD card.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought it to replace a Samsung Galaxy S5 that I liked a lot, but it was beginning to die a slow death - spontaneous reboots and so on. It feels like it's solidly built and hasn't crashed or anything like that, so I can safely recommend it to all who are interested in just having a decent smartphone for calling and texting."
"It is a good phone for people who do not demand too much on a device. The really bad is its main camera, although it is 8MP does not take the best photo, you have to be in a place with excellent light to have a decent photo."
"A surprisingly good smart phone for the price."
"I get at least 1 day of moderate usage on a full charge - but not a power user or game player. Bluetooth works awesome, and headphone port provides enough juice to listen to tunes or videos online, or my favorite items off my plex.tv server."
"Took it back to Verizon store, they read them and said that wasn't possible to do."
"This is a great basic phone that is fairly fast."
"Both phones on AT&T (who BTW made it a big issue of "wow if these were our phones we'd send you new ones." Upon further research (google Moto e4 problems) these phones have lots of issues and the history of updates show they are not getting better."
"Each time, the phone stops being able to make a cellular connection - no data, no calls, no texts. I believe it is due to the phone overheating or otherwise malfunctioning when it is in an area with poor service, as this is the only pattern that has developed thus far."
Best Cell Phone Cases, Holsters & Clips
Commuter Series is the compact case that keeps your phone safe while you live life on the go. Compatible with iPhone 8 & iPhone 7 (NOT Plus).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Again, survived without any major scratches to the case and the phone was perfect. I only seem to get about 1 year of use per case but I drop my phone everyday it seems so I would say es pretty good."
"Okay back in the old days (like 3 to 5 years ago) you could either choose a cool hip modern case with little to no protection and have it thin and lightweight, or you could go with a super protected case but add a ton of weight and not so cool looking case like the OtterBox. Overall great case. You know you've got great protection with this case."
"The case from the 6 itself would fit, but the camera cut out in the case was too small for the new were camera."
"I've had numerous cases over the years and this is the only one I actually trust to protect the phone."
"This case is actually two parts as well--one hard cover but also a rubberized piece which covers the corners, so now I don't have to worry about the corners of my case breaking (as they have in the past)."
"My only complaint is that when I ordered the case, I could have sworn I purchased the iPhone 6 size, but now it says it is for the iPhone 8."
"It's a little different than the design I had for my iPhone5S, but I've been using the Commuters for years as I occasionally send my iPhone flying since I have it with me anywhere I'm at (including going from room to room in the house) in case my mom needs me."
"This product has design defect, within few weeks of usage a thin plastic strip near volume control breaks away from the case and makes the phone slide into belt holster difficult."
Best Mobile Broadband
![GlocalMe G3 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot, [Upgraded Version] Worldwide High Speed WIFI Hotspot with 1GB Global Initial Data, No SIM Card Roaming Charges International Pocket WIFI Hotspot MIFI Device (Black)](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61EtdYC8tJL._SS600_.jpg)
GlocalMe has covered over 100 countries and regions and trying to cover a wider area with free roaming. WORLDWIDE SIM FREE CONNECTION - Powered by innovative Cloud SIM technology, GlocalMe G3 hotspot allows travelers to access the Internet at any point of their travels without any local SIM card or roaming charge in 100+ countries and regions. 4G LTE HIGH SPEED NETWORK – 50Mbps max upload speed and 150Mbps max download speed allow you to enjoy movies music and reading everywhere.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It takes about a minute to turn on and log in, so I just let my car warm up, Meanwhile, the reason I wanted this mobile wifi is because I have an ipod touch with live radio. I have a newer car that has bluetooth and like to play either my own music, or the live radio from the ipod through the car speakers. The ipod was a little tricky because it always started playing my music instead of the live radio so it takes a minute longer to make it stop playing my music and start playing the live radio app."
"The most important thing is that it offers 1GB initial global data for free to help to learn the usage before paying any fee thus you can use it without any difficulty."
"I purchased this last year for some trips around Southeast Asia and East Asia to have a WiFi hotspot instead of paying daily to extend each of our family members' plans to include international data during our trip."
"I wait to write a review until I use it for a long trip across Europe and Morocco... it works perfectly fine, I used for work and emergency’s because the data seems to be consumed faster while you travel... it was only one time that it didn’t work but I will add to that comment that I was in a place around the higiest mountains on Morocco (so it can be acceptable)."
"Worked well on a trip across the US southwest, only a few deadspots (canyons, mountains always a problem) Pleased with the ease of setup, using and cost."
"Like to see how much data was left on what I bought."
"It is so easy to use once installed."
"The data is a little expensive but it worked perfectly in Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay."