T-Mobile Prepaid Review Part 2

Feature Phones

Table of Contents

1 - Plan Description

2 - Feature Phones

3 - Smartphones

4 - User Reviews & Questions

Updated 11/13/2022

T-Mobile Prepaid Flip Phones

The prepaid plan offers four flip-style feature phones:  the SCHOK Flip, the TCL Flip GoSonim XP3plus, and the Cat S22 Flip. The first two are regular flip phones and the last two are rugged phones designed to be used in harsh environments such as an outdoor work site. You can bring your own compatible flip phone and install a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card.

The first devices are priced at $96 plus the $10 SIM card if you sign up for a $40 per month or higher plans. If you opt for a less costly plan, the cost of the phone shoots up to $126. The Sonim is listed at $210 with the $40 plan or $240 without, and the Cat S22 is listed at $234 or @264 without the $40 plan.

These prices are pretty high for flip phones, but I guess they know that you really don't want a smart phone and are willing to pay!

Schok Flip

The Schok Flip has a few features you wouldn't necessarily expect such as a PDF reader if you really want to try to view documents on the 3.2 inch main screen. You might receive these as attachments if you use the phone to check your email. The phone has fairly large buttons which should make it easy to dial, and HD voice for better call quality.

This flip phone has a 5MP camera, and you can use the secondary smaller screen as a viewfinder to take selfies.  This makes it seem a belter option than the one from TCL.

TCL Flip Go

The TCL Flip Go has only a 2MP camera. It does have a slightly better hearing-aid rating (M4/T4) if that is something that you look for.

Sonim XP3plus

The Sonim flip phone comes with both a camera or no-camera option. Phones without cameras can be required in certain secure settings such as government buildings. Both versions are still rugged phones designed for environments that are not only harsh but loud with a 100dB+ (hip-hop concert volume) speaker.

Cat S22 Flip

The Cat S22 Flip (by Caterpillar) is another rugged flip phone. It, too, has all the requisite hardness ratings for use in construction or military type settings including a loud speaker. This phone actually has both a front and rear camera, and a higher amount of memory storage (16GB) than the Schok. It also happens to run the Android 11 GO operating system so it uses some of the apps with which you may be familiar such as the Chrome web browser or Gmail.

Previous Feature Phones

Samsung T199 Candy Bar Style Phone

The Samsung T199 lets you make calls, send texts and, despite its two-inch screen, surf the web at 3G speeds. Battery life is not bad. You get 4 hours or talk time or about 9 days of standby on a single charge.

The phone also has a multimedia player so you can listen to music, view photos and even small videos. You can't do as much of this as you would like because there is no external storage capability.  So you have to live with whatever internal memory is made available.

LG 450 Flip Phone

The LG 450 is a flip phone that looks very similar to the 440g that is available from Tracfone.  Like that phone, it has a couple of interesting features such as text -to-speech (in English and Spanish pronunciations).

Other features include a 1.3 MP camera and Bluetooth connectivity. The listed price is a bit higher, but there is a slight advantage with being directly on a major carrier's network rather than through a third party - mainly you can complain directly about things like your voicemail and coverage, though one hopes you don't have to do that.

Sparq II QWERTY Slider

The Sparq II is a QWERTY slider phone that has some advanced features, but not enough to call it a smartphone. In addition to its keypad, it features a 1.3 MP camera with flash. You can both text and do email.

It is a 3G phone so the web browser should perform reasonably well on its 2.4 inch screen. Unlike the other feature phones in their line-up, you can actually use an external memory card (up to 32GB) to store your photos and music.

There's also an FM radio so you can catch a local radio station without having to use your data allowance.

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