Simple, basic 5G data phone

[DavePinMinn]

I'm planning on getting a Visible phone for data.  Only data.  It's not going to take pictures, or get phone calls, or send texts, or emails, or video conference, or play games, or anything else.  Its just going to sit there, connected to a router, and provide data.

I want to stay with Android, and I want 5G.

Is there ANY rational reason to go any more expensive than the TCL 30 for $100?  Worst case I'd be going to the TCL 40 for $170, but so far I can't see ANYTHING it would do that make it worth 70% more.  And I tried a pixel 6 a while ago, and it was totally unimpressive (long, boring story), so I don't see going to something that's $300 or more unless there's some demonstrable, real-world difference in what it'll do...

Thoughts?  (and yes, I'm sure your $600 X or $1200 iPhone is great, but people with TCL 30s or 40s telling me how good or bad they are would be more useful)

[rjniles]

If you are connected to a router, you are on WIFI not 5G. You don't need a plan and can use any phone

[DavePinMinn]

The "router" is DOWNSTREAM from the phone, not upstream.

Same question...  WILL a Visible TCL 30 be in any meaningful way deficient compared to a Visible TCL 40 OR other 5g phone in the $200 or less category?  Again, as the previous post said - it's DATA ONLY and I don't care HOW good it is at anything else.

[rjniles]

If you are trying to use Visible as a replacement for internet service, it is a violation of Visible terms of service.

[VisiblyPresent]

Try the Visible subreddit - there's a much broader audience and more active participation than here (better chance of 1st hand experience over there).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Visible/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Visible/search/?q=TCL+30

[DavePinMinn]

I'm going to ask this here 'cause I HAVE NO IDEA what Reddit's problem is, and I CAN'T ASK anywhere else 'cause everything keeps getting deleted!

Went to the Visible subredit - used the link above.

Created a topic or entry or whatever Reddit thinks things are.  Looks fine.  Went in, I can see it, NO problem.

Got a reply so I went back in to check, and found THIS:

Your post has been automatically removed because the Automod detected that your account is too new.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

I have NO idea what this even means OR what to do about it.  This is the SECOND time this has happened.  I've "messaged" the moderators, but so far NO response.  Found a thing in Reddit that prattled about karma and such, and said to go to r/Askreddit and post there to "build karma".

So I did...  AND THEY DELETED THAT TOO...

What the &^%$#@ is this st*pid (the word police puked on the real word) thing and how do I make it stop?

[VisiblyPresent]

There is now a small minimum account age because people were making throwaway accounts to post referral codes on the main page.

What that account age is, I have no idea. Each subreddit has their own. Maybe you can comment on existing threads to accrue "karma".

[VisiblyPresent]

P.S. FWIW, the TCL 30 LE is sold by Visble for $99. For hotspot functionality not much is required other than turning it on and setting a password. At the very least I would expect the model they sell to be compatible with their service. Models purchase elsewhere may not pass the compatibility checker.

https://www.visible.com/shop/smartphones/tcl-30-le?sku=TCL-4188V

With recent changes to the plans, hotspot usage is no longer limited to a single device connecting to it. The difference in plans is the 5 Mbps vs 10 Mbps throttling - the aggregate speed is shared by all currently connected devices. Visible does prohibit placing a SIM in a mobile hotspot device/router.

A Visible employee has suggested in the subreddit, that they have little interest in what devices connect to the personal hotspot - instead it appears that they will be monitoring overall data usage more closely in the future. I suspect that this has more to do with potential upcoming net neutrality regulations where if passed will likely result in new plan pricing with tiered priority data and tiered speed (careful what you wish for).

[DavePinMinn]

Actually, my question wasn't about connecting to a router or whatever, it was whether or not there was ANY good, verifiable reason to spend any more than $100 for the TCL 30 to get a phone that will do a decent job of providing a reasonably good connection (5G, 4G, whatever)...  In the PAST I was told it was necessary to buy a phone of at LEAST the cost/quality of a Pixel 6 for $350 to have any kind of decent connection.  So I'm trying to figure out if there's ANY GOOD reason to spend $170 for the TCL 40 OR $200 for the Samsung A15 to have good connectivity and decent speeds... 

In the past, any time poor performance was reported in the forum I was using, it was blamed on the data phone at that time being a $90 Blade A7 Prime instead of a $1200 X...  I'm trying to find out if this is still the major problem it was always made out to be in the past, where the problem was never Visible, it was always the "inadequate" phone that was purchased from Visible.