8 ms·

There is a link in the comments to a 7 dollar phone that looks way more polished. Crazy really, a fast food meal will cost you more than that here in Canada. h

by sah88 12y ago

There is a link in the comments to a 7 dollar phone that looks way more polished. Crazy really, a fast food meal will cost you more than that here in Canada. http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone

joezydeco 12y ago
I own one of these burner phones for backup use, $9.99 but it was on sale for $4.99 when I bought it. It's no iPhone, but I also get 8-10 days on a charge: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8520651&CatId=5118 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-det...
- mcovey 12y ago
  Tracfones are subsidized though, they give them away for almost nothing because people buy minutes for them, and they're almost useless without minutes unless you just want it to call 911.
readme 12y ago
This phone too is unlocked?
glomph 12y ago
The $12 one has mp3 playback and micro sd support though. Those are some pretty big features.
- icebraining 12y ago
  And Bluetooth. Really incredible for the price.
userbinator 12y ago
Mediatek (MTK) was for many years the SoC of choice for ultra-cheap feature phones like these, but they seem to have gone up the scale (their Android platforms are good value) while others like RDA have filled in the ultra-low-end. I think one of the ways in which they were able to undercut MTK was to use a different CPU core - the $2 MT6250 in bunnie's phone still uses an ARM core, which means licensing fees to ARM are some part of the cost (I'm not aware of any "pirated" ARM cores) - and in such a cheap SoC, could be a significant fraction. The RDA8851 is "MIPS-compatible" so they aren't paying ARM and likely the other IP on it was either designed by RDA or others in China.
- minthd 12y ago
  With such capabilities it's pretty weird that such companies aren't fiercely competing in the mcu market(at least in the high end of it). They could have made a killer mcu for very cheap.
nodata 12y ago
Check out the soldering! http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg
- wmeredith 12y ago
  I don't know much about soldering. What's unusual about this instance?
  - nodata 12y ago
    It's hand soldered by someone inexperienced.

by sah88 12y ago

joezydeco 12y ago

I own one of these burner phones for backup use, $9.99 but it was on sale for $4.99 when I bought it. It's no iPhone, but I also get 8-10 days on a charge: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8520651&CatId=5118 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-det...

mcovey 12y ago
Tracfones are subsidized though, they give them away for almost nothing because people buy minutes for them, and they're almost useless without minutes unless you just want it to call 911.

readme 12y ago

This phone too is unlocked?

glomph 12y ago

The $12 one has mp3 playback and micro sd support though. Those are some pretty big features.

icebraining 12y ago
And Bluetooth. Really incredible for the price.

userbinator 12y ago

Mediatek (MTK) was for many years the SoC of choice for ultra-cheap feature phones like these, but they seem to have gone up the scale (their Android platforms are good value) while others like RDA have filled in the ultra-low-end. I think one of the ways in which they were able to undercut MTK was to use a different CPU core - the $2 MT6250 in bunnie's phone still uses an ARM core, which means licensing fees to ARM are some part of the cost (I'm not aware of any "pirated" ARM cores) - and in such a cheap SoC, could be a significant fraction. The RDA8851 is "MIPS-compatible" so they aren't paying ARM and likely the other IP on it was either designed by RDA or others in China.

minthd 12y ago
With such capabilities it's pretty weird that such companies aren't fiercely competing in the mcu market(at least in the high end of it). They could have made a killer mcu for very cheap.

nodata 12y ago

Check out the soldering! http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg

wmeredith 12y ago
I don't know much about soldering. What's unusual about this instance?
- nodata 12y ago
  It's hand soldered by someone inexperienced.