Most cheap phones aren’t smart at all. The few that are usually come out of China, run very old versions of Android and find homes on shady-looking eBay stores. Occasionally, something worthwhile comes along though, as in the case of this spotting by Motherboard.
For $9.82, Walmart will sell you an LG-built smartphone on a prepaid plan. It’s branded as the TracFone Lucky but the carrier name shouldn’t put a prospective buyer off. The Lucky still wears its LG logos and doesn’t look too bad in images, using a slightly-dated but still popular rounded design with capacitive keys.
The phone has a 3.8-inch display and is powered by Android 4.4 KitKat. The OS is over two years old but generally viewed as reliable. Its age makes it more vulnerable to security vulnerabilities and it naturally doesn’t include all the features of more modern phones but for $10 it’s hard to complain too much.
Underneath lies a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1.3-megapixel camera and 4GB of storage, expandable with SD cards up to 32GB in capacity. The Lucky has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity but there’s no 4G LTE support so you’ll be limited to the slower 3G when you leave the house.
Because it’s sold by a reputable native retailer in the U.S. (and built by a respectable manufacturer), the Lucky has full support for the Google Play Store out of the box. Owners will be able to use the majority of Android apps available on a phone costing just $10. It certainly won’t be winning any performance benchmarks but would be hard to beat in a comparison of phones on sale at this price point.
At the time of writing, the TracFone Lucky has one user review on the Walmart website and is rated 4 stars out of 5. The owner describes the phone as “pretty darn good” and “a steal for 9.99,” ranking the screen a “decent size” and general speed “fine.”
For most people looking to use their phone frequently, the TracFone probably isn’t the best option, although it could be a good backup device to keep around in an emergency. Its small size, outdated software and low storage don’t make for a compelling package if you have more to spend.
All things considered, the Lucky looks like a phone that should be perfect as a child’s first device, infrequently used spare or small and portable handset for an older person. You won’t be finding much else running Android around this price point in the U.S, despite Google’s best efforts to lower the cost of entry to the smartphone world.
