I’ll concede that the Nokia 2780 does seem to work, and is only $160 new. But its availability is pretty bad. That article has 3 sponsor links to Amazon, Walmart, and Target. The Walmart and Target links are broken. The Amazon link says “No featured offers available”, and you have to click “See all buying options”, and then select either a used one, or a “new” one from a seller with 44% positive reviews over the last 12 months. There are probably other places to get it. (Edit: It seems to be 4G capable, but not 5G, so reception would be pretty shoddy.)
Punkt. MP02 costs $315 at cheapest.
“Kyocera DuraXV Extreme+” costs $260 at cheapest, and only works on Verizon.
“Lively Jitterbug Flip2” is a loss leader for its mandatory proprietary cell network that is unreasonable to most people.
Wisephone II costs $400.
“Easyfone Prime A7” has no availability, and no listed price.
TCL Classic is $70. It might be viable, but the fact that there are at least 3 different versions for different carriers suggests to me that each version has limited radio bands. It probably won’t work in roaming situations. Reviews say it misses a lot of incoming calls.
None of these come close to the solid simplicity and cheap $20 MSRP of the Motorola c168i from 2006. That was a true burner phone.
This is one single curated list found at the top of a search, the point is that there are plenty of options if you look. Plus demand drives availability. Low demand will certainly entail low availability. Your criteria of needing to be below $200, not rely exclusively on Verizon, and have mass market availability have been pulled out of thin air. You gotta take what you can get to some degree.
I’ll concede that the Nokia 2780 does seem to work, and is only $160 new. But its availability is pretty bad. That article has 3 sponsor links to Amazon, Walmart, and Target. The Walmart and Target links are broken. The Amazon link says “No featured offers available”, and you have to click “See all buying options”, and then select either a used one, or a “new” one from a seller with 44% positive reviews over the last 12 months. There are probably other places to get it. (Edit: It seems to be 4G capable, but not 5G, so reception would be pretty shoddy.)
Punkt. MP02 costs $315 at cheapest.
“Kyocera DuraXV Extreme+” costs $260 at cheapest, and only works on Verizon.
“Lively Jitterbug Flip2” is a loss leader for its mandatory proprietary cell network that is unreasonable to most people.
Wisephone II costs $400.
“Easyfone Prime A7” has no availability, and no listed price.
TCL Classic is $70. It might be viable, but the fact that there are at least 3 different versions for different carriers suggests to me that each version has limited radio bands. It probably won’t work in roaming situations. Reviews say it misses a lot of incoming calls.
None of these come close to the solid simplicity and cheap $20 MSRP of the Motorola c168i from 2006. That was a true burner phone.
This is one single curated list found at the top of a search, the point is that there are plenty of options if you look. Plus demand drives availability. Low demand will certainly entail low availability. Your criteria of needing to be below $200, not rely exclusively on Verizon, and have mass market availability have been pulled out of thin air. You gotta take what you can get to some degree.