8GB Alcatel Pop Icon 2 LTE TracFone Prepaid Smartphone EXPIRED

Back in 2016, I bought cheap phones from Black Friday like 10$. Try to install S'Mores and unlock ads once per day and you will 10 cents/day (per device, each device need different account) for it. And can cashout to Amazon Gift Cards every-time you hit 1$. Not worth the time for most people I guess, but it might help some poor student. Thanks

Link to App - https://play.google.com/store/app...eApp&hl=en

Video/Youtube Review of this phone - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ioNCCjrmyo

Someone Commented this 1 Week Ago

Once you debloat and freeze all anachronic apps and services this packed Android 4.4.4 version is composed of (use "Debloater" for that purpose), then you'll have a real pocket smartphone so sharp that can easily compete with even the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - maybe higher - in all technical departments except camera features, and that includes signal reception, data transfering, streaming, teleconferencing, web surfing, multitasking, productivity, numerical computation, 3D processing, GPS, etc., etc. Antutu benchmark is around 22000, which is pretty awesome for its market share. An unknown secret few people know about is that it actually records at 1920x1080 pixel resolution, whereas the camera focus capabilities are limited, though; so close-range are not as good as long-range photos/videos. Default screen dimmer is pretty lame and tends to drain battery. Third-party apps such as "Dimly" will do the trick for you. Both Android-Kitkat stock launcher and factory soft keys are also kind of sore at times. The issue can be resolved easily via "Nova Launcher" app. LCD screen sports a very high 233 ppi saturation for a 4'' display, which is higher than most devices of its range (e.g. ZTE Fanfare 3 LTE or ZTE Majesty Pro Plus LTE), so expect clear and sharp images when you don't tilt too much the little TFT display. The device does not recognize micro SD cards greater than 32GB so don't go beyond that mark. In order to avoid internal-memory overflow, you have to configure/move all possible apps, offline maps, email cache, Chrome cache, YouTube cache, Facebook cache, Whatsapp cache, photos and video all pointing out to the external SD card. You can play with ease, with minimum lag (don't expect top-notch performance), applications like "Google Earth", "Modern Combat 5: Blackout" or "Need for Speed", but only after Android 4.4.4 is slimmed down to its minimum. By minimum I mean around 30 apps/services active out of a total of 150, give it or take. The critical services that must be active to prevent soft bricking are: (1) Dialer, (2) Google Account Manager, (3) Google Service Framework, (4) Package Installer, (5) Media Storage, (6) Settings, (7) Settings Provider, (8) Telephony, (9) Tele Service and of course your (10) JrdLauncher. The rest can be safely disabled (frozen) without the risk of boot looping. Those are the very bare minimum required services for minimal operation, though. If you want, for example, telephony service enhanced, you will need also to activate (a) Data Service, (b) Dialer, (c) Contacts, (d) Contacts Storage, (e) Messages, (f) MmsService, (g) Phone and Messaging Storage, and (h) Phone Services. If you want, lets say, GPS enhanced, you will then need to activate Fused Location service as well. If you want to connect to your PC you'll need MTP Host active. If you want to run Google Play and download apps, you will need (a) Downloads, (b) Google Play Services, (c) Package Access Helper and (d) Package Installer, and so on and so forth for other tasks and duties. Get familiar with all service functionalities so you become skillful to know which ones to turn on and which ones turn off at any given time at any given task. Rule of thumb: the minimal the services active the fastest the system becomes. Both "Google Play" and "Google Play Services" play a major, I repeat, a major role in draining the battery - along with the LED brightness - , so try to keep them both at bay by freezing them as much as possible. Mine can outmost two days and a half under regular tasks without recharging. This is one of the hidden aspects of the 4''' displays: size matters when energy efficiency comes to play. You can juice this little monkey from 0% to 100% in about an hour with 2.1 amps adapters or higher. There's no method for rooting the device as of today ever since the fastboot/ bootloader is factory locked and there's no available stock ROM in the market. You can unlock the phone for $6 bucks on UnlockNinja or other supplier, though. I also have noticed that there's a lot of confusion on the actual sheet specs of this device easily turmoiled with the A520L or the Nova model, which are very close related but not exactly the same as this A521L device. Review the exact technical sheet here:

http://specdevice.com/showspec.ph...9713449b1d

In summary, for $9.99 (including shipping expenses at Net10) this is the mother of all smartphone deals out there, hands down, but in order to make the magic happen you have to be savvy to twerk the system off at some point, otherwise you will end up thinking this handheld is a complete garbage.

thanks , planning to use as a gps for my google maps in car so I don't have to use my regular phone.

Why?

I ordered thru Tracfone link in the OP and got Next Day Air from Fedex for FREE.