I have to get a new phone, and I don't want to

Verizon is depreciating 3G at some point here. I have been running an Iphone 4 since I got a smart phone, it's not my favorite thing, but it's not too offensive.  Mom broke down and let my siblings get her a new phone. We both DESPISE it. I help people with their phones a lot, I just flat don't like the ones I have seen.
I need help, is there a phone I can stand?

I use:
Phone
Text
Contacts
Browser occasionally (no video) it's NOT my contact to the world, my computer is.
Clock
Camera
Pictures
Calculator
Notes
Email only to get things on or off the phone to my computer easily
I have used the compass a couple of times

Everything else on this phone I have in a file labeled "garbage." I do not want or need it.

Things I do NOT want or need:
Any other apps
Anything from google, facebook, twitter
Any kind of AI
Location services, GPS, maps
Music
Podcasts, watching video, reading


Why I carry it: I work out on our property by myself, and I live with my 80 something year old mom. I have to have a way to get help if I get into trouble. She has to be able to reach me if she needs me. We have very little social support in town, it's just us. I can't "keep it turned off" or "leave it in the truck" or "don't take it with you" which are all things I have heard people tell me to do.  I have to know immediately if she needs me. I need to be able to look up things like "Is this thing poisonous?" and the weather radar to watch for storms.

Does anyone know if there some kind of phone I could look at that might be worth considering? If I can keep it on Verizon it makes bill paying easier, but that's not a requirement.

Definite deal breakers are google, AI, location services that can't be shut off, and expensive.

Suggestions?

You ask hard questions.    Verizon calls these basic phones.  They list 16 of them on their web site

https://www.verizon.com/onesearch/search?q=Basic%20phone&src=wireless

This where it goes bad.  1 and only 1 of those 16 has 3/5 stars rating.  Not good at all.  The Verizon recommended basic senior phone is the  "Alcatel GO FLIPV" it has 1/5 stars and 9% of users recommend the phone.  I think that's the worse rating I have ever seen on a recommended product.

The highest rated is a ruggedized  mil spec 810G unit.  With the use you explained, having a water resistant drop resistant phone may be a good thing   "Kyocera DuraXV Extreme".  It does have a lot of features, makes me think it is a smart phone with a poor keybd.  Since it is a Verizon phone you should be able to try it in store.  Specifically it has gps you will need to check if it can be disabled.

https://www.verizon.com/basic-phones/dura-xv-extreme/?sku=sku3850244

I currently have all the Googly  bits turned of on my devices and every browser I use complains about G-play being off.   And yet the browser and web pages work fine?  

My pet peeve with the new smart phones is the size.  The smallest smart phone in the store when I replaced mine in December was an inch taller and 1/2 inch wider then my old Samsung and the old phone was in a case.

Good luck with your search.  
Tom

I am running on an iPhone 6 that was given to me. It irritates the hell out of me. I have to be careful how I hold it for fear of pushing one of the buttons on the side. Anyway, free was the right price for the phone. Before then I had a flip phone.

I have a similar situation to yours Pearl, I have the phone for safety reasons and it is also my 'log in' device for my employer, so even if I wanted to chuck it I need it. I have a Samsung Galaxy A11. Not too expensive and pretty basic, but it does have all the crud (games, google, etc) and I took a lot of that off. It works on 4g but not 5g. I think it works for Verizon, we only have Straight Talk or Verizon where I am.

It's hard to keep the 'tracking' away from you since it's part of the terms of service for just about any phone. Privacy browsers and VPNs are helpful. You can clear your history often and  turn off bluetooth too. You can put Duck Duck Go in place of Google for searches, or some other provider.

I really wish the phone thing had never happened to the world, although there have been a couple of times it was invaluable in a crisis. I got help in a blizzard and found out later I would've been hit by a snowplow if I'd been on the road for 10 more minutes. I got lost in a wildlife preserve area and GPS'd my way out (that was with my IPhone 5s), which was good. Called 911 for someone who ended up having a bad kidney infection and needed to be at the hospital right away. Stuff like that. Otherwise they are just distraction, junk, and a way to have access to people 24/7 in a really unnatural way, so I share the disdain.

I found the alt phone project you are looking for. Nice to know other people have similar wishlist.

"Librem 5, the phone that focuses on security by design and privacy protection by default. Outfitted with hardware kill switches and specially designed hardware, you are in control of the flow of information. "

https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

Unfortunately they are backordered into next year.  And it is a $1300 phone.  

More issues with this "upgrade" 3G is 2.1GHz and 4G is 2.5GHz the lower frequency of 3G means it is better going through and around obstacles.  If you have sketchy 3G cell service, 4G will be worse.   5G only has range of 1.5 miles.

Tom

I recommend looking into "de-googled" phones, which are smartphones that run a privacy-oriented open-sourced version of Android (Google's operating system). Rather than default to having little to no privacy, these are all configured to assume you don't want to be spied on and have your data surreptitiously sent to Google. (In case you don't know what I mean by that, dive into this rather eye-opening and disturbing story/study).

You can build one yourself (plenty of videos show you how), or purchase ones pre-configured, like the above phone.

If you're more of a tech DIY'er, you can purchase a used phone on ebay or offerup, and then "flash" it yourself with one of the OS's. There are 3 Android open source OS's out there: Lineage, CalyxOS, and Graphene. All have their pros and cons and varying levels of privacy/user-friendliness. They all work with all the major carriers, but do check compatibility when researching, if you have a carrier you want to use/keep.

I chose CalyxOS for mine (the UI is most like normie Android, with some tradeoffs for security), installed it on a Pixel 4a 5G (which is ironically made by Google), and have never looked back. Camera is good enough for shooting videos and taking high quality pics (I "downgraded" from an iPhone 11 and don't regret it). It's highly configurable, you can turn off stuff like location, mic/camera, etc.

Total cost was about $350.

If you're old enough to remember when stealth aircraft tech first came out, they used to say "the planes aren't totally invisible to radar, but their signature is like that of a bird". It's a good analogy here; you're just reducing your footprint and the info you're feeding to the mother ships, but you're not completely invisible when using one of these privacy-phones. (The only way to guarantee such is not to use one at all.)

Good luck!

I'm not phone savvy (still managing to survive with borrowing my husbands phone on occasions like travelling)
I consulted the expert (husband) so this is my transcribe of stuff I don't understand:

Have you looked at OS phones like purism? librem come with security that can shut off location, camera etc. with a switch if you want to but is there if you need it runs linus OS ub ports. They are new phones so $$ but best out of box, maybe you could choose a phone that suits and then look for a good one second hand.

Husband loves his oneplus one phone  which is linux based so much more privacy.
For the technically ept (which I think you come under!) try UBports site which lists all phones supported by UB ports Linux and may point you to one that suits.
Rob braxman's site points to ready loaded phones.

I guess you'd need to check whether US coverage and service precludes any of the above for you.

The Verizon recommended basic senior phone is the  "Alcatel GO FLIPV" it has 1/5 stars and 9% of users recommend the phone.  I think that's the worse rating I have ever seen on a recommended product.

If that is similar to the Flip V that was offered to me for free with the 3G conversion it is a piece of junk.  There are at least two threads on the forum where I talk about all the problems I have had. Such as dropped calls, the person I called can't hear me, and the signal is only one bar.  We bought a new signal generator with no results.

Our other phone was an Apple smartphone that we got to do a virtual office visit in 2020. Sometime in March, the phone said no signal.  I called and, yes the 3G conversion. AT&T offered to send me another phone for $350.00.

My plan was to buy the Radio Shack $49.99 phone though now I think it may be the same junk.

Our daughter is going to give us one of her old phones and my sister-in-law's Trac phone. Sometime in the future...

I use a Faraday Bag to carry my cell phone in when I am leaving town. Otherwise I always leave it at home on the counter when I am out shopping or doing errands in our small town.

I, too, wish cell phones had never become "smart phones" but had stayed at approximately 2004/2005-levels of development. That was all I needed, and pay-as-you-go service was cheap, too. C'est la vie!