In short, don't buy a TCL flip!! I bought one to help curb my smartphone addiction but the results were terrible. The TCL flip doesn't run kaios, it runs aosp.. and by default it doesn't let you install 3rd party apps and has no app store.. this is retarded on TCL's part because it makes having a quad core CPU, 4g, and wifi completely pointless.

I used the method on this forum (neutron.img) to enable pushing apps from adb and it was still terrible! Unlike kaios the apps aren't designed to run on a small screen without touch so trying to start a new convo on Whatsapp means using the buttons to scroll past a billion convos.

This is just an example, ofc I'm not saying that all feature phones should use kaios, but there's no benefit to owning this phone over my bb q10 from 15 years ago. In fact the q10 is much more useful. I didn't need a full blown play store, I have my S22 Ultra for that, but without WhatsApp and Google maps (less importantly) I simply couldn't work. As such, this phone is E-waste and strongly unrecommended by me.

FlipperDolph many of us would regard abstaining from WhatsApp as included in getting away from a smartphone addiction...

Jumptoheaven granted, but what's the point of wifi, 4g and a quad core cpu if the phone has about as much functionality as a basic feature phone from 2004?? Like why get this thing?

I'm not against abstaining from using im apps, I'm just saying this device makes 0 sense whatsoever.

FlipperDolph
It uses the same hardware and software that smartphones use. It's the easiest way to make a flip phone these days. It would be much more expensive to create a custom hardware platform than than to use whatever is commonly available.

Yup, true but I mean just make it a kaios phone.. it's priced comparably to kaios phones and the software will be much better optimized for a small screen and have access to an app store.

But I guess I should've known better than to buy something made by a Chinese company that makes terrible TVs and lies about their specs (120 Hz ahem)

FlipperDolph Honestly sorry but you seem to be like Nokia & Alcatel -Entirely missing the point.

The point of a flip phone is to be good at making calls and sending texts. Period. Hard stop. Anything else is a BONUS. Take a quick look at ANY KaiOS phones out there. They are atrocious!! The contact list is BASICALLY UNUSABLE! On those phones (Preloaded without enough bloatware to rival some windows PC's btw) trying to get through a list of more than 30 contacts is a chore (and most of us have at minimum 300). As you scroll down, the phone can barely catch up. Scroll too fast and the phone will just skip you to the top of the list. Trying to compose a message is basically impossible- from defaulting from T9 to ABC every stinkin time you compose a message, to not being able to handle MMS at all, the texting on Kai OS is broken. Oh, and the phones lifespans are basically 2 months. And not because of the hardware, which isn't bad at all, just because they'll eventually stop booting up at all. Oh yes, but it runs WhatsApp!! Thats the selling point. The only selling point. Terrible Chaos phone. But it can natively run a few apps that most people using this phone could not care for.

On the other end is some great android-based phones that can do all phone stuff just fine, but struggle to run apps, which they were not intended to do. Great. But for the target demographic that's perfect. I know an older person that bought the TCL flip from Verizon (different model) It runs KaiOS. The man does not store contacts or send texts. After a few months of simply making calls, the phone would not allow any more phone calls because "memory full". I deleted every possible thing from the phone (recent calls) to no avail. The only thing that fixed it was a full reset. This is an older person that simply wants a phone to dial numbers. And I had to reset for him EVERY 2 months!! KaiOS is broken.
Sorry for the rant, but it's really directed at manufacturers- give the customers what they want -basic useable phones. Apps is a BONUS, but basic functionality comes FIRST. You can't make a terrible trash phone just so you can advertise that it has Facebook, WhatsApp, and snake!

In regards to the Blackberry comments, everyone who uses a basic phone would love to have blackberries back! Reliable useable devices with a QWERTY keyboard? Sign me up! In fact, all of the older flip phones were more reliable than what's sold now. But we can't have that back. It's a fact: due to OS limitations, the old java phones won't be compatible with 4g VOLTE, and the only choice was to use Android (or develop a new OS from the ground up -not happening). So we got some more functions, but a much less stable operating system. The reason for the Wi-Fi/4g/CPU is very simple,.

• Wi-Fi is baked into the software anyway, and most of the chips, so why would they work extra to remove it?

• 4g is required to having a phone connect to networks in USA in this day and age

• And surprisingly with all their fancy quad-core stuff, the phone is still playing catch up when buttons are pressed quickly.

Sorry that you had this rough introduction to the flip phone world, but unfortunately all that's happened in the past 10 years is 2 (or should I say 20?) steps back, 1 step forward. By the way I am in no way saying that I think the TCL is a good phone, but at a $20 price point, its hard to beat for basic functionality! (Personally, I am a fan of the Kyocera Cadence)

Flippy Very well written. And as someone who loves adding apps to phones, I can't agree more that nothing is more important than being able to call, text, add contacts, add contacts, and have your phone continue to function normally for an extended period of time.

Flippy Terrible Chaos phone.

🙂 😆 😎

Flippy In regards to the Blackberry comments, everyone who uses a basic phone would love to have blackberries back! Reliable useable devices with a QWERTY keyboard? Sign me up! In fact, all of the older flip phones were more reliable than what's sold now. But we can't have that back. It's a fact: due to OS limitations, the old java phones won't be compatible with 4g VOLTE, and the only choice was to use Android (or develop a new OS from the ground up -not happening). So we got some more functions, but a much less stable operating system. The reason for the Wi-Fi/4g/CPU is very simple,.

Nothing is good like those old 3g phones...