I was shopping yesterday and walked by the smart phone section of Staples and saw that they had some LGL34C phones for $9.99. The phones were claimed to be a savings of $90 since they were normally $99.99. I bought 3 of them to have as spares since my wife dunked her samsung into her coolata in cup holder of her car that didnt have a lid on it the other day when she accelerated and it slipped out of the cubby in the dash under the stereo and took the dive of death into the drink.

Last time I saw phones for $10 like this was walmart last year about this time for LGL16C phones and I bought 2 of them but was told there was a 2 per customer limit. I TRIED to go back in a different day to buy a 3rd and the manager from the department said Sorry NO! You cant have a 3rd phone when he saw me going through line with a different sales associate.

The other day my daughter said her phone was stolen. Tried to call it and acted like it was dead or powered off. I said Im not going to replace it just yet lets give it a few days to see if it turns up. The next day at school she found it in the lost & found it was dropped onto the GROUND and still worked but was scuffed up and had salt on it from sidewalk outside her school. So I almost had to give up my last spare.

Thing is that I like my LGL16C and so I didnt want to give that last one up. So when her original phone was found and still worked but scuffed up I realized that I should keep an eye out for more clearance or marketing pushes to get people to join them in which they sell phones at or below cost to try to hook people into a phone in which they make the money up in the service plan that you pay for and usage, sort of the same business model that the printer manufacturer companies have where they sell an inkjet printer for $30 and make up for the reduced cost for the printer in all the ink that they will rake you over the coals with at $30 a ink cartridge.

So I bought the three LGL34C TracPhones and then needed to do some shopping at Price Chopper. I went to turn down the isle where they have batteries and phone cards and all that on the end cap and saw $4.99. I stopped and LOOKED and they had TracPhones for $4.99 marked down from $49.99. I grabbed the card that there was to bring to the front check out and asked if I could buy 3 of these at $4.99 each. They only had one of them at this store location but a store 2 miles away they could hold 2 for me so that i can get my 3 of them that I wanted. So I bought the one at the store I was at and checked out with my food and then went to the other store that was on my way home anyways so not out of the way to pick up the 2 others. Somehow at the $4.99 price tag I was sold one LG and two ZTE brand phones.

I now have three LGL34C phones with qualcom 400 1.2Ghz Dua-Core A7 arm processor, and one other (newer ) LG with a 1.3Ghz Dual-Core A7 arm processor, and two ZTE phones with 1.0Ghz single-core A5 arm processor.

The older A5 1Ghz TracPhones will be given to the family members first to kill before the better LG's. The LG's I might have running and crunching for BOINC since they use only like 4 watts each to power them to crunch numbers and the 2 other spares I use to have I had crunching numbers and they remained cool and just crunching cool and quietly.

Most people dont have1 smart phone and 7 spare smart phones, but I couldnt pass up the price tags of them knowing that my family is not careful with electronics like I am and if I can buy a bunch of them dirt cheap, each time they destroy one and I give one up to them, I am saving about $25 not buying a new one for $29.99 when they absolutely need to have one.

As for the performance of the older ZTE smart phones with the 1Ghz A5 single-core processor it does run slower than the better A7 dual-core phones and has lesser RAM at 384MB according to CPU-Z for android, but it works and just have to wait an extra 5 seconds for apps to load etc. They all have 4GB storage capacity but the better LG phones have 512MB RAM.

I have a LGL16C that I have had since July 2015 and I love this phone. Stuff launches quickly and games play well on it as well as the WIFI on it has good range and I use the phone 99% of the time with wireless networks for free use vs using up my very limited 180MB 3G DATA plan. Its small enough to fit in my pocket and not be bulky yet the screen size is just big enough for everything I need it for. Bigger screen would always be nicer, but then I dont want this huge phone in my pocket or even worse not fitting in my pocket in which it would be that much of a higher risk of it getting lost or stolen. Phone stays in pocket by itself to keep change or keys from scratching at the screen and has become part of the normal morning grab of phone, wallet, and car keys. Phone in left pocket and wallet and keys in the right.

Here is the LGL34C model that I bought for $9.99 each at Staples. https://www.amazon.com/Tracfone-Optimus-Prepaid-Triple-Minutes/dp/B00NVQ19NW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481823953&sr=8-1&keywords=lgl34c

Here is the ZTE phone that I got for $4.99 each at Price Chopper. https://www.amazon.com/ZTE-Valet-Android-Prepaid-TracFone/dp/B00FM7R1WG/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481824040&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=ZTE+tracphone+A5