smartphone requirement?

You bought the most expensive trim prime available, the advanced, which is 4K more than the premium and almost 6k more than the plus, and you don’t want to spend $200 on a smartphone?

Look on slickdeals, a new smartphone is much cheaper than the big name Apple and Samsung flagships that you see on tv. Here’s one brand new from Best Buy for $150.
32GB Motorola Moto X4 Unlocked Smartphone + $40 Cricket Prepaid Card - Slickdeals.net

As far as a service plan, google red pocket or mint mobile. They will send you a SIM card and it will cost you less than $25 a month. They use Verizon and T-Mobile networks respectively.

Sprint is also running a promotion for one year free. All you pay monthly is the taxes on the line, less than $6 month.
Sprint BYOD: 1-Year Unlimited Talk, Text & Data - Slickdeals.net

If you just want a phone for entune, buy one cheap on swappa.com. You can buy a working used smartphone cheap on that website. It’s like eBay for phones with buyer protection.

 

I don't have Advanced trim, so I never used Entune's Advanced app. To be honest, even if I did have Advanced trim, I would not use Entune for anything. I currently do not use Entune on my car (Premium trim). That said, OS7, 8, 9 you are referring are Android system 7 (Nugat), 8 (Oreo), and 9 (Pie). AFAIK, as long as the Entune App is available for your phone, it should work, and I know it is compatible with Android 7, 8, and 9. And you don't have to use phone listed in Toyota's compatibility list. Almost any Android phone even cheap sub $100 ones will work. That said, if you currently use TracFone with a feature phone, you probably have only talk and text service. Upgrading it to a smartphone means you will now have to pay for the data. Depending on how much data you use, your cost can be substantially higher than what you are paying now. If you plan to use lot of data, you may be better off finding a different carrier. IIRC TracFone's handsets are unlockable. If you buy a phone from TracFone and decide to switch to a different carrier, you can't use it. Just a thought.

edit: After a quick search, I found out that now TracFone can be unlocked if conditions are met. Still not easy, but it seems to be better than a few years ago. I always buy used factory unlocked phones from ebay very cheap and have only used MVNO that allow BYO phone.
TracfoneReviewer: How to Unlock your Tracfone Cell Phone

 

The Entune app will most likely work on any smartphone, even ones that are not listed by Toyota as officially tested and compatible. My Google Pixel 2 has Android OS version 9 and it works just fine with Entune and the Prime Advanced apps. If the phone carrier has a return policy, you could buy the phone, and return it if it ends up being incompatible with the Entune app. I'm using Verizon Prepaid. $45/month (plus taxes) for 15GB of data (current promotion).

 

You are exactly like me. I use to have TracFone feature phone with huge amount of minute before switching to a smartphone. Like you, I don't use mobile phone that much and minute just kept building up to my phone. Back when TracFone first introduced smart phones, there line-up was so bad, I could not convince myself to use their offered devices. Ever since I switched to a smart phone which I now own several of them, the one I use as actual phone is an old Windows phone with H2O sim on pay as you go plan. For H2O pay-as-you-go plan, the minimum recharge required is $10 for every 90 days of service. Call and text are 5 cents/min or text, but data is 10 cents/MB. Since the data connection on this plan is too expensive, I do not use this phone for data unless I absolutely have to. Basically $10 recharge gives me 200 min of talk or 200 text, but I hardly use that much in any given 90 days service period, I now have more than $100 credit left on my account and I am on auto pay plan to pay $8.50 (15% discount for $10 worth of credit) for every 90 days. Thus my mobile phone bill is $2.83/mo. I also have another android phone I use only with DATA. this one is with Freedompop sim. The company offers sim kit that gives totally free LTE data connection up to 1GB/mo. I have never exceeded 1GB/mo of data usage, and have not paid a penny in last 4 years.

 

They have a higher level of data and service that cost money just like any other MVNO. For most people, their FREE basic plan is not enough data, and their unlimited call and text is voip which is not as reliable as cellular calls, and it drains a battery. The basic free plan is not for everyone, but it works perfectly for me. Here is a review article. 2019 FreedomPop Review — Is Free Too Good to Be True?

 

I think a small tablet may do what you want to do and skip the phone.

 

I don't think it works in Canada. FreedomPop uses AT&T for GSM and Sprint for CDMA networks. I don't think AT&T nor Sprint will allow international roaming on MVNO utilizing foreign local networks. Although IIRC Freedompop do offer service in the UK. For short term, you can always pick up SIM card with some prepaid call, text, and data in most of the major cities, especially at an airport. As long as you have SIM unlocked international version of a phone that is supported in that country, you can use it. For a long term use like your daughter's case, yeah find cheap SIM once she settles, and forget about being able to use it in both countries. Just use two phones and two services or buy an unlocked dual sim phone and have two different services.

Edit: I checked FreedomPop site. Here is the answer to your question. In short, FreedomPop service is not supported in CANADA. Global SIM FAQ

I think what he is suggesting is to use WiFi and use text or e-mail in that situation. The most major airport now has free WiFi. And for the second part of your question, yes tablet can be used for Entune Apps, however, if the tablet does not have cellular data capability, it cannot be used for Advanced App when you are not on WiFi.

 

The Galaxy J7 Sky Pro works for me in Denver. They were $50 new on Amazon the other day.

 

For Freedmpop and most MVNO, you don't have to buy a device from the provider. Any unlocked phone would have worked. Tracfone is very restrictive in that regard. But, if you are happy with Tracfone, I wish you good luck with it. Just remember that 4200 min of talk or 4200 texts is a lot for someone like you and me but once you start using DATA, 4200 kb is NOTHING. That is only 4.2 Mb. Browsing a few pages of the web will use it up. Depending on how you have set the phone up, if you have notification to be sent to your phone using cellular data, without knowing you will use up the remaining funds and you will have to recharge it very quickly and frequently. I have my wife's smartphone configured not to use any cellular data with our H2O SIM (5 cents/talk or text, 10 cents/MB of data). My wife does have ipad with Freedompop cellular for data, but do not use the phone with data usually. One time her phone's setting was changed inadvertently to use cellular data with H2O sim. She usually uses only $10 (200 min of call) every few months, but with data on with her not knowing she was using that amount (100MB of data) within a few days.

 

For most apps including the Prime Advanced apps, you do not even need to have a cellular plan or even activate the phone, you can just use wifi if you don't need a smartphone.

 

I suggest you do a thorough review of these features before changing phones. Some have found that only a few are useful, and it's possible your phone already supports those.

You can do bluetooth handsfree pairing with some 15+ year old phones and that works fine... and you may not need more than that.

 

Yes, definitely. That approach is a minimalist approach which would not work for most people. But the Prime Advanced does have the SOS feature so some might not care about having a phone on the road in that car.

 

If 4.2GB is rolled over, you might be OK for a while. I never used more than 1GB of data a month, even when I was away from home for a week on a trip. Within the US there is plenty of free WiFi in most places I visit.

I agree with you, but it seems he already has changed his phone.

That's me. 99% of my smartphone connection is via WiFi. 1% of cellular data I use amount to about 500MB and it's free from Freedompop.