Sweet, thank you for the confirmation!

I love my iPhone SE because of the size and because I, too, am cheap.

It's looking more and more that I'm going to get a smartphone so I can access work messages away from my desk, most everything goes out to Slack. I'm thinking a Samsung, but I make very few phone calls and I don't need huge data. What should I look at?

Connie, is work paying for it, or do you have to find a carrier and sign up?

If you're signing up and paying for it yourself, given what you describe your needs as, I recommend a no-contract basic carrier like Cricket Wireless, because their rates are very low.

Yeah, it's not work essential, just work handy--we had an actual fire event today, and the announcement that it was safe to come back in went to Slack--so I'll be paying. I've been on TracFone for years, I should check them, too.

I have a Moto G4 Play, which I've found to be a really great phone and it is also very cheap. I'm on TracFone since I don't use up a lot of minutes of cellular data. Other family members are on Republic Wireless which is $20 a month (no contract) for unlimited text/talk and 1GB of cellular data.

Course, it's now G5 and not quite as cheap, but still cheap for a really capable phone.

I was super happy with whatever the cheapest android smartphone was when I first got a smartphone, so I wouldn't worry too much about it -- I think they are all fine! And then you'll have a sense of what you do and don't care about for the next time.

On the phone itself, I agree with Jesse -- when I got my first smartphone, it was the cheapest Android smartphone (Moto G, maybe?), and I was really happy with it. I would have kept it longer if I hadn't dropped it on the tiled kitchen floor and shattered the screen.

So, related to that, get a case for your phone.

I've had my current phone for at least five years. With the way technology advances, it's practically a rock that beeps.