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.

I'm on Tracfone. I have the LG Treasure. New phone plus a year's service, wayyyyyyy more minutes than I use, 1.5 gig of data, of which I have used .5 since getting the thing in June, $200. It's working for me. Work gives me an allowance, and I don't claim it every month because this phone is so economical.

You absolutely cannot go wrong with the budget Motorola phones. They are my go-to recommendation for essentially everybody; they work better and with more stability than almost every other Android phone out there, frankly, including ones that are twice or three times as expensive. They do still sell the Moto G4 and it is great. The G5 is slightly more great for very slightly more money; you can get it for $199 direct from Motorola (or several other places) right now. The Moto E4 is their budget phone and is also quite great; you can get it for $129 directly from Motorola (or $99 from Amazon if you don't mind amazon ads and you have Amazon prime). It is smaller, but has a lower-quality screen; still, probably good enough for your needs!

They are all unlocked and will work with any of the budget carriers mentioned above, including tracfone.

I LOVE my G5, the battery is amazing. 2 days without charging, if I don't spend all day on twitter...

I posted about this before, but I've got a bit more information now. I've got a MacBook. I've got internet from the cable company, and a wireless router. These two things seem to disagree with each other, somehow. When I bring home my work computer (also a MacBook) and use it on my home wireless, it works fine, and everything else that I've got connected to my home wireless (Smart TV, Kindle, phone, iPad) also all work fine. When I bring my own laptop to my parents' house and use their wifi, it works fine. However, when I use my laptop on my home network, it gets really slow and keeps disconnecting. If I run Network Diagnostics, that usually fixes the problem for a few minutes (though it doesn't tell me what it did). If I restart my computer, then it's usually OK for a few hours, but then the problem starts again. Restarting the modem/router also sometimes fixes it for a little while, but not for long. Any suggestions?

It almost sounds like it might be something on the network fighting your laptop for mastery of the domain.

Are you using IPv6 and IPv4 in Network connections?

One thing you can try is to turn off ipv6, and in IPv4 set it to DHCP with static IP address, and put in an address out of the normal range your system gives you. (if the router assigns 192.168.2.x, try 192.168.2.100, etc) The highest the last number should be is 254.

At the very least this will let you know if IP address is a factor.

One thing you can try is to turn off ipv6

How do I do that? My options under "configure IPv6" are automatically, manually, and link-local only. It's currently set on automatically.

Hmmm. Try link-local only.

The ipv6 may not be as big of an issue than the possible IP conflict.