Any new feature phone soon?

[Laryman]

I was going to get a feature phone with unlimited messaging only since we already have a full 5 person family plan, when I realized that all them are old and really quite crappy. Just wondering if Verizon is coming out with any new ones soon.

[JohnB_VZW]

We are always releasing new phones. You can visit our web site and register to receive email alerts when new device are released.

Click here to be directed to our website and register for email updates. Scroll to the bottom of the page and then click on the Get Email Updates link.

Thanks

[sarahh729]

Verizon is NOT releasing new feature phones all the time.  There haven't been new phones in months.  I understand Verizon will release more phones for their more expensive customers (smartphone users), but those of us who cannot afford a monthly data plan (on top of the talk + text plan) deserve choices as well. 

I currently have an LG Dare and I'm sure that if this phone came out today, it'd be considered a smartphone.  This phone surpasses all current Feature phones offered by Verizon in quality.  How can a company not offer any decent phones for those who cannot afford a smartphone?  And how can they lie to customers pretending they don't know what they're doing, which is trying to force everyone to get a smartphone? 

[ann549]

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sarahh729 wrote:

Verizon is NOT releasing new feature phones all the time.  There haven't been new phones in months.  I understand Verizon will release more phones for their more expensive customers (smartphone users), but those of us who cannot afford a monthly data plan (on top of the talk + text plan) deserve choices as well. 

I currently have an LG Dare and I'm sure that if this phone came out today, it'd be considered a smartphone.  This phone surpasses all current Feature phones offered by Verizon in quality.  How can a company not offer any decent phones for those who cannot afford a smartphone?  And how can they lie to customers pretending they don't know what they're doing, which is trying to force everyone to get a smartphone? 

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THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO!!!!  Thanks for saying it!  I sent Verizon a formal complaint about this very same issue.  When I got my EnV Touch almost 2 years ago there were tons of excellent feature phones to choose from.  The LG Dare, the LG Chocolate Touch, the Samsung Rouge...thats off the top of my head!  Now they dont even bother to carry more than 2 feature phones in the store.  I went to the store to see if the Kin TWOm was worth a try and they didn't have squat!.  30+ smartphones they tried to suck me into.  But Im not paying 30 bucks a month just because Verizon wont carry a decent phone.  I will buy something off of ebay.  We can't even look into another carrier because there really isn't anyone in the panhandle of Nebraska to choose from.  I think that Verizon knows people are STUCK with them and can do whatever they want.  Poor customer choices = poor customer service!

[rainmanva]

you are so right! back when i used my feature phone, it seems like they were great. all they care about now are their smartphone customers. they don't market/release ANYTHING but smart phones. im in a position now where i can no longer pay the ridiculous data package and im back to my old POS envy 2. can't get out of contract till 2013! ugh.

i can't go to another carrier because im in rural area as well. glad to know other's share my frustration with verizon.

[Doxielvr3]

No you do NOT release "good feature phones" all the time.  Tell the truth!  There hasn't been a decent new feature phone for months. You have stripped most of the features that are desirable from most feature phones (such as video and a nice camera) the only one left that will send video's is the Octane but there is such a horrible echo its not worth getting stuck with. Verizon has obviously done this to force people to go with data plans. I have heard that it is because more people want the smart phones. I have an ENV3 that I got before the mandatory data plan was forced upon it and it does everything I desire in a phone and I have zero idea why I would even want to "upgrade" to a substandard phone when the definition of "upgrade" is to get something better than what you have. UM NO!

The only new phones Verizon offers are smart phones.

[DonnyAZ]

If you don't get a data package Verizon forgets you have been a loyal customer.

[Doxielvr3]

Re: Any new feature phone soon?

06-11-2011 06:10 PM

If you don't get a data package Verizon forgets you have been a loyal customer.

Amen!

[Doxielvr3]

If you don't get a data package Verizon forgets you have been a loyal customer.

[TominqueBo_VZW]

Hello DonnyAZ,

That's definitely not how we want our customers to feel.  We value all of our customers!  Did you experience something that I can help you with that caused this feeling?

[lewisr13]

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TominqueBo_VZW wrote:

Hello DonnyAZ,

That's definitely not how we want our customers to feel.  We value all of our customers!  Did you experience something that I can help you with that caused this feeling?

---

I think the experience of not having very many QUALITY feature phones from which to choose, is causing this feeling. Not that you can help with that.

[AZSALUKI]

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOverviewByDevice...

23 to choose from. what more is everyone looking for? there's even the env3 for free (certified preowned....but i've bought those and they are like brand new. got an allias II like that). i got my son the octane and we love it. not sure about the "echo" thing mentioned above. we have no call quality issues or any echo? it does everything that my old env touch does. 3.2 megapixel and a good qwerty. it's also pretty loud (WAY better than my smartphone) when you play music. so send and recive pix and vids, 3.2 megapixel cam, quality qwerty, great music playback, expandable to 16gb's......what more should a feature phone really do??? i'm not that familiar with them, but came across this forum and now i'm curious. what did the old ones do that the new ones don't do?

[Ikkin00]

Typically, phones prior to Verizon's current feature phone generation were all well constructed and reliable. It seems before now, there was a plethora of nice flip phones even, most offering unique style and more often than not at least a 2 megapixel camera. Sure, it's a phone, why the camera? For my job a camera is an extremely beneficial tool and even at the shelter where I volunteer it has proven to be a necessity. Most of the phones now have a 1.3 megapixel camera whichproduces pictures you might as well call a pointillism style of painting. 

Go to a store and place the Samsung Gusto, Lg Accolade, or Verizon Escapade in your hand. Do they not feel as though they are going to deceintigrate under the weakest of grips? Everyone who has ever held a phone has dropped theirs at least once. Most of the current phones do not seem as though they will withstand the slightest of drops. 

And what if you do want a well constructed phone? Well, you better be prepared to pay upwards of $130. The Motorola Barrage is a rugged phone but very costly. And when using it in the store the software felt dreadfully slow just switching through the menu. That seems like a fair price for a slow phone. The Brigade suffers from similar software woes and not to mention its size which could easily be used as a weapon. But that makes it versatile, at least. 

The two Kin phones seem like pretty stellar devices but heaven forbid you want to change the menu. If you wish to do so it requires that you restart the phone and wait for a time period that is longer than the upstart time of most phones. And, if you are not careful and tedious while navigating the phone it is easy to rack up an excess of charges. 

The Pantech Crux seems like a neat enough phone but review after review harps on the difficulty in texting. It seems if you want to contact someone in that manner you had better be prepared to create very precise pokes against the screen. 

The Octane and the Ravine seem like nice phones. However, who wants to pay $100 - $150 for a FEATURE phone where there's 23 smart phones of equal or lesser value. 

And in total there's 36 smartphones to choose from. 

[AZSALUKI]

so basically, there are some good ones....you just don't want to pay $100 for them. you want them to do more and be built better, but be given away? you pay heavily for the $100-200 smartphones through the data plans you have to have. and you can still get flip phones ore older (preowned env 3) feature phones for free. if you want the better feature phones, you have to pay something for them. i paid $99 for my env touch a couple of years ago. that was after they cut the price AND i had to pay for the $10 data plan back then just to have a feature phone. the octane is the same price and without the $10/month for 2 years, it ends up being $240 less to get an octane now, as opposed to an env a couple years ago. to me it seems much better. and a 3.1 megapixel cam is pretty nice if you ask me. i did love the line of env's....but isn't this an LG issue. aren't they the ones that quit making them?

[Ikkin00]

I don't think having two good phones to choose from really compares to the lot of  smart phones available. Even the Casio Ravine's microphone is situated in such a place that it makes it difficult for others to hear you. So in reality. That leaves one phone. One potential phone. Sounds like a deal. 

[Rosa13]

What about the amazing, great looking flip phones Verizon use to offer?? Such as the Moto Razr2, LG VX8700 ( SHINE flip ), LG VX8600, these flip phones were great looking  and are a MILLLION times better when it comes to features and looks to any of the flip phones today! pretty bad a 4 year old flip phone looks more modern, and has more features than flip phones offered today!

[ann549]

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TominqueBo_VZW wrote:

Hello DonnyAZ,

That's definitely not how we want our customers to feel.  We value all of our customers!  Did you experience something that I can help you with that caused this feeling?

---

Have you walked into a Verizon store??  30+ smartphones.  2 feature phones.     How the heck are the feature phone folks supposed to decide on a phone when you only sell them online??  And have a very limited and outdated section there too!

[AZSALUKI]

it's a business folks. they sell more smartphones and make more $ from smartphones. they can't display and carry everything they sell in the store. they display and carry what is selling....the rest is available online. no different than flooring stores, toy stores, clothing stores, etc.  they did away with the mandatory $10 data plan and give you 23 to choose from. how can you seriously be complaining? you basically call and text on these correct? maybe snap a few pics to text to someone (keep in mind that these were never designed to replace a digital camera)....maybe play some music. they offer phones that do this. what more do you want? 

[ann549]

Why is it that the people who respond on here and say that we have nothing to complain about ALL have smartphones....

[mac49439]

 Ann549:

Why is it that the people who respond on here and say that we have nothing to complain about ALL have smartphones....

Haha. I totally agree. I'll be honest, I have the Cosmos Touch and I LOVE it. The only thing that I really can't stand about it is that I can't send or receive videos. This just seems like something that every phone with a camera (crappy or not) should be able to do. 

I feel that Verizon is absurd when it comes to Smartphones. I know a lot of older people who don't get into the high tech stuff want phones that don't do much.... and that's great to have options for them. However, I'm 21 and I don't want a smartphone. I don't want to be able to check out Facebook every hour of the day.. and if I did, I'd just use my iPod touch. Verizon says they have data plans starting at $10 a month. Let's be real... you can't use them. Your data usage for the month gets used in one day. 

I think that Verizon thinks that by offering feature phones that don't have a lot of options their customers will choose Smartphones. I can tell you... as soon as I am off of my parents plan, I'll be switching off of the Verizon network for this reason. 

[AZSALUKI]

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ann549 wrote:

Why is it that the people who respond on here and say that we have nothing to complain about ALL have smartphones....

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look....i'm not saying you can't complain if you really want. i was just trying to put it in perspective. there are now 25 feature phones online and 44 smart phones. 5 of those are variotions of the iphone (size and color) and another 5 of those are variations of the bb curve/bold. so you're really talking about 35 or so to 25 (there are also about 8 smartphones that are certified preowned). there really aren't THAT many more smart phones right now than feature phones. they simply use their retail space to show of and display the smart phones because they make more money off of them and sell more of them.

and for the record, i just bought an octane for my son and we both LOVE it. 

also....stroll through the general android discussion forum and the iphone forum. you will find that smart phone users have the same complaint with verizon. they get comparable models of phones that other carriers get, bt verizon gets them months later (or longer). i recently got a tbolt. it launched in april. it is VERY LITTLE more than sprint's EVO that launched last summer. we don't get anything from the nexus line of phones. the fascinate (galaxy s line) came out months after tmobile, at&t and sprint all had their version. and now, the iphone is not getting the same updates that apple and at&t push to the at&t iphone. my point is that verizon does not focus on their devices nearly as much as the other carriers. they put their resources into their network. i can't even tell you when they released the most recent blackberry....maybe a year ago? at&t got the bb torch this past holiday season. verizon has NO bb even comparable to it. 

so if you want the most recent technology in hardware, then sprint and at&t have verizon beat. if you want the most recent technology in your network, then there's no comparison. 

and just like smart phones, their selection of feature phones have varying features. some have better cams than others and some can send and recieve videos, while others can't. do you even realize that MOST of the smartphones cant mms videos either. they record in such a high quality that the file is too large to mms. i have to use apps to post pics and vids to facebook. my current phone will now shrink (lower the resolution to a feature phone quality) a video so i can mms it.....but most of them don't have this feature. the amount of data to send is simply too large. so you are stuck either trying to email extremely short clips or upload them to a site of some sort for your friends and family to view. my sin's octane can shoot a video and mms it to me in seconds. the quality is not great but that makes a smaller file and enables him to send it via mms. if you want high quality pics then get a digital cam. if you want high quality pics or vids on your phone then you get a smartphone and pay for the data usage because the file sizes to upload or email are HUGE (one pic can be larger than a meg and a short video can be 5, 10 or even more megs). 

there's no smartphone that combines EVERY feature that i want in one device.....just like for most of you, there is no feature phone that combines EVERY feature that you want. 

[ann549]

AZSALUKI 

Maybe your looking at a different site than I am.  Verizon is currently showing 16 feature phones that arent pre-owned.  Most of the pre-owned are duplicates of what is for sale new.  And two of the pre-owneds were released back in 2009.  I just feel like the technology available has gone down considerably from two years ago.  In two years, the phone technology available should be at least somewhat more advanced than the last time you purchased something.  I know Verizon is generally a ways behind on releasing new phones.  And Im not really complaining about that.  It just seems to me that they are only focusing on releasing newer, better smartphones.  They are leaving the feature phone consumer with out dated choices.  LG and Samsung make some pretty sweet feature phones.  Verizon isnt going after those because I honestly feel they are pushing the smartphones and data plans.  I realize its a buisness, and they have to make money, and they get the most from smartphone plans.  They wont get squat if their customers are sick of it and change carriers.  Not everyone wants a smartphone.  And those that dont, deserve to have a few decent choices.