[dante]

Due to the sheer incompetence of AT&T, I now have an extra Lumia 520 that I can pretty much do whatever I want with. AT&T was warrantying my wife's HTC One (M7), and when the order status came back "backordered" I went a little nuts (what I *really* wanted was for them to warranty the M7 with the new M8, but that didn't work out). So they sent out a free Lumia 520 for my wife to use in the mean time, and guess what, BOTH phones showed up simultaneously today.

AT&T has stated that they don't want the 520 back, and my wife and I have decent Android phones (HTC One, Nexus 7). Now I can't figure out what to do with this thing....

1) It DOES have a microSD slot, and I've got a spare 32GB card kicking around. Leave it as a media player for when I travel?
2) No Hangouts, so I can't even make/receive free phone calls without a SIM. Could probably dial out via Skype, but that will cost money (to call phones) and there's no front facing camera.
3) Completely different eco system from what we use, so everything from texts to pictures will be stored separately, under a Microsoft Account.
4) It's worth *maybe* $40 to $50 on eBay, and that's if we wait the next 2 months to have AT&T unlock it for us.

Honestly, I can't even figure out what the best Apps for it, as the only lists I've found are basically "Pandora, Facebook, Hulu Plus, etc". Is this phone really that worthless? I'm thinking that the best thing I can do is keep it as a media player for traveling and as a backup in case one of our good phones die... Any better ideas?

 

[StiHacka]

Can it has a life as a disposable trail phone? I find these disconnected phones pretty useless, with the exception of my old N8 that I keep as a great pocketable camera. IIRC, the L520 camera is crap though.

Or can you donate that thing, would anyone take it?

 

[dante]

Can it has a life as a disposable trail phone? I find these disconnected phones pretty useless, with the exception of my old N8 that I keep as a great pocketable camera. IIRC, the L520 camera is crap though.

Or can you donate that thing, would anyone take it?

So, it would work as an emergency phone without a SIM card (ie, dial 911) but any time I'm riding I'll have my regular phone on me anyway. Plus, the most likely "emergency" is that I'll be ~40 miles away on a road ride with a flat tire and would need to call my wife to come get me. I feel like I should spend $10 on one of those sim cards that has minutes on it, and then just not activate it till I need it.

It's just weird, it's worthless enough that I can't think of a single reason to use it, and yet it's pretty/shiny enough that I don't want to get rid of it...

 

[canadmos]

Sell it for a pack of beer?

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/

 

[jonKranked]

i believe that women's abuse shelters and organizations also accept cell phone donations.

 

[canadmos]

So what did you do with the phone?

 

[dante]

Haven't decided. Have donated regular "dumb" phones in the past, but at the very least want to keep this as a backup. For example, in another couple weeks there's going to be a fireworks show (set to music) out across the lake by our house. We're planning on Kayaking a ways out into the lake, and while I've got a portable bluetooth speaker I'd rather not be trying to screw around with a $400-600 phone to set it up once we're out on the lake (they also stream the music online). So we'll probably throw my wife's SIM card in the 520 and bring that with us instead (and if I drop it in the lake, I won't really care).

And at the very least you have to wait 60 days in order to get AT&T to unlock it, and so that's the earliest that I'd really donate/sell/etc.

 

[StiHacka]

Send it to Bergdahl.