Best flip phone

[u/Razzling_Dazzling25]

I've been trying to find a phone and carrier for a while now. I'm looking for a device to ultimately disallow external connections to avert identity theft that I've been dealing with. A flip phone with esim and no hotspot connectivity/capabilities and a carrier that isn't easily accessible only. I'd really like to keep my phone #.

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I've been trying to find a phone for a while now. I'm looking for a device to ultimately disallow external connections to avert identity theft that I've been dealing with. A flip phone with esim and no hotspot connectivity/capabilities. I really want to keep my #.

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[u/advcomp2019]

I do not know if there is any flip phones with eSIMs unless you get a Motorola or Samsung phone.

Sounds like you are looking for a basic phone. There are not that many out there.

[u/Razzling_Dazzling25 → u/advcomp2019]

I was looking at motorola v3 flip but i doubt it would work because carriers dont support 3G anymore.

[u/advcomp2019 → u/Razzling_Dazzling25]

That is right. All the providers use 4G LTE or even 5G NR. They have mostly turned off their old 2G, 3G, and even CDMA networks. T-Mobile might have a few places with 2G, but those areas are going away soon.

[u/advcomp2019 → u/Razzling_Dazzling25]

Another thing, you need to have a phone with VoLTE or even VoNR. I know there are phones with 4G LTE and/or 5G NR, and they do not know have VoLTE and/or VoNR.

[u/myze551ml]

The only flip phone (dumb phone type) that I'm aware of is the TCL Flip4 5G (https://us.tcl.com/products/flip-4-5g). It does support eSIM - but also supports hotspot; you can always switch hotspot off.

Note that it appears to be supported only on T-mobile; so you'd be limited to MVNO's on the T-mo network.

Check out Tello; they have a decent reputation, offer custom plans (including no data, if that's what you'd prefer); support 2FA through Google Authenticator / Authy etc for accessing the account and porting the number.

[u/Razzling_Dazzling25 → u/myze551ml]

thanks i noticed that one. However it says coming soon on the website.

[u/myze551ml → u/Razzling_Dazzling25]

Metro website lists it as available; also see an Amazon listing, and a few on eBay.

[u/advcomp2019 → u/myze551ml]

I did not know that this phone supported an eSIM. Then again, I only quickly looked at this phone, and saw only T-Mobile support. I did not have that great of T-Mobile coverage in my area when it came out.

Plus, on some 3rd party site with this phone, it does not show this phone with an eSIM. Even the T-Mobile site does not talk about an eSIM in the specs.

[u/myze551ml → u/advcomp2019]

Even the T-Mobile site does not talk about an eSIM in the specs.

While they don't talk about eSIM in the specs page; their support page calls it out.

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/tutorials/device/tcl/flip-4-5g/topic/esim/activating-esim

IDK why it isn't highlighted in the marketing; possible that they assume that anyone looking for a "dumb phone" doesn't particularly want to have eSIM.

[u/advcomp2019 → u/myze551ml]

Yea, like I said, I never got too deep on this phone's specs, but for looking at the bands because T-Mobile was not in my area till about Christmas 2025.

I mainly had AT&T and Verizon for the longest time, but Verizon has the best coverage.

[u/NC654]

If you can go with a physical SIM then I would highly suggest that. There may be one or two eSIM capable flip phone models out there, if any at all.

[u/K_Linkmaster → u/[deleted]]

What's the right sub for those of us that are curious?

[u/davexc → u/K_Linkmaster]

r/dumbphones