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I just dont have lot luck with radios, last few years at most. Well was looking for possible replacement and after cheap clockradio I bought had problems holding onto signal from strong station..... and noticed somebody mentioning my Sonim XP5700 had radio tuner built in and the app to use it. Said it had good tuning sensitivity. You have to plug in headphone or earbuds or something, or it refuses access to tuner until you do. it uses that cord as antenna or something. I had never used FM radio on my phone before. Well amazingly works great, especially since this phone has great speaker phone.
However I dont want to use my daily driver phone as a dedicated radio. Then thought of my old retired 3G Sonim Bolt phone. Believe it or not still had some charge in battery. It hadnt even been main phone but backup I bought for like $8. And it has FM radio tuner and app to use it. Speaker phone function not as robust but it works good enough. Ordered a $1.38 adapter so can use computer speaker for better sound.
Hey these old cell phones head and shoulders above el cheapo radio in quality and suspect longevity too.
I probably saw that FM radio thing and just ignored it cause honestly who ever thinks of using a cell phone as a radio tuner? This doesnt stream, this is actual FM radio tuner. No SIM in the Bolt. No SIM or wifi needed.
Besides the radio function, they can replace alarm clocks, kitchen cooking timers, address books (internal memory is sufficient to hold loads of contacts), voice recorder, some can act as TV remotes, compass, magnifier, etc., etc. You're right, so much is already within those old smartphones as an installed item, just many never used them as a pure standalone. The only issues I see is the battery on many (especially those that are non replaceable internally) maybe losing the ability to stay charge and some of those single functions had to been enabled while the phone was active. Otherwise, you're right, they are more than just paperweights.
ETA: One thing people can do is dump all the garbage apps they don't plan on using as that can free up a heck of a lot of internal memory if not using an SD card.
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