The LG V30 was just announced, with a price expected to be somewhere between the Galaxy S8+ and the Note 8. But if you want a smartphone with some quality audio and don’t need to have the latest and greatest model, the previous generations of the LG V-series are dropping in price as follows:

+ certified refurbished LG V10 (Unlocked T-Mobile model) for $180 by marketplace seller with the order fulfilled by Amazon (Prime eligible)

+ certified refurbished LG V20 (T-Mobile) for $290

+ new condition, USA model with USA warranty LG V30 (Titan Grey) for $390

Why Use a Smartphone as a DAP

We call using smartphones as digital audio players PADs (Phones As DAPs). You can get something like a Fiio X1 [text unboxing here] for under $100, so why would you need a smartphone?

One reason is because you want to use music subscription services, and phones are better at running Android apps than the few DAPs that are running GooglePLAY Android.

Another reason is because you also want to use the smartphone as a phone, or use it for various other purposes, eg as a media remote control at home, a bedtime Wifi device (so you don’t eat up your daily driver phone’s battery or sleep with an AC charging cable next to your head), and so forth…

More on this in a future post.

What is Amazon’s Certified Refurbished?

On Amazon, “Certified Refurbished”, when indicated so on the product listing, is a program run by Amazon that offers refurbished products that include a minimum 90-day warranty, and a charger or cable (that may or may not be original). More details at the Certified Refurbished Home page.

Amazon only allows some sellers to participate in this, so in theory, you would have more leverage in case of warranty issues, because if a seller is playing games with you, you can call Amazon’s customer service and complain, and if they are caught mistreating customers, they can lose their status in the “certified refurbished” program, or even get booted off the program.