I'm writing this on a low end Android I bought 2 years ago for $25 bucks. ZTE force n9100, 1 GB ram, 1.5 GHz android 4.1.2 It works great for browsing the web and YouTube, havent tried anything else. It's just as responsive as any phone if not more responsive. The problem the author has is with the software, the hardware is exceptional in any phone, although 512 megs of ram may limit it somewhat.
Has anyone ever done anything productive with a cellphone? I doubt it.
The problem with the software eating up space is partially that Android itself seems to assume a ton of storage space as soon as you go beyond Android 4. I had an HTC Desire that I had to get rid of simply because the Play Store kept upgrading itself and eating up all remaining storage
Has anyone ever done anything productive with a cellphone? I doubt it.