So, I got another cheap phone, the cheapest I could find, (a used ZTE
   Tempo X N9137), but it's locked so that only the previous user can open
   it. I did discover this though:
   - phones with a qualcomm chipset have a special mode called emergency
   download, that provides for reading and writing all the storage, but
   one might have to add the vendor/product id to the qcserial module in
   linux to get access.