Friday 7 October 2011

Stupid smartphones

After just over a year of owning a smartphone, I've come to the conclusion that smartphones are really bad phones.

Don't get me wrong, I like the whole app, GPS, mobile web, media thing. I bought a smartphone to keep me sane in the wilds of Corfe Mullen, in a house untouched by broadband, in a town that can't sell me a copy of the Economist, and for that it was great. It's also been very useful for occasional satnav. And even on a 320 by 240 screen, ebooks have been great.

But as a telephone? You know, for making a few calls, sending a few texts? No, sorry, as a plain old phone, smartphones suck.

I've decided that the things I really want from a phone are, first, near infinite battery life, second, a decent keypad, and third, a decent level of robustness.

To that end, I've reclassified my smartphone as a mini tablet, sticking the cheapest possible pay-as-you-go SIM in it for data (giffgaff at 20p a day) since it is on Wi-Fi for most of its time. For voice and text, I've bought a cheap-and-cheerful SIM free Nokia handset, a C1-02, which doesn't even have a camera, but also doesn't need charging every damned day, doesn't randomly pick up or drop calls when taken out of a pocket and doesn't have a screen that'll crack when dropped out of said pocket (I'm looking at you, Wildfire).

That's progress.

1 comment:

  1. You're completely right on the battery front, but I'd belatedly maintain that you bought the wrong "smart" phone. My iPhone is excellent at phone calls, internet browsing and messaging (SMS, iMessage and email). You can even have it on your nice giffgaff plan (but it *may* require a *little* up-front investment first!).

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