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I've used a burner phone exclusively for ~6 months because of lack of financial funds. I loved that thing. Crystal clear calls, and while my fiancee had to rech

by Mo3 7y ago

I've used a burner phone exclusively for ~6 months because of lack of financial funds. I loved that thing. Crystal clear calls, and while my fiancee had to recharge her smartphone every night I almost got to 2 weeks without charging and almost forgot that you actually have to charge it. It's a certain feeling of freedom. Unfortunately they don't run Slack so I just got an old S4, bought a huge aftermarket battery for it and optimized the kernel for energy saving and now I can still go 4-5 days in standby. Battery life is like drugs.

tsukikage 7y ago
I was the last of my circle to switch to a smartphone; I only made the leap about a year ago - the old dumb phone finally died, and when I looked online for a replacement all I could see was senior phones. I decided I wasn't ready for that yet - so marketing works I guess - so bought the smallest smart phone I could find (a Unihertz Jelly, fwiw). I have to say, I'm not impressed. * battery life down from two weeks to two days on standby. People assure me it's not just my choice of model, this is the new normal and I should just get into a habit of charging it every night. * generating dial tones during a call, as call tree systems generally require, is super awkward: you have to slide an unlock slider, then tap an icon to bring up the keypad, then dial the digit you want - all while looking at the screen, because unlike a real dial pad you cannot do this by feel - before the call tree prompt times out. Makes you feel like James Bond trying to defuse a bomb. * texting is awkward: instead of generating text with nine tactile buttons, you swipe around a drawing qwerty keyboard twice the size of your thumb in total. * I can't run the blackberry apps for connectivity to work because the Android version is incompatible, so it's no use as a smartphone for software reasons * The UI generally feels like an unfinished intern project: the phone takes ages to boot, apps are slow to open and crash often, some settings do not survive a power cycle, etc etc. Having worked with many Android devices in a previous job, I'm pretty convinced this is not actually down to my choice of phone model; they're all flaky and people are just used to it. iOS devices are noticeably better in this regard, but suffer from other problems (the worst of which is Apple's disregard for third party software - every OS update breaks something, and major ones break most things, so every year or two all the actually smart parts of the smartphone stop working, you lose whatever you had stored in them and have to switch to new ones). * The device is too small to comfortably read or browse internet on except in an emergency Some of that is on me for picking a tiny phone, but the bigger devices aren't really much better until they get too big for a jeans pocket, and fitting into my pocket really is a hard requirement for a device whose primary purpose is something I carry on me all the time to stay in touch with people. Like any self-respecting techie I have a tablet for reading/web browsing on a decent screen, and a laptop for when I want a real computer, so the flaky unreliable value-add does not seem to justify the broken core functionality of a mobile phone. I have now settled down into a working relationship of mutual hatred with the device, but I do miss the old phone that was just a phone. Maybe it is time to declare myself a senior after all.
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  "battery life down from two weeks to two days on standby. People assure me it's not just my choice of model" It's your choice of phone. I have a cheap Samsung phone for work and I don't touch it for a week at a time and it's still charged. I suspect I could get it to last longer if I disabled some of the google syncing (assistant type stuff, checking for updates etc) but it's not my phone and i'm only on support for a week at a time.
- Tsiklon 7y ago
  Have you considered going back to the feature phone? Something like the new versions of the Nokia 3310 and 8110 would address the majority of your concerns.
- arkano 7y ago
  > Maybe it is time to declare myself a senior after all. I think you shouldn't force yourself on a technology you don't like just cause it's popular, i.e., smartphones with a touchscreen. Do try a phone with a larger screen though. :)

by Mo3 7y ago

tsukikage 7y ago

I was the last of my circle to switch to a smartphone; I only made the leap about a year ago - the old dumb phone finally died, and when I looked online for a replacement all I could see was senior phones. I decided I wasn't ready for that yet - so marketing works I guess - so bought the smallest smart phone I could find (a Unihertz Jelly, fwiw). I have to say, I'm not impressed. * battery life down from two weeks to two days on standby. People assure me it's not just my choice of model, this is the new normal and I should just get into a habit of charging it every night. * generating dial tones during a call, as call tree systems generally require, is super awkward: you have to slide an unlock slider, then tap an icon to bring up the keypad, then dial the digit you want - all while looking at the screen, because unlike a real dial pad you cannot do this by feel - before the call tree prompt times out. Makes you feel like James Bond trying to defuse a bomb. * texting is awkward: instead of generating text with nine tactile buttons, you swipe around a drawing qwerty keyboard twice the size of your thumb in total. * I can't run the blackberry apps for connectivity to work because the Android version is incompatible, so it's no use as a smartphone for software reasons * The UI generally feels like an unfinished intern project: the phone takes ages to boot, apps are slow to open and crash often, some settings do not survive a power cycle, etc etc. Having worked with many Android devices in a previous job, I'm pretty convinced this is not actually down to my choice of phone model; they're all flaky and people are just used to it. iOS devices are noticeably better in this regard, but suffer from other problems (the worst of which is Apple's disregard for third party software - every OS update breaks something, and major ones break most things, so every year or two all the actually smart parts of the smartphone stop working, you lose whatever you had stored in them and have to switch to new ones). * The device is too small to comfortably read or browse internet on except in an emergency Some of that is on me for picking a tiny phone, but the bigger devices aren't really much better until they get too big for a jeans pocket, and fitting into my pocket really is a hard requirement for a device whose primary purpose is something I carry on me all the time to stay in touch with people. Like any self-respecting techie I have a tablet for reading/web browsing on a decent screen, and a laptop for when I want a real computer, so the flaky unreliable value-add does not seem to justify the broken core functionality of a mobile phone. I have now settled down into a working relationship of mutual hatred with the device, but I do miss the old phone that was just a phone. Maybe it is time to declare myself a senior after all.

iamnotacrook 7y ago
"battery life down from two weeks to two days on standby. People assure me it's not just my choice of model" It's your choice of phone. I have a cheap Samsung phone for work and I don't touch it for a week at a time and it's still charged. I suspect I could get it to last longer if I disabled some of the google syncing (assistant type stuff, checking for updates etc) but it's not my phone and i'm only on support for a week at a time.
Tsiklon 7y ago
Have you considered going back to the feature phone? Something like the new versions of the Nokia 3310 and 8110 would address the majority of your concerns.
arkano 7y ago
> Maybe it is time to declare myself a senior after all. I think you shouldn't force yourself on a technology you don't like just cause it's popular, i.e., smartphones with a touchscreen. Do try a phone with a larger screen though. :)