A Brief History of Smart Phones

In a conversation with my husband a few weeks ago, it dawned on me that I’ve had a lot of smart phones in the past 6 years. I think I had two regular cell phones beginning at the turn of the century and one “dumb” phone — a feature phone called the Kyocera Strobe — before jumping on the smartphone bandwagon. I did a mental count and came up with 9 total — which is quite a bit for a single person who:

1. Doesn’t have a job reviewing mobile devices, and
2. Has only recently began using her mobile device as much more than just a means of calling and taking pictures (and I’ll elaborate on that at the end of this article).

It’s only circumstance that I’ve had so many. Either I had to switch networks (from T-Mobile, to Verizon, and now to Sprint using Ting), or the phone began to die, or I just got bored of the phone and wanted something new. Most of my devices have been used or refurbished. When I’m done with my phones, I sell them on eBay and use the proceeds to purchase my next phone so I break even or at least get close to it. I feels like the greener thing to do. Plus, I no longer have a mobile contract, which mean I can not only switch phones when I want to but also I don’t get the latest and greatest when it comes out.

In terms of what kind of phone I use, I’m generally not picky. I have a few things that I absolutely need from a phone, such as:

• A good camera,
• The ability to browse the internet, make calls and send texts, and
• Not have a lot of bloatware.

This is a narrowed down list of what I used to demand from my phones. My longer list used to include “the ability to immediately update to the most recent version of Android (if an Android phone),” but that’s not as important to me as the first three requirements. Furthermore, Android updates are carrier-specific, so it’s wrong to hold a phone responsible for what the carrier decides. I also used to require that the phone be a certain size and a certain weight, but that seems absolutely ridiculous in retrospect. I don’t carry my phone in my pocket — it’s either in my hand or in my purse, so bulk doesn’t factor into my phone needs and never should have in the first place.

So, what is on my list of former smart phones? I wrote down a list, along with what I remember about the phone (pros and cons and general ability) and here they are:

BlackBerry Curve 8320 (March 2009 — April 2010): This was my first smartphone. In retrospect, it seems awfully quaint and adorable, but I loved that little BlackBerry. That keyboard was phenomenal as was the durability. For being just a tiny piece of plastic, I sure took a beating. My cat (Piper, the curious brown one) knocked this one off my desk several times and I let it slip through my hands and bounce harmlessly on the pavement at least once. In terms of a good introductory smartphone for the time, the BlackBerry was the best. Android hadn’t picked up speed just yet and iPhones were unobtainable for me. I like to think I had the very last good BlackBerry before RIM/BlackBerry the company started to falter.

That said, the BlackBerry wasn’t without its problems. Namely, every time I installed an app, the whole device had to be restarted. And sometimes it wouldn’t restart at all and I’d have to take the goddamn battery out of it in order to turn it off. That was a MULTI-step process involving me prying off the back-plate and battery with a penny or knife or some other thing. Perhaps worse still was that it only had ONE alarm. Yes, one. Sure, I could buy the $10 alarm app OR I could just set and reset one alarm constantly — once to wake up, once to remind me to go to class, once to remind me to take my medicine, and once for dinner. It was exhausting, but I somehow pulled that off for a time. One year into my contract with T-Mobile, I threw the damn handset across the room and said, NEVER AGAIN. I haven’t gone back to T-Mobile (which STILL doesn’t come in around where I live even years later) or BlackBerry since.

Droid Incredible (April 2010 — April 2012): My first Android-powered phone on Verizon was a Droid Incredible. It was actually my second choice phone. I originally wanted a Nexus 1, but that never came to Verizon and I wound up getting the equally good Droid Incredible (lovingly referred to as the D’Inc). I had that phone for two years — the entire duration of my cell contract and the longest I have ever kept a phone — before moving on. And it was a good run — I loved SenseUI and I loved the tiny optical joystick button on the handset. Best yet, it had expandable storage, too; a rarity even today among good cell phones.

But like all Android phones, Verizon is a bitch about updates and any phone that doesn’t run pure Android NEVER gets an OS update. It was also missing a front-facing camera, which by now is standard on 99.9 percent of smart phones. My D’Inc was already showing its age after a year of use, though I kept it until my contract with Verizon had lapsed.

Droid Incredible 2 (April 2012 — December 2012): The logical successor to the D’Inc, it made sense to go with the Droid Incredible 2 for my next phone. I don’t remember too much about the D’Inc 2 because I only had it for a couple of months. I know it had a front-facing camera and the latest version of Android…at least for a while. Again, Verizon is really stingy about Android OS updates, and I don’t have the technical knowledge to flash/install/reinstall/do highly skilled things to my handset to make it have the latest version of Android. And free of a contract, I could now get what I really wanted…

iPhone 4s (December 2012 — May 2013): Huzzah! The iPhone 4s was a site to behold when Apple first announced it. Even better, Verizon hatched a deal with Apple to start carrying the iPhone on their networks. So as soon as I could afford one outright, I bought an iPhone 4s. And I loved it. I loved the hell out of it. Everything about the iPhone 4s and above is spectacular, and I’ll go into why further down. I think I would have kept it until this past Fall if I hadn’t switched to Ting after a few months (when I would have upgraded to the 5s). But when I switched to Ting, iPhones weren’t available and thus I had to move on to something else.

Of course, iPhones aren’t without their share of problems. I’ll talk about those later.

Galaxy Nexus (May 2013 — November 2013): When I joined Ting, the options for BYOD devices were limited. But the Galaxy Nexus, a Google-backed phone, was one of them even though it was about 2 years old when I bought it. My husband and I became Ting evangelists, however, and we recommended the Galaxy Nexus on Ting to anyone that would listen (and they did — we signed up a LOT of people on Ting, too).

But the Galaxy Nexus started showing its age really fast. The camera was garbage for starters — every single one of my pictures from the Galaxy Nexus period came out fuzzy, blurry, desaturated and dark. I also had some pretty interesting experiences switching between apps and moving between the home screens. About 6 months and a helping of dropped calls later, Ting announced that Sprint had allowed them to offer the iPhone 4 and 4s as a BYOD device, and sooner than you could say “fuck this stupid handset” I bought an iPhone 4s.

iPhone 4s (redux) (November 2013 — February 2014): I had this for just a couple of months before Ting announced the iPhone 5 as a BYOD. See below for the full review of all my iPhones.

iPhone 5 (February 2014 — May 2014): The iPhone 5, which was slightly bigger and better than the 4s, was the best made smart phone I have had even today. The brushed metal of the 5 just feels premium and slick; each time I took it out of the confines of its Otterbox case, I felt like I was cradling a precious jewel in my clumsy hands. Whereas the 4s felt like it could slip out of my grasp and shatter on the ground at any time, the 5 felt like it could take slightly more abuse.

And this is where I talk about the bad stuff with iPhones and iOS. Though the hardware for every iPhone has been top notch and beautifully designed, iOS itself is boring and lacking in innovation. Even the recent iOS 8 update was almost uneventful. I praise iOS for being simple and easy for even the least technologically advanced among us to use. But at the same time, I don’t see iOS as being much different that it was years ago. Sure, there are more apps and the phones are slightly faster and thinner, but there’s nothing outstanding. In terms of design, though iPhones are the best of the best, they are delicate as all hell. It’s not just drops you have to worry about with an iPhone, it’s the innocuous bumps and scuffs, too. My iPhones were in Otterbox Defender cases which do their job but damn are they bulky. I accidently dragged my iPhone 5 over my desk and got a scratch on the back, as if the handset were made of delicate pewter.

Furthermore, right around late April or May of last year, I started investigating Phablets.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (June 2014 — August 2014): I started investigating the Note 2 partially because I was bored with iOS and also because I was looking for a bigger phone — not just a larger sized phone, but a phone that would do more too. The idea was to replace two of my devices: my phone AND my tablet (iPad mini). So I got the Note 2 on a trial basis over the Summer. And like I’ve read time and time again, once you use a Phablet, your whole perspective changes.

The Note 2 was awesome. It was fast, it was big, and it was a great intermediary between a phone and a tablet. The camera wasn’t half bad either. The battery life was outstanding. And the S-Pen is one hell of an add-on. But, like all Samsung phones, the stink of Samsung is all over the Note 2. Number one, it comes with a butt-load of Samsung bloatware that you just can’t get rid of. And unlike previous bloatware, Samsung bloatware is annoying, nagging, and terrible. Every time I wanted to open a link or an website, I’d get a popup asking me if I wanted to use Evernote or Samsung’s shitty version of Evernote. Even the S-Pen, for all its usefulness, ONLY worked with Samsung applications. After about three months of use, I got tired of defending the Note 2 and wanted something else.

And that bring me to my current phone…

Nexus 5 (August 2014 — January 2015): Like the BlackBerry, my scarlet Nexus 5 was brand new at least for a short time. But unlike any of my other phones which were steadfastly used or refurbs, the N5 has been the only phone I have and will ever pay full market price for. The Note 2 left a bad taste in my mouth for Android, and I wanted to swing in the opposite direction for the next phone. I wanted something pure Android with no bloatware or ugly UI. So I went with the best — a Nexus 5.

My time with the N5 has been fraught with drama, though. I had to get used to a few things, like the sometimes decent but mostly terrible battery life. It was also a step down in size from the Note 2. But like the iPhones I’ve had, the N5 must be handled with care. You know my story of how it got dropped and how I got a replacement. But all-in-all, my experience with my pure Android phone has been positive. I have wireless charging pads around the house to set my phone on to keep the battery alive. The phone is fast and responsive and being a world phone I can take it anywhere with me.

But sadly, this too must past. The N5 is a great phone, but even being at the top of its game technically speaking it’s still not the phone for me.

Like I said at the start of this article, my phone is not just a phone to me anymore. It is now my personal device and an extension of myself. I need something that’s going to encompass everything — make calls, send texts, take pictures, connect to the internet, play music, set reminders, and exist as my personal assistant. It is weird how my phone is overtaking my tablet in terms of how I use it. I need something that is big enough to do everything with enough storage to do it on. I love my N5, but I’ve outgrown it. For me, a base model 16gb phone isn’t going to cut it anymore, and I’m not going to pay full price for a 32gb N5 (or any phone) again.

So I’m going back to a phablet.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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