Can You Hear Me Now?

Category: Drills, Bills

In the beginning, it was just a digital/analog, candy-bar Samsung phone that was slightly smaller than the Zack Morris special. It didn’t play music or send messages. It didn’t let you play Candy Crush, or let your friends know exactly what you thought about the latest Hunger Games moves in 160 characters or less. It had exactly 20 minutes of “anytime minutes” each month. It worked perfectly as long as I stayed on I-35 and I-90 which worked fine for me. It meant that I would have a way of calling for help if/when my car died on the 6-hour drive to and from college. Somewhere along the line, that Samsung was traded in for a few different phones, some better, some not. Finally when the Treo 680 was released, we signed up for a family plan on AT&T’s network. And then iPhone changed everything.

The love for Apple begins…and ends. Maybe.

It started with a 2GB iPod as a graduation gift. And then another Nano. And then the iPhone 3G. And then the iPhone 4s. And finally the iPhone 5. Throw in a MacBook Pro and an iPad 2 somewhere in there. We were sucked into the Appleniverse including being grandfathered into the unlimited data plan for $30 through AT&T. Apple UNDERSTOOD us! We aren’t tech gurus. We want things to work, and we want them to work well without ever having to wonder about if it’s going to fail, or why it works. And so, Apple received its fair share of our earned income. But lately, Apple has been losing ground. Screens keep cracking. Batteries keep reading below 10% when 5 minutes before, they read 75%. Or, they may simply just shut off without warning. The microphone won’t work when on speaker phone, but it’ll work perfectly for voice memos. Granted while my MBP and the iPad have performed flawlessly over the past 5 years,  I’m starting to lose faith in their phone cousins. So begins the search for a new replacement.

The Contenders

It’s an exciting year for those who are searching for new phones. The top three phone producers (Samsung, HTC, and Apple) are all set to introduce and release a new flagship at some point this year. Samsung has already announced its Galaxy S5. HTC intends to introduce its phone in March, and Apple…well Apple is being ninja Apple again. While the idea of a simple update (i.e., iPhone 6) is alluring, it may be the right time to switch platforms entirely. So as the next few months unfolds, I’ll be figuring out what my next phone will be according to the following criteria:

• Ease of Use – The simple truth is that I’m lazy. I don’t like having to mess around with too many things. I don’t need cool widgets that pop up and remind me of things I should be doing, or angry birds flashing across the screen. I need something that makes a call, sends and receives text, has navigation, and can surf the web without using very much brain power. I’ll never publish a movie using my phone or use it to start a fire in outer space. It just needs to work when I want it to work.
• Camera – This kind of goes back to being a little bit lazy. I have a DSLR with big lenses, filters, stands, flashes, and all sorts of memory cards. But if Little Guy decides that today is the day he’s going to to start walking, The first thing I’m going to grab is my phone and videotape it immediately and send it to his mom, grandparents, and everyone else that won’t block me for spamming them with videos of the cutest kid in the world. A phone that fails at this (Definition of fail: Does not do exactly as it is described it will do, fails to capture a high quality image or video, or in any other way disappoints and misses out on the big moment) will most likely get the boot.
• Size – Phablets may be fabulous for some, but I’m not a big guy and my pockets are not that big. I don’t even like carrying my current 4s in a case because it adds too much bulk. Also, I ride the metro subway quite often. If I need two hands to handle my phone, at some point I will be using my phone and will fall flat on my face when the metro comes to a screeching halt. I’d like to avoid that moment of embarrassment if I can.
• The X Factor – The reality is that sometimes there’s just an “X” factor that makes you sway one way or another. Sometimes its the  deciding factor. Sometimes it’s the tiebreaker and sometimes, it just isn’t relevant. But, it exists.

Everything else is trivial. The few apps I use are available on Android and iOS. They probably are also available on Windows if I decide to go that route. Some may run smoother on one platform vs. the other but that’s just part of the transition. Music is great but just because I switch from iOS doesn’t mean I can’t continue to use iTunes. Yes, I’ll need to do some sort of converting to get iTunes to play on an Android but I’m sure the smart folks at Google/Samsung/HTC or whoever have figured out some awesome way to do this in the background.

Let the search begin!