Poll: What smartphone do you use?
Just a quick survey I'm doing
Often no phone at all. I own a flip phone with a usable tactile keyboard (for texting), but I try to leave it at home as often as possible and I discourage people from contacting me too much on it.
There are a lot of good arguments in favor of all the wonderful things smartphones do for people. I'm not going to argue against any of them.
But I'm also old enough to remember how people used to socialize before smart phones (or even cell phones), and I miss that. I don't mind getting lost sometimes, and I already have too many distractions in my life. I'm not terribly social to begin with, and I don't get to get away often enough, so when I do, I definitely don't want to stay connected to the internet and family and all that. I've gone hiking with people that stopped in the middle of the hike to tweet something and I don't like it.
I keep wishing someone would come along and develop a modular phone system -- something like phonebloks, but with basic one-button functionality to answer a call and bluetooth for pairing with other devices, so that it can be used with a laptop or a 5" tablet or whatever. Probably not much of a market for that though.
I still carry my phone with me everywhere. It is useful when sitting on a bus, in a bathroom, doctors office, etc where you need to kill time and don't have a book. Or for utility reasons such as GPS, weather, public transit times, and booking a Hailo/Uber.
I can use the latter without sacrificing my connectedness to the present world.
Do you feel that if you carry it around, you'll feel compelled to use it? Or people will start contacting you more? Is it worth the sacrifice of utility?
But I also know some people who will contact me frequently even if I ask not to be. "I don't carry a phone" and "I didn't have my phone on me" has turned out to be a good way to get that to stop, and it's nice not to lie to people I care about (even though I'd rather not talk to them several times a day).
I'm bummed the successor (Lumia 530) is fatter though. I'll keep my 521 until it no longer works.
At $69, this is a pretty amazing device with Here Maps & Here Drive offline mapping and navigation.
Plus I have a working backup dumbphone which is Samsung but I'm not using it lately. The Blackberry is the only one I use as a phone, the others are internet devices. If the BB croaks I will go back to the dumbphone to use as a phone. They last me 1 week+ between charges (aftermarket brick battery for the BB).
I recently used a Nexus 5 for a week. While a nice piece of hardware, I found myself consistently wanting the little extras that the Moto X comes with.
1. iOS
2. Android
3. Other
4. No phone
and I am very disappointed.
I voted Other. I love the cheap Android phones with a no-contract plan!
I've often been in the no phone camp, just checking messages on my computer when I'm around it, so if you're inclined toward that style, I definitely recommend a cheap Android phone with no plan.