I was considering a new phone, and with the release of the new Pixel 5, and iPhone 12 line, I was looking back at my phones through the years.
Technically speaking, my first phone was a Nokia 1100, which I don’t count because my dad paid for it, and I lost it in college. I also briefly used a motorola feature phone similar to the 1100, after losing the 1100. Again, this was a phone my dad paid for. The good thing though is, this phone is still at home somewhere.
My first phone was a Sony Ericsson K810i. It had a 3.2 Megapixel camera, which for it’s day was quite amazing. I used this phone from 2008 to 2011. I don’t remember if I considered other phones back then – the W810i was just as popular, but I remember wanting a better camera, than a better music phone. I might have looked at some other phones from Nokia, which were all the rage back in the day, and I’m sure some combination of price, and features made me land on this phone. I may have considered some expressMusic phones in this time frame. Now, this was before the touchscreen phones started coming out.
I also had a Zune around 2008, and an iPod touch a little later – the ipod touch let me experience iOS and the app store and such. I also had access to an office iPhone 3GS at the time.
In mid 2011, I moved to the US and my sister walked me to a RadioShack, where I was to get a phone alone with a ‘line’. This was back when phones were bundled with a 2 year contract. I was enamored by the first of HTC’s android phones, and even before that HTC was an aspirational brand in India. So, when I landed in the US, and saw that the HTC Inspire 4G was available for a low down-payment, I decided to go for it. I’ve always had an anti Samsung sentiment, since I did consider them ripping off Apple blatantly.
In mid 2013, my contract was up, and I was eligible for an upgrade. The HTC One M7 was all the rage, and I liked HTC, so I stuck to it. In hindsight, the camera was not great, and although the phone has held up and still boots to this day, when the phone was fully loaded with apps, there were definitely app stability issues which really frustrated me. This may have been the only phone I didn’t end up using for 2 years.
In late 2014/early 2015, my job kind-of required me to use an iPhone to be able to use corporate email/calendar …etc on the phone. Also, there was an incredible discount to be had to buy the phone. So, I jumped on it, and decided to buy the iPhone 6. I’ll ne honest – I’m not the biggest fan of iOS and the iPhone, but back when I got it, the iPhone 6 was an amazing phone. I think Apple gets the execution really well – may not have all the fancy bells and whistles, but the phone was solid overall. I did develop an issue with the earpiece not working, but the phone was replaced for free. I then broke the glass on the phone, close to two years later by dropping it inside my house, and had the front glass replaced. The phone still boots and works today, and in terms of it’s size and weight, I love it!
When my contract with AT&T ended in mid 2015, I switched providers to Virgin Mobile. They had some insane $1 a month program, and although the network wasn’t great, hey for $1 a month, I was sold. So, I moved providers.
In early 2017, I considered upgrading to the iPhone 7 when it came out, (for a reason I can’t mention here :)) and I did. I bought a black colored phone which was excellent, and transferred all my content to it from my iPhone6. I used it for about a week, and felt like it wasn’t enough of an upgrade over the iPhone6, plus the iPhone 6 was working perfectly. Why upgrade ? So, I decided to return the phone, and went back to the iPhone 6.
In early-mid 2017, water from my window AC at home in India dripped overnight onto the iPhone6 which was placed on the floor, and the phone wouldn’t wake up. I did everything to dry the phone, put it in rice …etc 🙂 but to no avail. Then, magically it started working, but the camera and the flash stopped working. Now, I’m not one for selfies, and much Instagram photos and such, but a phone camera is really indispensable. At this point, I considered the HTC 10 – it looked like a solid phone. I somehow decide to punt on this phone.
Later in 2017, while on a high altitude hike, the camera on my iPhone 6 started working, although the flash circuitry was probably toast. Incredible! I decided to hold out for the iPhone 8/iPhone X and not upgrade till those came out.
I did upgrade to an iPhone 8Plus in late 2017/early 2018. I went for the bigger phone for the additional camera. However, I found it utterly unusable – the width of the phone was insane. I’m not a small person, and yet I couldn’t comfortably use this phone. I decided to take the phone back to the Apple Store, and exchange it for an iPhone 8. The iPhone 8 was great too – worked very well. For some reason, I decided not to wait for the iPhone X. The phone was somewhat identical to the iPhone 6 – in terms of form factor, screen size …etc. The speakers were considerably better than the iPhone6, so were many other featured. However, by this point, my Virgin Mobile offer was running out, and I was going to be charged the regular fee of $50+ something per month.
In July 2018, after having used the phone for about 6 months, I realized GoogleFi was the way to go. I didn’t use data much, and was willing to pay for data when I was traveling and such. However, Google Fi supported only very few phones, and I grabbed an LG G7 for $750, with a $300 service credit. Pretty reasonable I guess, paying $450 (+taxes) for a phone. So, I upgraded to this phone. At this point, I had been following the LG G series for a while, and liked their phones as well, so it wasn’t a tough choice. The phone is narrow, and completely usable. It is still a large phone though, and quite heavy, and thick. Only when I hold my iPhone6 side by side I realize, how much more pleasant that phone is to use. The LG phone however is slippery as an eel – without a case, I can literally not hold the phone without dropping it – I only try it on my bed, so it’s held up ok so far. I don’t think the cameras are particularly stellar, but the audio quality of the phone is excellent. It also had an SD card slot, which is quite good. Overall a pretty solid phone that seems to be going strong 2 years and 3 months in. The only gripe I have is with LG’s upgrades. I did get Android 9, but Android 10 is still awaited, while the Pixel 5 ships with Android 11. This is somewhat insane. Granted, the phone probably does everything I want it to, and the Os updates aren’t as substantial as they once were, but still getting upgrades would be nice.
After considering the Pixel 5 (and 4a, 4a 5G), I’m thinking I’ll let the current phone go on for a bit longer, wait for the Android10 upgrade, and wait on next year’s phones. If the phone lasts me till july of 2017. this will be the third phone that’s lasted me ~3 years. So, there’s that.
I am a huge fan of the Pixel series, and will likely spring for an expensive Pixel phone next, but I really hope they come out with something awesome! Currently, the iPhone 12 Pro phones seem like the phones to get if money is not an issue. But I will likely not go back to iOS from Android. Sadly, (because I hate the brand) that means the best phones right now, are some of Samsung’s offerings – the galaxy S20, and S20 FE are quite good. If I could get Samsung’s hardware with Pixel software, I would jump on that phone – a testament to why the iPhone does so well I think. I’ve looked at LG’s new offerings, and they are pretty much played out I think. The OnePlus are alright, but come with trade-off’s.
SK KD BLAG 