Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/29/review-the-oneplus-6t-is-almo.html
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Sounds nice, but my Moto G set me back around $200 and is quite a nice phone too. Stick a Redpocket sim in with a $10/mo prepay for 500mg/500 texts/500min and you see some serious savings for real “fractions” of what people are paying. My son’s service is $21/mo for 3 gb + unlimited text/voice. I could only shake my head when a friend confessed recently he was still paying over $100/mo to Verizon for service to his ancient iPhone. People are paying way too much to these rapacious companies.
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I’ll be buying phones that have 1) a user replaceable battery, 2) a headphone jack, and 3) a micro SD card until they stop making them. I still haven’t figured out why these stopped being damn useful features.
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No SD card slot, no headphone jack, no replaceable battery, no dice. A shame, but thanks for letting me know it’s something to have considered.
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Moto’s batteries are replaceable with a little DIY surgery and still have the other 2. I have to admit the headphone and charging jacks are the most fragile part of a phone. Either can be destroyed by slipping off the night table with the cord in. I’ve mostly gone to bluetooth for that reason.
Of the six or seven smartphones I’ve had since the late 00s, I’ve only broken the glass on the front of them. That’s happened a couple of times. I mitigate that with screen protectors. That’s one reason I find the newer models with glass backs ridiculous. If someone gave me one of those, I’d keep it in the box until a protective cover arrived!
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- a user replaceable battery, 2) a headphone jack, and 3) a micro SD card
The LG V20 was the last of the line, at least as far as flagship models. They sell for $200 new on ebay these days.
For some odd reason, you can still buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (non-refurb, unless they’re lying) on Amazon. They’re less than $200.
That’s exactly what I did when mine broke after a fall to the pavement last year. I’m great at dropping phones…
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Aren’t we all? That’s why a $1000 phone seems insane to me, unless it were utterly unbreakable.
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Replaceable battery absolutely essential for me.
Headphone jack and SD card useful features.
I still have my Note 4, and it works, but battery life is short (even with new batteries) and the GPS is flakey.
LG Stylo 2 and 3 were my next phones, but Stylo 4 has the lately required heat gun and guitar pick access to the battery… so, cell phone manufacturers, I dont care if your damn phone will make me breakfast, I will not buy something that will be degraded and broken in a year without major surgery.
To get my money, you will have to provide features I actually want, and at the TOP OF THE LIST is a REMOVABLE BATTERY.
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This is why I’ve got an old school flip phone. Got one years ago that was rated waterproof and “explosion proof” (not kidding about that… not exactly sure quite what the qualifications for that are either).
So far it’s survived being in the front pocket of a backpack that fell on rocks, getting bumped out of my hands down to the lobby level of my company’s second story entrance (onto tile), and numerous butter fingered drops down stairs, onto stone floors etc…
I can’t imagine even considering anything less than “bumble-fingered idiot proof”.
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And I thought I was the last dinosaur to get a smartphone! I gotta say I don’t regret it, it’s pretty useful, especially having a decent camera at all times. That and “where’s the nearest xxxxx” when on the road. I did run across a 2002 vintage flip phone cleaning out a drawer last weekend. It was so tiny and cute!
Honestly, I’m probably going to have to go that route soon, but I’ve got to figure out some case or something to make it relatively indestructible.
Most of the $10-20 cases are actually pretty good, I like Tudia’s. My kids drop their phones all the time. The real indestructible ones are impractically large. Just keep the screen towards your leg in your pocket! Just don’t spend a ridiculous amount on service. That Redpocket I mentioned resells all the major carriers.
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I went back to a flip phone about a year and a half ago. I got tired of looking at my phone every time I had thirty seconds “down time”. I got one with 4g that had a sim I could swap into my Galaxy s7, but I only do that while traveling, and since I use the flip phone 95% of the time the s7 isn’t as distracting when I do need it.
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I’ve replaced the headphone jack, the charging jack, and the screen at various times on my Nokia Lumia; the replacement parts were around $5 each on eBay, and replacement was a breeze. It also has a user-replaceable battery, a micro SD card, and long battery life. Of course, it is a windows phone (now a dead phone OS), and the technology is rather old by today’s standards, but it still does everything I want a phone to do (mainly phone calls, some texting, internet/email and photos only if I have no other device around) and was well worth the $30 or so it cost me new.
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I attempted the replacement on a Moto, and I’m damn handy, but it was too hard to get off and replace the surface mounted soldered USB jack. The pins were so damn close together! I’ve done similar surgery successfully on Sansa’s.
My wife loved her Lumia 520, it was hard to pry her away to Android, but it was seriously under featured.
I suppose there are Tesla owners who think that to be a properly-featured phone it needs to be able to drive you from place to place.
I have an old Western Electric rotary dial phone in my bedroom,and it is perfect as a phone, even though it doesn’t play games or take photos.
Yes, my comment presumes one has drunk the Kool-Aid and now view it as a pocket computer, not just a voice telecom device. So running multiple programs seems required. Oh yeah, it’s also a great “shake on” flashlight!
Otterbox Defender cases are wonderful. My Samsung Galaxy 4 has survived drops, water splashes, even getting dropped into my car’s doorframe as the door was shut and getting wedged between the frame and the door. I think my case cost $40 or so when I got it and it’s been worth every penny.
(No, I’m not paid to mention them, but I’m a very satisfied customer. And a klutz… so I know it works.)
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