Looks good, but still AndroidOS. I love the Debian goodness of Maemo5, I still can’t replace my N900 five years later. Oh, and eff you Microsoft for murdering Nokia.
For that price why not buy a Moto E (or G if you want to splurge)? Pretty much the same price, much better phone. I feel like Motorola’s play in this space makes all these off-brand options pretty much meaningless, unless you purposefully want a poorer experience.
Seriously. I was just going to comment that his shitphone costs roughly three times what my shitphone cost about five years ago. Of course my phone is pretty dumb, although it does have a slide out keyboard for the rare text I send. Plus my phone has never been anything but reliable, nor do I have to worry about sitting on it.
Had my BLU Advance, my 1st smartphone, for a month now. Yeah, I was a holdout, but when you work at home you don’t need mobile everything. My only complaint of regular usage is the ring volume is low. I have a Airvoice (ATT MVNO) prepay plan for the BLU that costs me $.04/min talk, $.02/text and $.06/mb data. I keep data off unless I really need to use it, kinda like a data payphone. I have a VOIP landline, so I don’t use this as my primary connection. Maybe this is too minimal for many, but there’s lots of MVNO prepay plans for $30 and under. There’s no reason anyone should be paying $80/mo for their phone. My kids have Motos, on $30 monthly Republic Wireless.
I briefly had a $30 Nokia 520, which I loved, but MS in their wisdom made it impossible to have persistent audible notifications of text or voicemails in Windows Phone, as every flip phone could do. Like it was impossible for them to conceive of anyone not looking at their phone every 5 minutes. But it was not acceptable that if I missed a call or message alert due to noise I would not know till I pulled out my phone. There’s long threads of disappointment of this on MS websites.
All my friends drive Porsches, I must make amends.
I’ve been living happily in an electronics shitworld long enough that I’ve begun evangelizing for it.
So the new hipster trend is using intentionally lousy and faulty electronics? Huh, okay. I guess it’s no weirder than the no-shower fad.
I think “extols the virtues” may be stretching things a bit.
I’ve been using one of these for years. Am I cool?
By now, an American who purchased a smartphone on contract in 2009 has not just bought but discarded at least three devices
Does the author not realize one can continue using a contract-subsidized phone indefinitely after the contract is up? I was still using an iPhone 3G (2008) until last year. There was a small crack in the back case but it worked fine — I’d be using it still except that a quickly increasing number of apps required a newer iOS version than the 3G could run. It was passed on to someone who only needed the basics of phone/text/tunes/camera/calculator and for all I know is in use today.
the fact that these devices are made possible by companies willing to take thin margins and people willing to work for long hours and low wages, and that you will throw them away after two years anyway.
His shitphone is not even going to last two years, and until then he will have one more piece of substandard disposable crap surrounding him.
The guy went through 4 iPhones in 6 years. I think the message is ditching the “intentionally lousy and faulty electronics” for cheap reliable ones with great reviews.
Either he’s playing racquetball with his iPhones and trying really hard to destroy them, or he’s just clueless. iPhones aren’t fragile potato chips that run faulty software. He’s trading the best smartphone on the market for something that he himself admits effectively stopped working after just a few days, and then he goes on to evangelize his collection of free/cheap electronics that barely function.
I finally got an iPhone 4 (used) a few months ago. There have been a few apps I couldn’t use, but more frustrating is that there is no fix for FREAK.
I still love OS/2 and keep waiting for a new version!
just saying – i’ll give up my iphone when you take it from my
COLD.
DEAD.
HANDS.
I’ve become a fan of mid-range devices. After using a low-end LG F3 for a year, I got fed up with its exceedingly cramped internal storage (a situation made much worse by bloatware) and lack of RAM. Bluetooth music streaming performed poorly, with audible gaps between songs. The GPS sometimes had great difficulty locking in.
A Samsung Galaxy Avant (aka Galaxy Core) answered all of my needs. It’s a much better performer all around. The screen is a bit bigger but not in phablet territory, reception is great, GPS works very well, and there are no more gaps between songs when they segue into one another. It has 16 GB of internal storage and a MicroSD slot, battery life is excellent, 1.5 GB of RAM means that Maps won’t choke on long trips, and if I ever need to, I can replace the battery. The display is LCD rather than AMOLED, which has both advantages and drawbacks. Best of all, it’s not outlandishly expensive like a flagship phone.
Last month my fourth iPhone in six years was, in medical terms, crashing. The screen, which had pulled away from its glue, was behaving strangely.
What?
Don’t worry, when you can’t install the new version of iOS and apps refuse to install without it (like my wife’s phone), it will be pried from your hands.
I was going to buy a Galaxy Core, but it turned out it wasn’t waterproof, so I saved up a few more months and bought the S5 unlocked.
I really love it. But I’d be equally happy with the Galaxy Core, if it were waterproof. Waterproofing cellphones just makes sense.
Exactly. iPhones don’t DO that. My original iPhone is still working great (as a repurposed iPod Touch). And if your phone’s having trouble, Apple will replace it. Methinks the author enjoys throwing electronics on the ground, or he’s got something he bought in Chinatown labeled “eyePhone”.
